Search Results for: communications

Outmoded desk phone will disappear within next couple of years

Outmoded desk phone will disappear within next couple of years 0

TelephoneA new survey has confirmed the imminent death of the ‘nearly useless’ desk phone, which while still in evidence within many organisations, is believed by one third of workers will disappear in two to three years. With both corporate and remote workers increasingly away from their desks, 65 percent already have a ‘desk phone optional’ work environment and over half (59 percent) believe the desk phone is outdated. The 2016 Report on Business Communications in the Era of the Anywhere Worker, by Dialpad, among end users to executives, on cloud communications adoption rates and expectations, also found that businesses of all sizes are adapting to the “anywhere worker” movement and as employees increasingly rely exclusively on mobile technologies, the organisations they work for are quickly evolving to meet their mobility demands and prepare for more anywhere workers in the future. In fact, 84 percent of responding companies already have remote workers.

(more…)

Employees in high performing organisations four times more engaged

Employees in high performing organisations four times more engaged 0

EngagedWhether or not you raise an eyebrow every time you hear about the need for employee engagement, there is a growing body of research which links engagement to performance. A new report claims that 80 percent of UK employees who say they work for high performing organisations are engaged compared to only 20 percent of those working for low performing organisations. And 80 percent of employees who think their organisation is customer-centric are engaged. This is five times more than employees who don’t think their organisation is customer-centric (17 percent). The highest performing employees are twice as engaged as the lowest, the survey by ORC International suggests. The survey found that overall employee engagement in the UK remained steady at 58 percent his year but the trends show that personal and organisational performance make a difference to engagement.

(more…)

Offices not yet smart enough to support new ways of working

Offices not yet smart enough to support new ways of working 0

right-information-right-technologiesEmployees believe their workplace is not making best use of latest technology, but expect this to improve as remote work begins to provide both quality of life and productivity benefits. In the latest Future Workforce Survey conducted by Dell and Intel, nearly half of global employees believe their current workplace is not smart enough, while 42 percent of millennial employees say they are willing to quit their job if technologies are not up to their standard. The research suggest that the addition of collaborative tools and innovations such as internet of things (IoT) and Virtual Reality (VR) will soon become vital to the workplace. According to the poll of nearly 4,000 full-time employees in ten countries, over half (57 percent) believe they will be working in a smart office within the next five years, while 51 percent believe that better technologies will make face-to-face meetings redundant within the next five years.

(more…)

New device has potential to store huge amounts of data at atomic level

New device has potential to store huge amounts of data at atomic level 0

RTEmagicC_1kbMemory_Feynman_HR_01.jpgOver the past few years, there has been talk that we are approaching the end of the era of Moore’s Law. The law originated when the technologist Gordon Moore, who later founded Intel, wrote an essay in which he claimed that the process of miniaturisation would mean that computer chips would double in power every two years and they would eventually become so small they could be embedded in a wide number of objects including something he called a ‘personal portable communications’ device. Over the last half century, the eponymous law has held up pretty well and it has been the driving force of the world’s economy over that time. A 2013 McKinsey article argued that around  40 percent of the global productivity growth over the previous two decades could be attributed to the exponential  increase in computer power described by Moore. So there was inevitably a great deal of interest in what would happen when further miniaturisation became impossible.

(more…)

ICE makes the case for infrastructure ahead of Brexit negotiations

ICE makes the case for infrastructure ahead of Brexit negotiations 0

HS2 Euston InfrasructureIn a new report Brexit – The Case for Infrastructure, the Institution of  Civil Engineers has set out the business case for the valuable contribution which infrastructure makes to the economy and argues that the UK should not lose sight of this as it begins negotiations for Brexit as it leaves the European Union. The report claims that high quality, high performing infrastructure is vital for economic growth and improved quality of life. It points to transport, communications, energy and housing as being central to spreading opportunity across the whole country. It also makes the case that infrastructure acts as a catalyst for social and economic inclusion, encouraging greater participation in society from people of all walks of life. In particular, during uncertain or volatile economic times, continued investment in UK infrastructure can help provide economic stability, facilitate inward investment and drive economic growth.

(more…)

Major European telecoms firms to drive roll out of 5G across continent

Major European telecoms firms to drive roll out of 5G across continent 0

5gA coalition of twenty major European telecommunications firms has come together to drive the rapid creation of a continent wide 5G network and warn national Governments and the EU of the dangers of over-regulation. The seven page document entitled the 5G Manifesto for timely deployment of 5G in Europe, is backed by firms such as Vodafone, Telenor, Orange, Nokia, BT, Ericsson, Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom, and Hutchison. Its core aim is to showcase the technology on a large scale by 2018 and launch a commercial network capability in at least one city in every EU nation by 2020. The document outlines the features and benefits of the technology but also sets out the potential risks posed by over-regulation, including the possible threat to net neutrality, the principle that Internet service providers should enable access to all content and applications regardless of the source, and without favouring or blocking particular products or websites

(more…)

Sea and space: the final frontiers for remote working and connectivity

Sea and space: the final frontiers for remote working and connectivity 0

Captain_on_a_bridge_-_main2Tim Peake’s recent return home from space at the end of a six month stay in the International Space Station highlighted just how essential it is for people to stay in contact with their friends, family and the rest of the world, literally from wherever they may be. Of course, back on Earth we now take it for granted that we are in a state of constant connectedness to the rest of the world. So the idea of someone being out of contact, even for brief periods of time, strikes us as odd. Perhaps that partly explains our fascination with the experiences of astronauts and other people who cannot take connectivity for granted. But it’s not just astronauts who have to consider how to enjoy the connectedness that we normally assume to be ours by right. People who work at sea face the same challenge and you could argue that it is more important for such truly remote workers to be in contact with other people and the Internet. So who fares better when it comes to achieving connectivity?

(more…)

Netherlands creates first countrywide Internet of Things network

Netherlands creates first countrywide Internet of Things network 0

Internet of ThingsDutch telecommunications company KPN claims it has created the world’s first national network devoted to the Internet of Things (IoT). The firms says its technicians have upgraded hundreds of existing towers with Long Range (LoRA) gateways and antennas, to create the new public network. The first (IoT) applications are already connected to the network, including at Schiphol Airport where it is being tested in logistical processes such as baggage handling and for facility services. An experiment is also being carried out at Utrecht Central station that allows LoRa to monitor rail switches, and depth sounders at the port of Rotterdam have been fitted with devices to connect them to the IoT network. “Last year we identified an increasing demand for low-power network technology for Internet of Things applications,” says Joost Farwerck, COO of KPN. ” We are responding to this by choosing LoRa, so millions of devices can be connected to the internet in a cost-effective manner. In less than a year KPN has implemented a network that allows us to satisfy this market demand.”

Workers say increased recruitment would cut workplace stress

Workers say increased recruitment would cut workplace stress 0

workplace stressThe 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.

(more…)

People find meetings more productive than you might think

People find meetings more productive than you might think 0

Boardroom meetingsPeople 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.

(more…)

Property and workplace experts have their say on the Brexit outcome

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

brexitWell, 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.

(more…)

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

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

presenteeismThe 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.

(more…)