Search Results for: income

February 5, 2016

What the commercial property market tells us about trends in office design ⁰

by Paul Goodchild • Comment, Property, Workplace design

It’s become commonplace in recent years for certain people to foresee the death of the office. The problem with this argument is that, in spite of its drawbacks, office life maintains an attraction for both employers and employees and there will always be an upper limit on how long people want to spend away from other people. Things are changing but the death of the office is a myth. As we’ve known for at least a quarter of a century, there is no absolute need for us to go to work at all. Theoretically we could just do away with offices completely if we wanted to. But as we have seen, the fact we have evolved technology to the point where we could forget about bricks and mortar, doesn’t necessarily mean we will. Not only are there practical reasons for offices to continue to exist, there are emotive ones too. If you want evidence of this, look no further than the records currently being set by the UK’s commercial property markets.

January 26, 2016

2015 was a record year for commercial property investment ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Property

At £64.3bn, investment in UK commercial property reached a new annual record last year, 4 percent above 2014, according to new research published by Lambert Smith Hampton. This performance was bolstered by a strong end to the year, with investment between October and December reaching £15.7bn, 23 percent higher than in the previous quarter. Investment in London reached £26.9bn, 4 percent higher than in the previous year. According to the report asset management will be vitally important in 2016, as rental income will be the main driver of performance, and as such, pro-active asset management initiatives, such as investment in office refurbishments in areas with few vacancies, are likely to offer the best prospects for investors. Explained Ezra Nahome, CEO of Lambert Smith Hampton: “This means that knowing your market, almost at a building-by-building level, and understanding the dynamics of each locality, will be more important than ever.”

January 25, 2016

Families struggle for work life balance despite changing gender roles ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, Wellbeing, Workplace

A new report published today by the charity Working Families and nursery provider Bright Horizons suggests that parents are at greater risk of burn out as they strive for work life balance, with fathers at increasing risk as a result of their changing roles and expectations. The Modern Families Index is an annual study that explores how working families manage their work-life balance. This year’s report claims that nearly half (42 percent) of Generation Y fathers (born after 1980) feel burnt out most or all of the time, compared to just 22 percent of Gen Xers aged 36 to 45 and 17 percent of baby boomers aged over 45. The report claims that a growing number of fathers are now facing the same challenges and life choices most commonly ascribed to mothers. The study found that in half (49 percent) of the 1,000 couples surveyed, both parents were working full time. The figure rose to 78 percent for those in their twenties or thirties.

January 15, 2016

Three quarters of Millennials will change jobs over the next five years ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Workplace

It must be the time of year but we are suddenly awash with surveys and reports suggesting that pretty much everybody in the UK is about to change their jobs. Following our report earlier in the week that suggests older workers are perfectly prepared to just give up on work completely, it was inevitable that we were about to hear something from those pesky Millennials. Sure enough, along comes a report from Deloitte that suggests that nearly three quarters of Millennials plans to leave their jobs over the next five years. Millennials and their employers: Can this relationship be saved? found that the UK has a higher than average percentage of Millennials planning to change jobs in the next five years, with the average in developed economies standing at 61 percent. Worldwide, forty-four percent of Millennials say, if given the choice, they expect to leave their current employers in the next two years.

January 13, 2016

Growth in freelance economy, as people seek better work-life balance ⁰

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

Nearly one in four employees freelance in some capacity, a recent study of office workers in the US claims. Overall, twelve percent of US employees work as freelancers as their primary source of income, and the same percentage freelance in addition to their primary job. The Staples Advantage Workplace Index reveals that employees freelance for a variety of reasons, including the flexibility to make their own hours (37 percent), make more money (39 percent), and achieve a work-life balance (32 percent). Businesses also benefit from this arrangement by getting access to highly skilled workers needed for special projects. Freelance workers need temporary access to IT services and equipment, designated work spaces, open communication with co-workers, and the right supplies to help deliver projects. As a result, finds the report, smart, collaborative technology is becoming more ‘mainstream’, in helping establish efficient team structures and collaboration models.

January 5, 2016

UK commuters spend far more on rail fares than other European workers ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Workplace

At 1.1 percent the New Year rail fare increases are the lowest since 2010, but UK rail commuters still spend up to six times as much of their salaries on rail fares as European passengers, new analysis has revealed. Action for Rail, a campaign by rail unions and the TUC, has compared average earnings with monthly season tickets on similar commuter routes across Europe. The analysis looked at a UK worker on an average salary who is now spending 13 percent of their monthly wages on a £357.90 monthly season ticket from Chelmsford to London. By contrast, the average amount of salary going on a monthly season ticket for a similar journey is just 2 percent in Italy, 3 percent in Spain and 4 percent in Germany. Even in France, which is the closest to the UK for cost, commuters still spend nearly a third (30 percent) less on season tickets than their counterparts in the UK.

December 16, 2015

OECD report calls on governments to do more to close the productivity gap ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • News, Technology, Workplace design

The world that we see emerging is increasingly defined by a series of gaps. One of the growing distinctions between haves and have-nots in the global economy is identified in a new report from the OECD, which suggests that there is a technological and closely related productivity gap between the world’s most productive businesses and economies and everybody else. The authors of the study claim that workplace productivity is now both the key driver of economic growth and also the best way of addressing the most important challenges facing businesses and economies in the 21st Century including the environment, income disparities and changing demographics. They suggest that the productivity gap needs to be closed up with a range of policies that incentivise both firms and economies to better use the technology they have available, invest more in R&D, adopt new business models and innovate more effectively.

December 11, 2015

Global salaries will rise to highest levels for three years in 2016 ⁰

by Sara Bean • Knowledge, News, Workplace

Workers around the world will see real wage increases of 2.5 percent, the highest in three years in 2016, as pay increases combined with historically low inflation leave employees better off. The forecast issued by Korn Ferry Hay Group found that workers across Europe are set to see an average salary increase of 2.8 percent in 2016 and, with inflation at 0.5 percent, will see real wages rise by 2.3 percent. While salary rises will stay at 2.5 percent in the UK (the same as the last two years), low inflation means that real wages are to increase by 2.3 percent in 2016 – above the Western European average. In Asia, salaries are forecast to increase by 6.4 percent – with real wages expected to rise by 4.2 percent – the highest globally. In the United States, with low inflation (0.3 percent), employees will experience real income growth of 2.7 percent.

December 8, 2015

Two thirds of UK staff will work or check emails over Christmas ⁰

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

A common complaint over the Christmas period is that the vast majority of the population is off from Christmas Eve to after New Year’s Day. In fact a new survey shows that almost two thirds (66 percent) of people in the UK will be working during the festive period, almost 1 in 3 (31 percent) will be working on Christmas Day and 63 percent will check their emails over the period. Although 40 percent of those polled in the survey, which was carried out by retailer Cotton traders, do not have a choice about working over Christmas; of those that do, 46 percent are doing so to earn extra income to fund their Christmas and in the spirit of the season, 39 percent swapped shifts to allow colleagues with a young family to have the day off. Meanwhile, with a clear indication that the Christmas season has begun, advice has been issued by the TUC to staff and employers on how to avoid an embarrassing Christmas party.

November 18, 2015

Women earn less than men because they make different choices, report confirms ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, News, Workplace

In spite of its own attempts to link it to the gender pay gap a new report, Opportunities and outcomes in education and work: Gender effects, released yesterday by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES), merely confirms that the key factors that determine how much people earn are the jobs they do and the hours they work. The report shows that male workers are paid on average 19 percent more than female workers. However, a report this year from the ONS confirmed that women now earn slightly more than men in like for like jobs up to the age of 35 and the UKCES report shows that it is career and personal choices that explain the gap in incomes across the whole economy. This confirms that the keys to closing the overall pay gap are for women to enter higher paying fields such as STEM and construction as well as employers offering flexible working arrangements and greater support for parents in their careers.

November 18, 2015

One in three high-earning and influential part time workers are men ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Workplace

Three in four workers in Britain do not believe it is possible to have a successful part time career, yet new statistics by flexibility experts Timewise shows that there are now an estimated 680,000 workers who are working formally part time in the higher income bracket (earning a minimum of £40,000 full time equivalent). And of these, 230,000 are men and 450,000 are women. The figures were unveiled as part of the publication of the fourth Power Part Time List – in association with Management Today, which lists the UK’s top 50 men and women who work in senior, business-critical roles, all on less than full time hours. This includes a record number of men – 11 out of 50, including the highest number of male nominees since the list’s launch in 2012; including part-timers from businesses such as – Dixons Carphone plc, leading advertising agency AMV BBDO, famed architecture practice EPR Architects, the Bank of England and EY.

November 16, 2015

People and businesses remain unprepared for next wave of technology ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • News, Technology, Workplace

The attitudes of businesses, public sector employers and people to the next wave of technological change remains a tangled and sometimes conflicting mishmash of fear, uncertainty and indifference according to three new reports. According to a new study published by Vodafone and YouGov, while businesses are aware of their need to keep pace with technological developments, around half doubt they will be able to keep up over the next five years. Meanwhile, a study from marketing technology firm Rocket Fuel claims that British people are broadly aware what is meant by artificial intelligence and many feel it will have a positive impact on their lives, especially millennials. However, another study from jobsite Indeed claims that a fifth of young people are unaware of the idea of automation and its potential impact on the jobs market and around half don’t even consider it when making their career choices.