Search Results for: workplace

Remote workers perceived as less valued by management than office based staff

Remote workers perceived as less valued to workplace by office based staffAmerican office workers think it’s twice as difficult for remote workers to build relationships with the boss, make work friends, collaborate with their team and navigate the workplace culture than in-office workers, according to recent research. The “Reality of the Remote Worker Report,” claims that remote workers tend to have their presence go by unnoticed, with 43 percent of office workers believing it’s harder for remote workers to be seen in the workplace than those non-remote. The report, conducted online amongst over 1,500 US workers by YouGov for CyberLink, found a number of disadvantages for remote workers; with nearly 1 in 6 (15 percent) of office colleagues thinking that remote workers are less valued by a company, 20 percent believing they’re promoted less often and 8 percent even viewing them as less trustworthy. And office workers who were asked about their own concerns about working remotely expressed a range of potential frustrations.

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Quarter of women on maternity leave offered less training opportunities than colleagues

Quarter of women on maternity leave not offered same training opportunities as colleagues

One fifth of women (20 percent) feel overlooked by their employer during maternity leave and though three quarters (75 percent) see training as a key way to prepare for their return to work, nearly a quarter (24 percent) are not offered the same training opportunities as their colleagues. According to the new research from AVADO almost a third of women (32 percent) who’ve been on maternity leave in the past three years say they’d have felt more prepared to return to the workforce if they’d had the option to do some training; one in three (29 percent) would have felt better connected with their team members and for a fifth (24 percent), training would have allowed them to stay up-to-date with the latest developments in their industry. During maternity leave, an employee and employer can agree to have up to ten Keeping in Touch (KIT) days, which may include training, but the research found that just one in ten (16 percent) were given the option to use these for training. This is despite the fact that 72 percent of women see it as one of the key ways to help them successfully head back to work after having a family.

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Leeds latest city to announce major new Government Hub

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More nations trial universal basic income as report suggests it could provide a major economic boost

More nations trial universal basic income as report suggests it could provide a major economic boost

The much talked about idea of a Universal Basic Income in developed economies is now attracting greater political momentum, at the same time that a major new research project from an American think tank sets out the potential economic benefits. Yesterday, Scotland’s First minister Nicola Sturgeon called for research into the plausibility of a “citizens’ basic income” in a speech to the Scottish Parliament. Her appeal follows an announcement on the same day that Hawaii is to become the first US state to formally explore the idea. A trial is already under way in Finland, although a recent report in the New York Times suggests it is deeply flawed.

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ECHR rules that companies must tell employees of email checks

Companies must tell employees in advance if their work email accounts are being monitored without unduly infringing their privacy, the European Court of Human Rights said in a ruling that defining the scope of corporate email monitoring. In a judgement in the case of a man fired 10 years ago for using a work messaging account to communicate with his family, the judges found that Romanian courts failed to protect the man’s private correspondence on the account because his employer had not given him prior notice it was monitoring his communications.

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Robots and climate change head list of concerns of young people worldwide

Robots and climate change head list of concerns of young people worldwide

The World Economic Forum has published the third edition of  what it claims is the world’s most geographically diverse survey of millennials, the Global Shapers Annual Survey 2017. Over 31,000 people aged between 18 and 35 responded to the survey, giving insights into their views on society, business, politics, the economy and technology as well as their workplace and career aspirations. The survey, which is available in 14 languages, surveyed young people from 186 countries and territories. According to the survey they are optimistic that technology will create more jobs than it destroys, although only a quarter would trust a robot to make decisions on their behalf.

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Third of firms concerned unexplained gender pay figures could damage their reputation

Third of firms concerned unexplained gender pay figures could damage their reputation

Third of companies concerned about impact gender pay report will have on reputation

While a third of companies have already completed their gender pay gap reports, many remain reluctant to publish the figures; and a majority (70 percent) want to include an explanatory narrative to help support their findings. According to the new survey by Mercer, although perceptions of the regulations have improved since being made final, companies find the regulations complex (41 percent), confusing (29 percent) and misleading (28 percent). The result is, while a third of companies completed their analysis at the end of May, most (44 percent) plan on leaving it to later in the year (Oct 2017-Jan 2018) to report; and 28 percent don’t know when they will report. When looking for root causes of the pay gaps, 54 percent of respondents have conducted some sort of analysis (e.g. equal pay audits and bonus programme analysis) in the last three years. Looking ahead there is a dramatic change in the attention being given by organisations to actions beyond pay, and some leading organisations are addressing this issue already.

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Companies overlooking cost of cyber risks as variety and number of breaches increase

Companies are overlooking cost of cyber risks as incidents of breaches riseCyber risk is becoming increasingly common while the types of breaches are becoming more diverse, claims a new white paper by the audit and accounting expert BDO. For instance, ransomware is now the fifth most common type of malware; with the cost of freeing up computer systems from ransomware tripling since 2016. Yet organisations are continuing to spend up to four times more on insuring other company assets (e.g. property, equipment etc.) than on cyber insurance, despite an increasingly widespread belief that their cyber assets are in fact up to 14 percent more valuable. The report also finds that as cyber incidents increase, they become more difficult – and therefore more expensive – to defend. In the new cyber insurance white paper, BDO’s global cybersecurity leadership group stresses the importance of businesses gaining an understanding of their unique risk profiles in order to ensure the right cyber insurance for their needs. Cyber insurance: managing the risk does include some of the positive trends around cyber security – for example, both the level of Board involvement and investments in cybersecurity have increased significantly in the last 2-3 years.

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Parents asking for flexible working face sanctions from bosses, claims study

Parents asking for flexible working face sanctions from bosses, claims study

Asking for family-friendly flexible working patterns can lead to many people getting fewer hours, worse shifts and in some cases losing their jobs altogether, claims a new report from the TUC. Half (47 percent) of low-paid young mums and dads are struggling to manage work and childcare, according to the Better Jobs for Mums and Dads report. More than two in five (42 percent) said they felt penalised at work when they asked for flexibility – telling the TUC they are subsequently given fewer hours, worse shifts or even losing their job.

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Third of sick notes are given out for mental health issues, claims NHS study

Third of sick notes are given out for mental health issues, claims NHS study

One in three signed off cases of absenteeism in the UK is related to mental health problems, with more than five million Britons being signed off work for conditions including anxiety, according to an NHS study of fit notes issued by GPs over a 28 month period. The number of workers signed off sick or put on restricted duties because of stress and anxiety rose by 14 per cent in the most recent year according to the report. Mental health and behavioural conditions were the most common reason to be off work, making up 31 per cent of cases, followed by musculoskeletal conditions. The NHS Digital report, running to March 2017, said in 2016-17 there were 573,000 cases of people off sick with anxiety and stress-related conditions, compared with 503,000 cases the previous year.

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Large majority of British workers enjoy their jobs and are proud of what they do

Four in five British adults are proud of the work they do, while two thirds enjoy going to work most days, a new study suggests. The ComRes survey, conducted for the BBC, also claims that women are more likely than men to enjoy their work and public sector workers have more pride in their jobs than those in the private sector. It also found that workers in London claim to be happier in their jobs than people in the rest of the country, in spite of their most commonly cited gripes about commuting in the capital.

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Commercial property investment in central London hits ten year high, claims report

Commercial property investment in central London hits ten year high, claims report

Commercial property investment in central London has seen its strongest trading in a decade, according to Savills. The real estate adviser claims that over £2.3bn was invested in central London commercial property in July, with total turnover for 2017 to the end of July reaching £11.5bn, a 24 percent increase on the same period last year. July was the strongest month recorded since March 2007 for the City as sales were boosted by the acquisition of 20 Fenchurch Street for almost £1.3bn to a Hong Kong-based property group.

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