Search Results for: communication

Recruitment via artificial intelligence must be monitored to avoid adopting human bias

Recruitment via artificial intelligence must be monitored to avoid adopting human bias

by • AI, News, Technology, Workplace

Recruitment via artificial intelligence must be reviewed to avoid adopting human biasArtificial intelligence systems need to be accountable for human bias at AI becomes more prevalent in recruitment and selection, attendees at the Employers Network for Equality & Inclusion’s annual conference have been warned. Hosted by NatWest, the conference, Diversity & Inclusion: The Changing Landscape heard from experts in ethics, psychology and computing. They explained that AIs learnt from existing data, and highlighted how information such as performance review scores and employee grading was being fed in to machines after being subjected to human unconscious bias.  Dr David Snelling, the programme director for artificial intelligence at technology giant Fujitsu, illustrated how artificial intelligence is taught through human feedback. Describing how huge data sets were fed into the program, David explained that humans corrected the AI when it used that data to come to an incorrect conclusion, using this feedback to teach the AI to work correctly. However, as this feedback is subject to human error and bias, this can become embedded in the machine.

More →

Four UK cities ranked in Europe’s top ten most attractive locations for businesses and employees

Four UK cities ranked in Europe’s top ten most attractive locations for businesses and employees

by • Cities, News

London has been ranked as Europe’s most attractive city for businesses and employees for second year running according to Colliers International’s latest European Cities of Influence report, which reviews and ranks cities based on their occupier attractiveness, availability of talent, and quality of life factors alongside economic output and productivity; Paris, Madrid, Moscow and Birmingham making up the rest of the top five. The report claims that the UK remains a highly desirable destination for capital and occupiers, largely driven by its ‘magnetism as a centre of diverse high-quality service sector talent’, which is in turn is helping to drive economic output and productivity. Other UK cities which score in the top 10 include Birmingham (5th), Edinburgh (7th) and Manchester (10th).

More →

Google is the gold standard employer in UK tech sector but small brands can still compete

Google is the gold standard employer in UK tech sector but small brands can still compete

by • Company news, Facilities management, News, Technology, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Google 'gold standard' in tech sector but smaller brands can still compete, suggests reportGoogle has been named the Ideal Employer among tech professionals in the 2018 Dice UK Ideal Employer Report. While market leaders including Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Facebook and IBM are placed highly, the report suggests that smaller tech brands can also attract the top talent through benefits including yoga, in-house cafeterias and more. For many technology professionals, Google is the gold standard employer, with a perfect mix of competitive salary, perks, benefits and interesting work, something smaller companies can learn from. The survey of 464 tech professionals found that simple office upgrades including yoga, colourful furniture and other positive innovative cultural perks can help smaller companies attract the best talent, even if smaller in size. Good work/life balances, open communications and manageable working hours also ranked highly.  More →

About time we simply accepted that coworking and flexible working are the new normal

About time we simply accepted that coworking and flexible working are the new normal

by • Comment, Coworking, Flexible working, Workplace design

Ask someone to list innovative companies which have become notable disruptors in their market and they invariably respond with two names – Uber and Airbnb. That is because both brands are positioned squarely and successfully at the retail consumer: for people who use a taxi or take an occasional short break in a foreign city, they have become the automatic default options. But there is another equally successful business targeting the corporate space, aimed particularly at small businesses and millennial tech start-ups: WeWork. Just like Uber and Airbnb, it is less than a decade old. In that time, WeWork’s ambition of being the world’s leading coworking company has been realised. Championing itself as a disruption revolutionary, it has succeeded more prosaically by ‘creating environments that increase productivity, innovation, and collaboration,’ according to its website. WeWork’s model involves renting office space cheaply via long-term lease contracts. Small units are then re-rented at higher rates to start up companies which are happy to pay a premium because they need very little space.

More →

Pearls of elemental wisdom about workplace design and management

Pearls of elemental wisdom about workplace design and management

by • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace design

The greatest conundrum in the endless debate about whether the workplace affects people’s wellbeing and productivity is that it’s still going on at all. We’ve known for decades that people are affected in profound and meaningful ways by their surroundings and the culture in which they work. We know which factors are most important and which work in the absence of others. We know how these factors have shifted in response to changing working cultures and technological advances. And we know which are glib distractions from the real deal.

More →

Neurodiversity not on the agenda for 9 out of 10 UK organisations

Neurodiversity not on the agenda for 9 out of 10 UK organisations

by • News, Wellbeing

Just 1 in 10 organisations say consideration of neurodiversity is included in their people management practices, despite around 10 percent of the UK population being neurodivergent in some way, according to a poll of HR professionals from the CIPD. Neurodiversity refers to the natural range of differences in human brain function. Amongst employers, it’s used to describe alternative thinking styles including dyslexia, autism, ADHD and dyspraxia as they relate to diversity and inclusion. These can have unique strengths, ranging from data-driven thinking to sustained focus over long periods, an ability to spot patterns and trends, and the capacity to process information at extraordinary speeds. It is estimated that at least 10 percent of the UK population is neurodivergent.

More →

Business leaders increasingly optimistic about benefits of artificial intelligence in the workplace

Business leaders increasingly optimistic about benefits of artificial intelligence in the workplace

by • AI, News, Technology

Executives at major organisations increasingly believe that pairing humans alongside machine intelligence will create a more effective, engaged, and meritocratic workplace, according to a new study released by software provider Pegasystems Inc (registration required). The authors surveyed 845 senior executives working globally across industry sectors including financial services, insurance, manufacturing, retail, telecommunications and media, and government, on the increased role of automation and artificial intelligence in the workplace of the future. The potential impact in the workplace seems to outweigh any lingering fears, the report claims. Around 69 percent of of respondents say “workforce” will refer to both humans and machine intelligence in the future. Nearly three-quarters of executives said using machines to augment human abilities would lead to increased efficiency. Over 60 percent said it could be used to improve customer service.

More →

London office market is booming and proving resilient in the face of Brexit

London office market is booming and proving resilient in the face of Brexit

by • News, Property

A new report from Knight Frank claims that activity in the office market in London increased sharply last year, which the property adviser said was driven largely by growing demand from the UK’s burgeoning tech sector. The report said office leasing activity in central London hit 13.84 million sq ft last year, more than 2 million sq ft than in 2016. Knight Frank said it had seen ‘extraordinary demand’ for London offices from the Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) sector. However, the report also claims that there is now a lack of quality office space supply because, despite the fact that more than 259 development schemes are under construction in Central London, 187 are residential, and of the remaining 72 offering commercial space, only two-thirds are available to lease, with many of them already pre-let to office tenants.

More →

Research reveals a disconnect between employees and employers on corporate values

Research reveals a disconnect between employees and employers on corporate values

by • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Research reveals a disconnect between employees and employers on corporate valuesLess than a quarter (23 percent) of employees feel completely informed about the values of the organisation they work for and just 19 percent of employees feel completely informed about their employer’s corporate mission claims a new survey by Reward Gateway. These statistics are even more problematic when you consider that 83 percent of employers say it’s critical to the success of their business that employees understand their mission. Recognition is one of the key drivers needed to ingrain employees with a company’s values and corporate mission, however, 40 percent of employees don’t agree that their employer recognises them when they demonstrate the values their company cares about. Furthermore, the study has found a break-down of communication and trust between employees and their employers. 81 percent of senior decision makers say that their organisation is transparent with employees about how they plan to achieve the company mission. However, only 22 percent of employees say they strongly agree that they trust their employer to communicate information openly and honestly.

More →

HR teams are not sufficiently prepared to meet the fourth industrial revolution

HR teams are not sufficiently prepared to meet the fourth industrial revolution

by • News, Technology, Workplace

HR teams are not sufficiently prepared to meet the fourth industrial revolutionMost people who work in HR now recognise how essential technology is for delivering more strategic value to their organisation, but a new report suggests that HR teams are not prepared to meet the fourth industrial revolution. A survey from ADP and IDC across eight countries in Europe found that over a fifth (22 percent) of Human Capital Management (HCM) processes are still inputted manually. Equally alarming, was the lack of communication between HR teams and IT departments, with 28 percent of respondents claiming that IT is only somewhat involved in HCM solution decisions, and 3 percent claiming it plays no role at all. Yet despite a significant number of respondents revealing that IT departments are not closely aligned with HR, the research pointed towards a shift in the attitudes of HR experts. When asked which new technologies they find increasingly important, 68 percent said end-to-end integration of all HR and talent systems and 64 percent said HR dashboard and analytics were very or extremely important. What’s more, 56 percent said social or collaborative features were also very important.

More →

Workers prize standard of technology over latest office design when moving jobs

Workers prize standard of technology over latest office design when moving jobs

by • News, Technology, Workplace

Over half of UK workers (53 percent) say that the standard of technology is a key consideration for accepting a new job role and more than 1 in 3 (37 percent) would decline a job based on poor hardware alone, claims a new survey. The survey of over 2,000 British adults carried out by gadgets and technology e-tailer, LaptopsDirect.co.uk found that having the latest technology was valued more than other office perks, such as flexible working (45 percent), the working environment/decor (39 percent) and staff discounts (33 percent). Nearly a quarter of respondents (74 percent) overall, believe technology makes them more productive at work, with workers in marketing valuing technology the highest, with 84 percent of the votes, followed by those in creative and photographic (81 percent), information and communications (78 percent), professional services (73 percent) and education (71 percent).

More →

Majority of global business leaders believe world economy will grow this year

Majority of global business leaders believe world economy will grow this year

by • News, Workplace

Well over half (fifty seven percent) of business leaders say they believe global economic growth will improve in the next 12 months – almost twice (29 percent) the level of results from the annual survey carried out by PwC . Launched at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, the survey found that optimism in the economy is feeding into CEOs’ confidence about their own companies’ outlook. As 42 percent of CEOs said they are “very confident” in their own organisation’s growth prospects over the next 12 months, up from 38 percent last year. Looking at the results by country though, it’s a mixed bag. In the UK, with Brexit negotiations only recently reaching a significant milestone, business leaders’ drop in short-term confidence is unsurprising (2018: 34 percent vs. 2017: 41 percent). The survey also found that CEOs are determined to find the right talent needed to reap the benefits of the digital disruption, with investments in modern working environments and the establishment of learning and development programmes to help attract and develop digital talent.

More →

«< 51 52 53 54 55 >»