Search Results for: happiness

September 28, 2018

The horrors and harmonies of workplace hierarchy

by Monica Parker • Comment, Technology, Workplace design

I am a child of the seventies, and one of my favourite shows when I was just a tyke was The Jeffersons. For those not familiar with The Jeffersons, it was about a black family in New York City who had, through ambition and entrepreneurship, ‘made it to the top’. George Jefferson, the patriarch, was a bolshie character. Hijinks usually ensued. But what stuck with me about that show was the catchy theme song, Movin’ On Up. The lyrics were ‘I’m movin’ on up, to the upper east side, to a deluxe apartment in the sky… I finally got a piece of the pie.’ Growing up in suburbia, this was probably the first time that I learned the idea of a penthouse, and the notion that the higher up the building, the more important you were. It wasn’t until I was about age eight that I realised the word wasn’t ‘high-archy’, but ‘hierarchy.’

September 3, 2018

Workplace wellness programmes may be a waste of time and money, study concludes

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing

The $8 billion dollar wellness industry in the US may not be achieving very much, according to a new analysis from academics at Chicago University and the University of Illinois published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. While the researchers concede that the difficulties of measuring the impact of such programmes depends very much on the characteristics of the people who enter them voluntarily, their study of 5,000 people found that the effects of a wellness programme were non-existent to negligible across a range of metrics.

August 31, 2018

Levels of engagement amongst the UK workforce trail behind other European countries

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Workplace

Employers in the UK need to improve working conditions, as the UK’s workforce pride is trailing behind other European countries, a new report claims. The survey from Cornerstone OnDemand and IDC found just a 48 percent approval rating by UK workers, with just 52 percent of respondents “completely agreeing” that they are proud to work for their organisation – a steep drop compared to countries such as Italy (59 percent) and Norway (66 percent). While UK work satisfaction is falling behind the rest of Europe, it is however ranking higher for employer recommendations. Almost half (47 percent) of Brits “completely agree” that they would recommend their current employer to others, versus 43 percent in Sweden and 41 percent of respondents in the Benelux regions. When it comes to employer attractiveness, only 47 percent of UK respondents “completely agree” that their organisation is an attractive place to work, in comparison to 51 percent of Spanish respondents and 56 percent of Finnish respondents. So while the UK is ahead in some criteria, the findings suggest there’s work to be done if British employers want an improved result.

August 28, 2018

Senior managers unaware of high levels of employee mistrust

by Sara Bean • Legal news, News, Workplace

The new corporate governance code that comes into play early next year includes directives on how companies engage with their staff, but it is a voluntary code which will allow businesses to opt out if they wish. Now a new report suggests there is currently is a high level of mistrust towards senior UK managers, with just 16 percent trusting this group, according to the study. This is despite the fact that according to the research, carried out by Virtual College the majority (95 percent) of senior managers in UK businesses believe that their employees trust them. Employees rated their trust in different roles in the following order; co-workers – 57 percent, managers – 45 percent, team members – 42 percent and senior management – 16 percent. Trust in senior management was found to be considerably lower than trust in other positions such as middle management. The sectors that trusted senior management the least included; utilities (3 percent), legal (8 percent) and government services (8.7 percent).

July 31, 2018

Google should be an example to all when it come to interactive workplace design

by Alice Porter • Comment, Workplace design

Google is known to be a wonderland for tech professionals everywhere. It is a sought after and coveted workplace, which is designed to cater to the individual. Comparably has recently named Google as the “tech company with the best corporate culture”, but how does this culture work beyond the realms of the Google institute? The question that many employers are asking is, does the Google culture really work? And is it sustainable for a normal business? Company culture has become a focus for recruiters and hiring managers, but if we break this down what does it actually mean? Company culture is shaped by the employees for the employees and should work in collusion with the services a business is providing. Google’s company culture model is based around flexibility and the freedom to be creative in a fun environment.

July 13, 2018

London’s poor connectivity is holding back commercial property occupiers

by Neil Franklin • News, Property, Technology

Connectivity is more than just broadband speeds and 4G coverage. New research from property consultancy Cluttons claims to reveal the impact it has on everything from the properties we choose to live in, to the places where we can work and our overall happiness both at home and in the office. The research suggests that London is lagging behind other national and global hubs when it comes to good connectivity in both residential and commercial property, failing our needs both as residents and businesses.

July 11, 2018

A beauty industry veteran makes the case for corporate wellness

by Leena Jain • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Wellness is a term that today transcends the consumer and business worlds, but it is so much more than a buzzword. Today, the wellbeing of employees is essential for organisations to flourish, so much so that the term has in many ways replaced ‘productivity’ as the way to measure the success of an organisation. Both the beauty and workplace design sectors are very personal areas of high emotional involvement. There is a very real and physical contact with these products — in beauty, women are particularly (and increasingly men too) engaged in developing a customised routine because it gives them a sense of happiness, wellbeing and identity.

May 18, 2018

Overall wellbeing of UK continues to increase, according to official data

by Mark Eltringham • News, Wellbeing

smiley coffee

New government statistics suggest that the general wellbeing and happiness of the UK population has increased over the last twelve months. According to the Office for National Statistics’ annual report on wellbeing, Britons are more contented now than at any point since the study was first published seven years ago. The latest report is based on an analysis of responses to the ONS, which asked people to rank out of ten how happy they were on the previous day, to what extent they regarded their lives as worthwhile, how satisfied they were with life, and how anxious they were generally. For 2017, average happiness was calculated at 7.53 out of ten, living worthwhile lives at 7.88, and life satisfaction at 7.69. There was no significant change in anxiety levels, which currently average at 2.91 out of ten, the ONS said.

May 16, 2018

Use of tech in the evening linked to sleep disruption and a range of serious mood disorders

by Neil Franklin • News, Technology, Wellbeing

People should not use their laptops and mobile phones in the evening if they want to avoid sleep disruption and a range of mood disorders, including depression, claims new research from the University of Glasgow. The largest study so far into the link between disrupted body clocks and mood disorders and wellbeing has been published in the journal Lancet Psychiatry. The research into the behaviour of 91,000 people shows that disrupted body clock rhythms are associated with increased susceptibility to depression, bipolar disorder, and adverse wellbeing. According to the study, disturbances to the body’s internal clock, characterised by increased activity during rest periods and/or inactivity during the day, are also associated with mood instability, more subjective loneliness, lower happiness and health satisfaction, and worse cognitive function.

May 2, 2018

The quest for wellbeing has taken over from our search for productivity

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design

For decades, humankind has sought to establish the link between office design and productivity. And by humankind I mean a parochial band of researchers, suppliers, workplace specialists, futurologists and designers with a special interest in the whole thing. Most other people only expressed a passing interest in the subject. It did not seem to matter to this band that the whole thing had been proved many times over many years, invariably falling on cloth, if not exactly deaf, ears. We’ve known for some time what makes people happy and productive at work and much of the new research has merely served to proved something we already know. Undaunted, researchers maintained their quest for the evidence that would get the message across to an apparently indifferent world. This quest has mutated over the past few years into something that is at first glance only slightly different but which has some rather interesting implications. The go-to workplace topic of the early 21st Century is no longer productivity per se, but wellbeing, and that is making all the difference.

April 26, 2018

Majority of staff say managers don’t care if they’re happy, even if it impacts performance

by Sara Bean • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

It probably comes as no surprise to learn that people work better if they’re happy, but according to a new survey over three quarters (79 percent) of workers believe their boss doesn’t care whether or not they are happy at work, even if being happier helps improve their performance. The 2018 Happiness Survey from One4all asked employees from different age groups, genders and industries about the impact their happiness at work has on their productivity, and found that 39 percent of workers will work harder if they are happy in their current role or place of work. It suggests that happiness amongst workers goes a long way: almost a third (30 percent) of workers said they would even be more willing to work overtime or for longer when they are happy. The data also revealed that 38 percent of workers say their happiness impacts their performance at work, which means employee productivity and results also see a positive effect from a happy workforce.

April 17, 2018

Majority of staff say employers must do more to support their physical and mental wellbeing

by Sara Bean • Legal news, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

More than half of working adults believe that UK businesses are not doing enough to support the physical and mental wellbeing of their employees. The vast majority (86 percent) believe that firms are specifically not doing enough to help employees deal with work-related stress, anxiety and other mental health issues. And with seven out of 10 of those surveyed by Westfield Health saying that the NHS does not have the budget to provide wellbeing services, such as health check-ups and cognitive behavioural therapy, almost three quarters agreed it would be a good idea for a portion of their National Insurance contributions to be redirected towards employee wellbeing programmes. More →