January 22, 2020
Data entry is the world’s most hated office technology task, with workers wasting about 40 percent of their day on this and other ‘digital admin’, a study has claimed. In a survey of 10,500 office workers spanning 11 countries, respondents said they average more than three hours a day on manual, repetitive computer tasks which aren’t part of their primary job and are ripe for human error. More →
January 8, 2020
The IFMA Foundation Workplace Summit of summer 2014 felt like an optimistic time for facilities management and the workspace industry. Heavyweights from the sector were asking searching questions about our organisational contribution, with thankfully less of the internally focused, debate-free hubris typical of much of the industry narrative. The newly announced (and now evidently historical) collaboration between BIFM and CIPD was in full swing, endorsed by social media savvy Twitterati under The Workplace Conversation banner. More →
December 30, 2019
New projections from Rest Less, a jobs, volunteering and advice site for the over 50s, claims that workers aged 65 and over are likely to be responsible for at least 50 per cent of all UK employment growth in the next 10 years. The analysis, based on population projections from the Office of National Statistics, makes an assumption that the current employment rate of each age group will remain static, and suggests that with population changes alone, the over 65s are likely to be responsible for 52 per cent of all the UK’s employment growth in the next 10 years, 57 per cent in the next 20 years and as much as 62 per cent by 2060. More →
December 17, 2019
Self-driving cars are set to have a significant impact on society and change our future the most over the next 20 years, according to research from CWJobs. Working in collaboration with “futurologist” Melissa Sterry, the report (registration) surveyed over 2,000 UK business decision makers and IT workers to determine the technological inventions with the greatest impact on society since 2000 and what’s to come in the next 20 years. More →
December 10, 2019
The future of workplace wellbeing is in HR’s hands; hence, the discipline is even more pivotal to organisational success. As admin and payroll become increasingly digitised and automated, time can be spent more effectively, supporting good people to do good work. Influential people are now catching on to the importance of wellbeing. New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told More than GDP, “We need to address the societal wellbeing of our nation, not just the economic wellbeing”. Her government will set a budget to measure wellbeing and the long-term impact of policy on the quality of people’s lives. More →
December 3, 2019
A leading non-profit disability and business organisation is calling on the future Government to commit to a series of actions to support businesses to deliver on disability inclusion. Business Disability Forum published its ‘Manifesto for Inclusive Change’ today (3 December) to mark the United Nations International Day of Persons with Disabilities. The manifesto calls for action in seven areas to ensure that the role businesses play in disabled people’s lives is enhanced, not inhibited, by government policy. To read Business Disability Forum’s ‘Manifesto for Inclusive Change’ go to www.businessdisabilityforum.org.uk . Follow the debate at #DisabilitySmart. More →
November 25, 2019
Over three-quarters (77 percent) of young workers in the UK have experienced mental health challenges, Accenture research suggests. In addition, nearly half (48 percent) of younger workers (aged 18-30) say they have experienced suicidal thoughts, but in organisations that are providing the right support, young workers were 37 percent less likely to have recent experience of a mental ill health challenge. More →
November 22, 2019
The way companies design physical environments is a direct reflection of their values and beliefs. Inequality is hardwired into the “standard” office layout, with perimeter offices and fixed desks offering limited settings for unstructured collaboration and recreation, further perpetuating the issue. Modern office design often favours extroversion and emphasises a hierarchy with values that benefit only a small portion of the overall workforce, contributing to organisation-wide imbalance. So how do we create more inclusive workplaces that can be leveraged as vehicles for change? More →
November 7, 2019
The results of a new academic study on the relationship between global economic growth and physical activity, carried out by Vitality and RAND Europe, reveal significant benefits to the economy and life expectancy if people adopted a more active lifestyle. The study suggests that the world’s GDP would gain more than $100bn (£80bn) each year until 2050 if people adopted a more active daily routine that could involve simple choices such as walking 15 minutes more a day, jogging slowly for half a mile a day, or walking 1,500 extra steps a day. More →
October 25, 2019
The best workplaces are always focused on people. Which is why many of the great pioneers of workplace thinking are from the social sciences, including disciplines such as psychology, ethnography and anthropology. These are the people who have shared the insights that help us to understand the characteristics of great office design. In particular, this relies on an awareness of the ways in which people interact in particular spaces. More →
October 25, 2019
The experiences and attitudes of working parents are explored in two new reports which offer contrasting views on what happens to the careers and skills of mothers and fathers. The first from CWJobs uncovers the fears parents have of being left behind by technology while they take time away from their careers to care for children, while the second looks at the ways in which parenthood might improve people’s skills and ability to deal with complex roles. More →
December 18, 2019
Anthropology might hold answers to the most difficult workplace challenges
by Christopher Diming • Comment, Workplace design
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