Search Results for: workplace

December 23, 2017

The world converges on the new issue of Work & Place

by Mark Eltringham • News, Premium Content, Work&Place

We have published the new issue of Work & Place Journal and it’s our biggest and best yet. Sponsored by Steelcase, Liquidspace and The United Workplace, the new issue will shortly be published in its Spanish language version. Its overall readership is now nearly 100,000 so it’s not just bigger and better, it is even more influential. I would sum up its core theme as convergence. The essential idea behind this is the lack of any sort of meaningful distinction in a traditional sense between the physical, digital and cultural workplaces. These were once pretty clearly demarcated spheres of personal and organisational influence. Their overlap and integration define the greatest puzzles we face in the workplace in the early 21st Century. Some of these are addressed in the features included in this edition of Work & Place. They include Despina Katsikakis looking at what the idea of flexibility means, Neil Usher gets back to basics with his take on the elemental workplace, Beatriz Arantes tears down the barriers to creativity, Christine Kohlert and Scott Cooper offer their take on creative work, Rob Leslie-Carter offers a considered perspective on the current status of artificial intelligence and automation and Aki Stamatis considers the right to disconnect that is now becoming a global problem with local solutions More →

December 22, 2017

Most US employees will work and stay in touch with colleagues during the holiday season

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Technology, Wellbeing

Over Christmas and New Year, 43 percent of US workers say they plan to take a holiday, and of that group, roughly half — or 21 percent of all workers — will completely disconnect from work. Meanwhile, 22 percent of workers will be taking a holiday but checking in with work via email or other means. These findings, from a poll of over 500 people from earlier this month claims that the majority of workers will be connected to their jobs over the holidays — either because they are not taking a vacation at all or because they will check in during their vacation days. US workers are more likely to say they plan to take holiday than they were when Gallup last asked the question, at the beginning of the millennium. The 43 percent of US employees who plan to take a break this holiday season is up from about a third of workers (34 percent) in 2000.

December 22, 2017

Five employment law milestones from the past year we need to remember in 2018

by Lucy Gordon • Comment, Workplace

The past twelve months have been an eventful period for employment law; from the uncertainty surrounding Brexit and the rights of EU Nationals working in the UK, to the mounting attention on employee data protection as the GDPR edges ever closer. Issues of Employment Tribunal fees, holiday pay and the gig economy have similarly captivated headlines, and these significant milestones from the past 12 months are set to have a big impact on the challenges facing the sector into 2018. More →

December 21, 2017

Commercial property is undergoing tech disruption, but not as some believe

by Polly Plunket-Checkemian • Comment, Facilities management, Property, Technology

According to a recent report, executives in the commercial property sector have significant reservations about emerging disruptive technologies such as Big Data and predictive analytics, augmented and virtual reality, Blockchain and driverless vehicles, but see huge potential for process automation. Disruption is a strong word. It conjures up apocalyptic images and radical interventions leaving unrecognisable outcomes in its wake. Big terms like artificial intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT) and big data bring equally big expectations. For those of us at ground level, it’s hard to see the cumulative impacts of the many changes taking place around us. It’s also hard not to share the same view expressed above. Future-gazing is nice to a point, but board level conversations like to take signposts from what is actually happening around them as well, and the commercial property sector is no exception. This sector is undergoing profound disruption but not necessarily from Silicon Valley’s headline grabbers.

December 20, 2017

CIPD predicts tighter labour market and continued poor productivity next year

by Sara Bean • Legal news, News, Workplace

There is little evidence that the pay squeeze will end soon, with only falling inflation likely to lead to meaningful wage increases next year. This is according to a CIPD analysis, which predicts that 2018 will see pay, productivity and migration top the agenda as the UK looks ahead to its exit from the European Union. It adds that the UK workforce could tighten, and with increased constraints on labour supply, 2018 could be the year that the UK finally runs out of people to fill jobs, despite unemployment levels being unlikely to see much change. There are also indications there will be no improvement in productivity, with continued stagnation in UK productivity, which will remain well below pre-crash levels. In the CIPD’s annual labour market predictions, Ian Brinkley, Acting Chief Economist, anticipates a flattening of employment growth and weak pay growth as the UK continues to struggle with its productivity problem.

December 20, 2017

Companies must reveal gender pay gaps or face unlimited fines

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

Businesses failing to comply with gender pay gap reporting regulations could face unlimited fines and convictions, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has warned as it published its enforcement strategy. As the regulatory body responsible for ensuring that all employers with over 250 employees report their gender pay gap statistics, the Commission has set out its enforcement policy for consultation. Although it will take steps to encourage compliance and engage informally with employers who are in breach of the regulations as a first port of call, it will ultimately enforce against all employers who do not publish their gender pay gap information. The Commission’s policy – which is open for consultation from today until 2 February 2018 – explains how the Commission will use a range of its powers.

December 19, 2017

City of London on track for record levels of office investment

by Neil Franklin • Cities, News, Property

The City of London is defying the doomsday Brexit scenario and on track to reach record levels of office investment in 2017, as Savills anticipates total turnover will hit £12.5 billion – subject to a number of deals currently under offer exchanging or completing before 31st December. This sees total transactions in 2017 doubling the 10-year average (£6.259 billion), in line with the all-time record volume seen in 2014 (£12.6 billion). The real estate advisor suggests the West End market will see £7.155 billion transacted in 2017 bringing total turnover in central London for the year £19.6 billion. Savills says that the weakness of sterling since the EU referendum has boosted the city’s attractions to overseas capital. This has happened in tandem with a return of UK buyers to the London market. Figures from the firm show office take-up in the City and West End are both above the long-term average while more than a third of the city’s developments are pre-let.

December 19, 2017

We need to have an honest conversation about presenteeism

by Steve Brewer • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace design

We have talked before about the risks of over thinking problems. It is not just something that consultants, designers and the workplace intelligentsia are guilty of – everyone does it. It is why we do not switch off when we are ill and still insist on going to work. We over think the consequences of not being in our workplace. Likewise, many traditional line managers simply cannot get their head around their teams working from home. After all, modern management mantras all talk about creating a great atmosphere in which teams all work together – in the same space at the same time? We all tend to over complicate most things and that is one of the main reasons in the UK we struggle with the concept of working from home. A consequence of this is the rise in presenteeism, which is mainly linked to illness, people ignoring how bad they feel and because of a perceived pressure, still turning up for work.

December 19, 2017

New research claims people are more comfortable discussing sex than mental health at work

by Mark Eltringham • News, Wellbeing

A new study from mental health campaigners Time to Change claims that British workers would rather talk to their colleagues about relationship issues, money problems and sex than broach the topic of mental health. The survey of 2,000 people suggests mental health remains one of the last taboos in the workplace, showing that, despite progress, there is still a lot more work to do in 2018 to combat the stigma. One in four of us will experience a mental health problem in any given year and yet Time to Change says these figures show that when it comes to employment the vast majority of people still feel unable to speak openly about their mental health with their line managers and even their close colleagues.

December 19, 2017

Employers want to grow workforce next year, but concerned about Brexit impact

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

Just over half (51 percent) of firms across the UK will grow their workforce in the year ahead, with confidence highest amongst small and mid-sized firms (58 percent) according to the latest CBI/Pertemps Network Group Employment Trends Survey. But the survey warns that delivering further jobs growth depends on businesses being confident they can remain competitive if they choose to base staff in the UK. Nearly two thirds (63 percent) currently believe that changes in the UK labour market will contribute to Britain becoming a less attractive place to invest and do business over the next five years – up from 50 percent last year and 25 percent in 2015. Skills gaps were the single most prominent worry facing firms, with nearly four in five (79 percent) respondents highlighting this as a worry – up from 64 percent in 2016. Access to overseas workers is a big contributor to this, with nearly half of respondents (49 percent) identifying uncertain access to labour supply – up from 35 percent in 2016 as a concern.

December 18, 2017

Productivity plummets as majority of staff now concentrate on Christmas

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Workplace

Productivity plummets from today as over half of staff prepare for Christmas Over half of the workforce (57 percent) of employees admit to officially downing tools today (Monday 18 December) as the festive period gets well and truly underway, claims new research by Peakon. The HR analytics firm’s survey of more than 2,000 people reveals that, as Christmas creeps ever closer, employees admit to a whole raft of distractions from their everyday work duties. Two in five people (42 percent) confess to clocking off to Christmas shop online, a third (35 percent) say they’re planning Christmas day and almost one in three (30 percent) are planning their Christmas break instead. One in six (16 percent) confess to indulging in the odd Christmas tipple on the job – with men twice as likely to take advantage of a festive drink than women (22 percent and 11 percent respectively). 17 percent of those surveyed leave work earlier than usual, and one in 10 (12 percent) take longer lunches. A small percentage (4 percent) confess to calling in sick. But offering staff more flexible hours for shopping and Christmas prep would help maintain performance.

December 14, 2017

How designers copy nature to create new and extraordinary forms

by Charles Marks • Comment, Workplace design

Humans have a long track record of turning to Nature for inspiration. When Leonardo da Vinci turned his mind to the challenge of acquiring the power of flight for mankind, his sketches show he believed the solution lay in mimicking the form and function of bat wings. We’ve learned a lot about aerodynamics since the fifteenth Century but nature continues to provide a blueprint for the way we design materials and structures. Researchers at the University of Alabama have recently won a grant from the US National Science Foundation to explore how the scales on the wings of butterflies (pictured) help the creatures to fly in the hope that it will help engineers design better and more efficient aircraft.