Search Results for: older

September 20, 2016

Construction firms still failing to seize opportunities offered by new technology ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, News, Property, Technology

Despite substantial investment in new technology over recent years, the construction industry is struggling to realise the full benefits of key technologies including advanced data and analytics, mobility, automation and robotics. That’s the main finding from Building a technology advantage – Global Construction Survey 2016, the annual state-of-the-industry report from KPMG International. Of the 200-plus senior construction executives who took part in the survey, just 8 percent of their companies rank as “cutting edge technology visionaries,” while 64 percent of contractors and 73 percent of project owners rank as “industry followers” or “behind the curve” when it comes to technology. Two-thirds of survey respondents believe project risks are increasing. According to Armstrong, this is an industry ripe for disruption, yet less than 20 percent of respondents say they are aggressively disrupting their business models.

September 12, 2016

Overwork and burnout affects all the generations in the workplace ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace, Workplace design

Millennials, Gen X, and Boomers are all feeling overworked and burned out, which is motivating many to look for another job; and according to the latest Staples Business Advantage 2016 Workplace Index it’s the older workers who are most motivated at work by a sense of purpose, with Baby Boomers (46 percent) and Generation X (32 percent) having more of a sense of purpose at work than their younger Millennial counterparts (24 percent). Fifty percent of Millennials, 47 percent of Gen X, and 35 percent of Boomers however, say burnout is driving them to look for another job; with Boomers wishing their employer would decrease their workload and provide more time to complete tasks, while Gen X and Millennials are looking for a more flexible schedule and work-life blend. Aesthetics in the office are also key, regardless of age, as 51 percent of Millennials, 44 percent of Gen X, and 33 percent of Boomers would like to see more attention paid to office design.

September 8, 2016

What do Millennials and Gen Z want from work? The same as everybody else ⁰

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

More evidence that younger people are in fact people after all emerges with the publication of a new report from Randstad and Future Workplace. The study of over 4,000 individuals worldwide claims that despite widespread belief, 41 percent of Generation Z employees believe that collaborative, corporate offices combined with a degree of autonomy and flexibility is their preferred way to work. They prefer bosses with strong communication skills, value face to face meetings, are irritated by distractions and believe they will probably have a career focussed oln one specific sector. As a follow-up to a previous study conducted in 2014, the Gen Z & Millennials Collide@Work report focuses on the impact of Gen Z entering the workplace for the first time and how Millennials are engaging with them. Both studies claim that Gen Z and Millennials continue to prefer communicating with co-workers and managers in-person in lieu of email and phone.

September 2, 2016

Learning with a stranger as effective as learning with a close friend or relation ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Knowledge, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

A partner helps you learn – even if you don’t know them. That is the conclusion of research being presented today by Catherine Crompton from the University of Edinburgh to the annual conference of the British Psychological Society’s Cognitive Psychology Section in Barcelona. In the research for her PhD, Catherine carried out two studies that each paired 48 people and asked them to learn an unfamiliar task. In both studies, half the pairs knew each other and half did not. Both older and younger participants were tested, each paired with a partner of similar age. In the first study, the pairs were asked to arrange abstract tangram shapes in a specific order on a grid. In the second, the pairs were asked to learn a route on a map and then recall it one hour and one week later. The first study showed that the pairs got better at the task with practice, whether or not the pairs had known each other before the study. The effects were the same, regardless of age.

September 2, 2016

Younger people less keen on recycling at work, especially coffee cups ⁰

by Sara Bean • Environment, Facilities management, News, Workplace

The younger generation have a reputation for being pretty keen on addressing environmental issues, but new data alleges they’re not as open to changing their behaviours. There’s actually a clear generational gap when it comes to attitudes towards recycling at work and it’s the older generation who make more effort, a new survey suggests. It claims that younger people are around 16 percent less likely to recycle at work with just 64 percent of people aged 18-24 prepared to adhere to their employers’ recycling policies. One particular cause of concern is the fact that 2.5 billion coffee cups are thrown away each year, leading the Liberal Democrats to recently call for action to be taken to address the fact that only one in 400 cups are recycled. The survey, which was carried out by commercial waste recycling services provider Direct365, claims that 72 percent of people do actually recycle items at work overall.

September 1, 2016

Commuting is making us more stressed and more fat, claims study ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

The average UK commuter adds almost 800 calories to their diet every week as a result of their journey to and from work, according to our new report, Health in a Hurry, from the UK’s Royal Society for Public Health. The study of around 1,500 people claims that the average time spent commuting in the UK has increased in recent years to almost an hour a day, and suggests longer commutes are therefore potentially shortening lives. The report highlights the impact of travelling to and from work caused by forms of passive commuting including rail, bus and car. It says that this part of the daily routine has a huge impact on the public’s health and wellbeing with longer commute times associated with increased stress, higher blood pressure and BMI, and reduced time available for health-promoting activities such as cooking, exercising and sleeping. Commuters in London have an average journey of 79 minutes while it is just under 45 minutes for people living in Wales.

September 1, 2016

New report sets out four key challenges for the workforce of the future ⁰

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

A new report from The Future Laboratory and UBS Wealth Management claims to identify the key factors that will drive workplace change in the near future. According to The Future of the Workforce report, the next two decades will see the way we work completely reshaped by forces such as artificial intelligence and an increasingly multigenerational workforce. The report claims that the entry of more Millennials into the workplace, their differing values to older workers, a growing propensity to turn freelance and the dissolution of the old bonds of loyalty could mean that employers struggle to create a strong culture. The report also claims that there will be a growing emphasis on the provision of wellness programmes, driven partly by growing demand from employees as well as a greater focus on improving productivity from employers. It also suggests that employers need to act to remove any biases they may have to appeal to the values of the new generation of workers.

August 26, 2016

Bridging the generation gap is the key to a happier workforce ⁰

by Sara Bean • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

People who work in multigenerational teams are much more engaged and likely to deliver higher levels of customer service a new report suggests. In a survey of over 32,000 of McDonald’s own UK employees, their people who work with a cross-section of ages registered a 10 percent increase in happiness levels compared to those who work with their peer group. With the GCSE results just in, the fast food retailer wanted to gauge attitudes among potential future employees, so McDonald’s UK commissioned a census of 5,000 people representing each of the five working generations. It revealed that adults of all ages are united in wanting to be part of a multigenerational workforce. In fact, the opportunity to work with people of different ages was the top priority for more than half of all respondents (58 percent) and this factor was important for older people born between 1900 and 1964 (67 percent), as well as 16-year olds (57 percent).

August 25, 2016

Research suggests individual responses to stress at work vary widely ⁰

by Sara Bean • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

No matter how compelling the evidence on the impact of stress at work there are always individuals who dismiss the very idea as self-indulgence. New research suggests this isn’t down to lack of empathy but simply because some people just don’t experience stress the same as others. The survey by the Deloitte Greenhouse Experience team found statistically significant variation in how respondents react to stressors which indicates that workplace stress is relative and not everyone experiences stress in the same way or to the same degree. The majority of respondents reported modest levels of stress. Fourteen percent reported being stressed only rarely and 57 percent reported being stressed sometimes, while 26 percent reported being stressed often, and 3 percent reported being always stressed. Different scenarios were also mooted to identify stress triggers. Making mistakes topped the list of stressors, with 82 percent of respondents indicating errors caused stress.

August 17, 2016

Intelligent lighting can enhance workplace wellbeing and productivity ⁰

by Andy Gallacher • Comment, Environment, Facilities management, Lighting, Wellbeing, Workplace design

The main driver of the growing interest in wellbeing in recent years has undoubtedly been absenteeism. But workers don’t have to be ‘absent’ from the workplace to hamper productivity. Presenteeism, where employees are present but not productive can also influence the long-term success of an organisation. The interaction between the worker and their work environment has a huge influence on an individual’s wellbeing and overall productivity, with employees’ performance more likely to be enhanced when they are immersed in a comfortable and stimulating environment. This can include all the usual stipulations, such as a well-designed workstation, a comfortable office temperature and carefully considered and appropriate lighting. In fact, improved lighting is an essential element in the overall mix, not only because of the cost savings that their energy efficiency brings but also in the way lighting contributes to workplace wellbeing and people’s performance.

August 9, 2016

Time to address ‘shocking disconnect’ between boardroom and staff pay ⁰

by Sara Bean • Comment, News, Workplace

As the new prime minister Theresa May has already indicated in her tenure, the growing gap between rewards for those at the top of organisations and everyone else is hard to justify at a time when economic uncertainty is intense and corporate performance mixed. So it’s shocking to learn that the average FTSE 100 CEO earns 129 times more than the firm’s employees, receiving around £5.5 million a year, up from £4.96 million in 2014. According to the annual survey of FTSE100 CEO remuneration packages by the High Pay Centre, rewards at the top continue to grow at a double digit rate, with the most highly paid being part of an all-boys club. No woman has made it into the top ten in either of the last two years. And in contrast to the generous packages awarded to their executives, only a quarter of the 100 FTSE 100 companies are accredited by the Living Wage Foundation for paying the living wage to all their UK-based staff.

August 8, 2016

Universal basic income is an idea whose time has come at last ⁰

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

It is no longer a question of whether one of the world’s major economies will introduce a universal basic income for all of its citizens, but when. Over the weekend, the leader of the UK’s Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn announced in an interview in the Huffington Post that he was ‘instinctively looking’ at an idea that is already being discussed and piloted in Switzerland, the Netherlands, Norway and Canada. Corbyn may be one of the current glut of what would have once been political outliers in the Western World, but the idea of a universal basic income is one that is increasingly accepted in mainstream economic thinking. The RSA continues to campaign for it and has even put a number on it, suggesting that every UK citizen should be offered £308 between the ages of 25 and 65. Andrew Flowers offers up a masterful and detailed analysis of the economic and political issues involved in this piece on fivethirtyeight.com.