Search Results for: culture

March 3, 2015

Female empowerment within UK workforce on rise but too few in full time jobs

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Workplace

A strengthening economy has helped the UK to rise up to 14^th position out of 27 OECD countries in PwC’s annual Women in Work Index, but it still lags well behind many other countries in overall female economic empowerment. The Nordic countries continue to lead the Index, with Norway maintaining pole position, followed by Denmark and Sweden. These three countries have consistently occupied the top three positions in the Index since 2000 and the reason is that they all have a much fairer balance between genders on managing work and family life. By comparison, although the UK is in the top 10 performing OECD countries on female participation in the labour force, this is negatively impacted due to the low proportion of women in full-time employment; suggesting that flexible working is having a negative impact on many women’s career prospects.

March 2, 2015

Lack of sleep of over a third of workers could be costly to the US economy

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Forty-two percent of U.S. adults are getting less than seven hours of sleep on a typical night, the minimum number of hours recommended by the National Sleep Foundation for those aged 18 and older. Gallup research reveals not getting enough sleep is not only linked to lower well-being for individuals, but it is also costly to the U.S. economy. Employees may not have enough time to sleep because of working long hours, family obligations, insomnia or having poor well-being in other areas. For example, poor physical well-being, social isolation or financial strain could adversely affect quantity of sleep. According to Gallup, employers should explore interventions to promote the value of sleep and its link to employees’ well-being, as this relates to engagement, healthcare costs and productivity. When possible, they may want to allow employees to work flexible hours, which could make it easier for workers to balance work and family demands with getting enough sleep.

February 26, 2015

Over half of employers reject mandatory quotas for women on boards

by Sara Bean • Legal news, News, Workplace

The Women on Boards review published by Lord Davies in February 2011 looked at the obstacles that prevent many women from reaching senior positions in business, such as FTSE 350 corporate boards; and set a target of 25 per cent of board positions being held by women by 2015. As the anniversary of the report approaches, new research by the CIPD, business leaders and Business and Women & Equalities Minister Jo Swinson MP, has revealed resistance to the idea of mandatory female quotas as mooted by some EU members, with over half those polled suggesting that the government should instead set a more ambitious voluntary target to improve gender diversity in boardrooms post-2015. Two thirds of respondents said that an open and supportive culture that encourages gender diversity would be a more effective way of improving gender diversity at board level.

February 19, 2015

Government making progress in flexible working and green tech

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Public Sector, Technology

The Government has published the latest edition of its ‘Greening Government ICT Strategy’ report, which looks at how central public sector bodies in the UK are addressing environmental issues directly associated with hardware as well as related issues such as travelling to work, the use of property, working cultures and the delivery of services. For the first time the report includes details of energy consumption. The main commitments of the strategy are the ongoing shift to cloud based ‘digital by default’ operations and a focus on the flagship the Way We Work (TW3) flexible working programme which aims ‘to ensure that civil servants have the modern tools they need to enable them to work effectively together and with customers. New greener digital technologies and working practices will help do just that.’

February 16, 2015

Government launches scheme to attract US tech sector to UK

by Mark Eltringham • News, Property, Technology

The Government has launched a scheme to attract US tech firms to set up or ramp up their businesses in the UK. The tech sector is already worth around £120 billion to the UK and the Government hopes the HQ-UK programme will offer investors a chance to tap into a well-established pool of talent and a business-friendly and low tax economy. The initiative is a joint venture between Tech City, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. HQ-UK will simplify and quicken processes for visa applications and setting up UK bank accounts. The programme will also highlight the UK’s high skilled tech savvy workforce, the Government’s commitment to the development of programming skills in schools and the second largest labour market in the EU.

February 11, 2015

BIFM and CIPD launch Workplace Conversation to discuss future of work

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Workplace, Workplace design

The BIFM and the CIPD have launched a joint initiative that aims to examine the evolution of the working environment and the future of work. The Workplace Conversation, project, which was announced by BIFM Chief Executive, Gareth Tancred, at the Workplace Futures conference yesterday, builds on the agreement made between the two bodies last year to collaborate on ways the ‘custodians of two of the most important drivers of business performance – people and place’ could build bridges between the two disciplines. The project will aim to identify and define the challenges, ideas and opportunities on how work is enabled, both now and in the future, and will explore topics such as the emergence of new technologies, economic forces and flexible working alternatives, and their impact on business performance and the way people work.

February 9, 2015

The open plan remains an important office design element

by Paul Goodchild • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace design

For half a century the default office design model in large parts of the world has been the open plan. Even though that continues to be the case, a growing number of voices are questioning this hegemony and suggesting there may be better ways of designing offices that balance the advantages of the open plan while eliminating or mitigating drawbacks. On the face of it, the case for working in open plan offices is clear cut. Not only are they believed to be more conducive to collaborative work, open plan workstations take up around half the space of cellular offices. As well as taking up less space, a crucial consideration is that fit-out costs are typically around 25 per cent lower, even in eye wateringly expensive commercial property hotspots such as London.

January 29, 2015

Latest commercial buildings listings illuminate changing world of work

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, News, Property, Workplace design

The latest fourteen buildings to be listed as part of the Post-War Commercial Buildings Project have been announced by the UK Government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The project was initiated by English Heritage in 2011 as a way of recognising the significance and diversity of commercial buildings and acknowledging their unique proneness to change. According to English Heritage the latest fourteen Grade II listed entries (as well as a number of others assessed but deemed of lesser significance) also highlight how the design of commercial buildings reflected the changing world of work up to the cut off point of 1984. Although the projects are predominantly in the South East, there are listings for commercial buildings in Leeds, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Birmingham.

January 26, 2015

Flexible working improves the quality and quantity of sleep

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, Knowledge, News, Wellbeing

Morning Sun by Edward Hopper

Giving employees more control over their work schedules may help curb sleep deficiency, according to health researchers in the US. A team led by Orfeu M. Buxton, associate professor of bio-behavioural health at Penn State University set out to explore the question of whether family-friendly work practices and other forms of flexible working had any impact on the quantity and quality of sleep. They results are published this month in the journal Sleep Health. Of the nearly 500 employees from an IT company surveyed over a period of a year, the researchers found that employees who were able to enjoy more control over their working day also enjoyed an average of eight minutes more sleep per night than those with rigid working hours. The research also found that participants’ perceptions of their sleep quality also improved.

January 21, 2015

Unhappy Gen Y talent will move on this year, if you fail to keep them engaged

by Julia Lindsay • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace

The January Blues can be a major headache for employers, as it tends to be a time when staff consider moving on. In fact, more than a third of UK workers are already planning to change jobs at some point in 2015.[1] Factors including low motivational levels and the feeling of a need to take action combine to provide favourable conditions for job movement among employees. Keeping Generation Y talent is a particular area of concern for management, with a recent study revealing over half of these employees will expect to have moved on from their current employer within two years.[2] The fact is that Gen Y employees are simply not prepared to stay in jobs that make them unhappy.

January 15, 2015

Discrimination concerns inhibit LGBT people from being ‘out’ at work

by Sara Bean • News, Workplace

LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people are worried about harassment from colleagues or being passed over for promotion if they come out at work; and while two thirds of people are out at work in the Netherlands less than half are prepared to divulge their sexual orientation at work in the UK. These are the initial findings in a global study to prove the importance of implementing effective policies to support LGBT people at work. “LGBT Diversity: Show Me The Business Case” by business consulting firm Out Now measures the financial savings companies can make by encouraging people to be open at work about their sexual orientation or gender diversity. The report is drawn from an analysis of Out Now’s LGBT2020, a global research initiative involving more than 100,000 LGBT people worldwide.

January 15, 2015

Employers and fathers increasingly keen on shared parental leave

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, Legal news, News, Workplace

Over three quarters of employers welcome shared parental leave despite concerns about its complexity and implementation and many are considering adapting their policies in light of new legislation set to be introduced in April, according to a report from Workingmums.co.uk. The survey of over 400 employers found that 81 percent welcomed shared parental leave, with 19 percent saying they would find it difficult to implement. The report coincides with new data from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills which found that more than half of Britons (53 percent) believe that childcare should be divided equally between mothers and fathers with men more likely than women to back shared parenting with 56 per cent in favour, compared to 50 per cent of women.