November 27, 2019

Worrying disconnect between small business leaders and workers

A new report from Microsoft claims that there is a worrying disconnect between small business leaders and their employees. Over three quarters of leaders (79 percent) say they disclose as much information as possible with their staff and 85 percent agree employees perform much better when empowered with information. However, just 36 percent of employees say their business has a culture of transparency, and even less (18 percent) think their organisation has a clear vision or goal. More →

November 25, 2019

Three quarters of young workers have faced mental health challenges

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing

Over three-quarters (77 percent) of young workers in the UK have experienced mental health challenges, Accenture research suggests. In addition, nearly half (48 percent) of younger workers (aged 18-30) say they have experienced suicidal thoughts, but in organisations that are providing the right support, young workers were 37 percent less likely to have recent experience of a mental ill health challenge. More →

November 22, 2019

Contribution of “digital workers” to grow by 50 percent over next two years

by Neil Franklin • AI, News, Technology

A new survey from research firm IDC claims to reveal the true extent of software robots supporting humans in the workplace. The IDC whitepaper, Content Intelligence for the Future of Work (registration), sponsored by ABBYY, indicates that the contribution of software robots, or what the report calls digital workers, to the global workforce will increase by over 50 percent in the next two years. These results, from a survey of 500 senior decision-makers in large enterprises, illustrate a fundamental shift to a future of work dependent on human-machine collaboration. More →

November 22, 2019

Over a third of workers already consider themselves entrepreneurs

by Neil Franklin • Business, News

Forty percent of workers already consider themselves entrepreneurs according to The Myers-Briggs Company research report, Type and entrepreneurship, which investigates the relationship between personality and entrepreneurship in the workplace. The research suggests that entrepreneurial businesses perform better financially, and thus, creating a work environment where employees of all personality types can embrace their entrepreneurial qualities is beneficial to businesses. More →

November 12, 2019

Uber Works may not be as good for workers as it is for businesses

by Shainaz Firfiray • Comment, Flexible working, Technology

Uber is still best known as a ride-hailing platform but it has been branching out into other industries. Food (Uber eats), electric scooters and bicycles (Jump), and now shift work with the launch of Uber Works. It is being trialled in Chicago, with plans to launch elsewhere soon, and enables casual workers such as cleaners, bar staff and warehouse workers to find work. More →

November 6, 2019

Open plan offices might improve performance of high status workers

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Workplace design

Managers may believe their star performers don’t need monitoring when working on a team and may reason that leaving the most high status workers alone in their efforts frees up more time to work closely with other team members. But research coauthored by Sebastien Brion of IESE Business School and published in Management Science Journal claims that this may be a mistake and so counterproductive and that the performance of high status workers might improve with greater visibility including that offered by open plan offices. More →

October 28, 2019

Majority of American workers are unhappy in their jobs

by Mark Eltringham • News, Wellbeing

Although more people are in work in the US than at any time in the past 50 years, only 40 percent of American workers say that they work in good jobs, according to a new study (registration) from the Lumina Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Omidyar Network, and Gallup. The report claims that 44 percent of workers surveyed said they had “mediocre” jobs while 16 percent said they were in “bad” jobs. More →

October 23, 2019

Older workers outshine younger colleagues on cybersecurity

by Neil Franklin • News, Technology

According to a new report on behaviour and attitudes to cybersecurity among different age groups, employees over the age of 30 are more likely to adopt cybersecurity best practice than younger colleagues who have grown up around digital technology. The report, Meeting the expectations of a new generation. How the under 30s expect new approaches to cybersecurity (registration), also indicates that the younger generation is more anxious about cybersecurity and their company’s ability to tackle the number of security threats.

October 22, 2019

Remote workers struggle most to switch off from work

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News

According to a Remote.co survey of 200 full-time remote workers, unplugging after work hours (40 percent) is the biggest challenge remote workers face in their working lives. The survey, conducted in September and October of this year, claims that other challenges for people who work away from their firm’s main office for a significant proportion of their time include dealing with non-work distractions (32 percent), developing strong relationships with co-workers (25 percent), loneliness (23 percent), troubleshooting technology problems (21 percent), and working across different time zones (19 percent). More →

October 11, 2019

Workers would prefer to lose a job to a robot than a human

by Neil Franklin • AI, News

A new study published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour from academics at the Technical University of Munich and the Rotterdam School of Management claims that most people would prefer to be replaced in their job by a robot rather than another human. The study asked 2,000 workers in Europe and North America to respond to one of two scenarios in which they had to decide on the future of the workforce in an independent organisation or another organisation for which they themselves work which had decided to replace its current workforce completely with either robots or new human staff. More →

October 3, 2019

Automation now attracts workers to jobs

by Neil Franklin • AI, News, Workplace

A new report is urging employers to promote their investment in automation and technology when recruiting to avoid missing out on top talent. The What Workers Want 2019 Report (registration), released by Hays, claims that although 70 percent of organisations are investing in automation, nearly a quarter (24 percent) of employers do not currently promote their investment when recruiting. More →

October 2, 2019

Workplace perks peak as workers see them mainly as gimmicks

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

New research from travel app provider Seatfrog claims that workers are looking for more than just fun or unusual workplace perks to brag about to their friends when starting a job. While on-site table tennis, a free bar and unlimited snacks has become commonplace in the war to attract talent, especially in the technology sector, around three in five of the 2,000 people surveyed dismiss perks as nothing short of a gimmick. More →