Search Results for: people

January 15, 2019

Workplace productivity plummets during January

Around a quarter (26 percent) of British workers believe that January is their least productive month with the nation still recovering from the Christmas period, according to a new report from Hitachi Capital Invoice Finance. The report also claims that December is the second least productive month (14 percent) whist 32 percent surveyed suggested that they’re equally unproductive across the entire year. Residents of the Welsh capital Cardiff were found to be the least productive in January (34 percent) closely followed by Southampton (31 percent) and Sheffield (30 percent).

January 14, 2019

The problem with predictions, the cult of Facebook, WeWork woes and some other stuff

by Mark Eltringham • Features

If it makes you feel better about Blue Monday (today – ‘officially’ the year’s glummest day), it also marks the closure of the Predictions Window in my view. If somebody still has an unpublished list of forecasts for the coming year on their specialist topic, they’ve missed their chance. At least with us they have. But not to worry, there’s a good chance they can trot most of them all out again next year and they’ll be just as relevant. Anything else can be quietly dropped.

January 14, 2019

Tackling mental ill health in the workplace requires changes at the top

by Patrick Watt • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace

The collective effort to improve mental health awareness has gained real momentum in recent years and in the workplace there’s growing recognition that mental wellbeing among employees is good for business. But the way we’re working – the ‘always on’ culture, innovation moving at breakneck speed, and a global workforce operating 24/7 – is creating a mental burden among employees that is generating more mental health challenges. According to the City Mental Health Alliance, 44 percent of employers are seeing an increase in reported mental health concerns. Our own research of international business leaders has also shown that two thirds of them have suffered from mental health conditions. This is not only worrying for the individuals but problematic for the wider business, as culture is driven from the top.

January 14, 2019

Corporations must harness prop tech to adapt to new ways of work

by Neil Franklin • News, Technology

The world of work will continue to evolve in 2019, and corporations must find ways to adapt their office real estate. That is the conclusion of a new piece of research by flexible workplace provider Abintra. Published in a new report, the study highlights how corporations are struggling to manage office space efficiently as the trend towards agile and flexible working gathers momentum. The publication explores methods for responding through office space utilisation techniques, including the latest tech options.

January 14, 2019

Government and employers unite to kick-start stalled flexible working

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

The Flexible Working Task Force, a partnership across government departments, business groups, trade unions and charities, has today launched a campaign to increase the uptake of flexible working. Members of the task force are collectively using their ability to reach and influence hundreds of thousands of employers to encourage them to advertise jobs as flexible by using the strapline Happy to Talk Flexible Working in their job advertisements, regardless of level or pay grade.

January 10, 2019

Overwhelming majority of workers have changing workplace expectations

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

New research from Aon claims that 97 percent of employers agree that employees’ expectations of their experience in the workplace are changing. Aon’s Benefits and Trends Survey 2019 (registration required) suggests that employers are saying that employees’ top priorities now include flexible working hours, agile working, mental health, diversity and inclusion and parental leave. Aon’s Benefits and Trends Survey, now in its ninth year, is formed from the responses of over 200 employers of all sizes, including those with fewer than 100 employees to many thousands, who work across a broad range of sectors, with 75 percent of them working internationally. This year, a number of new questions were introduced, including changing workforce demographics, to support employer benefit strategies and provide industry analysis.

January 10, 2019

Disability and age discrimination are top concerns for UK employees

by Sara Bean • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

More than half of employees say the inclusion of disabled people is an area that requires the greatest improvement within their organisation; with the diversity of age groups coming in a close second at just under half. This is according to the latest findings from Wildgoose’s Diversity and Inclusivity in the Workplace survey. The results suggest a shift in the areas that employees prioritise when it comes to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace and raises the concern that dual discrimination based on disability AND age is common practice in the workplace. Other significant findings from the research show that nearly half (47 percent) of male employees don’t consider the gender pay gap to be a major issue, in comparison to the three quarters of females that do; a statistic that is particularly concerning given the recent publication of major organisations’ gender pay gaps and continued media coverage of the issue. Interestingly, the gap between men and women narrows when it comes to equal promotional opportunities.

January 9, 2019

Digital transformation and an uncharted future for workplace design in 2019

by Cherie Johnson and Julie Yonehara • Comment, Technology, Workplace design

In some way, humans have touched every single thing on this planet. We’re stepping into unknown territory. We’re changing everything. Think about that. Now, think about digital transformation. New technologies are changing how we interact with our environment, how we work, how we play and how we live. Tech tools are being more readily adopted as they get better and more accessible and, as a result our attitudes about them are changing. These are big ideas. And, they are rapidly changing our work and the domain of workplace design around the world. More →

January 8, 2019

From nudge tech to listening tools, Gartner makes some workplace predictions for 2019

by Brian Kropp • AI, Comment, Technology, Workplace

Last year we saw businesses reporting their gender pay gap, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) taking effect, speculation on how Brexit will impact jobs and further impact on how technology is changing the way we work. Looking forward to the year ahead, Gartner has pulled together a fresh set of workplace predictions for the coming year. This includes the demise of employee surveys as the adoption of sophisticated listening tools accelerates; precious little progress in closing the gender pay gap, but the evolution of discrepancies in pay scales between new hires and existing employees; the rise and rise of the #MeToo movement, which could lead to more senior executives being ousted in 2019 than in 2018; and new technologies designed to nudge workers into action.

January 7, 2019

What Leonardo da Vinci can teach us about the six hour working day ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Wellbeing

The latest idea to grip the sometimes limited imagination of the world’s workplace chatterers is that of the six hour working day or the four day working week. This has its original roots in a Swedish experiment designed to limit the hours people work in an attempt to improve their work-life balance and possibly even increase their productivity. Now a growing number of firms are looking to introduce a nominal four day working week or restrict the use of emails outside of office hours. These are always commendable goals and you can see the logic. We know people find it increasingly hard to switch off, we know that this is bad for them and we know that long hours don’t necessarily equate to greater productivity.

January 7, 2019

Firms and their workers need to adapt more quickly to changing world of work

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Technology

Governments need to do more to help workers and firms adapt to the fast-changing world of work and drive inclusive growth, according to the new OECD Jobs Strategy. New evidence in the report claims that countries that promote job quantity, quality and inclusiveness – such as Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden – perform better than those which focus predominantly on market flexibility. While flexibility and adaptability are essential to stimulate the creation of high-quality jobs in an ever more dynamic environment, the gains and costs need to be fairly shared between businesses and workers, according to the OECD.

January 7, 2019

World Bank report calls for changing approach to working cultures

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

A new report from the World Bank has call for more investment in people to prepare them for the economies of the future. The 2019 World Development report (WDR) “The Changing Nature of Work” claims that digital technologies are driving the demand for advanced cognitive skills, socio-behavioral skills, and adaptability in labour markets. The digital economy also presents an opportunity to create more jobs.