Search Results for: mental

June 17, 2016

Home or away. What should employers be doing about the game? ⁰

by Anita Rai • Comment, Flexible working, Legal news, Workplace

The Euros 2016 are underway. It’s an exciting time for the nation, but not so much for businesses that are potentially facing a largely absent workforce, be it physically or simply because they will spend at least 90 minutes of their afternoon glued to their mobile phones watching the match. Some employees might have been organised enough to book annual leave for the afternoon, but for many, they will be devising a cunning plan as to how they can get away to watch the match. Employers can expect to be faced with a hike in “sickies” and last minute requests to work from home as suddenly there’s a delivery due or a poorly child to look after. Some employees will just decide to chance it and not come back to the office after their lunch breaks, with no pre-authorisation at all. So what should you be doing as an employer?

June 17, 2016

Women’s long hours working linked to alarming increases in serious illness ⁰

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

Women who put in long hours for the sake of their careers may pay a heavy price including life-threatening illnesses, such as heart disease and cancer. Work weeks that averaged 60 hours or more over three decades appear to triple the risk of diabetes, cancer, heart trouble and arthritis for women, according to new research from Ohio State University and published in The Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. The risk begins to climb when women put in more than 40 hours and takes a decidedly bad turn above 50 hours, researchers found. Men with tough work schedules appeared to fare much better, found researchers who analysed data from interviews with almost 7,500 people who were part of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. More scheduling flexibility and on-the-job health coaching, screening and support could go a long way toward reducing the chances employees become sick or die as a result of chronic conditions, according to the report.

June 17, 2016

Homeworking loses appeal as workers prefer flexible office environment ⁰

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

Most workers now look for flexibility in where and how they work finds a new survey from the British Council for Offices. But this doesn’t mean homeworking; as less than a third (28 percent) of workers now say they would prefer to work from home, a figure that has dropped from 45 percent in 2013, when the research from the BCO and Savills was last conducted. Over three-quarters of respondents (77 percent) said that they currently work in a traditional office, with the majority (60 percent) choosing to work from a dedicated workstation compared to only four percent that are asked to share desks with colleagues. This desire for a dedicated desk has increased over the past three years, rising from a figure of 41 percent in 2013; but despite demand for a dedicated desk, most workplaces (70 percent) now also include a communal environment to work from, providing a space for more dynamic working.

June 6, 2016

Pressure at work ties majority of UK workers to their desks for lunch ⁰

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

Many UK workers are under so much pressure they can’t escape their workplace for lunch, with almost three in five employees regularly eating at their desk. This could be having a detrimental long-term effect on the health of millions of workers across the UK. The results of a survey, commissioned by the National Charity Partnership, a collaboration between Diabetes UK, the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and Tesco, found that office workers say heavy workloads (32 per cent), workplace culture (14 per cent) and stress (13 per cent) are to blame for not getting away from their desks for a walk at lunchtime. Despite more than nine in ten employees reporting that being outside makes them feel healthier or more positive, more than half of workers who were questioned (52 per cent) never leave their office for lunch. Almost one in four (24 per cent) say they regularly work through their break.

June 4, 2016

Robot woes + Coworking goes mainstream + Workplace sit-stand debate ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Flexible working, Newsletter, Property, Technology, Wellbeing, Workplace

In this week’s Newsletter; Sara Bean suggests improvements in work-based training could help address the productivity gap; Mark Eltringham says there will be no grand arrival for the ‘Office of the Future’; and warns of the lack of context when reporting research on sit-stand working. Better technology would improve workers quality of life, finds a new report; researchers say workaholism is closely associated with a range of mental diseases and psychiatric disorders; and a surprisingly large number of people fear their job being taken by a robot within the next 10 to 50 years. Banks are rationalising space to stay in London; coworking remains one of the main drivers of workplace change globally; and uncertainty about Brexit hits the construction sector. You can download our Insight Briefing, produced in partnership with Connection, on the boundless office; visit our new events page, follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn Group to discuss these and other stories.

June 3, 2016

Uncertainty about the consequences of Brexit in construction sector ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Environment, News, Property

Uncertainty about the consequences of a possible UK vote to leave the EU is having an adverse effect on the country’s construction pipeline, according to the Markit/CPS survey of activity in the market. According to the study, new building orders declined during May for the first time in three years although at 51.2, the index remains above the neutral 50 threshold which indicates that the trend remains positive. The May study specifically asked respondents how their work had been affected by the Brexit vote with one third saying it had had a negative effect. Meanwhile, an April study from CBRE found that demand for office space in London had remained robust through the first quarter despite fears that uncertainty about the market and the wider economy related to the referendum would dampen demand. Meanwhile, a new survey from the IEMA claims that two-thirds of members believe environmental issues will be given lower priority if the UK leaves the EU.

June 3, 2016

UK’s productivity crisis is not helped by lack of work-based training ⁰

by Sara Bean • Comment, News, Technology, Workplace

Despite the well-publicised productivity crisis in the UK, over a million of the country’s employees are spending more time on tea breaks than on any form of work-based training. Research from the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) has found almost a third (30 percent) of staff have never had any form of work-related finance training. Given this situation, nearly four in ten (38 percent) employees admit they search online to find out how to do their jobs better, in their own time. The survey of 2,000 workers, half who are employees and half of whom are managers working in finance/accountancy-related roles, also found discrepancies between attitudes towards training at work. A fifth of managers admit they think training their staff will only help them develop their own careers, not benefit their current role and a quarter (27 percent) believe training is good in principle, but disruptive in practice.

May 30, 2016

Why the greatest places to work are also safe by design ⁰

by Justin O'Sullivan • Comment, Facilities management, Wellbeing, Workplace design

An effective workplace is one that helps employees to feel relaxed, motivated, and safe. From my point of view, the latter is especially true. I believe that health and safety becomes a lot easier when it is built into the fabric of the building itself. The Google workplace has been praised for its great design, and it’s easy to see why. Alongside the eccentric features and the myriad of differently styled rooms is a serious commitment to the wellbeing of its employees. The design of the Google canteen (above) means that sugary snacks are stored in translucent containers at the back, but healthier options such as fruits and nuts are stored in transparent containers at the front. The idea is to encourage employees’ to be healthy using workplace design. This is just one example a company that has built safety and health into the fabric of their building rather than absent-mindedly forcing it upon the workplace as an afterthought.

May 25, 2016

Limited budgets greatest challenge to wellness programmes at work ⁰

by Sara Bean • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Sixty-five per cent of respondents in a new survey across Europe, the Middle East and Africa claim that stress and mental health are the health and wellness issues they are most concerned about. Fifty-three per cent say that employees’ physical health is the biggest issue, while unhealthy lifestyles are judged to be the biggest issue by 49 percent. However, according to the study from Aon, only 32 percent of employers have emotional or psychological health programmes in place and 69 percent say limited budgets are their biggest challenge. While 93 percent of employers see a correlation between health and employee performance, just 13 percent of respondents measure outcomes of health strategies. The findings pinpoint areas for improvement and make recommendations to increase health benefits take-up, improve measurement on the impact of health initiatives and to maximise the return on investment that firms make in employee health.

May 25, 2016

An out of hours email ban and why we all need the ‘right to disconnect’ ⁰

by Adrian Lewis • Comment, Flexible working, Legal news, Work&Place, Workplace

The recent announcement from President Francois Hollande’s Socialist Party that they plan to give French employees the “right to disconnect” by pushing through measures for an email ban out of hours has been the subject of great debate. Although many commentators have argued the need for employers to encourage people to ‘switch off’ when they aren’t in work, to date there have been no legal guidelines on this specific issue, despite several negative reports about modern technology blurring the boundaries between home and work, which some claim is creating a stress epidemic. In the UK, the Working Time Regulations specify that no worker should work more than 48 hours per week. However, there has been no case law as to whether or not checking work emails outside working hours would fall within this limit – and many UK staff check and respond to work emails outside work hours, even on holidays.

May 20, 2016

It isn’t easy to grow big when being small makes you more innovative ⁰

by Matias Rodsevich • Comment, Technology, Workplace, Workplace design

Today one of the key challenges most companies face is being able to scale rapidly while still keeping the innovative edge. Startups have less decision-makers making it easier to take the risks needed to remain as innovative. As these companies grow, they often experience a downturn in innovation as management rises. In fact, many larger corporations are now attempting to harvest the success of startups by creating small internal companies. This begs the question do you have to stay small to be innovative? According to the Economist’s study on organizational agility, the main obstacles to improved responsiveness are slow decision-making, conflicting departmental goals and priorities, risk-averse cultures and silo-based information. This isn’t a problem that faces a select number of companies. A survey by McKinsey&Company found that 94 percent of managers are unhappy with their company’s innovation performance.

May 11, 2016

Work is most common cause of stress, anxiety and depression ⁰

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

Work pressures are the most common cause of stress in this country, with over a third (34 percent) of people in a poll saying it has contributed to mental health problems; while 20 percent say juggling a work/life balance also plays a major role in causing stress. Research from Aviva ahead of Mental Health Awareness Week (16-22 May) found that 12 million UK adults suffering from stress, anxiety or depression in the past year did not seek help, with many too embarrassed to do so. Stress (33 percent), anxiety (29 percent) and depression (23 percent) are the most common mental health conditions experienced in the past year, but of those who experienced stress, 55 percent did not seek support, while 48 percent did not seek help for anxiety. More people are taking action on depression, but around three in ten (29 percent) of those suffering with this in the last year still did not ask for support.