Search Results for: health and safety

March 15, 2016

More than a quarter of managers not comfortable discussing mental health ⁰

by Sara Bean • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Over a quarter (28 per cent) of managers admit to having been diagnosed with or treated for a mental health related condition such as stress, anxiety or depression, however, 26 per cent of them keep this private at work, citing fear of being judged by colleagues or their manager (42 per cent and 32 per cent, respectively). And it’s not surprising this reticence persists when you consider that over one in four UK managers (27 per cent) would be more comfortable discussing employees’ physical health than they are discussing their mental health. According to the new research from AXA PPP healthcare, fear it would harm their career prospects (25 per cent) and fear of being discriminated against (21 per cent) are the main reasons for keeping quiet. Although 57 per cent say they’re just as comfortable discussing one or the other the sizeable minority who don’t indicates there’s still work to be done to overcome the mental health taboo.

February 12, 2016

Unpredictability and office environment are key causes of workplace stress ⁰

by Sara Bean • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

The two most common factors influencing work related stress levels are unpredictability (26 percent) and workplace environment (21 percent) according to a poll by US jobs site CareerCast.com. The results, based on 834 respondents found that most of the respondents (62 percent) rated their jobs as highly stressful, while just 11 percent felt the amount of stress on the job was low. Other key stressors were deadlines (20 percent) and safety of others (16 percent). Interestingly, few people felt that length of work day/week (7 percent), personal well-being in danger (5 percent), potential for promotion (3 percent) and travel (1 percent) were major job stressors. Any number of factors can contribute to an unpredictable workplace; either the flow of responsibility changes from day-to-day with new tasks added or changed at random intervals or expectations may change. Running a close second is the workplace environment and culture, which includes interactions with bosses, co-workers and clients/customers.

January 29, 2016

Delivering the low-down on the sit-stand workstation phenomenon ⁰

by Ashley Hayward • Comment, Furniture, Wellbeing, Workplace design

While the UK, US, Australia and other nations continue to treat them as something of a novelty, across Sweden, Norway and Finland, over 80 per cent of office workers use sit-stand desks. Offering employees a height adjustable work station is now mandatory in Denmark. However, sit-stand working is still in its infancy in the UK, with only 2 per cent of similar workers having access to variable-height workstations. Given the huge amount of news coverage devoted to the subject of sedentary lifestyles in the last couple of years, ‘sit-stand’ and ‘active working’ have become buzz terms in UK workplace design. The ‘On Your Feet Britain’* campaign has raised awareness of the health perils risked by the many Brits who spend an average of 8.5 hours a day sitting, whether at their desk or slumped in front of the telly. Inevitably, savvy employers will be asking themselves if they can afford to ignore the problem.

October 29, 2015

HSE publishes latest report on workplace ill health and injuries ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Legal news, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

The Health and Safety Executive has released its latest statistics on work related illnesses, injuries and death in UK workplaces. The main takeaway from the data appears to be that after more than a decade of substantial falls across a spectrum of conditions and injuries, there are signs that numbers are starting to stabilise. According to the data for 2014/15, more than a million UK workers were made ill by their work during the year, losing some 27.3 million days and costing the economy £14.3 billion. This represents a fall of over 30 percent since 2002. Most absence is now down to stress, depression, anxiety (collated as a single issue for this particular report) and musculoskeletal disorders. These two groupings account for 9.9 and 9.5 million days off work respectively. The average days lost per case for stress, depression or anxiety (23 days) is higher than for musculoskeletal disorders (17 days).

October 26, 2015

An updated green building standard designed to meet wider business objectives ⁰

by Sue Gregson • Comment, Facilities management, Legal news, Property

The publication in September 2015 of the revised ISO 14001 Global Environmental Management Standard has been heralded as a move that will “shift business focus on the environment from compliance with regulations and direct operations, to placing the environment at the heart of thinking and strategy.” This will assist businesses around the world to respond to increasing global sustainability challenges and ensure long-term business success. Currently there are over 300,000 organisations worldwide that are certified to the ISO 14001 Standard, first published in 1996. According to the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment, (IEMA) ISO 14001 is the second most used standard companies employ to manage their performance globally, with 171 countries now represented. Its popularity as a management tool has been linked to both improved financial and environmental performance.

October 11, 2015

How biodynamic lighting stimulates sense and performance at work ⁰

by Peter Young • Comment, Products, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Biodynamic lighting is an artificial light source that replicates the dynamic variations of daylight and sunlight through a light management system. Up until recent times, it was commonly believed that light was only needed for seeing. However, in 2001, an American scientist, G. C. Brainard discovered a circadian photoreceptor in the retina, which receives a specific quality and quantity of light, and sets the biological clock.* He discovered that light not only provides us with the ability to see, but that light enters the eye via the ‘fourth pathway’, which has a vital non-visual or biological effect on the human body. His studies showed that a certain quantity and quality of light stimulates the biological clock, also known as the circadian rhythm, which regulates hormone levels, particularly melatonin and cortisone, in the body and so plays a vital role in our physical and mental wellbeing.

September 29, 2015

Changing behaviour and fidgeting reduce problems linked to sedentary work ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Furniture, Knowledge, Wellbeing, Workplace

There are a number of well established strategies for reducing the incidence of the back problems associated with sedentary worker. Two new studies have identified important ways that can be used to address the challenges. One will be familiar – training and encouraging people to be aware of and modify their behaviour; the other less so- fidgeting. The first study, published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, found that combining sound ergonomic practice with behaviour modification strategies led to a 60 percent reduction lower back pain compared to ergonomics in isolation. The second study, published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, found that fidgeting may also reduce the harmful effects of sedentary working across a range of health issues, with the authors concluding that “fidgeting may reduce the risk of all-cause mortality associated with excessive sitting time”.

May 27, 2015

Smart buildings, smart cities and the promise of infinite data

by Paul Doherty • Cities, Comment, Facilities management, Technology

The rapid urbanization of our world and the weaving of existing and new buildings into the urban fabric of Smart City initiatives are some of the great challenges facing our global industry today. Along with the vast amount of definitions and marketing campaigns surrounding the phrase “Smart Cities” comes the challenge of understanding why the movement is important to the Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Facility Management (AEC/FM) industry and how industry stakeholders can profit from, or at the very least, not get run over by the tsunami called Smart Cities. The emergence of Smart Cities as the conduit for ideas, thoughts, policies and strategies for the world’s urban environments is an important milestone for our industry, and it comes at a time of rapid innovation, convergence and redefinitions.

May 8, 2015

The world’s enduring addiction to the joy and misery of commuting

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Work&Place, Workplace

Commuting is one of the most complained about yet least explored facets of our working lives. This is in spite of the fact that it consumes so much of people’s time, energy and money, is presented as one of the main arguments for more flexible working practices and is so closely linked to our wellbeing. Yet the half a billion – and growing – commuters worldwide could be forgiven for assuming nobody is really that much interested in the effects of their daily grind into work, especially when you consider the attention given to other workplace issues. Douglas Langmead in his feature on page 32 of the new issue of Work&Place does his bit to redress this imbalance with a fascinating look at commuting in the rapidly developing and endlessly fascinating economies of the United Arab Emirates.

May 7, 2015

Understanding and overcoming the objections to sit stand workstations

by Marc Bird • Comment, Furniture, Wellbeing, Workplace design

In Sweden, sit-stand working is so commonplace that our Nordic colleagues are perplexed by how slow the UK has been to catch up. The expectation of varying working positions throughout the day is so widespread across Scandinavia that over 80 percent of Swedish, Danish, Finnish and Norwegian office workers already use sit stand workstations, and offering employees a height adjustable work station is now mandatory in Denmark. Despite sit-stand working still being in its infancy in the UK, with only 2 percent of knowledge workers having access to height adjustable workstations, there is plenty of compelling evidence, and a groundswell of expert opinion, to suggest that the UK office is going to have to get off its backside pretty soon.

April 17, 2015

Employers neglecting to check ergonomic safety of office workers ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Legal news, News, Technology, Workplace

The widespread adoption of mobile devices, not to mention the development of the Internet and uptake of flexible working, may render the Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 hopelessly out of date, but they continue to oblige employers to ensure that employees’ workstations are assessed for ergonomic comfort and safety. A survey by Fellowes claims over half of companies (62%) acknowledge they have a duty to foster the physical and mental health of their staff, but found that 31 percent of workers were left in charge of conducting their own self-assessments. In over a quarter of organisations (27%), staff raised concerns that their monitor or display screens were not appropriate and more than one fifth (21%) weren’t aware of any legal requirements when assessing a display screen.

April 1, 2015

New safety regulations to affect even routine building maintenance tasks

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Legal news, Property

Any organisation which intends to contract for construction work could risk fines or imprisonment if they do not comply with new legal safety regulations covering site management. Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com is warning that The Construction (Design and Management) (CDM) Regulations, which come into force on 6 April, will affect all construction work in the UK. The regulations give ‘clients’, meaning anyone for whom a project is carried out, a greater role. Once in force, the regulations will require commercial firms to appoint a principal designer and principal contractor whenever any work involves more than one contractor – even where the work involved is very limited and over quickly. The scope of ‘construction work’ under the regulations is wide, covering everything from major infrastructure projects to installing new showers.