Search Results for: population

IF AI can replace what you do without anybody noticing, the problem isn’t with the technology

IF AI can replace what you do without anybody noticing, the problem isn’t with the technology

by • Comment, Technology, Wellbeing

AI is ready to muscle in on our ability to create and consume vast quantities of content. So we need to look at things in a new wayPerhaps the least surprising news from the current AI media frenzy is that Buzzfeed has already been using the tech to publish a lot of its stories. There’s an obvious response to this and it’s not about how amazing the AI is. If an artificial intelligence can write vast quantities of formulaic clickbait stories on your website without anybody noticing, then the problem is with your original approach to ‘content’ and how it’s consumed. (more…)

Flexible working is the new “work-life currency”, claims new report

Flexible working is the new “work-life currency”, claims new report

by • Flexible working, News, Technology

A new report, Future of Work Life, from Ericsson Consumer & IndustryLab explores the ways in which employees and employers navigate the current work environment and their views on the future of work shaped by the pandemic, digitalisation and the fluctuating labour market. Almost half (48 percent) of the employees in the study say that they enjoy increased flexibility at work. 52 percent consider flexible work hours or locations as key requirements, and 25 percent say that flexibility is the top priority if they would start to look for a new job. Doing work rather than going to work is seen as central in this new way of thinking about work life. (more…)

Every workplace innovation contains the seeds of its opposite

Every workplace innovation contains the seeds of its opposite

by • Comment, Flexible working, Technology

workplace innovationThe announcement by Apple that it wanted its employees to work in an office for three days a week sparked the usual, tedious pile-on about how many days people should spend in a physical workplace each week. This included the columnist at Grazia who joins the tens of millions of people around the world who not only know where Apple is going wrong, but also how to run every other organisation in the world and what’s best for everybody who works for them. (more…)

The UK workplace sector reacts to the Spring Budget 2023

The UK workplace sector reacts to the Spring Budget 2023

by • Environment, News, Property, Workplace

The workplace sector in the UK has been reacting to the announcements in the Spring budgetToday the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt presented his Spring Budget to the House of Commons. In it he announced what her referred to as his ‘four pillars’ of industrial and productivity strategy, namely: ‘Enterprise’, ‘Employment’, ‘Education’, and ‘Everywhere’. Perhaps the headline element of this announcement was the creation of twelve new investment zones across the UK as well as incentives for older workers to return to the country’s patchy workforce. This includes£63m for programmes to encourage retirees over 50 back to work, “returnerships” and ‘skills boot camps’. Another headline for the workplace sector was the offer of improved childcare arrangements, especially for the parents of very young children, who will see 30 hours of free childcare expanded to include one and two-year-olds. (more…)

People will leave jobs that don’t align with their values, author claims

People will leave jobs that don’t align with their values, author claims

by • News, Workplace

Pay and benefits are no longer the only critical factors in deciding where to work, with a majority citing their employers’ values (80 percent) and commitment to the environment (76 percent) and social equality (75 percent) as key criteria, claims a survey commissioned by advocate and author Paul Polman. (more…)

Childhood’s end for work and the need for a grown-up conversation about it

Childhood’s end for work and the need for a grown-up conversation about it

by • Features, Flexible working, Technology, Wellbeing

Arthur C Clarke’s finest novel Childhood’s End is the story of an Earth that is invaded by a force of alien Overlords. This is not a destructive colonial invasion, which is why there’s no Hollywood blockbuster in the tale, but a seemingly benevolent intervention which ushers in a golden age for humanity. Although humankind initially does not get to meet the Overlords in person (for reasons I won’t give away here), the aliens unite the world’s governments, eradicate crime, conflict and the nation state and do away with the need for creativity and hard work. It is the literal end of history.

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Poor air quality affects chess players, and it might be affecting you too

Poor air quality affects chess players, and it might be affecting you too

by • Features, Wellbeing

Air pollution poses such a threat to strategic thinking under pressure that chess players often monitor the air quality of their surroundings.Humans are exposed to poor air quality and pollution almost everywhere. The World Health Organization estimate that 99 percent of the world’s population breathe in polluted air each day. Chess players competing indoors are no exception – and it can affect their performance. A recent study conducted by researchers from Maastricht University (Netherlands) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA) analysed the quality of chess moves across multiple German chess tournaments. They found that chess experts perform worse when there is more particulate matter (PM2.5) in the air. (more…)

New legally-binding air quality targets fall short of their ambitions, safety body warns

New legally-binding air quality targets fall short of their ambitions, safety body warns

by • News, Wellbeing

The British Safety Council has warned that new legally binding air quality targets for the UK, which passed the final stages of parliamentary scrutiny earlier this week, fall well short of what is needed to keep people safeThe British Safety Council has warned that new legally binding air quality targets for the UK, which passed the final stages of parliamentary scrutiny earlier this week, fall well short of what is needed to keep people safe. The new limits will  come into force in the wake of last year’s Environment Act, after the Government missed its own deadline of December to introduce them, following a consultation. (more…)

New study claims people who can work remotely come into the office for less than two days a week

New study claims people who can work remotely come into the office for less than two days a week

by • Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Workplace design

A global study of 220 offices in 33 countries, representing nearly 250,000 employees, has revealed that hybrid working is becoming established as the norm for those who can work remotely. Those people now come into the office an average of just 1.5 days a week, versus nearly four days a week before the Covid-19 pandemic. AWA’s second Hybrid Working Index study, conducted between September and November this year, found that on average people go into the office 29 percent of the time. Among employers surveyed in both the first study, in the summer, and this one, attendance was steady at around 25 percent. (more…)

Lambeth plans major expansion in sustainable office space

Lambeth plans major expansion in sustainable office space

by • Company news, Environment, Property

Lambeth plans major investment in sustainable office developmentsLambeth is set for London’s biggest increase in sustainable office space over the next decade with an estimated six million square feet of extra space for business set to be created. A report commissioned by Lambeth Council details this expansion, how it supports the borough’s growth priorities and delivers space fit for the future of work. The report ‘Lambeth: The Future of Sustainable Work’ sets out how expansion supports the council’s bold ambitions to foster well-paid jobs in growth sectors for the borough’s young people, to achieve its Net Zero by 2030 outcome and to create an environment for local entrepreneurs to flourish. (more…)

The unspoken privilege of wellbeing

The unspoken privilege of wellbeing

by • Comment, SF, Wellbeing

Two women talking in a pleasant and well designed office, one on a bench the other a swing, to illustrate the importance of wellbeingI sat in the main hall at a recent conference, listening to the keynote presentation. A Head of HR at a large manufacturing company described the implementation of their wellbeing strategy over the last year. So far, so important. There is no doubt that the conversation around wellbeing has been rightly amplified, as employees are seeking to gain and maintain more life in their work-life balance. However, as I sat there listening, I became uncomfortable. Seriously uncomfortable. Then I became cross. (more…)

The workplace circus continues to entertain, but back in the real world…

The workplace circus continues to entertain, but back in the real world…

by • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Wellbeing

A painting of a clown sitting alone, waiting to enter the workplace circusThe Great Workplace Circus headlines its 322nd show of the year with everybody’s favourite distraction, Elon Musk, being driven into the ring by his own shoddily built clown car, declaring he needs everybody at Twitter to be ‘extremely hardcore’ before sacking a few people from his space programme, then setting fire to the tent himself. The swarm of stories spawned by this extraordinary behaviour include this tired and predictable rant in the Telegraph about ‘lazy Brits’. Ironically, there’s nothing lazier than a columnist on this rag with some space to fill. (more…)

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