Search Results for: employees

March 14, 2019

The negative entropy of workplace design and management

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Workplace design

Immediately after the Workplace Trends Summit in London last October, Ian Ellison of 3edges and I retired to a side room to record an interview for a podcast over a glass of red wine. The main objective was to try to piece together a coherent summary of what we’d seen that day. Ian assures me the podcast (his are invariably excellent) will appear very soon, but I thought it would be worth exploring a theory I formed and rambled on about in our conversation ahead of the next Summit set to take place next week.

March 14, 2019

Mobile working is a recipe for business success

by Sally Elliott • Comment, Technology, Workplace design

Today, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is changing the face of work as we know it: introducing AI and automation to the workplace and creating a drastic shift in the skills required by organisations today. As automation increasingly frees employees up from the repetitive, process work that can so often dominate their day-to-day, organisations are instead looking to employees to showcase their critical thinking and creativity. Indeed, McKinsey’s Skill Shift confirms that by 2030 the demand for higher cognitive skills, such as creativity, critical thinking and decision making will grow by 14 percent in Europe.

March 14, 2019

Neither bosses nor staff feel confident about future UK business environment

by Sara Bean • AI, News, Technology, Workplace

Two new reports published this week, show a lack of confidence amongst employers and employees within the UK business environment. The latest data in Gartner’s Global Talent Monitor report shows employee confidence in near-term business conditions and long-term economic prospects reaching an index score of 55.6 for the last quarter of 2018, a decline of 7.5 percent from an index score of 60.09 in 3Q18. These results follow a worldwide trend that has seen global business confidence sink to its lowest point since the fourth quarter of 2017. Meanwhile a survey of business leaders in the UK by management consultancy Lane4 found that bosses do not feel prepared to lead through future challenges like artificial intelligence and political volatility. More →

March 14, 2019

Majority of British workers prepared to turn down job without flexible working option

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

A new survey from IWG claims that UK businesses without a flexible working policy risk losing out on top talent. IWG’s Global Workplace Survey claims that 80 percent of workers in the UK would choose a job which offered flexible working over a job that didn’t and that 73 percent think that flexible working has become ‘the new normal’.

March 13, 2019

We need to change the terms of the open plan office debate

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, News, Workplace design

New workplace data from the Gensler Research Institute claims to challenge the current narrative surrounding the open plan office ‘debate’ and uncovers the right way to invest in work-focused amenities, including coworking, that result in higher employee engagement, business performance and profit. The 2019 Gensler US Workplace Survey includes the input from more than 6,000 US office workers across a variety of industries and demographics to provide new insight into not only what makes an effective workplace, but the investments companies can make to improve employees’ workplace experience and performance. Reports for the UK, Germany, Latin America and Asia are also available here.

March 13, 2019

Noisy workplaces regularly distract and stress out staff

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

Over half (52 percent) of workers are interrupted by noise distractions more than five times in a working day, with 17 percent stating that they are interrupted by noise more than 10 times. This is according to the Noise and Wellbeing at Work 2019 survey conducted by The Remark Group, and supported by environmental psychologist and workplace strategist Dr Nigel Oseland, an honorary senior lecturer at UCL’s Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering. In the survey of 1,000 UK-based office workers, 65 percent reported that noise in the workplace impacted on their ability to complete work in an accurate and timely manner. More →

March 12, 2019

Workers are pessimistic about employment prospects in post Brexit era

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

A new report from Personal Group claims that British workers increasingly concerned with Brexit’s potential impact on their employment. The data suggests that with just one month to go, more than a third (34.25 percent) of UK residents believe that Brexit would affect their current employment in a negative way, an increase of nearly 4 percent (+3.82 percent) when compared to survey results from 2018. Only a negligible 3 percent of respondents think that Brexit will positively affect their current employment.

March 12, 2019

UK jobs boom set to end as finance and business sectors lose confidence

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

The boom in the UK jobs market is coming to an end just as the Brexit countdown reaches its final stages. According to the latest ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey, the national Outlook for the second quarter of 2019 has fallen to +4 percent, on a par with the weakest levels of confidence seen in recent years. More worryingly, the negative Outlook in the Business and Financial services sector – which employs nearly a fifth of all UK workers – suggests jobs are set to be lost in Britain’s most important sector. The report found that the Finance and Business Services sector has fallen five points to -1 percent, only the second time in the last decade it has been in negative territory.

March 12, 2019

Insight promotion: creating a frictionless (not flawed) workplace experience

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Insight promotion, Workplace design

To mark the launch of Workplace House, a multi-brand co-creation space in the heart of Clerkenwell, a consortium of participating brands hosted an event to explore the factors that contribute towards a good (and not so good) workplace experience.

March 11, 2019

UK employers struggling with recruitment and retention of service workers

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Flexible working, Workplace

The recruitment and retention of manual and elementary service workers has become a significant challenge for UK employers, claims a new study. The research by Quinyx in collaboration with Development Economics and Censuswide, found that factors such as low pay and a lack of flexibility are key issue, resulting in nearly half (49 percent) of UK employers finding it difficult to recruit these workers, and the same percentage reporting challenges around retention. Issues with recruitment and retention were discovered to be most acute in industries such as hospitality, catering & leisure and retail. In addition, larger businesses (those with a workforce of 250 to 500) are more likely to face challenges compared to smaller-sized businesses. Regionally, businesses in London and the East of England are most likely to struggle to recruit workers into manual or elementary service roles. The findings come at a time when UK employers are expressing growing concern around access to manual and elementary service workers post-Brexit.

March 11, 2019

Many leaders lack the skills needed to manage in the digital age

by Neil Franklin • News, Technology

A study conducted by The Oxford Group (registration) claims that companies are struggling to adapt to a digital workplace as leaders lack the critical digital skills they need to transform the organisation. Whilst 96 percent of respondents said the onus is on leaders to drive the adoption of new technologies and 94 percent believe it’s important for leaders to challenge traditional ways of thinking, only a third (33 percent) of leaders feel well prepared to lead their business. Gaps in leaders’ digital skill-sets are having a major impact on their ability to transform; 41 percent say that a lack of digital expertise makes decision-making more difficult, and 30 percent say it has prevented their team from innovating.

March 7, 2019

A workplace chatbot might soon be one of your new best friends

by John Hildebrands • Comment, Technology

If you’ve ever wished you could delegate certain routine tasks to an assistant, then a chatbot could be just what you need. Staff working for Unilever will soon be able to get HR advice from Una, a new member of staff who will be available worldwide and at any time of day. Una is a chatbot, capable of conversing with employees in 106 countries, using 32 languages, Unilever’s Keith Williams told a conference last year . Unilever employees can contact Una through Skype for Business and complete tasks such as getting information about benefits, claiming for healthcare or selling shares. It saves time poring over FAQs or filling-in forms, and it frees HR staff for more complex queries. More →