Search Results for: income

Direct causal link between wellbeing and corporate performance, claims study

Direct causal link between wellbeing and corporate performance, claims study 0

by • News, Wellbeing

A new report published by IZA World of Labor claims that a rise in workers’ happiness and wellbeing leads to an increase in productivity. The study from economist Dr Eugenio Proto, of the University of Warwick’s Department of Economics and Centre for Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE) concludes that companies would profit from investment in their employees’ wellbeing. It cites the experience of large companies that have recently highlighted the importance of employee wellbeing in their company profiles. The authors claims that, until recently, evidence for a link between employee wellbeing and company performance has been sparse and that their own study shows a positive correlation between a rise in happiness and an increase in productivity. Proto believes  that finding causal links between employee wellbeing and company performance is important for firms to justify spending corporate resources to provide a happier work environment for their employees and that the available evidence suggests that companies can be encouraged to introduce policies to increase employee happiness.

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Gig economy represents a race to the bottom for many because of client behaviour

Gig economy represents a race to the bottom for many because of client behaviour 0

by • Flexible working, News

Gig economy

For many people, the gig economy represents a race to the bottom, with a large number of freelancers asked to work for free by entitled clients on the vague promise of future work, breeding anxiety and disillusionment. That is the key finding of a new study by Approve.io which found that half of freelancers and self-employed creatives had been asked by clients said that work had caused them anxiety this year with three quarters citing client behaviour as the primary cause. More →

Brexit could lead to a freeze of over a third of UK commercial property investment

Brexit could lead to a freeze of over a third of UK commercial property investment 0

by • News, Property

22-Bishopsgate_London_PLP-Architecture_Hayes-Davidson_dezeen_936_0 (1)The unexpected political events of 2016 will lead to a rise in caution and risk aversion among real estate investors in 2017, making secure income streams more highly prized among core investors globally. This is expected to benefit the UK market, where high levels of transparency and stable legal structures make real estate a safety play, according to a report from real estate advisor Savills. The firm unveiled its predictions for UK real estate at its annual cross-sector briefing this week, taking a detailed look at the commercial property, residential and agricultural markets. The overall story for UK real estate is one of slower growth. In the commercial market, average total returns on UK property investments are likely to be approximately 5.6 percent per annum during 2017-2021, with a 1.6 percent five year capital growth forecast for office values and a 4.4 percent growth forecast for office income returns. The report claims that there will be a fall of around 30 to 40 percent overall, and possibly up to 50 percent in Central London.

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Employers urged to find ways of motivating and retaining older workers

Employers urged to find ways of motivating and retaining older workers 0

by • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Employees over 50 still have a huge amount to offer, and that is why employers need to develop and implement strategies to find ways of managing and retaining them. The results of a three year study – led by Nottingham Trent University with Workplace Innovation Limited – aimed at preventing the loss of vital knowledge, skills and experience of increasingly ageing workforces indicate that measures should be taken by employers to ensure older workers don’t become demotivated and head into early retirement. The first-of-its-kind study follows findings which reveal that by 2030 the number of people aged over 55 in high-income countries will have grown to 500 million. As part of the study, researchers found that interventions which seek to improve job design and the way in which work is organised can lead to better engagement and retention of older workers – as well as producing wider benefits for the business and its employees. The project investigated work-related predictors of retirement for the over 50s, finding that manageable job demands and more control over roles were key factors in delaying a decision to retire.

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Two thirds of female professionals’ jobs downgraded after career break

Two thirds of female professionals’ jobs downgraded after career break 0

by • Flexible working, News, Workplace

Two thirds of female professionals' jobs downgraded after career breakA lack of flexible roles means that two thirds of professional women who return to work after a career break, work fewer hours than they prefer or go into lower-skilled or lower-paid roles, claims new research by PwC, in conjunction with Women Returners and 30% Club. 427,000 UK female professionals are currently estimated to be on a career break and likely to return to the workforce in the future. Of those, three in five (249,000) are likely to enter lower-skilled roles when they return to work. This has serious implications for earnings as this downgrading is associated with an immediate 12-32 percent reduction in hourly earnings, depending on whether the woman remains with the same employer. A further 29,000 women returning to part-time work would prefer to work longer hours but are unable to due to a lack of flexible roles. Altogether, two-thirds of (or around 278,000) women could be working below their potential when they return to the workforce.

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UK cities now outperforming pre-crisis peak on key socio-economic indicators 0

by • Cities, News

The majority of UK cities and Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) areas are now outperforming their pre-financial crisis peak, according to the latest 2016 Good Growth for Cities index, produced by PwC and the think-tank, Demos. However, a number of cities that have previously scored highly terms of jobs, incomes and business start-ups are beginning to experience growing pressures on housing affordability, transportation and work-life balance. The report also warns that the elements of the Good Growth index could be impacted by Brexit, with housing, jobs and income potentially seeing the largest effects.  However, it also points to post-Brexit opportunities including revised trade relations and regulations and the potential of new markets beyond the EU. Published today, the fifth annual Good Growth for Cities index measures the performance of 42 of the UK’s largest cities, England’s Local Enterprise Partnerships LEPs  and the new Combined Authorities against a basket of categories defined by the public and business as key to local socio-economic success.

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Progress towards closing gender pay gap slows around the world

Progress towards closing gender pay gap slows around the world 0

by • Legal news, News, Workplace

Women across the globe earn on average  just over half of what men earn despite, on average, working longer hours when taking paid and unpaid work into account. The world is facing an acute misuse of talent by not acting faster to tackle this gender inequality, which could put economic growth at risk and deprive economies of the opportunity to develop, warns the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2016, which is published today. The latest edition of the annual benchmarking exercise that measures progress towards parity between men and women in four areas: Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, Economic Opportunity and Political Empowerment finds that progress towards parity in the key economic pillar has slowed dramatically with the gap – which stands at 59 percent – now larger than at any point since 2008. Aside from salary, another persistent challenge is stagnant labour force participation, with the global average for women standing at 54 percent, compared to 81 percent for men. The UK is ranked 20th overall in the global index and of those countries in Western Europe, the UK falls in the bottom half of the table.  In respect of economic participation and opportunity, the UK is ranked 53.

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Nearly a third of investors say Brexit offers commercial real estate investment opps

Nearly a third of investors say Brexit offers commercial real estate investment opps 0

by • Cities, Facilities management, News, Property

london-brexitThe recent warning that the major banks are planning to leave the Capital following the Brexit vote has understandably caused some concern within the commercial property sector;  so it’s cheering to hear that three in ten (30 percent) institutional investors actually believe Brexit will either increase or significantly increase European commercial real estate investment opportunities. A further one in four (23 percent) institutional investors believe that Brexit will have no impact on commercial real estate investment opportunities. According to a new study by BrickVest, following the UK’s decision to leave the European Union, nearly two in five (38 percent) institutional real estate investors cited London as the top European city to invest in commercial real estate, ahead of Berlin (36 percent), Munich (31 percent) and Paris (22 percent). However, one in five (21 percent) cited both Dublin and Hamburg and a further 16 percent selected Frankfurt, highlighting a clear positive trend towards German commercial real estate. Indeed 40 percent of the top ten European cities were German.

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The global uberification of commercial property and the workplace

The global uberification of commercial property and the workplace 0

by • Facilities management, Features, Property, Technology, Workplace design

uberificationTechnology doesn’t just transform the world, it reshapes our language. So, we all need to get used to the word uberification as well as the idea of it. Based on the success of the on demand taxi service Uber, the word refers to the way a product or service becomes available to customers on demand via the Internet. Customers book a service only at the point of consumption. This represents an entirely new commercial model and is the defining characteristic of the new 21st Century economy. Uber may have provided the tipping point, going from start up to market valuation of $66 billion in just 7 years, but its success has given us a name for a process that is reshaping businesses and customer experiences across the entire economy, including in the commercial property sector.

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Freelancers are thriving on both sides of the pond, but have politicians noticed?

Freelancers are thriving on both sides of the pond, but have politicians noticed? 0

by • Flexible working, News, Technology

freelancersTwo new reports that highlight the growth of the freelance and self-employed workforce in both the UK and US also suggest that politicians and civil servants in both countries have little real understanding about the changing nature of work. According to the UK government’s regular Business Population Estimates report, the number of private sector businesses is at an all-time high, around 5.5 million, up by a million since 2010. Yet the report fails to distinguish between freelancers, the self-employed and traditional SMEs, except to omit firms that are too small to pay VAT from its numbers. The trade association IPSE estimates that there are some 4.6 million self-employed and freelance workers in the UK, yet the BPE report does not account for the overlap in numbers. Even within the BPE’s own numbers, there are suggestions that its conclusions do not match the data. The annual growth in non-employing businesses outstripped those who employed others by a factor of 6:1 and 76 percent of businesses did not employ anyone aside from the owner. And the growth comes despite the fact that the self-employed in the UK now earn marginally less than they did 20 years ago.

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American workers prefer the 9 to 5 but would take a pay cut in exchange for home working

American workers prefer the 9 to 5 but would take a pay cut in exchange for home working 0

by • Flexible working, News

9-to-5According to a new study by researchers at Princeton University and Harvard University, the average American worker is indifferent to flexible working hours and instead prefers a set 40-hour workweek. According to the study, most workers aren’t willing to take even a small pay cut to determine their own working hours. However, if given the option to work from home, many workers — especially women — would take an 8 percent wage cut to do so. The findings, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), also show that workers consistently dislike irregular work schedules set by employers on short notice. They would even give up one-fifth of their salary to avoid working evenings or weekends. Nearly half of jobseekers would not take an irregular-schedule job even if it paid a quarter more than a 9 to 5 job. This is true even of workers who currently have irregular work schedules.

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Two thirds of US gig economy workers would choose not to repeat the experience

Two thirds of US gig economy workers would choose not to repeat the experience 0

by • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

gig economyWhile the number of independent workers in the US gig economy is expected to grow to 54 million people by 2020 and some 40 percent of workers have already experienced it according to MBO Partners: State of Independence in America 2016, a new online poll by Deloitte of nearly 4,000 workers found that 67 percent of those who have worked as an independent contractor would choose not to do so again in future. Additionally, more than 60 percent of employed workers said that their stability would suffer if they moved to independent contract work, and 42 percent worry about sacrificing good compensation and benefits. Four-in-ten respondents (41 percent) recognise that independent contracting offers more flexibility to work where, when, and how they want to as compared to full-time employment. However, respondents cite inconsistent cash flow and lack of employer-paid benefits as drawbacks that discourage them from pursuing independent work.

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