Search Results for: communications

July 1, 2016

Workers say increased recruitment would cut workplace stress ⁰

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

The tumultuous events of this week won’t have helped, as nearly half of all employees already say recruitment freezes have left them feeling under-resourced and under-staffed at work, leading to increased workplace stress. Research by MetLife Employee Benefits claims that 46 percent of employees believe their organisation has not recruited enough since the economic downturn with 40 percent saying workplace stress would be reduced if employers took on more people. This is despite the fact that around 42 percent of employees say their company helps staff to deal with work pressure and stress and nearly one in three (31 percent) say employers help new recruits to understand the pressure involved in their job. And while companies are investing in workplace benefits – with around 50 percent of employees having access to a range of wellbeing benefits including medical care, gym memberships, counselling services and flexible working hours, they are not always seeing the benefits.

June 30, 2016

People find meetings more productive than you might think ⁰

by Neil Franklin • News, Technology, Wellbeing

People generally find they don’t spend as much time in meetings as is commonly assumed and find them more productive than is widely reported, according to a study of global workers by unified communications firm Shoretel. The report sets out what it suggests are ten misconceptions about how people meet based on the results of an online questionnaire carried out earlier this year with 1,000 respondents worldwide. It claims that over three-quarters of respondents (76 percent) say they spend one hour or under each weekday in a meeting. Inevitably, the report breaks things down by age demographics, claiming that Generation X’ers, are more likely than other generations to spend more time in weekly meets as were respondents working in the tech sectors. Only 11 percent of respondents found meetings a waste of time. Forty percent of respondents reported meetings were productive and another 48 percent said they were ‘sort of’ productive.

June 24, 2016

Property and workplace experts have their say on the Brexit outcome ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Comment, Facilities management, Property, Workplace, Workplace design

Well, the results are in and the UK’s electorate has voted by a narrow margin for the country to leave the EU. There are likely to be other developments but whatever you make of the UK’s decision to vote to leave the EU – and I think it’s fair to say most independent people think it’s inexplicable – there’s no doubt that it will have a profound impact on the UK’s economy, relationship with the world, culture, working conditions and markets. What it will mean in practice won’t be apparent for months or years, of course, but that hasn’t stopped experts who work in the property, workplace, design, legal, HR and architecture sectors having their say on its potential implications. We’ll look at these specific issues in more detail going forward but for now, here’s a round-up of those we have so far, which we’ll keep updated throughout the day as the dust settles on what will prove to be a momentous decision for the UK, Europe and rest of the world.

June 17, 2016

Younger and older workers share many of the same attitudes to the workplace ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Technology, Workplace design

The behaviour and attitudes of young people in the workplace are very similar to those of older generations. We keep repeating this point but it’s always worth reminding ourselves given the prevailing narratives that obscure this truth. Indeed, so powerful is the narrative that even when a piece of research or a survey contradicts it, there is often an attempt to ignore the report’s own finding’s in favour of something that fits the meme. This happens more often than you think which is why it’s always worth going beyond the headlines to look at what lies beneath. This week, two reports have appeared which highlight just how much a younger generation of workers shares the same attitudes and challenges as other generations. According to the reports, this is true for issues such as presenteeism and the need for the company of colleagues and so suggest we don’t need to treat different age groups quite so differently as is often claimed.

June 14, 2016

UK leads the world in serviced offices and demand is set to rise ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Property

The UK is the leading global serviced office sector, with the largest and most mature market, accounting for over a third (36 percent) of the worldwide serviced office footprint, according to a new report commissioned by serviced office group Office Space in Town. The UK serviced office market has grown by 31 percent since 2008, and it is projected to increase in value significantly by 2025, to £62 billion on conservative projections and £126bn on more optimistic forecasts. There are three key drivers behind its rise: increasing numbers of growth businesses, expansion of key sectors that use serviced offices and the trend towards more flexible working. There are sound economic and business behavioural reasons to believe this growth in demand for serviced offices will continue over the next decade. This, in part, will come from growth in small firms and business start-ups, which comprise a large share of current serviced office users.

June 13, 2016

UK faces digital skills gap … but simply hiring Millennials won’t close it ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • News, Technology, Workplace

Although the UK remains a global tech leader, the country remains in the grip of a digital skills crisis which is holding back productivity and costs around £63 billion each year, according to a report published today by the Commons Science and Technology Committee. The report claims that 12.6 million UK adults lack even basic digital skills, and nearly half of these people (5.8 million) have never even used the internet. Meanwhile, a coincidental report published by Cisco claims that those organisations who apparently assume they can close the gap by merely employing so-called Millennials, will be disappointed because there’s no great correlation between age and confidence in using digital technology. The Digital Culture Clash report found the only meaningful correlations were between the type of work an individual does, their level of employment and their competence and confidence in using technology.

June 9, 2016

Job seekers say telecommuting is most desired form of flexible work ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Workplace

According to research from Flexjobs, telecommuting has grown 103 percent since 2005 and approximately eighty to ninety percent of the workforce would like to telework at least part-time. Work-life balance (81 percent), family (56 percent), time savings (56 percent), and commute stress (48 percent) are the top reasons people seek flexible work arrangements. Millennials would put flexible working ahead of professional development training, company reputation and a sense of purpose when looking for a job. FlexJobs recently analysed the remote job listings of over 40,000 companies to determine which companies have been recruiting for the most telecommuting positions in recent months. Healthcare, technology and education were the most well-represented industries. The remote job listings at these companies are equally diverse, such as business analyst, product manager, developer, teacher, director of communications and market researcher.

June 1, 2016

Surprising number of people fear they will soon be replaced by a robot ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • News, Technology, Workplace

A surprisingly large proportion of the British working population believes it could find its job taken by a robot within the next 10 to 50 years, according to a study from software firm Opentext. The survey of 2,000 people found that 42 percent of them overall believe their jobs will be automated within half a century and around a quarter feel it could happen within the next decade. A surprisingly large number – 7 percent- feel they could be ousted by a robot within the next two years. The results display a strong generational bias with19 per cent of 18-24 year olds claiming that they sometimes or frequently worry about this issue. The older generation on the other hand rarely, if ever, worries about robots taking its jobs with 73 per cent of 45-54 year olds saying that they never worry about being replaced by automation. Even so, 25 percent of those in this age group believe that robots might replace them over the course of the next decade.

May 23, 2016

Many EU workers clinging to their fax machines and desktops, claims report ⁰

by Neil Franklin • News, Technology, Workplace design

If you think the way people work is probably not quite as glossily portrayed in the media, then you’d probably be right. A lot more European workers than is commonly supposed still believe that fax machines are essential business tools, according to a new report from unified communications business Fuze. In a study of the working habits of 5,000 EU employees, it found that the fax machine is considered ‘essential’ by 30 percent of workers in the UK, 39 percent in Germany and 42 percent in France. The report also found that many also think that desktop computers are still more important in their day-to-day working lives that laptops, tablets or smartphones. Anybody horrified by the report’s findings will be heartened by its claim that the machines will die off in time as a new generation of people who don’t know what the hell a fax machine is supplant those who still cling to their battered, old, paper-based devices.

May 9, 2016

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

by Mark Eltringham • Cities, News, Technology

The 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”.

April 29, 2016

UK’s ‘best workplaces’ announced by Great Place to Work ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • News, Workplace, Workplace design

Great Place to Work has announced what it considers to be the UK’s best workplaces. The category for large firms was headed by McDonald’s and IT firm Softcat followed by Salesforce UK, Cisco, Capital One and Hyatt. The medium sized organisation category was headed by housing association RHP Group followed by manufacturers Cosatto, financial services firm Goodman Masson, R Twining & Company and IT provider UKFast. IT companies were also prominent in the small business category with Foundation SP and DMW, first and second respectively followed by professional services firm Futureheads Recruitment, non-profit Resurge and professional services firm, New Chapter Consulting. Google topped the best multinational category, followed by SAS Institute, manufacturing firm WI Gore & Associates IT firm Net App and telecommunications firm Telefonica. A full report on the awards including its methodology can be found here.

April 21, 2016

Employees squander a month each year checking email outside of work ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Technology

A study published today by enterprise service management firm Samanage, confirms that US employees are spending a significant amount of time checking email after hours. What is perhaps more surprising is the amount of time they spend on this. The report claims that a significant proportion of workers are spending far more time emailing outside the office than they do taking vacation. Among the 1,500 US adults surveyed in the Email Overload Survey, more than one in three (35.2 percent) check email at least one hour a day outside of work hours, totaling more than 30 days of extra work per year. Given the average US worker receives 10 days of vacation annually, employees are spending triple that amount of time emailing after work hours. It’s also clear that Americans have a hard time putting down their mobile device and stepping away from email as respondents reported checking their work email instead of sleeping or eating.