Search Results for: workplace

April 16, 2018

Artificial intelligence should have a clear ethical dimension, claims new government report

by Mark Eltringham • AI, News, Technology

While the UK is in a strong position to be a world leader in the development of artificial intelligence which would deliver a major boost to the economy, ethics should be at the heart of its development, according to a new report from the House of Lords. AI should never be given the “autonomous power to hurt, destroy or deceive” people, it adds. The Lords’ report called on the government to support businesses in the field. It also recommended that people be educated to work alongside AI in the jobs of the future. It said that such education would “mitigate the negative effects” on jobs which are possible as AI develops.

April 16, 2018

Local authorities spend £3.8bn on commercial property in last five years

by Mark Eltringham • News, Property, Public Sector

Local authorities have invested around £3.8 bn in commercial property over the last five years, a new study claims. The report (registration required) from property consultancy Carter Jonas and Revo claims that of the £3.8 bn invested, nearly half was spent on the acquisition of office space. It found that Spelthorne Borough Council in Surrey (pictured) was the largest local authority investor committing £477.1 m to assets within its domain. This is more than double its nearest rival Warrington Borough Council (£219.5 m) and is largely down to the purchase of BP’s International Centre for Business & Technology in Sunbury for £360 m.

April 13, 2018

Lack of effort by UK employers to retain staff is increasing talent turnover

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

UK employers are facing increasing levels of staff turnover with one in seven (14 percent), or roughly 4.5 million employees predicted to seek a new job in near future, according to research carried out by Robert Half UK. Employers have registered this shift with almost three in five (61 percent) reporting an increase in voluntary employee turnover in the last three years. The research also showed that over half (51 percent) expect employee turnover to increase in the next three years. Yet many businesses still fail to employ basic retention initiatives. Only half (47 percent) of organisations run training and development programmes to help build employees’ skills and support career development, while most don’t have any programmes in place to support employee wellbeing or reward performance. Organisations are also missing out on valuable insight from their departing employees, with more than four in five (83 percent) failing to undertake exit interviews.

April 12, 2018

Third of fathers lack access to flexible working arrangements, claims study

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News

Almost a third of working fathers in the UK lack access to flexible working arrangements, new research says. The British Sociological Association’s annual conference in Newcastle heard this week that 30 percent of employed fathers surveyed could not work part-time, have flexible employment hours or work in a job share. The rate for women without flexible working was lower –10 percent, the researchers, from the UCL Institute of Education, the University of East Anglia, and the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) found.

April 12, 2018

Brexit: CBI stresses importance of getting new rules right for UK construction

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Property, Public Sector

Brexit presents opportunities for rule changes in sectors such as agriculture, shipping and tourism that could ultimately benefit the British economy and consumers. This is according to a new CBI study, “Smooth Operations, compiled over a six-month period, which states that the opportunities for divergence are vastly outweighed by the costs of deviating from rules necessary to ensure smooth access to the EU market. Another important finding is that changes to rules in one sector have significant knock on effects for companies in other sectors and throughout supply chains. There are specific regulatory needs for the construction sector, according to the report, the first being regulatory convergence on rules for construction products and materials, vital to protect the competitiveness of manufacturers and avoid major barriers to trade. The CBI also argues that maintaining equivalence in procurement rules between the UK and EU is important, but there are still opportunities to improve how the UK procures work in the construction sector without diverging from EU rules.

April 12, 2018

Third of UK workers too stressed by their jobs to book holiday breaks

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

A quarter of UK workers are so worried about missing work that they have been prevented from booking a holiday, with more than half confessing that they are so burdened by upcoming holidays, or catching up returning from their break, that they are more stressed due to taking the time off than they would have been if they had never gone on holiday. The perception that holidays are a perfect way to unwind and return to normal life with your stresses and tensions eased has been challenged with the research by www.jetcost.co.uk which suggests that the majority of UK staff actually find taking time off work so stressful that they have wished they never went away in the first place. all respondents who stated that they sometimes or always regretted taking time off work were asked to provide more details. 39 percent stated that it was down to ‘colleagues not picking up on work properly’, while 28 percent confessed that they worried their colleagues had been ‘gossiping/negative in my absence’.

April 12, 2018

Poor company culture is costing the UK economy £23.6 billion per year

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

A new report claims that a third of people (34 percent) who leave their job, do so because of perceived poor company culture. The report, authored by breatheHR claims the associated cost of bad company culture is around £23.6 billion per year. The survey of 2,500 people analysed in The Culture Economy, also suggests that well over half of SME leaders (60 percent) consider company culture as a ‘nice to have’ in their business.This mindset has a number of knock-on effects. According to the Chartered Management Institute, effective leadership could improve Britain’s productivity by 23 percent. However, with over half (53 percent) of employees surveyed who distrust their senior management, thinking their bosses ‘didn’t appear to know what they were doing’, there is some work to be done.

April 11, 2018

Quarter of workers say job negatively affects their mental health and a third feel overworked

by Sara Bean • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

One in four workers (25 percent) feel their job negatively affects their mental health, while nearly a third (30 percent) say their workload is too high, according to a brand new report from the CIPD, the UK Working Lives survey. Although the survey found that two-thirds of workers (64 percent) were satisfied with their job overall, one in ten (11 percent) report regularly feeling miserable at work. More than a quarter (28 percent) of senior leaders say that they find it difficult to fulfil personal commitments because of their job, while over a quarter (27 percent) say that their job does not offer good opportunities to develop their skills, jumping to two in five (43 percent) among unskilled and casual workers. Focusing on the three main groups in the labour market, those at the lower levels are far less likely to have access to skills and training, those in middle management feeling significantly squeezed by their workload and those at the top find it difficult to maintain a work/life balance.

April 11, 2018

British workers are too tired to exercise, claims report

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing

British workers claim they are ‘too tired’ to exercise during the working week, according to a new report. The survey by conference call company Powwownow found that a worrying third of workers (35 percent) do not exercise at all Monday to Friday. A startling half of women (51 percent) only exercise once during the working week. Tiredness before and after work is apparently the top reason (58 percent) why UK workers don’t exercise during the working week, closely followed by the cost of joining a gym or going to classes (38 percent), and long working hours (28 percent). Flexible working hours was cited as the top factor that would encourage UK workers to go to the gym or exercise more frequently during the working week. Over a third (42 percent) of UK workers said they would exercise or go to the gym more often if they worked flexible hours. Other changes which would improve exercise levels include having a gym provided at work (30 percent) or one subsidised by an employer (29 percent). A huge three quarters (75 percent) of UK office workers do not currently have access to a gym or leisure facility at their place of work.

April 10, 2018

British employers are failing to prepare staff for automation

by Mark Eltringham • AI, News, Technology

UK employees aren’t being equipped with the skills required by an automated workplace, according to a new study from ADP. The findings suggest that despite a third (32 percent) of workers believing their job will be automated within 10 years and one in ten (10 percent) predicting it will happen in two, half of those affected (49 percent) say their employer isn’t preparing to train or reskill them for the new world of work. ADP surveyed 1,300 UK working adults across the country as part of The Workforce View in Europe 2018, which gives a snapshot of employees’ views about their jobs, workplace and career plans. The report claims that thousands of workers are worried about the prospect of mass automation and how this will impact their own career prospects if they aren’t prepared with the right skills.

April 9, 2018

Rising demand for Grade A office space helps sustain Edinburgh commercial property market

by Sara Bean • Cities, Coworking, Facilities management, News, Property, Public Sector

Technology, media, and telecommunications (TMT) companies are continuing to play a prominent role within Edinburgh’s office market, accounting for approximately 30 percent of transactions in the city. But rising demand for Grade A office space in Edinburgh by a variety of organisations, including coworking, private and public sector tenants has fuelled significant occupier demand during the first quarter of 2018, according to analysis by property consultancy, Knight Frank. The latest commercial property figures show approximately 460,000 sq. ft. of new occupier requirements came onto the market in the first three months of the year from companies looking to lease office space in Edinburgh. More →

April 6, 2018

Women are happier and more engaged at work than men, despite the gender pay gap

by Sara Bean • Legal news, News, Workplace

Following the deadline for organisations to publish their gender pay this week, it came as little surprise to find that almost eight in 10 organisations pay men more than women. The debate over the reasons why will continue, but new research now claims that women remain happier and more committed at work than men, despite this disparity. Employee benefits provider Personal Group’s Gender Happiness Gap research shows that contrary to, and perhaps in spite of the fact that the Gender Pay Gap tends to favour men, happiness at work tends to fall in favour of female staff, with men much less happy in the workplace than their female counterparts. Whilst 77 percent of PAYE female employees are happy at work at least some of the time, the figure is only 66 percent for men. This means that one in three men are rarely or never happy at work. The case is similar when looking at the total workforce: 45 percent of female staff stated that they’re happy most of the time at work, versus only 38 percent of male staff. Amongst women, the 30-49-year-old age group is the unhappiest age group, which may be due to juggling family life alongside working commitments.