Search Results for: people

June 5, 2018

Women are less optimistic than men about the future of work

Women in the US are less optimistic than men about the future of work, according to a new survey from B2B research firm Clutch. When asked how they view their future career, more than a quarter (27 percent) of working women feel worried or neutral, compared to 20 percent of men. Workers overall have a positive outlook about their future careers, the survey finds. Over three quarters (76 percent) are optimistic about their future careers, compared to 1 in 5 workers (20 percent) who say they are worried. However, gender differences correlate with other factors that impact optimism, including decision-making authority at work, according to the survey’s findings.

June 5, 2018

Employees who work in digitally advanced workplaces are more productive and motivated

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

Companies that are less technologically advanced are at risk of falling behind the competition and not attracting top talent, claims a new global study from Aruba. By contrast, employees who work in digital workplaces are not only more productive but also more motivated, have higher job satisfaction, and report an overall better sense of well-being. The study, Digital Revolutionaries Unlock the Potential of the Digital Workplace, outlines both the business and human benefits of more digitally-driven workplaces, and how. Almost all respondents (97 percent) thought their workplace would be improved through greater use of technology, while 64 percent said their company will fall behind the competition if new technology isn’t implemented. The same portion (64 percent) believe the traditional office will become obsolete due to advances in technology. However, the survey also warns that companies must be vigilant as more digital-savvy employees are taking greater risks with data and information security.

June 4, 2018

Your happiness at work is not just down to your employer

by Cary Cooper and Ivan Robertson • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design

When Google promoted a software engineer named Chade-Meng Tan to the role of “Jolly Good Fellow”, his career – and the entire culture of Silicon Valley – took a sharp turn. Meng, a cheerful employee valued for his motivational qualities, went from developing mobile search tools to spreading happiness across the organisation. Happiness became his job. Google wasn’t the first to hire someone with the sole remit of enforcing employee contentment. In 1999, when Google was still a start-up, French fashion brand Kiabi hired Christine Jutard as its chief happiness officer. She was one of the first to perform the role. But once Google did it, happiness at work became a key metric and other organisations quickly adopted their approach. Three years after Meng’s appointment, fast food giant McDonald’s even promoted Ronald McDonald from brand mascot to CHO.

June 4, 2018

Two-thirds of employers believe agency and gig workers should be able to request a stable employment contract

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Workplace

Two-thirds of employers (67 percent) back the introduction of a new right for agency workers and zero-hours contract workers to request a stable contract, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. The findings, which form part of the CIPD’s response to the Government’s consultation on the Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices, are based on a survey of 1,000 employers. The survey found that 67 percent of respondents said they support the right to request a stable contract, which would potentially allow agency workers to request a permanent contract of employment and zero-hours contract workers to request regular or guaranteed hours.The CIPD believes the right to request should be available to people who have 12 months of continuous service with one organisation, a suggestion supported by 41 percent of employers. 32 percent of respondents supported a period of at least six months and 20 percent were in favour of at least three months. More →

June 1, 2018

Opening the door to a new workplace experience for everybody

by Omar Ramirez • Facilities management, Features, Workplace design

There’s no one way to approach diversity and inclusion initiatives. However, we’re very lucky as fellow professionals involved in creating a great workplace experience for everybody to be able to take an active and vital role in improving the setting for these initiatives. If you work at a company that is embracing diversity and inclusion, what I have set out in this commentary is simply a group of thought starters based on previous experience, pain points, and ways you could easily push forward to make spaces that better accommodate all users. At a time when 69 percent of executives rate diversity and inclusion as an important issue, it’s important for we workplace professionals to take the initiative.

June 1, 2018

How our noisy world was foreseen by the 20th Century’s great minds

by Charles Marks • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Over the past few years we’ve become more aware of the problems associated with the pace and clatter of modern life and not least among them its noise. Authors like Susan Cain have highlighted not only how distracting noise can be for everybody but how it affects different personality types in different ways. She is perhaps the world’s most high profile proponent of the idea that sometimes we need to work quietly and alone and is the author of Quiet: the power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking and the person responsible for this now famous and archetypal TED Talk presented on the effects of sound and the need for more silence and privacy. But she is not alone in making these claims, nor is she the first person to do so and the warning signs have been around for quite some time. The first calls for people to heed the racket of modern life came at least a hundred years ago as we began the 20th Century transition to office based life with its distractions of noisy things and people.

May 31, 2018

Fewer than half of Australians now work in a traditional job

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Workplace

Fewer than half of employed Australians now hold a standard, traditional job, according to a new report into the growth of insecure employment published by the Centre for Future Work. The report, The Dimensions of Insecure Work: A Factbook, reviews eleven statistical indicators of the growth in employment insecurity over the last five years: including part-time work, short hours, underemployment, casual jobs, marginal self-employment, and jobs paid minimum wages under modern awards. It defines a standard job as permanent full-time paid work with leave entitlements. According to the authors, all the indicators of job stability have declined since 2012, thanks to a combination of weak labour market conditions, aggressive profit strategies by employers, and passivity by labour regulators.

May 31, 2018

Majority of global workforce now work somewhere other than the office every week

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

Technological change, globalisation and changes in employee expectations mean that over two-thirds of global employees now work remotely every week, and over half do so for at least half of the week. Though it must be said this is according to a new study from IWG, which is the parent group of workspace companies including Regus and Spaces, the study found that every week 70 percent of employees are working at least one day a week somewhere other than the office. More than half (53 percent) work remotely for half of the week or more, whilst more than one in 10 (11 percent) people work outside of their company’s main office location five times a week. The survey adds also that flexible working and the use of shared workspaces are no longer the preserve of start-ups. The world’s most successful businesses – including varied companies such as Etihad Airways, Diesel, GSK, Mastercard, Microsoft, Oracle and Uber – are already adopting a flexible workspace approach.

May 31, 2018

Upcoming tasks and appointments may make us less productive, claims new research

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing

Available time seems shorter when it comes just before an appointment, say scientists who found that an upcoming task may make us less productive. In a series of eight studies, both in the lab and real life, researchers found that free time seems shorter to people when it comes before a task or appointment on their calendar. The study appears online in the Journal of Consumer Research. In an online study of 198 peopl were asked to imagine they had a friend coming over to visit in one hour and “you are all ready for your friend to come by.” The others were told that they had no plans for the evening. All participants were asked how many minutes “objectively” they could spend reading during the next hour and how many minutes they “subjectively” felt like they could spend reading during that same hour.

May 30, 2018

Australia is leading the world in the adoption of activity based working

by Max Luff • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace design

Over half of those employed in the banking sector in Australia now find themselves in agile and dynamic activity based workplaces. The banks have set the pace. The overall growth of the phenomenon has been exponential in the last 5 years, with sources suggesting two thirds of Australian organisations will have adopted Activity Based Working (ABW) by 2020. Furthermore, by looking at the number of Activity Based Working projects in the pipeline this move away from the 20th century office seems unstoppable. Despite global economic challenges the banking sector in Australia is particularly strong and stable, which contributes to the organisations’ ability to take a long term view. Alongside this robust financial picture we are also seeing a shift in purpose emerge, where the banks move away from a purely financial role to one where they embrace a sense of community and stewardship thus developing a broader contribution to society.

May 30, 2018

Simple fact: less complex workplaces increase levels of employee engagement

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

Organisations that invest in simplifying their workplace benefit from greater trust, advocacy, innovation and retention among employees. Yet despite this, 30 percent of employees find their workplace complex and difficult to navigate, claims a recent study conducted by Siegel+Gale. According to the study, organisations that communicate clearly from the top their purpose, values and business goals tend to be simpler. These workplaces convey how employees’ roles impact relationships with clients and ultimately, drive business results.

May 30, 2018

Low unemployment means new recruits will quit if the job doesn’t measure up

by Sara Bean • News, Workplace

Alongside the challenge of finding the right people to fill roles is keeping them there, according to a survey from Korn Ferry which claims that the majority (93 percent) of employers agreed that the retention of new hires in their organisation is becoming an issue. New recruits individuals agree, with 26 percent admitting they’d leave a job if it wasn’t a good fit, even if they didn’t have another position lined up. The top reasons new hires leave, according to the survey, is their specific role isn’t what they expected and working for the company was different than they thought it would be. Respondents said a desire for more money was not a primary reason a new hire would leave. More than half of the respondents (55 percent) said that offering more money to a new hire who wanted to leave would not make them stay and more than three quarters, (82 percent) said that if they personally accepted a job that they ended up not liking, even though it paid well, they would leave as soon as they found a new job.