Search Results for: learning

November 1, 2018

Cultivating a culture of personal development can supercharge performance

by Neil Franklin • Company news, Workplace

We all want success. You started a business because you had a dream. Maybe you wanted to change the world. Maybe you wanted to fulfil a childhood ambition. Or maybe you just want to make parents proud. Whatever that reason may be, you started a venture that was, yes, risky and scary at times. But a safe journey wasn’t an option anyway, we know. To achieve the fulfilment of the dream though, you need a team with you. You need to surround yourself with the best people in the field. You need people who know more than you, are better than you. Because in today’s world, competition is fiercer. You are not anymore competing against locals. The game has become global. It has, therefore, become necessary to never stop innovating.

October 31, 2018

Lack of skills investment means businesses miss out on benefits of automation

by Neil Franklin • AI, News, Workplace

A new report from the Capgemini Research Institute claims that, in the majority of companies (58 percent), automation is not yet meeting executives’ desired goals of increased productivity. The study, Upskilling your workforce for the age of the machine: Why a workforce upskilling strategy is key to unleashing automation’s productivity potential reveals that while automation does increase productivity to an extent, the key to reaching its full potential is by appropriate upskilling of the workforce.

October 31, 2018

Conversations may be more productive when held in the great outdoors

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing

Conversations are more responsive in natural environments such as parks and gardens than indoors, finds new research by the University of Manchester and Cardiff University. The researchers recorded conversations between three- and four-year-old children and their parents while they explored a city park and the park’s indoor education centre and found that the conversations in the park were more responsive and connected compared to those recorded indoors. The study ‘Responding to nature: Natural environments improve parent-child communication’ is published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology.

October 26, 2018

We need to move on from the stigma of mental health to finding solutions

by Gary Helm • Comment, Wellbeing

Just as in physical health, everybody has a level of mental health. And while companies have begun to offer corporate gym membership discounts, bowls of fruit around the office, monthly massage and investment in huge amounts of ergonomically supportive furniture to try to assist their colleagues in maintaining a good level of physical health, few seem to be getting to grips with their colleagues’ mental wellbeing, despite the reality that they are dealing with huge numbers of employees who struggle.

October 19, 2018

Smart spaces and the other top technology trends for 2019

by Mark Eltringham • News, Technology, Workplace design

Technology researcher Gartner has highlighted the top strategic technology trends it believes organisations should be aware of in 2019. Gartner defines a strategic technology trend as one with ‘substantial disruptive potential that is beginning to break out of an emerging state into broader impact and use, or which are rapidly growing trends with a high degree of volatility reaching tipping points over the next five years’. One of the interesting points to note is the inclusion of the physical workplace yet again, as we highlighted in our recent feature on the trends shaping office design.

October 12, 2018

Some regions are better prepared for the rise of automation than others

by Neil Franklin • Cities, News, Technology

Concerted action is needed from national and local politicians, businesses and education providers to improve educational opportunities in all cities, from early years to schools and adult learning. This is according to a major report from the think tank Centre for Cities. It examines how automation and globalisation are transforming the skills needed to thrive in the workplace, and the extent to which people in English cities are gaining these skills. The report claimsthat interpersonal and analytical skills – such as negotiation and critical thinking – are increasingly important for current and future workers, as manual and physical jobs are particularly under threat from automation and globalisation.

October 10, 2018

The Genesis of ideation and the places we go to have our best ideas ⁰

by Giuseppe Boscherini • Facilities management, Features, Technology, Work&Place, Workplace design

Because collaboration, creativity and innovation are increasingly perceived as key objectives and differentiators of performance, the genesis and mechanisms behind ideation and creativity are an an integral part of both business and personal development. As a consequence, there is growing interest in the way the physical attributes of work settings may influence or even trigger creative behaviour. The cliché of the shower as one of these favourite places comes to mind and yet experience does show that the idea of seeking a setting, a “zone” if you will, for a specific purpose is intuitively right. This needn’t be a retreat or cocoon, as is often assumed, but can also be a crowded, busy, noisy place, which might explain why so often the most animated work conversations move out of the office shop into the coffee shop. Equally, highlight events or special meetings tend to be held in a “venue’, often dressed for the occasion.

October 8, 2018

Refurbished industrial buildings provide perfect modern workplaces

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, News, Property, Workplace design

Refurbished industrial sheds provide the perfect space for the creation of modern workplaces, according to a study by Hawkins\Brown and JLL. In what the authors claim is the first comparative study of its kind, Industrial Rehab: A new space of opportunity takes a look at the global trend for companies in the knowledge economy to seek out large-span buildings because they support creative working, are able to accommodate rapid growth and deliver high quality, good value accommodation.

October 5, 2018

Microsoft unveils new Surface devices, headphones, and software updates

by Neil Franklin • Company news, Technology

Microsoft expanded its Surface family of devices with Surface Headphones, Surface Laptop 2, Surface Studio 2 and Surface Pro 6, designed to offer more performance and productivity enabling people to achieve more. The devices seamlessly fade into the background, empowering people to work without interruptions to their creative flow, whenever and wherever inspirations strikes.

October 3, 2018

Nearly half of UK workers do not have skills that match their job, says CIPD

by Sara Bean • News, Workplace

Almost half (49 percent) of UK workers are in jobs they are either under- or over-skilled for, according to new research from the CIPD. Its report ‘Over-skilled and underused: Investigating the untapped potential of UK skills’ surveyed 3,700 UK employees and found that more than a third (37 percent) of workers have the skills to cope with more demanding duties than they currently have. At the opposite end of the scale, one in ten (12 percent) employees said they lacked all the skills needed to carry out their job effectively. This means that as many as half (49 percent) of UK workers could be in the wrong job, based on their skill level. The UK has one of most skilled workforces in the world, with 42 percent of workers qualified to degree level, yet it also has the highest proportion of jobs within the OECD which require no qualifications at all.

October 1, 2018

National Work Life Week research reinforces appeal of flexible hours

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

National Work Life Week (1st – 5th October 2018) starts today with the aim of encouraging companies to think about their employees’ wellbeing and happiness. To mark the week new research asked British workers about the things they most want from their work. The YouGov surveyof 2,000 adults, commissioned by the Oxford Open Learning Trust, found that while money is predictably the biggest motivator behind career choice (64 percent), over half of the respondents cited working hours and flexible working as an important factor (55 percent). More →

September 27, 2018

We need to take a scientific approach to the potential impact of AI

by Eleni Vasilaki • Comment, Technology

Should we be afraid of artificial intelligence? For me, this is a simple question with an even simpler, two letter answer: no. But not everyone agrees – many people, including the late physicist Stephen Hawking, have raised concerns that the rise of powerful AI systems could spell the end for humanity. Clearly, your view on whether AI will take over the world will depend on whether you think it can develop intelligent behaviour surpassing that of humans – something referred to as “super intelligence”.