Search Results for: cost of living

October 21, 2015

Small businesses vital for cities, but London SMEs struggle with property costs ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Cities, News, Property

Two new surveys demonstrate that while small firms in creative sectors are essential for the economic success of the UK’s cities, many small businesses are struggling to find appropriate and well-priced office space in London and are now calling on the incoming new Mayor of London to address the issue as a matter of urgency. While a report from the Centre for Cities shows how small businesses in the creative, professional and digital sectors drive job growth, productivity and average wages in ten key UK cities, the study by the Federation of Small Businesses claims that the cost of commercial property remains one of the most pressing concerns for many SMEs based in London. The FSB study also found that the cost of living in London was also a concern for small employers in the capital, with many claiming it makes it incredibly hard to attract and retain employees.

September 29, 2015

Fifth of employers not productive enough to afford Living Wage warns CIPD ⁰

by Sara Bean • News, Technology, Workplace

Although the UK has experienced two years of solid economic growth, a fifth (21 percent) of organisations are still stuck in survival mode and aren’t making the necessary investments in equipment or people to boost their productivity a new report from the CIPD has revealed. A further 29 percent of employers are failing to get the right balance between investment in their workforce and investment in technology and equipment. Investing in Productivity found a clear link between an organisation’s mindset and its approach to investment, which could help to explain the UK’s poor productivity performance in recent years. The CIPD’s chief economist Mark Beatson warns that too many businesses are being held back by an ‘ambition ceiling’ which is preventing them from making the productivity gains needed to achieve business growth and implement the new National Living Wage without risk of job cuts.

May 22, 2015

Crown Estate first national property company to be Living Wage accredited

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

The Crown Estate has become the first national property business to accredit as a Living Wage employer. The Living Wage commitment aims to ensure that everyone working for The Crown Estate, regardless of whether they are permanent employees or contractors, receives a minimum hourly wage of £9.15 per hour in London and £7.85 per hour outside of London, significantly above the national minimum wage of £6.50. The Living Wage is calculated according to the basic cost of living in the UK and is accredited by the national Living Wage Foundation (LWF). A study examining the business benefits of implementing a Living Wage policy in London found that more than 80 per cent of employers believe that the Living Wage had enhanced the quality of the work of their staff, while absenteeism had fallen by approximately 25 per cent.

April 2, 2024

What do people really want from an office design? Some peace and quiet

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace design

New research from a survey of 2,000 UK office workers by BW: Workplace Experts suggests that poor quality office design is now thoroughly out of favour, as one in three people (33 percent) have an issue with a lack of privacy in the workplace. In fact, over a third (34 percent) ranked the most valuable spaces in the office as available meeting rooms, adequate amounts of breakout spaces, and social spaces, reflecting a desire to have more varied private and collaborative spaces. 27 percent said that they also value wellness spaces (e.g., exercise room, meditation room) and roughly one in 10 (11 percent) said access to outdoor space would influence them to go into the office more often. More →

March 28, 2024

Sick pay reform should encourage people back into work, government claims

by Marvin Gort • News, Workplace

A parliamentary committee of MPs has called for a ‘long-overdue’ boost to statutory sick pay (SSP), emphasising the need to strike a delicate balance between workers’ wellbeing and employers’ financial constraints. The Work and Pensions Committee has recommended aligning the SSP rate with the flat rate of Statutory Maternity Pay, a move that they say could significantly improve the financial safety net for workers. More →

March 7, 2024

There never was a new normal

by Nick Gold • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing

Four years ago this month, we were all given our first ‘work from home’ mandate. A clear, unambiguous instruction from the UK government that, in the grip of a quickly spreading global pandemic, we should all work from home where possible. And amid the biggest seismic shift of our lifetime, it was an easy instruction to follow. Hunker down and wait patiently until we find a ‘new normal.’ But four years on, the question remains – are we nearly there yet? Are we ever going to find a ’new normal’? More →

February 1, 2024

Many people continue to put a brave face on mental health

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing

Seven in ten employees (67 percent full time and 69 percent part time) say that they feel the need to put a brave face on things when asked about their mental health. Half (47 percent full time and 54 percent part time) report that the reason is because bigger things are going on in the world right now and they don’t wish to be a burden, whilst a quarter of full time employees (27 percent) and a third of part time employees (35 percent) don’t believe that people really want to know how they are. A quarter (26 percent full time and 27 percent part time) say they fear being judged if they open up. As a result they are feeling withdrawn, isolated and less able to socialise. More →

January 10, 2024

Over one quarter of employees do not trust their CEO to be honest and transparent

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

A new poll claims that over one quarter (26 percent) of employees in the UK do not trust their CEO to be open and honest, while 24 percent do not trust their senior leadership to do the same. According to the survey of 2,000 employees in the UK from Personio, transparency and employer-employee communication are pivotal to a positive employee experience and trust in the workplace. The research suggests that feeling unheard by leadership could be fuelling employees’ distrust. Over a quarter (28 percent) of employees surveyed say that they are not given a chance to share feedback to leadership on their experiences. Meanwhile, less than half (46 percent) of employees feel that leadership in their organisation actually listens and acts on any feedback when given from staff. More →

December 13, 2023

Big firms don’t really want you to contact them

by Neil Franklin • Business, News

Some of Britain’s most famous and successful companies make it hard for customers to get in touch, according to a new study of FTSE 250 companies, by Moneypenny, with 89 percent of the companies having no phone contact number on their website home page. While some of the FTSE 250 companies did feature a phone number elsewhere on their website, 33 percent of them make it extremely difficult to find a contact number on their website and have no phone number on their respective home pages. It took the Moneypenny researchers six or seven clicks to find one elsewhere on their websites. More →

November 27, 2023

Council employees working from home are committing fraud with second job

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Public Sector

The UK Government’s National Fraud Initiative is looking into a number of local authority employees who have been caught ‘moonlighting’ while they were supposed to be working from home for the council. The NFI considers this a form of fraud because it is seen as working multiple contracts without the knowledge of employers and contrary to their terms of employment. Multiple contract working is seen as fraud when people who are paid to work full time, split their days between two or more employers without their knowledge. More →

November 14, 2023

Republished: The brain-dead megaphone of work

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Working lives

There is nothing new about any of this. And yet it’s all new. I’ve spent months talking to people who really know their stuff about work and workplaces and underlying nearly all of those conversations is the following paradox. They know about flexible working, the under-utilisation of space, the twenty minute neighbourhood, the work ecosystem, universal basic income, the digital workspace, the office as club, all the rest of it. Heard it all before, often many times, over many years. Some of them have been living it too, and yet… More →

November 12, 2023

Want people to spend more time in the office? Give them a little piece of home

by Yaron Rosenblum • Comment, Workplace design

For many people, a large portion of the day is spent at the workplace. In fact, the average person will spend 90,000 hours at work over a lifetime. The Covid-19 pandemic saw the typical ‘workplace’ setting change for many people, after businesses around the globe were forced to adjust to a ‘work-from-home’ model. Now, three years later, we are starting to see more employees return to the office, with large corporations including JPMorgan, Chase, Apple and Google all announcing plans to bring their workers back to base. More →