April 15, 2024
Search Results for: workplace
April 15, 2024
Half of bosses now live in fear that AI could steal their jobs
Hundreds of UK chief executives believe that artificial intelligence (AI) could steal their job, underlining widespread fears over the technology’s potential to shake up traditional working models. Nearly half (43 percent) of CEOs said they felt that their job could be at risk due to the technology, according to a new poll from AND Digital. The survey has been published in The CEO Digital Divide: are you accelerating enterprise value or slowing it down [registration], which surveyed 600 global CEOs and was conducted by independent research company Censuswide. (more…)
April 10, 2024
MIPIM has changed, and mostly for the better
With an estimated 27,000 delegates from 90 countries, MIPIM is still a force to be reckoned with when it comes to opportunities to network and learn as delegates, with organisations using the week to deliver news, insights and thinking. The theme for MIPIM this year was The Global Urban Community; and it really did feel more international than previous years, the majority of attendees are still from France, Germany and the UK, but there were significant delegations from the United States, Canada, Oman, Egypt and Hong Kong, more from Asia generally and a show stopper from Saudi Arabia, more of which later. (more…)
April 9, 2024
Microsoft announces new London AI research hub
Microsoft AI is opening a new AI hub in Central London. The firm claims that the new Paddington based centre, dubbed Microsoft AI London will ‘drive pioneering work to advance state-of-the-art language models and their supporting infrastructure, and to create world-class tooling for foundation models’, collaborating closely with AI teams across Microsoft and with its partners, including OpenAI. (more…)
April 9, 2024
Being furloughed affected people’s sense of time and relationship with work
Between March 2020 and September 2021, millions of workers furloughed under the UK government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme lived what for many of us is a dream: being paid not to work. Through interviews, I’ve researched the impact of this time on 35 people who were furloughed under the scheme. I found that for some, furlough created opportunities for reflection and growth, but for most of my interviewees it was a time of uncertainty and disorientation. (more…)
April 8, 2024
New issue of IN Magazine + All you need to know about new flexible working rights + A warning from history about office design
Insight Weekly includes a round up of the best stories and commentary from the past seven days. It includes free premium content including features, podcasts, supplements and a link to the digital editions of IN Magazine and Works Magazine. In this week’s issue: it now costs more to commute by train than car in the UK; everything you need to know about flexible working rights and other new legislation; the new issue of IN Magazine; what remote work is doing to people’s pay and careers; and a thirty year old take about an office design that has lessons for today; our Events diary; and much more. You can subscribe to this and our magazines here.
April 8, 2024
Prioritising your phone over your partner affects women’s creativity at work
Focusing attention on your mobile phone instead of your partner doesn’t just strain your relationship – it also affects creativity at work, according to researchers from the Universities of Bath, Aston, and IESE Business School. The study claims to shed light on the negative effects of ‘phubbing’, the idea of snubbing someone in favour of your phone, which is known for its detrimental impact on relationships and mental wellbeing. Now the study of working couples in the US points to repercussions in the workplace as well, but only for female partners. (more…)
April 8, 2024
It should be easier for organisations to say the hardest word, without admitting liability
UK law could be updated to make it easier for organisations to offer sincere apologies to those who have been wronged following the launch of a government consultation today (8 April 2024). The Compensation Act, which became law in 2006, made it easier for public institutions, private companies and their employees to apologise, without admitting liability in civil proceedings. Yet almost 20 years on, the government says there is little evidence this has encouraged businesses to use apologies more as form of reparation – leaving many victims without proper closure and a sense they are unable to move on with their lives. (more…)
April 8, 2024
It’s vital employers understand the new EHRC guidelines on menopause
Recent guidelines issued by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) aim to simplify employers’ legal obligations to support workers going through menopause. A growing topic of conversation in the workplace and beyond, menopause has become increasingly recognised in employment guidance. (more…)
April 6, 2024
Flexible working rights stand to benefit millions of people
From today (April 6th 2024), UK employees will have the legal right to request flexible working from their first day in a new job. Under the updated regulations, employers must engage in discussions with employees and consider alternative solutions before declining a flexible working request. Decisions on applications must now be made within two months, reducing the previous timeframe of three months, which includes any appeals. Additionally, employees will be entitled to submit two flexible working requests within a 12-month period, rather than the previous allowance of one. (more…)
April 5, 2024
A just in time lesson about office design
The nascent years of new ways of working in the late 80s and early 90s coincided with a widely held but soon to be discarded belief that the Japanese had cracked management practices. So it was perhaps inevitable that the principles of a process called just in time manufacturing – most famously applied in the factories of Toyota – should migrate to new forms of office design and the rapidly developing practice of flexible working.
April 11, 2024
A definitive new book on the madness of hybrid working goes one step beyond
by Paul Carder • Comment, Flexible working