Search Results for: business

Serviced offices and coworking spaces boom in Manchester in response to growing customer demand

by • Coworking, News, Property

Rising demand from businesses for flexible working space has sparked a boom in the provision of coworking spaces serviced offices in Manchester in 2017, according to the latest office market snapshot by real estate advisors Colliers International. The report showed serviced office providers addressed the need for flexible working from small and growing operators by taking in excess of 100,000 sq ft of space in Manchester in the first three quarters of 2017. Major developments included global co-working specialist WeWork following the opening of its first office outside London at No 1 Spinningfields by adding another 44,000 sq ft at One St Peter’s Square and property developer Allied London launching its own co-working brand All Work & Social to operate alongside WeWork at Spinningfields.

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New evidence low productivity is having a significant bearing on pay growth

by • News, Public Sector, Workplace

Most private sector workers are still not pushing for pay rises, despite falling real wages and low unemployment, according to the latest quarterly CIPD/The Adecco Group Labour Market Outlook survey. Only a quarter (24 percent) of employers in the private sector say they are under some or significant pressure to raise wages from the majority of their workforce, while almost four in ten private sector firms (38 percent) say they face no pressure at all to raise wages. The most common reason given by private sector employers (23 percent) for the lack of pressure to raise wages is a recognition among workers that the business cannot afford more generous pay increases, underlining the productivity challenge many firms face.  The survey of more than 2,000 UK employers shows a slightly higher proportion of private sector employers (36 percent) cite either some or significant pay pressure to raise wages for certain roles, particularly among high and middle-skilled jobs.

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Warnings of widening gender pay gap as women are hit hardest by low pay

by • Comment, Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

 

It is Equal Pay Day today (Friday 10th November) – the day in the year which is marked in the calendar as the one where women start to work for free, and the campaigning charity the Fawcett Society has warned that the pay gap is actually widening for some groups of women and will now take 100 years to close, based on the current rate of change. Research by the Living Wage Foundation published to mark the day has also revealed women are hit hardest by low pay in the UK. Women make up nearly two thirds (62 percent) of workers currently struggling to make ends meet on less than the real Living Wage claims the Foundation, which amounts to 3.4 million women compared to 2.1 million men. Nearly 1/3 of all UK working women (26 percent) are still earning less than the Living Wage, compared to just 16 percent of all working men. And this trend has been the case since 2011, when KPMG and the Living Wage Foundation launched its annual Living Wage report.

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Cities in developed world are less confident in their digital ecosystems

by • Cities, News, Technology

According to a new study from The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), business leaders in 45 cities around the world are relatively confident that they can find the support they need for their digital transformation efforts. Many city environments come up short, however, particularly in the supply of digital talent. The study claims that firms in Bangalore, San Francisco and Mumbai display the greatest degree of confidence while executives in developed world cities are some of the least confident, including those in Berlin, Tokyo and Yokohama. The study also claims that half of businesses (48 percent) have considered relocating operations to a city with a more favourable environment.

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Two thirds of UK employees have taken a day off work in the last year as a result of stress, depression or anxiety

by • News, Wellbeing

New survey results suggest mental health issues are having a significant impact on productivity in the workplace. Events company Wildgoose surveyed employees at 250 businesses across the UK and found there remains a stigma surrounding mental health at work. Of those surveyed who have taken a day off work, just under half admitted to calling in sick with a different complaint to the one from which they were actually suffering. Two thirds of respondents (62 percent) said they had taken a day off work as a result of stress, depression or anxiety.

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Brexit thought to be the main culprit for job market attrition and ‘dual’ economy

by • Cities, News, Workplace

There are ongoing dual narratives in UK economy caused by the 2016 Brexit vote, the latest Morgan McKinley October Employment Monitor suggests. On the one hand, a new report by Colliers International dubbed London Europe’s top economic City. On the other hand, institutions are stubbornly stuck in limbo, and the fear of major jobs losses looms thick in the sky, keeping hiring low. “The economic tug of war that Brexit kicked off means we still have no idea quite where we’ll land,” said Hakan Enver, Operations Director, Morgan McKinley Financial Services. October was the lowest jobs month of 2017, a possible indication that the closing months of the year will be especially quiet. Job seekers increased by 6 percent month-on-month, but were down just under 40 percent year-on-year. The trajectories are in line with the overall dual trends of 2017. Jobs available were down 14 percent month-on-month and 20 percent year-on-year. Given the underlying health of the economy, Brexit looks to be the main culprit for the job market attrition.

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Seven workplace stories we’ve been reading this week

by • Facilities management, Features, Flexible working, Technology, Workplace design

UK law firms chop staff space despite headcount growth

What 15 minutes of solitude does for your emotions

Like it or not, popularity at work still matters

How younger men can help to break the glass ceiling

What do small businesses really contribute to the economy?

What technology will mean for traditional real estate models

Poor posture in people with disabilities can be fatal

Image: Claremont Group Interiors

Review: ushering in a new era for the coworking phenomenon 0

by • Comment, Coworking, Technology, Work&Place, Workplace design

Ramon Suarez has produced a very practical book, based on his own experience as one of the pioneers of coworking. And let’s be clear – it is coworking (not “co-working”; there is no hyphen), as Suarez explains, “a coworker (a member of a coworking space) is not the same as a co-worker (somebody who happens to work for the same company or in your same office)”. On his business card, Suarez describes his role as “Serendipity Accelerator”- you will understand that if you read the book. Suarez differentiates coworking from its many (and mostly false) aliases. Shared offices may be collaborative, but do not provide the network of people found in a good coworking space. Networked offices, where more than one company shares space and may collaborate, “come close” to coworking. Hacker & Maker spaces, Accelerators, Incubators and Cafes are similarly differentiated.

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Gig economy workers need more workplace protection claims report

by • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

Businesses and employees are calling on the UK Government to provide more protection for those who work in the gig economy. In a survey of nearly 5,000 workers and over 100 businesses by jobs site  totaljobs, 90 percent of employees and 87 percent of employers said that more regulations were needed to protect the rights of gig workers. In addition, 64 percent of employers believe the gig economy’s importance will only continue to grow in the next year, as individuals turn to self-employment in favour of more flexible working arrangements.

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New research identifies nine distinct segments of the self employed workforce

by • Flexible working, News

Far from being a homogeneous group, nine distinct segments of the solo self-employed workforce have been identified in new research published by the Centre for Research on Self-Employment, in partnership with IES. This segmentation furthers understanding of the solo self-employed population, including the levels of independence and security, and variation in earnings across this broad section of the UK workforce. The solo self-employed are those who do not employ other people and therefore work on their own account, and makes up 84 per cent of the self-employed workforce.

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Time to address the missed opportunities and wasted resources of the modern workplace

by • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Rapidly changing work and workplaces. Productivity languishing below optimum levels. Staff engagement well below where it should be. Ongoing recruitment and retention challenges. All this has been building over the last couple of years; it would appear that organisations have never had it so tough. There have been plenty of tough times before, of course, but we have been witnessing something of a ‘perfect storm’ in recent months, where a whole range of issues and developments, as well as advancements and opportunities, have come together to push these challenges up the management agenda. But there are things we can do to make the workplace a better experience for everybody.

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Workplace injuries and ill health cost Britain £14.9 billion according to latest HSE data

by • News, Wellbeing

The latest annual injury and ill health statistics from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) show 1.3 million workers were suffering from work related ill-health and there were 609,000 workplace injuries in 2016/17. The figures show that while Britain remains one of the safest places to work, there is still work to do to drive figures down. Overall, workplace injuries and new cases of ill health cost Britain £14.9bn a year with 31.2 million working days lost. The annual statistics, compiled by HSE from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and other sources, cover work-related ill health, workplace injuries, working days lost, costs to Britain and enforcement action taken.

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