Search Results for: people management

What holiday? Why it is vital for productivity to take a digital detox

What holiday? Why it is vital for productivity to take a digital detox 0

Difficulty with digital detachmentThe explosion of digital devices means that we’re always connected to the office, wherever we might be. In a survey conducted by the Chartered Management Institute, only half of UK managers booked a summer holiday. While 35 percent put their annual holiday plans on hold, 69 percent of those not taking a holiday cited their workload as a reason why. Even for those taking some time off, 12 percent planned to check their email daily, 19 percent said they would check their mail most days, and 26 percent planned to check at least once or twice a week. In the US, the situation is the same; 61 percent of employees said that they planned to work during their break. 38 percent planned to spend time reading emails, 32 percent said they would access work-related documents while on holiday, 30 percent planned to take work phone calls, and 20 percent would complete work tasks if asked by a colleague, boss or client.

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How performance data can help enhance your employment metrics

How performance data can help enhance your employment metrics 0

People analyticsThe rise of data based applications has brought about a new era for the HR department. Processes developed in the 70s are now going through a transformation, with tools for gathering more accurate reports based on people analytics. But what exactly can you do with this information? The main objectives of every organisation, is to boost engagement, lower turnover, provide effective training & development and attract great talent. Aside from turnover, these objectives are difficult to measure. How do you measure engagement or the effect of a training programme? This is especially difficult when your company only tracks performance annually. Data based on continuous feedback is providing new answers. There are four ways it can help: by measuring and tracking engagement; give you better insights into the causes of turnover; helping you develop a feedback culture and enabling your organisation to create better hiring and recruitment strategies. We take a closer look at these below. More →

Coworking continuing to drive workplace change around the world

Coworking continuing to drive workplace change around the world 0

Coworking weworkCoworking continues to be one of the main drivers of workplace change globally and is now becoming mainstream, according to new research from serviced office provider The Instant Group. According to the firm’s Flexible Workspace Review – US 2016 report, coworking grew more than 10 percent across the US over the last year and ‘combination centres’ which offer both executive suites and coworking spaces expanded by 12.9 percent as existing operators sought to take advantage of the growing demand for collaborative and agile workspace. The study claims that the occupation of flexible workspace by corporations has significantly expanded the US flexible office market over the past year, largely driven by the rise of the contingent workforce and changing workplace demands of Millennials. The total market grew by 4.3 percent and now includes 3,596 centres, the largest markets of its kind in the world with the UK following at 3,290 centres.

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Financial sector is rationalising real estate to remain in London

Financial sector is rationalising real estate to remain in London 0

City of London real estateA relentless drive to cut costs is forcing financial services occupiers to focus on reducing real estate costs and adopting strategies to use their space more efficiently in Central London. According to research from CBRE there has been an ongoing move by big banks to relocate non-core functions outside of Central London, as seen in HSBC’s decision to move 1,000 head office staff from London to Birmingham. However despite the inherent challenges, banks continue to cite client needs, recruitment, profile and presence as key reasons to keep office space in the Capital. This is reflected in last year’s leasing figures with banking and finance occupiers leasing 3.2m sq ft, 4.9 percent above the 10-year average. There are a variety of compromises companies may make as part of rationalisation strategies to maintain their position in London. Consolidation is an ongoing trend. But it is not a one size fits all approach.

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An out of hours email ban and why we all need the ‘right to disconnect’

An out of hours email ban and why we all need the ‘right to disconnect’ 0

Working late at homeThe recent announcement from President Francois Hollande’s Socialist Party that they plan to give French employees the “right to disconnect” by pushing through measures for an email ban out of hours has been the subject of great debate. Although many commentators have argued the need for employers to encourage people to ‘switch off’ when they aren’t in work, to date there have been no legal guidelines on this specific issue, despite several negative reports about modern technology blurring the boundaries between home and work, which some claim is creating a stress epidemic. In the UK, the Working Time Regulations specify that no worker should work more than 48 hours per week. However, there has been no case law as to whether or not checking work emails outside working hours would fall within this limit – and many UK staff check and respond to work emails outside work hours, even on holidays.

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It isn’t easy to grow big when being small makes you more innovative

It isn’t easy to grow big when being small makes you more innovative 0

HR innovation requiredToday one of the key challenges most companies face is being able to scale rapidly while still keeping the innovative edge. Startups have less decision-makers making it easier to take the risks needed to remain as innovative. As these companies grow, they often experience a downturn in innovation as management rises. In fact, many larger corporations are now attempting to harvest the success of startups by creating small internal companies. This begs the question do you have to stay small to be innovative? According to the Economist’s study on organizational agility, the main obstacles to improved responsiveness are slow decision-making, conflicting departmental goals and priorities, risk-averse cultures and silo-based information. This isn’t a problem that faces a select number of companies. A survey by McKinsey&Company found that 94 percent of managers are unhappy with their company’s innovation performance.

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Where is the data for disability on boards – and do businesses care?

Where is the data for disability on boards – and do businesses care? 0

BoardroomWhen it comes to diversity on boards, I would confidently say that disability comes in a poor fourth behind gender, age and ethnicity.  It’s something I take a great interest in as a blind person, a senior executive who sits on boards and as a start-up champion. While acknowledging a limited perspective, over the years I have noted a lack of disabled representation at board level and when I joined the NonExecutiveDirectors.com recruitment platform, we had a conversation about this. The result was that the organisation and its partners decided to commission some research into the issue. The research involved the Office of National Statistics, EU Equality and Diversity Commission, Department of Business Innovation and Skills, leading academic experts in disability, in social policy and in work and employment, Trade Union Congress (TUC), business surveys, policy documents and more.

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Employers need to step up to retain older workers and carers, claims CIPD

Employers need to step up to retain older workers and carers, claims CIPD 0

Older workersWith people living longer and fewer young people entering the labour market, Europe’s employers are increasingly reliant on the skills and talents of older workers. However, the ageing population also means that there will be around nine million carers in the UK by 2037, many of whom will be trying to juggle care and employment, according to new research released by the CIPD. It claims that, although the UK’s policy framework for supporting older workers and creating fuller working lives is well-developed in comparison to other European countries, there is a crucial need to turn this thinking into practical action to avoid losing the skills and experience of employees who choose to work beyond retirement. With around 30 percent of the UK workforce currently over 50 compared to 20 percent in the 1990s, the CIPD is urging employers to put the tools and culture in place to support older workers as they represent and increasingly significant proportion of the labour market.

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Making sense of the relentless babble about flexible working

Making sense of the relentless babble about flexible working

Zurich slideNot a day goes by when some organisation or other isn’t found extolling the virtues of flexible working or urging everybody to adopt the practice. While it’s easy to be cynical about the results of surveys from technology companies which are a staple part of this media onslaught, they are actually on to something. And that is why governments, employers and their associations and employees are all attracted to the idea of flexible working as a way of achieving whatever it is they want. The result is the stew of motivations, ideas and terminology that can lead commentators to make grand and daft pronouncements about flexible working; pronouncing it dead, most famously in the case of Yahoo but more subtly in the case of the grand new Xanadus being created in Silicon Valley by the area’s Charles Foster Kanes, or as the harbinger of death for the office based on the notion that somehow we’ll all be working in exactly the same way at some point in the future.

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Public neither knows nor cares about the coming era of smart cities

Public neither knows nor cares about the coming era of smart cities 0

Smart cities reportThe smart city is the poster child for the new era of immersive digital living, but the British public remains ‘clueless or indifferent’ about the nature of smart cities and what they will mean for their lives, according to a new report entitled: Smart Cities – Time to involve the people published by the Institution of Engineering and Technology.  The report claims that only 18 per cent of the British public has heard of a ‘smart city’ and many are unaware that city-wide technologies could improve the quality of life in urban areas. One third of respondents were unable to select the correct definition of a smart city from a list of options. Eight per cent of respondents opted for “a city that has a higher than average proportion of universities and colleges and aims to attract the most intellectual”. And a further five per cent saw it as “a city that has a strict cleaning regime for its buildings, roads and public places”.

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9 in 10 UK office workers stressed by meeting room technology

9 in 10 UK office workers stressed by meeting room technology 0

Video conferenceMeeting room technology which does not work seamlessly is a hindrance for productivity, with 86 percent experiencing serious “meeting stress” when grappling with it during meetings, according to research from Vanson Bourne and Barco. Among the biggest challenges for UK employees were sharing content and screens, and finding the right cables to connect to devices. In trying to deal with problems, staff are wasting significant amounts of their valuable time: 60 percent try to fix problems themselves, 49 percent call support, 30 percent end up giving up. 15 percent even postpone meetings until technology problems can be fixed. The vast majority (90 percent) actually pre-prepare for failures: preparing handouts as alternatives to tech, coordinating with IT in advance, and 44 percent even do a tech rehearsal. As a result of struggling with technology in meeting rooms, a quarter of UK office workers have missed important deadlines, and some have even missed out on personal opportunities like promotions (7 percent).

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UK, Germany, Switzerland and Poland lag Europe in flexible working

UK, Germany, Switzerland and Poland lag Europe in flexible working 0

UK, Germany, Switzerland and Poland lag behind in flexible workingA new report has verified the value of flexible working by showing a positive correlation between employee happiness and the adoption of flexible working practices. Yet, the research conducted by IDC and sponsored by Cornerstone OnDemand also reveals that flexible working practices have been taken up at different speeds across Europe, where the lowest flexible working maturity appears to be clustered in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the UK. Business managers and HR respondents stated a low level of flexible working adoption in Poland, the UK, Switzerland and Germany – surprising, given the competitive labour market in these regions. The Nordics, Spain, Benelux and Austria were perceived to be the most mature when it came to flexible working options. Among the respondents from Poland, less than 50 percent of those surveyed were allowed to work from home, while the figure for the Nordic countries was 87 percent.

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