Search Results for: performance

December 19, 2016

UK employers predict workforce growth in 2017 along with more inclusive hiring ⁰

by Sara Bean • Knowledge, News, Workplace

Four in ten (41 percent) of firms across the UK will grow their workforce in 2017 but uncertainty about the UK’s future relationship with the EU has shaken overall business confidence in the labour market claims a new report. According to respondents to the 19th CBI/Pertemps Network Group Employment Trends Survey, for the fourth year running, growth in permanent job opportunities will outstrip temporary recruitment. But the balance of those expecting the UK to be a more attractive place to employ people in the next five years has flipped from +16 percent in the 2015 survey to -21 percent in this year’s results. In terms of engagement, over three quarters (76 percent) of respondents reported that a diverse and inclusive workforce is vital or important to the future success of their organisation. They report a range of benefits of inclusive workplace practices including increased skills (73 percent), attraction and retention of staff (60 percent) and engagement levels (46 percent).

December 16, 2016

Millennials more tuned-in to discrimination at work than other generations ⁰

by Sara Bean • Legal news, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Millennials have widely divergent experiences and attitudes toward diversity and inclusion within the workplace than older generations, claims a new US-based report. In the research from the Institute for Public Relations (IPR) and Weber Shandwick into the importance that people place on diversity and inclusion (D&I) when considering a new job found that 47 percent of Millennials consider it an important criterion in their job search compared to 33 percent of Gen Xers and 37 percent of Boomers. Nearly six in 10 of all employed Americans (58 percent) report that they see or hear about some form of discrimination and/or bias at their workplace, most frequently racial or ethnic in nature (22 percent). Millennials are significantly more likely than older generations to be attuned to such behaviour at work, and also much more comfortable discussing these issues at work than their older colleagues. The survey also asked respondents why they believe employers emphasise diversity and inclusion in the workplace. All three generations cited “To make it a better place to work” among their top three reasons. Millennials also recognize increased opportunities while reputational benefits and outside pressures are noticed by Gen Xers and Boomers.

December 12, 2016

Can an organisation simply buy employee motivation? ⁰

by Matias Rodsevich • Comment, Workplace

It’s the end of the year and like in most companies it’s probably time to start calculating and reassessing your employee’s compensation. But can you actually use money to motivate and retain your employees? A study by Willis Towers Watson found that only 20 percent of employers in North America actually believe merit pay is effective in driving high performance. Traditionally money was seen as the main incentive used to motivate employees. Higher productivity results in higher salaries and bonuses. For companies, it’s been used as the main tool to attract, retain and engage their people. Today we’ve learned that the key to motivation is much more complex than that.

December 7, 2016

Are these the best places to work in 2017? ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • News, Workplace, Workplace design

Recruitment site Glassdoor has announced the winners of its ninth annual Employees’ Choice Awards to find the best places to work in North America and parts of Europe. The Awards are based on the input of employees who voluntarily provide anonymous feedback, by completing a company review, about their job, work environment and employer over the past year. This year, the Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Awards feature six categories, honouring the Best Places to Work across the UK, US (both large and small companies), Canada, France and Germany. There is one category in the UK: 50 Best Places to Work (honouring employers with 1,000 or more employees). Winners are ranked based on their overall rating achieved during the past year. The top five UK Best Places to Work in 2017 are Expedia, ARM, HomeServeUK, Mott MacDonald and Hays plc

December 6, 2016

The Work Foundation launches Commission on Good Work ⁰

by Neil Franklin • Company news, Workplace, Workplace design

The Work Foundation, part of Lancaster University, has launched a new Commission on Good Work. The commission will seek answers to key questions such as ‘why is a focus on good work so important now?’, ‘what does good work mean in a modern economy?’ and ‘how do we achieve good work?’ The initiative was launched by Work Foundation Director Lesley Giles who invited stakeholders from businesses, trade unions, professional bodies, and the public and voluntary sectors to be part of a ‘Good Work Taskforce.’ Supporting the launch were Sir Charlie Mayfield (John Lewis Partnership), Dame Fiona Kendrick (Nestle),Douglas McCormick (Sweett Group), Mark Keese (OECD), Gail Cartmail (Unite), Peter Cheese CIPD, Scott Johnson (a small business owner) and Professor Paul Sparrow (Lancaster University Management School).

December 5, 2016

Just one percent of UK firms are ready for the digital economy ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • News, Technology

A new study by Oxford Economics and SAP claims that just one in every 100 organisations in the UK is capitalising on the digital economy, significantly fewer than in comparable European countries such as Germany where the figure is more than 2 in 5 and Spain (22 percent). According to the study, the benefits of digital readiness include greater workforce diversity. The ‘digital winners’ defined by the report have higher female representation at mid-management level level and slightly more women overall. Four in ten of the study’s digital winners globally reported effective diversity programmes, compared to 36 percent of all companies in France, 33 percent in Russia, 30 percent in the UK and 23 percent in Spain.

November 30, 2016

Germany slides down rankings as one of world’s top employment talent hotspots ⁰

by Sara Bean • Knowledge, News, Workplace

Germany has slipped down the rankings as one of the world’s top employment talent hotspots, with other established economic powers such as the UK and France playing only minor roles in sustaining Europe’s pre-eminence. According to the World Talent Report by IMD Switzerland, Denmark, Belgium, Sweden and the Netherlands occupy the top five places in the rankings – the first two retaining their standings from last year. Finland, Norway, Austria, Luxembourg and Hong Kong complete the top 10, with Germany 11th, Iceland 16th, Ireland 18th, the UK 20th and France down in 28th. The objective of the World Talent Report is to assess how countries sustain the talent pool necessary for businesses to maximize their performances. Austria was one of the biggest movers over the past 12 months, climbing 11 places to break into the top 10, while Belgium rose by six positions to take third spot. By contrast, Germany slipped out of the elite, dropping from 7th to 11th, after being impacted especially heavily by the economic crisis affecting much of Europe.

November 25, 2016

Workplace professionals should look to the consumer sector for boosting engagement ⁰

by Jeff Flanagan • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace, Workplace design

More and more businesses are recognising the power of the workplace experience to drive employee performance and engagement. Global brand Airbnb, for example, has now renamed its head of human resources as “chief employee experience officer.” This is good news for workplace design and management professionals. We are well placed to capitalise on this shift in business opinion, but if we want to make a tangible impact, we need to bring practical solutions to the table. First and foremost, these need to be backed up by research. There have been few studies specifically into what makes a healthy and productive work environment. However, there are a number of research projects that examine how a human being’s surroundings impact their mood and behaviour, and in particular how consumer environments shape customers’ perception of and engagement with a brand. As workplace professionals, we can learn a great deal from this consumer research and this is why workplace design and management teams should look towards consumer-facing industries for inspiration.

November 23, 2016

Gender earnings gap in tech sector is significantly higher than national average ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Technology, Workplace

The high tech sector may pride itself on offering some of the most attractive and modern workplace environments, but when it comes to equal parity between the sexes it seems out of date. New research from Mercer claims that at 25 percent, the gender earnings gap in the UK’s high tech sector is significantly higher than the national average (18 percent). The consultancy also found that small companies have the largest gap, with a 30 percent difference in (median) pay between all male and female employees, and a 26 percent gap when considering mean base salaries. This difference reduces as company sizes grow. Where the data allowed comparison of pay between women and men in equal job roles, the pay gap was much smaller, typically 8 percent. This is comparable to the UK norm of 9 percent for this type of analysis. The reasons for this gap is due on further analysis to a multitude of factors including the reluctance of many women to enter the tech field, not enough effort being put into promoting women and a lack of will in promoting flexible working patterns.

November 22, 2016

Employers and ambitious employees combine to boost a buoyant job market ⁰

by Sara Bean • News, Workplace

The job market continues to remain buoyant in the face of economic and political uncertainties, and this is matched by a noticeable enthusiasm among employees to move jobs, suggests new research. The Totaljobs Employment Index, which measures activity across the totaljobs website, has shown that job postings on the site were up 7 percent year-on-year (YoY) in October. But this demand seems to have been outstripped by jobseekers’ needs, with the number of applications on the website up 14 percent YoY. This means that despite an increase in vacancies, the number of applications per job has soared 7 percent. This trend continues when looking at the last three months (Aug-Oct) compared with the same period in 2015, as jobs rose 11 percent and applications increased 12 percent. Broken down across the UK, the best performing regions in terms of growth in jobs posted include the North West (up 17 percent), the East Midlands and Wales (both up 13 percent).

November 16, 2016

Employers as well as workers behind the creation of the gig economy ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Technology, Workplace

Employers and workers are both driving the creation of a temporary, independent workforce, but despite the benefits, there are some significant management challenges, claims two new EY surveys focusing on the gig economy. Among large organisations (100,000 employees or more) surveyed, 49 percent said they increased their use of gig workers in the last five years and 40 percent of organisations expect to increase their use of contingent workers in the next five years. One quarter expect 30 percent or more of their workforce to be contingent workers by 2020. On the employee side, the research shows more people are choosing to do contingent work; 73 percent of the 1,008 short-term contingent workers surveyed had positive reasons for their independent work arrangement, with only 20 percent saying they were short-term workers due to a lack of suitable full-time positions. Sixty-six percent believe the benefits of contingent working outweigh the downsides always or most of the time compared to just 6 percent who believe the opposite.

November 15, 2016

‘Western’ millennials rate sense of purpose most important job criterion ⁰

by Sara Bean • News, Technology, Workplace

A sense of purpose remains the top priority among ‘Western’ millennials from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and France; but in the largest emerging economies, including China and India, salary and career advancement remain the most important job criteria, according to the Global Shapers Annual Survey for 2016. While the US, UK and Canada lead the list among young people who would like to live abroad to advance their careers, the United Arab Emirates and China are the most preferred emerging-market countries, the survey from the World Economic Forum survey claims. They came in at 11th and 12th place, respectively, ahead of the Scandinavian countries, all other BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries and Singapore. One reason for the strong performance of the UAE may be the good prospects for landing a job in the country. While 34 percent of millennials globally identified the lack of economic opportunity and employment as one of the three most serious issues affecting their country – making it the biggest issue of concern after corruption –only one in 10 of the UAE respondents said they see unemployment as a serious issue.