Search Results for: labour

March 23, 2016

Is discrimination of women with children the root cause of gender pay gap? ⁰

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

Two reports published this week support the argument that it is when women have children and require more flexible hours, that they really start to feel the sharp end of the gender pay gap. A report by a cross party group of MPs on the Women and Equalities Select Committee, reveals that supporting men and women to share childcare and other forms of unpaid caring more equally would be one of the most effective policy levers in reducing the gender pay gap. Without this support, many women are trapped in low paid, part-time work below their skill level. This contributes to pay disparities and the under-utilisation of women’s skills that costs the UK economy up to 2 percent GDP, around £36 billion. It also found that not enough is being done to support women returning to work if they have had time out of the labour market. Meanwhile a report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission says that three in four working mothers experience maternity discrimination.

March 22, 2016

While politicians squabble, here’s what the Budget meant for the workplace ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Legal news, Workplace, Workplace design

Strange as it may seem now, there was a Budget last week. We’d planned to produce a report on it once the dust had settled but given that whatever dust had originally been kicked up has now been swept away by a political storm, it’s only now we feel able to offer some perspective a few days out. As ever these days, the budget touched on a number of aspects of the workplace, sometimes hitting the mark and sometimes suggesting politicians don’t yet understand how people work. There was the usual stuff about rates and commercial property but also plenty to digest about the freelance economy, productivity, new technology, flexible working legislation and the current, often faltering attempts to develop wealth and infrastructure as well as the 21st Century creative and digital economy in places other than London. There’s plenty to digest here and plenty of people have already had their say, so a chance to grab a coffee and take all or some of it in.

March 17, 2016

Poor line management blamed for lack of career progression at work ⁰

by Sara Bean • News, Workplace

A third (33 percent) of UK employees say their career progression to date has failed to meet their expectations, with four in ten (39 percent) blaming poor line management for stifling their ambitions. According to the latest Employee Outlook Survey: Focus on Skills and Careers from the CIPD, a lack of effective training programmes (34 percent) and negative office politics (34 percent) are also to blame. The survey of over 2,000 employees considered the key factors relating to employees’ upbringing, education and workplace that affect whether or not their career progression had met their expectations. It also found that over a quarter (26 percent) of those whose career has failed to live up to their expectations identified poor-quality career advice and guidance at school as a key factor to blame, with three in ten (29 percent) saying they are in the wrong career so cannot show their strengths or potential.

March 9, 2016

Corporate real estate strategy shifts focus from cost to people ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Property, Workplace, Workplace design

A new survey of corporate executives indicates a major shift in how companies make real estate decisions today, with more than half (50 percent) saying that talent is more important than cost (31 percent) as their foremost consideration. As a result, executives view the workplace as primarily a recruitment and retention tool that offers attributes such as a flexible workplace, high quality amenities and interiors. But while the people and workplace experience dominate the corporate real estate agenda, according to CBRE’s Americas Occupier Survey – escalating costs are a major concern. Of survey respondents, 85 percent cite space efficiency and restructuring as a top strategy for reducing occupancy costs. These two issues are driving real estate conversations; with the result that workplace strategy is increasingly being viewed as both a critical employee attraction and retention strategy (57 percent), and as a means to control costs.

March 7, 2016

Nearly all managers are now seeking to redesign their organisation ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • News, Workplace, Workplace design

Ninety-two per cent of the UK’s human resources and business leaders see redesigning their organisation as their most important priority, according to Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends 2016 survey. As part of this shift in focus, 42 per cent of UK respondents say they are already currently restructuring their organisation and 49 per cent have recently completed the process. Only seven per cent say they have no plans to restructure. The report also claims that lack of employee engagement is an issue currently facing 80 per cent of respondets. Only 36 per cent report that they are prepared to tackle engagement issues. Despite the emergence of ‘easy to use’ tools to frequently evaluate employee sentiment, 76 per cent of UK organisations still measure employee engagement only once a year. Forty-two percent measure this engagement through annual surveys and 20 per cent through interviews and focus groups.

March 2, 2016

Effect of robots at work on people’s future wellbeing still very uncertain ⁰

by Sara Bean • News, Technology, Wellbeing, Workplace

The effects of robotics on workers’ and managers’ motivation and wellbeing are not widely known, meaning psychosocial factors related to robotics will require more attention in the field of safety and health. This is just one of the conclusions of a new discussion paper – drawn up by EU-OSHA (European Agency for Safety and Health at Work) on the influence of robotics on the future of work. While the use of robots in a complementary role would be the least challenging for society, economic and productivity pressures are likely to result instead in a substitution approach, whereby individuals and groups are replaced in their jobs by robotics and automation. Fewer workers will be needed for jobs that are routine or have clearly definable tasks, as they will be done instead by industrial and service robots. A result of this technical change will be a relative increase in the demand for highly educated workers and a reduced demand for less educated workers traditionally carrying out jobs consisting of routine cognitive and manual tasks.

March 1, 2016

Smart Cities emerging rapidly in China due to increasing urbanisation ⁰

by Sara Bean • Cities, Facilities management, News, Technology

“Smart Cities” are emerging as a major force in China. According to a recent CoreNet Global report, China’s urban population surpassed that of the rural population in 2011 and it is estimated that by 2035 there will be more than 70 percent of the population living in urban areas. That urbanisation is creating more pressure for China to leverage digital technology to create smarter cities, which are defined as metro areas that leverage digital technology and intelligent design to facilitate sustainability, along with high-quality living and high-paying jobs. Initially, there were several ‘beachhead’ cities that embraced Smart City initiatives such as Hangzhou (above), Chongqing and Chengdu. Subsequently, the China Central Government issued clear guidelines to roll out smart cities in a systematic and more widespread way. While smart cities are definitely on the long-term agenda for China’s strategic planning, their impact on corporate real estate and site location decisions remains to be determined.

February 29, 2016

Report sets out challenges for rapidly changing Australian workplace ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Technology, Workplace design

When it comes to innovation in workplace design and management, there are few countries in the world quite so forward thinking as Australia right now. Even so, Australia’s workers, firms and legislators remain under-prepared for the rapidly changing world of work, according to a new report from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), a Government funded research agency. Many of the trends outlined in the report will be familiar to readers of Insight. Over the next twenty years, it claims that around half (44 percent) of all jobs will be subject to computerisation and automation. Over the same period, it suggests that the majority of people will become active in the gig economy, many of them based in shared coworking spaces. The report also suggests that while Generation Z will be faced with the highest degree of change, an ageing population presents its own challenges.

February 29, 2016

Full employment drive can help over a million more UK over-50s into work ⁰

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

The UK government should find ways to encourage more than one million more over-50 into work by the end of this parliament, claims the Resolution Foundation think tank. The call comes ahead of a final report this week following a nine-month investigation into the issue full employment. The Chancellor announced a commitment to full employment in last year’s Summer Budget, with the government committing to report annually on progress towards this objective. The Foundation says that support for the over 50s, particularly to keep them from leaving the labour force, should be at the heart of the government’s strategy. Older people have contributed the fastest jobs growth of any age group over the last decade, leaving employment rates for workers aged 50-64 and 65+ are at record highs. The Foundation says that previous progress shows this group can and should be at the centre of plans for realising full employment.

February 15, 2016

Employers must meet productivity challenges of paying Living Wage ⁰

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

A quarter of private sector employees will be directly affected by the implementation of the new National Living Wage, (NLW) over double the proportion of public sector employees. The research, conducted by the Social Market Foundation in partnership with Adecco Group UK & Ireland, warns these employers will need to overcome significant productivity challenges in order to cope with the cost. The NLW cut-off at age 25 means businesses will be faced with potential discrepancies in wages across their younger workforce. While almost a fifth (18 percent) of employees who will benefit from the NLW are younger workers surprisingly, workers aged 50 or over will make up a third. Part-time workers make up around half of the workforce in severely affected workplaces. The research also found that the workplaces severely affected by new National Living Wage tend to have low-skilled employees and are much less likely to offer in-work training.

February 5, 2016

Embracing the inevitable rise of the robots in the workplace ⁰

by Gary Chandler • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Workplace design

We often have reason these days to speculate on the truth of an idea known as Amara’s Law. First coined by the researcher Roy Amara it states that “we tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run”. But defining what we mean by short and long term can be very difficult when technology is changing so quickly. Nothing better illustrates this than the issue of how automation will transform society and workplaces. For the past few years, the effects have mainly been the subject of academic and scientific research alongside some lurid headlines in the mainstream media. So, a fairly typical 2013 paper from researchers at Oxford University assessed the risk faced by over 700 professions and discovered that nearly half of all jobs in the US could be categorised as at high risk of automation. Less academic studies such as a report published last year by Deloitte draw similar conclusions.

February 2, 2016

Flexible working is now a requirement for many job seekers, claims report ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Workplace

Employees are increasingly keen to find jobs that offer them flexible working, according to a new study of the global labour market published by recruitment firm Indeed. The report also found that several of the world’s largest economies, including the US, Germany and Canada are suffering because low wages and lack of skills mean employers are unable to find the right people to hire. According to the report, Labor Market Outlook 2016: Uncovering the Causes of Global Jobs Mismatch, interest in jobs that offer some form of flexible working as measured by online job searches that include terms such as “remote”, “work from home” and “telecommute”has increased by 42.1 percent over the last two years in nine of the 12 countries studied. More than half of the top 50 keywords associated with searches for flexible work globally were related to high-skilled jobs, many in the tech sectors.