Search Results for: people

September 2, 2016

Learning with a stranger as effective as learning with a close friend or relation ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Knowledge, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

A partner helps you learn – even if you don’t know them. That is the conclusion of research being presented today by Catherine Crompton from the University of Edinburgh to the annual conference of the British Psychological Society’s Cognitive Psychology Section in Barcelona. In the research for her PhD, Catherine carried out two studies that each paired 48 people and asked them to learn an unfamiliar task. In both studies, half the pairs knew each other and half did not. Both older and younger participants were tested, each paired with a partner of similar age. In the first study, the pairs were asked to arrange abstract tangram shapes in a specific order on a grid. In the second, the pairs were asked to learn a route on a map and then recall it one hour and one week later. The first study showed that the pairs got better at the task with practice, whether or not the pairs had known each other before the study. The effects were the same, regardless of age.

September 1, 2016

BSRIA publishes new downloadable guide to indoor air quality ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, Knowledge, Property, Technology, Wellbeing

The Building Services Research and Information Association (BSRIA) has released a new topic guide on indoor air quality (IAQ), which is now available to download free from the association’s website. The guide is written for those seeking some introductory information about indoor air quality including prevalence, history and definition, along with information on types of contaminants and their exposure limits, while readers are also provided with a useful site map. BSRIA’s asset performance team leader, Blanca Beato-Arribas, said: “People spend approximately 80 per cent of their time indoors. There is enough evidence that links poor air quality with permanent damages to health or even death. Therefore, we should be aware of the quality of the air that we breathe both at home and at work, and ensuring good indoor air quality at work should be a priority for employers.” The guide will provide insight into the most common contaminants, both from indoor sources and external sources as well as a summary of the current legislation and a guide map of what contaminants to investigate.

September 1, 2016

One sixth of Australians now work from home mainly to keep up with workload ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, Wellbeing, Workplace

Almost a third (3.5 million) of all employed people in Australia now regularly work from home in their main job or business, according to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). “42 per cent of those who regularly work from home cited catching up on work as the main reason,” said Jennifer Humphrys, Director of Labour Market Analytics at the ABS. “A further 20 per cent regularly worked from home because they wanted an office or didn’t want to pay rent or overheads.” This means in effect that one in six Australians now feel unable to complete their work in normal office hours. These were some of the results from the Characteristics of Employment survey, conducted in August 2015, which collected information on the distribution of weekly earnings, working arrangements and independent contractors. “Nearly one in five employed persons usually worked shift work. Of these, two-fifths usually worked a rotating shift, which periodically changed,” said Ms Humphrys.

September 1, 2016

Commuting is making us more stressed and more fat, claims study ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

The average UK commuter adds almost 800 calories to their diet every week as a result of their journey to and from work, according to our new report, Health in a Hurry, from the UK’s Royal Society for Public Health. The study of around 1,500 people claims that the average time spent commuting in the UK has increased in recent years to almost an hour a day, and suggests longer commutes are therefore potentially shortening lives. The report highlights the impact of travelling to and from work caused by forms of passive commuting including rail, bus and car. It says that this part of the daily routine has a huge impact on the public’s health and wellbeing with longer commute times associated with increased stress, higher blood pressure and BMI, and reduced time available for health-promoting activities such as cooking, exercising and sleeping. Commuters in London have an average journey of 79 minutes while it is just under 45 minutes for people living in Wales.

August 31, 2016

Addressing the five negative influences on organisational culture ⁰

by Matias Rodsevich • Comment, Flexible working, Knowledge, Workplace

Organisational culture should represent a clear vision from a firm about its very nature and identity as well as its values. A culture one that everybody within the organisation should understand and share. But this is not always the case as a growing number of firms are discovering to their cost. According to a paper published last year by Deloitte University Press, only 12 percent of employees believe their company is effective at driving their desired culture. Another study from employee feedback software provider Stackhands, around two thirds of people (64 percent) feel they do not have a strong work culture within their organisation. Even so, whether people are aware of it or not, their company has its own culture. Without direction and positive influences, negative factors can take hold, shaping culture in a way that can become harmful for a business. These elements can hinder your company’s development of an effective culture:

August 30, 2016

Only 7 percent of workers say they’re most productive working in an office ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

Fewer interruptions from colleagues, fewer distractions make home the preferred place for maximum productivity, claims a new study from recruitment consultancy FlexJobs. The survey of more than 3,000 respondents interested in work flexibility claims that only 7 percent of workers say the office and traditional work hours form the best time and place for optimum productivity. More than half (51 percent) of people reported that their home is their preferred place to work. Eight percent said they would choose a coffee shop, coworking space, library, or other place besides the office and another eight percent would choose the office but only outside regular hours. 26 percent go to the office during regular hours to complete important work only because it’s not an option to go elsewhere. According to the survey, around two-thirds (65 percent) of workers think they would be more productive working from home than working in a traditional workplace.

August 27, 2016

Gender pay gap + Thomas Jefferson’s swivel chair + The creative office ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Flexible working, Newsletter, Property, Workplace, Workplace design

In this week’s Newsletter; Mark Eltringham describes Thomas Jefferson as an early pioneer of what we now call wellness; and explains why we shouldn’t lose sight of the importance of form in our quest for function. More global organisations than ever offer parental leave rights to workers; yet research shows that the gender pay gap widens more for women with children; but a futurist predicts the UK gender gap will finally close by 2045. Birmingham reaches half a million square feet in office take-up so far this year; and managers and employees in creative sector disagree on the definition of a creative office. A study finds that people respond to stress in strikingly different ways; and evidence that multi-generational team working reaps rewards. Download our new Briefing, produced in partnership with Boss Design on the link between culture and workplace strategy and design; visit our new events page, follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn Group to discuss these and other stories.

August 26, 2016

Bridging the generation gap is the key to a happier workforce ⁰

by Sara Bean • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

People who work in multigenerational teams are much more engaged and likely to deliver higher levels of customer service a new report suggests. In a survey of over 32,000 of McDonald’s own UK employees, their people who work with a cross-section of ages registered a 10 percent increase in happiness levels compared to those who work with their peer group. With the GCSE results just in, the fast food retailer wanted to gauge attitudes among potential future employees, so McDonald’s UK commissioned a census of 5,000 people representing each of the five working generations. It revealed that adults of all ages are united in wanting to be part of a multigenerational workforce. In fact, the opportunity to work with people of different ages was the top priority for more than half of all respondents (58 percent) and this factor was important for older people born between 1900 and 1964 (67 percent), as well as 16-year olds (57 percent).

August 25, 2016

Research suggests individual responses to stress at work vary widely ⁰

by Sara Bean • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

No matter how compelling the evidence on the impact of stress at work there are always individuals who dismiss the very idea as self-indulgence. New research suggests this isn’t down to lack of empathy but simply because some people just don’t experience stress the same as others. The survey by the Deloitte Greenhouse Experience team found statistically significant variation in how respondents react to stressors which indicates that workplace stress is relative and not everyone experiences stress in the same way or to the same degree. The majority of respondents reported modest levels of stress. Fourteen percent reported being stressed only rarely and 57 percent reported being stressed sometimes, while 26 percent reported being stressed often, and 3 percent reported being always stressed. Different scenarios were also mooted to identify stress triggers. Making mistakes topped the list of stressors, with 82 percent of respondents indicating errors caused stress.

August 24, 2016

Futurist says UK gender pay gap will close much earlier than predicted ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Following the latest report that shows that the gender pay gap is still wide open comes claims that in the UK, the gap will close within the next 30 years. That’s the view anyway of futurist, trend forecaster and journalist, James Wallman. While the World Economic Forum believes that the world-wide gender pay gap won’t close by 2133, Wallman paints a more positive picture, forecasting the UK pay gap will actually close much sooner — by 2045. His reasoning is that it’s far harder to hide wage disparity in an age of data digitisation, meaning companies are compelled to be transparent. There is manifest political will behind pay parity, with new legislation meaning that by 2018 all companies with more than 250 employees will have to publish their gender pay gap data. And he argues there are numerous economic imperatives to get women working; if the same proportion of women worked in Britain as in Sweden, it would add £170bn to the UK economy and boost GDP by 9 percent.

August 24, 2016

Nearly half of employees work unpaid extra hours to cope with workloads ⁰

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

Nearly half of working parents in the UK put in unpaid extra hours to keep up with workloads and a third believe that overtime is now an ingrained part of workplace culture, according to a study by pressure group Working Families. The results were announced on the day the group announced details of this year’s National Work-Life Week which will encourage organisations to explore agile and flexible working. The report claims that 27 percent of people believe their line manager expects them to work extra hours, 33 percent believe that unpaid overtime is part of their workplace culture and 42 percent work extra hours to deal with workloads. Sarah Jackson, CEO of Working Families, said: “In the UK we have some of the longest working hours in Europe, with more than one in 10 employees putting in more than 50 hours each week. But success is about productivity, not impressive timesheets, so it’s worrying that our survey showed many parents feel a cultural pressure, or direct pressure from their manager, to stay late.”

August 23, 2016

US Millennials ‘martyred’ behaviour helps drive culture of presenteeism ⁰

by Sara Bean • Comment, Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

As the school holidays draw to a close, those Brits who’ve enjoyed their annual two-week holiday break will probably have squirreled away some days to take them through to the end of the year. Not so easy for the average US worker who earns on average just ten paid vacation days per annum, for each year of service. According to a survey carried out last year, many Americans even fail to take that allocated leave for fear of being seen as slacking. And now a new piece of research claims that far from breaking this tradition of presenteeism, US Millennial workers are the most likely generation to forfeit time off, even though they earn the least amount of vacation days. These findings, from Project: Time Off’s new report, The Work Martyr’s Cautionary Tale: How the Millennial Experience Will Define America’s Vacation Culture suggest that Millennials stay at work because they feel more fear and greater guilt about taking time away from the office than any other generation.