Search Results for: media

June 25, 2018

Younger employees are main source of workplace security breaches

More than a third of senior executives believe that younger employees are the “main culprits” for workplace security breaches according to a new study into attitudes to security of the workforce, commissioned by Centrify. The study also claims that these same decision makers are doing very little to allay their own fears with over a third of 18-24 year olds able to access any files on their company network and only one in five having to request permission to access specific files. Less than half (43 percent) have access only to the files that are relevant to their work. The study, conducted by Censuswide, sought the views of 1,000 younger workers (18-24 year olds) and 500 decision makers in UK organisations to discover how security, privacy and online behaviour at work impacts the lives of younger employees and the companies that they work for.

June 21, 2018

The hype surrounding wellbeing concepts can blind us to their true value

by Georgia Elliott-Smith • Comment, Wellbeing

Digital detox. Does the phrase make you roll your eyes or grab your attention? Lately, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the idea of switching off from technology, particularly your smart phone (if people still call them that as they are so ubiquitous) has become a media fad. A litmus test for this might be how much air time BBC R2 give the subject. Over the past few weeks it has figured a lot, particularly Chris Evans referencing it in a Japanese themed week and a Friday morning interview with the neuroscientist Dr Jack Lewis who shared his tops tips for a digital detox. No doubt the Daily mail is jumping on the bandwagon as well.

June 21, 2018

Rise and shine: our analytical thinking peaks at 6am

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News

An academic study of social media users suggests that our analytical thinking peaks at around 6am – with people adopting a more ’emotional and existential’ tone later in the day. The research,Diurnal Variations Of Psychometric Indicators In Twitter Content, from academics at the University of Bristol and published in the journal PLOS ONE, involved the analysis of seven billion words used in 800 million tweets. Twitter content was sampled every hour over the course of four years across 54 of the UK’s largest cities to determine whether thinking modes change collectively. Researchers in artificial intelligence (AI) and medicine analysed the aggregated and anonymised content using AI methods.

June 15, 2018

Four key points to consider when creating a digital workplace

by Jonas Andrén et al • Features, Technology

As the use of digital technologies and data to create new value propositions and operating models becomes more commonplace, workplaces across the world are being affected across sectors, from manufacturing to local government. Almost all areas have been touched by the megatrend, whether from own initiatives or to keep up with competitors. However, Arthur D. Little’s Digital Transformation Study reports that almost 80 percent of companies surveyed were only “digitally adaptive”, with digital efforts limited to products and services at best, and no comprehensive approach to adapting their mind-sets. To help traditional organizations adapt sufficiently to compete with digitally minded start-ups, we have identified four key questions to consider when developing digitalization strategies and the creation of a fully digital workplace.

June 14, 2018

Workplace stress and busy schedules are biggest barriers to a healthy lifestyle, claims report

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing

New research from the British Nutrition Foundation (BNF) claims that almost half (48 percent) of adults say that busy lives and stress play a large role in stopping them from eating healthily, with 40 percent of adults admitting that being too tired after work is their main reason for not being active. The survey, conducted as part of BNF Healthy Eating Week, questioned almost 500 adults across the UK, and also revealed a number of different factors that affect people’s food choices when at work or university. High workload makes it difficult for a third of adults to eat well, along with finding it difficult to take a proper lunch break. While at work a quarter say they do not have enough time to prepare healthy foods and 24 percent of respondents say there are limited healthy food and drink options available at work or close by; 28 percent say there are too many unhealthy snacks available in their work setting.

June 13, 2018

US companies are waking up to the benefits of caring for employee mental health

by Colleen O'Day • Comment, Wellbeing

In 2015, the American Psychological Association chose American Express as the inaugural winner of the Organizational Excellence Award, recognizing successful efforts to integrate psychology and prioritize behavioral health and emotional well-being in the workplace. American Express had an employee assistance program (EAP) for workers dealing with depression and other mental health challenges. The EAP was a telephone-consultation system and only about 4 percent of employees utilized it. After the firm added on-site counselors to meet with employees for free—and rebranded the EAP as part of its “Healthy Living” —the usage rate more than doubled.

June 11, 2018

Prevalent ageist attitudes harm the health and wellbeing of everybody

by Mark Eltringham • News, Wellbeing

A report published by Royal Society for Public Health in partnership with the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation has revealed the extent of ageist attitudes across the UK, and how they harm the health and wellbeing of everyone in society as we grow older. RSPH is calling for action to tackle inter-generational isolation, end the stigmatisation of older people, and undo the media clichés that keep ageism alive and well. RSPH evaluated ageist attitudes across 12 main areas of life, finding that the public are most ageist about memory loss, appearance, and participation in activities (both physical and community). The report highlights the extent to which old age is viewed by many as a period of decline and ordeal, and calls on stakeholders in the media, government, voluntary sector, and schools to take action to reframe the way our nation views ageing in a more positive light.

June 11, 2018

Women and younger people are transforming the UK’s freelance economy

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

The workforce is changing as more people swap the security of a 9-to-5 job for the flexibility of freelancing, with key demographics and industries leading the self-employed sector, according to a new study from Instant Offices. ‘Millennials’ and UK workers facing significant lifestyle changes, such as motherhood, or nearing retirement, and are looking for more flexible ways to work. According to the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed (IPSE), the self-employed sector now includes approximately 4.8 million people, with freelancers comprising 42 percent of that population and 6 percent of the UK workforce as a whole. The IPSE reports that in 2016, freelancers contributed £119 billion to the national economy. This was up from £109 billion in 2015 and experts are predicting that this number will only continue to grow in the years to come.

June 1, 2018

How our noisy world was foreseen by the 20th Century’s great minds

by Charles Marks • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Over the past few years we’ve become more aware of the problems associated with the pace and clatter of modern life and not least among them its noise. Authors like Susan Cain have highlighted not only how distracting noise can be for everybody but how it affects different personality types in different ways. She is perhaps the world’s most high profile proponent of the idea that sometimes we need to work quietly and alone and is the author of Quiet: the power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking and the person responsible for this now famous and archetypal TED Talk presented on the effects of sound and the need for more silence and privacy. But she is not alone in making these claims, nor is she the first person to do so and the warning signs have been around for quite some time. The first calls for people to heed the racket of modern life came at least a hundred years ago as we began the 20th Century transition to office based life with its distractions of noisy things and people.

May 31, 2018

Upcoming tasks and appointments may make us less productive, claims new research

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing

Available time seems shorter when it comes just before an appointment, say scientists who found that an upcoming task may make us less productive. In a series of eight studies, both in the lab and real life, researchers found that free time seems shorter to people when it comes before a task or appointment on their calendar. The study appears online in the Journal of Consumer Research. In an online study of 198 peopl were asked to imagine they had a friend coming over to visit in one hour and “you are all ready for your friend to come by.” The others were told that they had no plans for the evening. All participants were asked how many minutes “objectively” they could spend reading during the next hour and how many minutes they “subjectively” felt like they could spend reading during that same hour.

May 29, 2018

Drones could add £42 billion to UK GDP by 2030

by Mark Eltringham • News, Technology

Drone technology has the potential to increase UK GDP by £42 billion (or 2 percent) by 2030, according to new research from PwC. The research estimates there will be more than 76,000 drones in use across UK skies by 2030. More than a third of these (36 percent) could be utilised by the public sector (including in areas such as defence, health and education). The report claims that drone technology could help the UK achieve up to £16bn in net cost savings by 2030 through increased productivity. The technology, media and telecoms (TMT) sector stands to save the most by using drones, with a potential net saving of £4.8bn by 2030.

May 29, 2018

Take up of office space in West End stays strong, but supply continues to decline

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

Demand for commercial office space in central London has remained above the long-term average, with the amount of space under offer increasing, though the level of supply in the West End has continued to decline, according to the latest figures from Savills. Take-up in April reached 275,473 sq ft across 24 transactions, bringing take-up for the first four months of the year to 1.3m sq ft. The volume of transactions to complete over the month was the lowest for April in five years but overall year-to-date take-up still remained up on the long-term average for this period by 13 percent. More →