Search Results for: people

Generative artificial intelligence set to boost GDP but could affect 300 million jobs

Generative artificial intelligence set to boost GDP but could affect 300 million jobs

The latest developments in generative artificial intelligence could replace the equivalent of 300 million full-time jobsThe latest developments in generative artificial intelligence could replace the equivalent of 300 million full-time jobs, a report by investment bank Goldman Sachs claims. The authors suggest that the technology could replace around a quarter of the work tasks carried out in the US and Europe but may also mean new jobs and a productivity boom. The report claims that the tech could increase total annual value of goods and services produced globally by 7 percent. More →

Work-related stress costing UK economy £28bn a year

Work-related stress costing UK economy £28bn a year

New data and economic modelling from AXA UK and Centre for Business and Economic Research (Cebr) claims that people are struggling with burnout and work-related stressNew data and economic modelling from AXA UK and Centre for Business and Economic Research (Cebr) claims that people are struggling with burnout and work-related stress, with an estimated £28bn lost last year due to poor mental health at work. The majority of this cost is due to loss of working days because of stress, burnout and general poor mental health, with businesses losing 23.3m working days as a result of these issues.  More →

Leesman partners with MIT Center for Real Estate to explore long term impact of hybrid working

Leesman partners with MIT Center for Real Estate to explore long term impact of hybrid working

Workplace analyst Leesman has joined the MIT Center for Real Estate (MIT/CRE) as a Strategic Partner and will be working with its Real Estate Transformation Lab to examine issues related to hybrid workingWorkplace analyst Leesman has joined the MIT Center for Real Estate (MIT/CRE) as a Strategic Partner and will be working with its Real Estate Transformation Lab to examine issues related to hybrid working. This collaboration will support Leesman’s three year investigation into the impact of hybrid working on people, places and societies.  The Leesman project, entitled ‘The Hybrid Future’, will survey over 10,000 participants from around the world, to explore the impact of hybrid working on everything from productivity, diversity and urban centres to the environment, wellbeing and even our love lives. With 24 surveys set to be issued every six weeks, the volume and diversity of data, length of study, and breadth of topic range, make The Hybrid Future the most comprehensive study of hybrid working ever conducted. More →

MIPIM 2023 confirms that green sells. But is commercial real estate buying?

MIPIM 2023 confirms that green sells. But is commercial real estate buying?

MIPIM may have returned last year, but 2023 was the year it felt backMIPIM may have returned last year, but 2023 was the year it felt back. That was despite widespread concerns over the rising costs of refinancing and a banking crisis that started with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in the US and quickly moved to Europe, with Swiss financial regulators beginning to put together during MIPIM week the deal that would see UBS buy Credit Suisse in an emergency rescue. More →

The five ages of the office and the man who shaped the way we talk about them

The five ages of the office and the man who shaped the way we talk about them

Pioneering SAS office complex in StockholmThe office has passed through five ages. The ‘coffee houses’ of the 17th century, yielded to the ‘clerical factories’ of the 19th as machines revolutionised work. After the Second World War, the ‘corporate offices’ of global corporations and William Whyte’s Organization Man dominated the scene. Following the launch of IBM’s PC in the early-1980s, we saw the rise of ‘digital offices’ in the 1990s, complete with internet, email and social media. And for the past few years we have been moving inexorably towards the latest age: ‘network offices’. Each age was shorter than its predecessor: both the digital and network ages began less than a career span ago. More →

What Studs Terkel can teach us about how we talk about work

What Studs Terkel can teach us about how we talk about work

Studs Terkel was something that has been lost in the modern sea of opinion, an oral historian. Not trying to change the world, but record itStuds Terkel is a particular hero of mine. I like his name, his style, his association with jazz but also the way he wrote. His characteristic approach was marked by interviews with ordinary Americans about their jobs and how they felt about them. He did lots of other stuff but that was his work. What is especially striking is that he saw himself as a chronicler of other people’s lives rather than a commentator on them. More →

Company culture is one of the hardest but most valuable things to get right after a merger

Company culture is one of the hardest but most valuable things to get right after a merger

There are major consequences for company culture, which is so important to get right in the mergers and acquisition process.Like never before, 2021 saw record-breaking levels of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity globally, a trend that continued into 2022 until a challenging macroeconomic landscape resulted in a sharp decline in activity. This was mainly because businesses waited to see what the coming months would bring. Whilst experts believe that M&A activity won’t return to levels seen in 2021, they do expect an increase as markets adapt, recover, and look for ways to increase profit. And that has major consequences for company culture, which is so important to get right in the mergers and acquisition process. More →

Getting back to basics in The Great Workplace Conversation

Getting back to basics in The Great Workplace Conversation

There’s nowhere near enough talk about our base instincts in the Great Workplace Conversation.There’s nowhere near enough talk about our base instincts in the Great Workplace Conversation. Objectively speaking, we remain relatively highly evolved, communal and intelligent primates. And so we are driven by things we like to admit to – love, empathy and the Golden Rule. But also things we don’t care to admit to in quite the same way – status, jealousy and self-interest. More →

American employees spend 200 hours a year watching adult sites on their work computer

American employees spend 200 hours a year watching adult sites on their work computer

American employees are wasting hundreds of contracted work hours a year using their work equipment for personal tasks and activities, according to a new survey from ExpressVPN. The survey, conducted by the consumer privacy and security company, found that some people are spending only 33 percent of annual contracted hours on work tasks. With a steep rise in hybrid and home working in recent years, many companies have provided employees with work devices to use in the comfort of their own homes, including work laptops, desktops, phones, and microphones. More →

Workspace Design Show goes from strength to strength this year with visitor numbers up by 76 percent

Workspace Design Show goes from strength to strength this year with visitor numbers up by 76 percent

The Workspace Design Show returned to the Business Design Centre from 27- 28 February 2023, with exhibitors and visitors alike hailing it as a must-attend addition to the trade show calendarThe Workspace Design Show returned to the Business Design Centre from 27- 28 February 2023, with exhibitors and visitors alike hailing it as a must-attend addition to the trade show calendar and a place where the workplace community can come together to be inspired and network. The overarching theme for this year’s show was Destination Workplace: Places Where People Want To Be, exploring how to create environments where employees have a desirable experience at their workplaces. More →

Most hybrid workers worldwide don’t think they’ll return to old ways of work

Most hybrid workers worldwide don’t think they’ll return to old ways of work

A poll of 3,000 office workers by Insights Learning & Development claims that 70 percent of hybrid workers in the UK want to maintain the arrangement permanently.A poll of 3,000 office workers by Insights Learning & Development claims that 70 percent of hybrid workers in the UK want to maintain the arrangement permanently. According to the report, UK employees are generally happy with their hybrid working arrangements – more so than employees in the US, Canada and France. Overall workers in the Netherlands are most satisfied with their hybrid working arrangements. More →

The UK workplace sector reacts to the Spring Budget 2023

The UK workplace sector reacts to the Spring Budget 2023

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 →