Search Results for: mental

Best practice in flexible working and gender diversity honoured at awards presentation

by • Flexible working, News

Workingmums.co.uk has announced the winners of its eighth annual Top Employer Awards, celebrating the leading companies in gender diversity and flexible working. The Awards were presented at a ceremony at London’s Soho Hotel on 7th November where the keynote speaker was Ann Francke, CEO of the Chartered Management Institute. Winner of the Overall Top Employer Award was Lloyds Banking Group. The judges felt it was ‘a beacon for other employers with regard to its agile hiring programme which was a root and branch attempt to normalise different ways of working from recruitment onwards. It was a strong performer across all the categories and had made a major step forward in embedding a flexible culture.’

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Workplace injuries and ill health cost Britain £14.9 billion according to latest HSE data

by • News, Wellbeing

The latest annual injury and ill health statistics from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) show 1.3 million workers were suffering from work related ill-health and there were 609,000 workplace injuries in 2016/17. The figures show that while Britain remains one of the safest places to work, there is still work to do to drive figures down. Overall, workplace injuries and new cases of ill health cost Britain £14.9bn a year with 31.2 million working days lost. The annual statistics, compiled by HSE from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and other sources, cover work-related ill health, workplace injuries, working days lost, costs to Britain and enforcement action taken.

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Growing need for a flexible workplace creates fresh challenges for employers

by • Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Workplace, Workplace design

Many businesses are misaligned with their people, with nearly half of employees not understanding their company’s strategic objectives, according to new research published by The Ludic Group, which claims that the changing nature of workforces and the growing need for a flexible workplace are creating fresh challenges for communication, collaboration and engagement. The research suggests that the impact of technology is causing digital chaos, with businesses struggling to get the communications balance right. With the number of channels and tools increasing almost half of people (44 percent) want to hear more from employers. Perhaps surprisingly, one in five (20 percent) individuals said that their firm has not used any tools or techniques to communicate with them. This lack of communication results in people being disconnected from the business strategy, with only half of individuals (50 percent) reported fully aligned with their company’s objectives and 44 percent not knowing or understanding what these are. Alongside this, people increasingly want to design their own working experience and expect more flexibility from their employers.

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Pressurised staff say level of wellbeing in their workplace is insufficient

by • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

A majority (80 percent) of employees perceive the level of wellbeing within their organisation to be moderate or low and a quarter are struggling to manage the pressures of the workplace, a new survey claims. Although 64 percent believe their overall happiness as happy or very happy two thirds of UK workers admit to coasting or struggling at work, with just 18 percent reporting they’re flourishing, finds the survey published by Barnett Waddingham. Why BWell 2017 also found a third of UK workers admit their job has a negative impact on their mental health, with the same number believing their overall wellbeing is not important to their employer. Moreover, 22 percent say negative attitudes from their managers at work hinder their ability to balance work and family commitments. The survey also looked at employee retention alongside employers’ understanding of staff engagement in the company objectives. Overall 25 percent admitted they couldn’t see themselves working for the same company in five years’ time and 36 percent feel they either didn’t understand their company’s overall strategy or didn’t know if they understood it or not.

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Over a third of workers have left a job because of the stress it caused them

Over a third of workers have left a job because of the stress it caused them

by • Events, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Over a third of workers have left a job because of the stress it caused them

New research released to mark International Stress Awareness Day tomorrow (Wednesday 1st November) has revealed that more than one third (36 percent) of the working population have left a job because of the stress it caused them, according to research conducted by Citation. It claims that  women are almost 10 percent more likely to leave because of stress than men, and those aged between 25 to 34-years old were most likely to struggle with workplace stress. Worryingly, more than half (53 percent) of employees feel too afraid to show signs of stress at work. More than a quarter (27 percent) think it’ll make them look weak, one in five (18 percent) worry it will affect their career and the remaining 7 percent feel uncomfortable approaching their manager with the problem. Those aged between 18 to 24-years old were most likely to fear for their career and worry about looking weak. Employees between 45 and 54 were notably more likely to feel at unease approaching their manager.

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Three quarters of firms dissatisfied with quality of UK infrastructure

Three quarters of firms dissatisfied with quality of UK infrastructure

by • Cities, Facilities management, News, Property, Public Sector, Technology

Three quarters of firms dissatisfied with quality of UK infrastructureBusinesses are concerned about the pace of commitment to improving the UK’s infrastructure, and a record number of firms are dissatisfied with the state of infrastructure in their region. With the UK currently ranking 27th in the world for the quality of its infrastructure, nearly all (96 percent) of businesses in the 2017 CBI/AECOM Infrastructure Survey see infrastructure as important (of which 55 percent view it as critical) to the Government’s agenda. From the Clean Growth Strategy and the £500 billion infrastructure pipeline to its decision to build a new runway at Heathrow and press ahead with the A303 tunnel, the Government has made clear its commitment to British infrastructure. However, only one in five firms is satisfied with the pace of delivery (20 percent) and almost three quarters (74 percent) doubt infrastructure will improve over this Parliament. This lack of confidence is attributed primarily to policy inconsistency (+94 percent of firms) & political risk (+86 percent). The digital sector is the exception, however, where 59 percent of firms are confident of improvements.

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Frederick Taylor was a man of his time not a whipping boy for ours

Frederick Taylor was a man of his time not a whipping boy for ours

by • Comment, News, Workplace, Workplace design

Everybody likes a pantomime villain, and for many commentators on management and office design, they don’t come more dastardly than Frederick W. Taylor. Not only do pictures of him betray him as wealthy, white and starched, his ideas and the language in which they are couched are totally out of step with the way we think now. So for anybody writing about enlightened contemporary management practices, it’s no wonder that it is almost customary to start with a rejection of Taylorism in general and his theory of scientific management in particular. The gist of Taylorism laid out in his 1911 book The Principles of Scientific Management is that work should be analysed to establish the most efficient way of doing it, the right person to do that work must be chosen and managers are there to make sure that it all goes to plan. As far as workers are concerned, what we now think of as Taylorism is best (and partly unfairly) summed up as:‘You’re not paid to think. Shut up and do your job.’

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Long commutes to work are as bad as a pay cut when it comes to happiness and wellbeing

Long commutes to work are as bad as a pay cut when it comes to happiness and wellbeing

by • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

A twenty minute increase in commuting time is as bad as a 19 per cent pay cut for job satisfaction, a study has found. The research by the University of the West of England found that every extra minute spent travelling to and from work reduces job and leisure time satisfaction, increases strain and worsens mental health.  The researchers conclude that more people should be allowed to work from home or should choose a new way of getting there. According to the study, every extra minute spent travelling reduced job satisfaction, created extra strain, worsened mental health and increased people’s chances of quitting. The study, based on analysis of 26,000 workers in England, found that people travelling by bus were more likely to feel the “negative impacts of longer commute times” than users of other transport and that employees who cycled or walked were among the most satisfied as they used commuting time as part of their “health-enhancing lifestyle”.

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Employees motivated by bad news as well as good news, research finds

Employees motivated by bad news as well as good news, research finds

by • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Bad news is better than no news at all when it comes to motivating staff, according to new research from academics in Warwick and Zurich.  The study found that withholding important information from staff could mean the difference between a motivated workforce and an unmotivated one – irrespective of whether it was good or bad news for workers. The study, led by Leif Brandes, of Warwick Business School, found that many managers underestimate the motivational power of bad news. In the paper The Value and Motivating Mechanism of Transparency in Organizations, published in the European Economic Review, Dr Brandes and Donja Darai, of the University of Zurich, designed a new version of the so-called ‘dictator’ game to study the effect of information sharing on motivation.

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Future office and changing business of work debated at Workplace Trends

Future office and changing business of work debated at Workplace Trends

by • Comment, Coworking, Facilities management, Technology, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Those working within the built environment are already in the change business, was the view of Neil Usher of workessence in his presentation at the Workplace Trends Conference which was held in London this week. This was apt, as the changing business of work’ was the theme of the conference. It’s a pretty common topic these days of course but a strong line up of speakers ensured some interesting discussions; which included the rise of the gig economy, the variety of ways people from different cultures perceive workplace design and predictions on the workplaces of the future. On the current design and fit out of the office, Usher was clear; that creating a fantastic workplace is independent of culture, location, the work style you want to create and the sector in which you’re working. His other mantra was that you can still work in an awful workplace with great technology, but not the other way around, which is why there is no excuse for not getting your technology right.

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Plans announced for Digital City on Toronto waterfront

Plans announced for Digital City on Toronto waterfront

by • News

Sidewalk Labs, owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is to build a ‘digital city’ in Toronto to showcase smart city technology and a range of other cutting edge innovations and examples of best practice. The aim is to turn the Eastern waterfront area of the city into a working laboratory for a range of technologies such as fast wi-fi, millions of smart city sensors, sustainable energy and autonomous cars. The over 3 million s. ft. mixed-use development in Toronto will also be built using cutting edge innovations in construction. Google is already set to become the first major tenant in the development with an office for 300 employees of its Canadian HQ. Sidewalk Labs and the local authorities hope to turn the area into a “place for tens of thousands of people to live, work, learn and play – and to create and advance new ideas that improve city life”.

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Calls for commercial property sector to have a greater focus on customer experience

Calls for commercial property sector to have a greater focus on customer experience

by • News, Property, Workplace design

The UK commercial property industry is undergoing a fundamental shift towards a more customer centric approach, with an increasingly greater emphasis being placed on delivering outstanding customer service to occupiers. This is the key finding of a new report from The British Council for Offices (BCO) entitled ‘Office Service Standards and Customer Experience: a best practice guide’. While for those who hold a very traditional landlord occupier relationship this change in thinking, attitude and operation may feel revolutionary, the report argues we are already seeing the industry evolve across the board. It claims that this is accelerated by new ‘property sector disruptors’, who are driving a shift in the relationship between property owners and corporate occupiers. To ensure they are keeping pace with their changing requirements and aspirations, property owners and managers are increasingly realising the need to invest in building strong relationships with their occupiers

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