Search Results for: diversity

April 12, 2016

Friendly workplaces are less innovative, claims new report ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Knowledge, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Work friendships can contribute to a lack of creative diversity in the office, according to new research from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University.‘Relational capital and individual exploration: Unravelling the influence of goal alignment and knowledge acquisition’, a paper that examines the double-edged sword of friendships between colleagues, has revealed that friendly workplaces discourage employees from challenging ‘group think’. The researchers examined 150 respondents within large R&D departments of three Fortune Global 500 firms, gauging whether their accounts of personal friendships affected individual creativity, in information obtained from their colleagues. Tom Mom, along with co-authors Pepijn van Neerijnen, Patrick Reinmoeller and Ernst Verwaal, demonstrate that by aligning themselves, employees become less likely to innovate away from the established and accepted ‘norm’.

April 12, 2016

Women who feel valued at work will help close the gender pay gap ⁰

by Mark Bull • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing, Workplace

There has been much debate around the gender pay gap but aside from any instances of obvious gender discrimination is the controversial fact that women appear to be more afraid of asking for a pay rise than men. According to a recent survey by Randstad 72 per cent of women are afraid even to ask for a raise for fear of jeopardising their existing position. This clearly shows there is work still to be done to encourage women to ‘lean in’. When people start questioning the value they bring to a company they are less likely to put themselves in the spotlight, or under scrutiny, by asking for a raise or a promotion, and the key to increasing confidence is by getting genuine feedback on work performance. If you know that your work is getting recognised by colleagues and you are being praised for it, then you are more likely to understand the value of the work you are doing, regardless of what industry you are in.

April 5, 2016

Rise in number of virtual employers with remote teams of workers ⁰

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

When, where, and how people work has changed dramatically over the last ten years – telecommuting has grown 103 percent over in the US and an estimated that 50 percent of people will work remotely by 2020. While many companies have begun to integrate remote work, there is a growing trend for firms to fully embrace remote work as an integral part of their business. Virtual companies that operate with fully or heavily distributed workforces now come from many industries, including accounting, health, law, marketing, non-profit, news/media, sports, travel and others. However the best sectors to find a remote post are in Computer/IT, HR/Recruiting and Education; according to the third annual list of virtual companies compiled by FlexJobs. The diversity of companies represented in this year’s list, demonstrate that the remote work model can be applied regardless of company size and/or industry.

March 15, 2016

Décor matters but location most important factor for the ideal office ⁰

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

Recent data has shown that increasingly, it’s people, not cost, which is the primary driver behind real estate decisions. British Land has carried out research into what features would make up the UK workers’ ideal office and the results point to a clear link between delivering these ideal features and talent recruitment and retention. The good news is that the workers surveyed believe they would be 36 percent more productive at work if they were working in the ideal office, and, 86 percent say they’d stay longer with an employer that had the ideal office location and features. The other side of the coin is that 80 percent believe that companies that don’t offer their employees a convenient location and attractive features are more likely to lose them. Younger workers in particular are markedly more likely to move jobs to find a working environment that suits them, and this includes offering a workplace with a ‘buzz’.

March 11, 2016

CIPD reveals limited action by employers to address gender inequality ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, Legal news, News, Workplace

According to a new survey by the CIPD to mark the close of the Government’s consultation on gender pay reporting regulations today, a minority of organisations currently conduct any gender pay analysis, and limited action is being taken by employers to address the causes of gender inequality. The survey of over 1,000 employers found just 28 percent of employers overall and 34 percent at larger organisations (those with 250 or more employees) say their organisation conducts any analysis of the pay of men and women. Among organisations that don’t currently analyse gender pay differentials, only 7 percent of large organisations plan to conduct any analysis of the pay of men and women in the next 12 months, with 47 percent saying they won’t and 46 percent responding that they don’t know. Employers are taking steps to equal opportunities however, such as improving flexible working opportunities available to staff.

March 9, 2016

The nine workplace trends every organisation must learn to address ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, News, Wellbeing, Workplace, Workplace design

The latest company to set out its vision of workplace trends is food services provider Sodexo. The company’s 2016 Workplace Trends Report suggests there are nine key areas that managers should address, each linked by the common theme of striking the right balance between the organisation’s commercial objectives and the needs of its stakeholders. The report is a detailed meta-analysis based on primary research, client feedback and research from academics, trade associations and FM providers. The report covers the most talked about themes in workplace design and management including wellness, work-life balance, diversity, green building and workforce engagement. The authors acknowledge the challenge firms face in striking the balance between these complex and conflicting demands and call for an ‘holistic’ approach to resolve them (which may suggest they have as much of an idea about the right answers as anybody else).

March 8, 2016

Eight in ten women believe gender discrimination still prevalent at work ⁰

by Sara Bean • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace

Today is International Women’s Day, which marks the official day of the year when gender equality across the world comes under the spotlight. In the UK, a poll by Investors in People found that 8 in 10 of women (83 percent) in full time employment believe gender discrimination is still present in the workplace. According to the poll of 2000 employees almost half of women (45 percent) think they have personally experienced discrimination in the workplace because of their gender. And what is depressingly unsurprisingly to many women is that when the poll explored employee perceptions of gender discrimination versus the reality, 30 percent of men believe there is no difference between men and women’s pay, when according to the facts, women are earning on average 19 percent less than men an hour (UKCES, 2015). More encouragingly though, 41 percent of employees believe their workplace has a culture of encouraging gender equality, a statistic that has room for growth.

March 8, 2016

Gen X most interested in just doing a good job than other generations ⁰

by Sara Bean • News, Workplace, Workplace design

We reported the other week that the hardest working generation in the UK is Generation X (born 1965-1980). It seems this applies all around the world, as a global survey by Korn Ferry Futurestep shows that this generation cares most about making an impact on the business and are the most engaged demographic. When asked which generation is the most engaged in the workforce, more than half of respondents of any generation (52 percent) said Generation X. Baby Boomers and Millennials were tied at just under 25 percent. The heads down, get-the-job-done attitudes and priorities of Gen X employees means they care more about the job than the environment and culture of the organisation than other age groups. Well over a third (39 percent) of respondents said that the “ability to make a difference in their organization” is most important to Gen Xers in the workplace. That’s nearly double the percentage that cite “job stability” or “development opportunities.”

February 11, 2016

New chair of Women on Boards to review FTSE 350 representation ⁰

by Sara Bean • Legal news, News, Public Sector, Workplace

The government has appointed a new chair to carry on the work of Lord Davies’s Women on Boards Review which was set up in February 2011 to determine the obstacles preventing more women from reaching senior executive positions. The Chair of GlaxoSmithKline, and former Chair of RBS and Sainsbury’s, Sir Philip Hampton, has been appointed to lead the review of representation at FTSE 350 companies. Dame Helen Alexander, Chair of UBM, will take on the role of Deputy Chair to the review. The new review will continue on from Davies’s voluntary business led initiative, which saw female representation on boards in the FTSE 100 rise from 12.5 percent to beyond the target of 25 percent. The next phase of the review will focus on one of the key recommendations from Lord Davies’s report, building a pipeline for female executives and emerging non-executive directors to improve representation at the executive layer of companies.

January 19, 2016

Skilled migrants attracted to regional and city work hubs, not countries ⁰

by Sara Bean • Cities, News, Property, Workplace

Highly-skilled migrants are increasingly attracted to cities and regions rather than countries, the latest Global Talent Competitiveness Index has revealed. Silicon Valley, Dublin, Helsinki-Espoo, Dubai [pictured] and London are the real hubs, rather than the United States, Ireland, Finland, the United Arab Emirates or the United Kingdom. The index, produced by Adecco Group, INSEAD and the Human Capital Leadership Institute, ranks the factors driving the international movement of skilled migrants of 109 countries, covering 87 percent of the global population and 97 percent of global GDP. Switzerland is in top place, followed by Singapore and Luxembourg in second and third place. At seventh place, the UK is ahead of Germany and France, but behind top performers such as the United States and Canada. It also trails behind in terms of gender diversity; ranking 56th for female graduates and 71st for the gender earnings gap.

December 15, 2015

Seven essential workplace design trends to keep an eye on during 2016 ⁰

by Dan Callegari • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace design

What has become increasingly apparent over recent years is that the office isn’t just a place to work, but also a driver of competitive advantage. We’ve always known this to a greater or lesser extent, but the dynamic and ever shifting nature of the modern world is presenting organisations with new and evolving challenges that they must address with all of the tools at their disposal. At the heart of this complexity is the physical workspace. Its design touches on every aspect of the changing workplace and the objectives organisations set for themselves and their employees. Although it has lots its primacy as the main place of work, you could also argue that the focus on the office’s key strengths makes it more important than ever within the context of overall working cultures. So, with that in mind, here are ten of the most important current trends in workplace design and management we foresee for 2016.

December 15, 2015

Focus on women on boards masks other determinants of female leadership ⁰

by Sara Bean • Comment, Legal news, News, Workplace

High profile initiatives such as Lord Davies’ report are doing their bit to increase gender composition, but according to the latest research, based on current “business as usual” trends, women are unlikely to comprise 30 percent of directorships in publicly held companies until 2027. This is despite the fact that the latest research of companies in the MSCI World Index with strong female leadership generated a Return on Equity of 10.1 percent per year versus 7.4 percent for those without. Although a direct causal link between women directors and better outcomes has yet to be established, many institutional investors are increasingly focused on the gender composition of company boards. Some studies show significant outperformance by companies with women on boards, though no one can show a direct link between the two. Focusing exclusively on the make-up of boards however, can mask other important dimensions of female leadership.