Search Results for: culture

October 4, 2016

Disconnect between employers and staff on attitudes to mental health ¹

by Sara Bean • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

There is a massive difference between employers’ perception of the way in which they address mental health in the workplace and those of their staff, according to a new report being published today. While the majority (97 percent) of senior managers believe that they are accessible if employees want to talk about mental health problems, almost half (49 percent) of employees would not talk to their manager about an issue. The findings from the Mental Health at Work report, by the charity Business in the Community are that more than three quarters (77 percent) of employees have experienced symptoms of poor mental health in their lives, and for 62 percent of employees work has been a contributing factor to their symptoms. Despite this, over half of employees (56 percent) who disclosed symptoms of said that their employer took no mitigating actions and only 22 percent of managers have had relevant mental health training at work.

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October 2, 2016

Apple HQ + Limits of workplace design + Workplace effectiveness ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Flexible working, Newsletter, Wellbeing, Workplace, Workplace design

In this week’s Newsletter; Tim Oldman argues that businesses are failing to understand the basis of workplace effectiveness; Mark Eltringham looks at ways of using workplace design to influence the feelings and behaviour of others; and takes part in a podcast with Hari Kalymnios, author, trainer and Leadership Speaker at The Thought Gym. HSBC moves 300 staff into a coworking space in Hong Kong; Apple reveals it is to occupy the redeveloped Battersea Power Station and post-Brexit employment levels maintained by the growing gig economy. The global introduction of sustainable building regulations remains slow; the UK’s commercial property market remains robust in the wake of the vote to leave the European Union; and evidence that offering flexible working to Mums could boast the economy by billions. Download our new Briefing, produced in partnership with Boss Design on the link between culture and workplace strategy and design; visit our new events page, follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn Group to discuss these and other stories.

September 27, 2016

Boost predicted for commercial property transactions across the UK ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Property

The next five years will see demand for commercial property in the South East of England expand at a faster rate than in London according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Annual Occupiers Survey 2016. The survey, conducted in association with EY and Savills found that a fifth (20 per cent) of UK property decision-makers expect to increase rather than decrease the amount of space they own or rent in the South East. In total, a net balance (percentage expecting to expand minus percentage expecting to downsize) of 13 per cent more respondents in the South East expect to increase, rather than decrease their portfolio, nearly double the figure for London at seven per cent. The net balance figures showed the lowest indication of growth was in the South West, at four per cent. The survey also revealed that 41 per cent of UK firms expect to expand the amount of UK property they own or rent over the next five years while only 8 per cent expect to downsize.

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September 25, 2016

Flexible productivity myth + Women’s wear + Millennial motivators ⁰

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

In this week’s Newsletter; Colin Watson points out that we sometimes forget just how young the Internet is; Paul Carter ponders working off the radar and the rise of co-working hubs and agile working; Mark Eltringham argues we’ve known for some time what makes people happy and productive at work; and says flexible working has developed a reputation as something of a silver bullet. Women’s choice of office attire is subject to unfair criticism by bosses; contrary to popular belief Millennials want the same from the workplace as everyone else; and evidence that sensory inputs can significantly improve productivity and cognitive performance. A new report suggests how technology will impact on real estate; and reasons for the boom in co-working spaces in London are revealed. Download our new Briefing, produced in partnership with Boss Design on the link between culture and workplace strategy and design; visit our new events page, follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn Group to discuss these and other stories.

September 23, 2016

Employers urged to support ‘sandwich generation’ of older workers ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, Legal news, Wellbeing, Workplace

Over a third (36 percent) of managers are unaware of anything their organisation does to attract, retain and engage older employees despite two-thirds (66 percent) believing the average age of retirement will increase in the next five to ten years. This is according to a new white paper from AXA PPP healthcare – Supporting fuller working lives – How organisations can embrace older employees and those with caring responsibilities. It warns that with the proportion of people aged 50 to 64 and aged 65+ in employment on the up (from 55 percent to 70 percent and from 5 percent to 10 percent, respectively, since 1984) and an estimate by Carers UK that nearly two-thirds of people are likely to end up caring for someone at some point in their lives. Yet the research claims that many businesses are not sufficiently adjusted to the changing nature of the workforce and not tuned in enough to helping workers who are often sandwiched between caring for older relatives and their offspring.

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September 20, 2016

If you want to improve the workplace, let employees procrastinate ⁰

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

An analysis of workplace habits carried out by office supplies firm Viking claims that the biggest causes of worker procrastination are internal problems within an organisation, and that restricting social media usage could make employees less productive. The survey of over 1,500 office workers claims that almost half of workers (48 percent) procrastinate while waiting for other people’s work to be completed and 40 percent procrastinated in order to take a break from work and reduce their stress levels. The study also claims that people who work in an office experience more stress then those who work from home, which the study concludes is because working from home allows employees to take breaks more frequently. Although the Flexible Working Regulations introduced in the UK in 2014 suggests we’re working towards a more lenient workplace, survey findings suggest that in-office cultures are still struggling to find their footing when balancing work and relaxation.

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September 15, 2016

Sick staff pressured to come to work, despite reduced productivity ⁰

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

Over two thirds of employees (68.3 percent) say that they feel guilty for taking sick days despite the fact that they’re vastly less productive when they do show up ill, a new survey suggests. Yet more than two thirds (67.5 percent) still go into work when they are unwell, and over half (54.6 percent) report that their employer does not send them home when they’ve felt ill at work. According to the research from CV-Library, the average employee (66.4 percent) only takes between one to two sick days a year; and of those that do take time off, over a third (34.2 percent) of employees say their managers put pressure on them to return to work early and a further 44.7 percent said their employer questions their sickness when they are ill. Worse still, it seems that over half (52.9 percent) of managers still contact their employees whilst they are off sick, adding extra pressure and not giving staff time, and space, to relax and recover.

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September 10, 2016

Home working myths + Millennial’s needs + Global sustainability ⁰

by Sara Bean • Comment, Facilities management, Flexible working, Newsletter, Property, Workplace, Workplace design

In this week’s Newsletter; Mark Eltringham finds some global patterns in office design, but many local differences; suggests we stop treating Generation Y as an alien species; and shares a new report which suggests that younger people are in fact people after all. A new study finds that the perceived benefits of working from home disappear over time; Germans now work significantly longer hours than twenty years ago; and two thirds of those who have worked as an independent contractor in the US would choose not to do so again. The commercial office sector leads the global property market in sustainability; Mothers with young children are a third less likely to be in work than fathers; and we round up the latest post-Brexit news. Download our new Briefing, produced in partnership with Boss Design on the link between culture and workplace strategy and design; visit our new events page, follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn Group to discuss these and other stories.

September 8, 2016

What do Millennials and Gen Z want from work? The same as everybody else ⁰

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

More evidence that younger people are in fact people after all emerges with the publication of a new report from Randstad and Future Workplace. The study of over 4,000 individuals worldwide claims that despite widespread belief, 41 percent of Generation Z employees believe that collaborative, corporate offices combined with a degree of autonomy and flexibility is their preferred way to work. They prefer bosses with strong communication skills, value face to face meetings, are irritated by distractions and believe they will probably have a career focussed oln one specific sector. As a follow-up to a previous study conducted in 2014, the Gen Z & Millennials Collide@Work report focuses on the impact of Gen Z entering the workplace for the first time and how Millennials are engaging with them. Both studies claim that Gen Z and Millennials continue to prefer communicating with co-workers and managers in-person in lieu of email and phone.

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September 7, 2016

Working from home just as unproductive and frustrating as working in an office ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, Knowledge, News, Wellbeing, Workplace design

It’s always good to see academic research supporting ideas that would appear pretty obvious but go against a widely accepted narrative. So we should all welcome the results of a new study from researchers at the London School of Economics and Political Science, which found that the perceived benefits of working from home disappear over time for both employees and organisations when homeworking is a full-time arrangement. The report concludes that while previous studies have demonstrated how home workers are more productive than office-based workers, the LSE study of more than 500 employees shows that on a long term basis, there are no differences between home and office workers. The reason, according to Dr Esther Canonico from LSE’s Department of Management, the lead author of the report, is that employees no longer see home working as a discretionary benefit or a privilege when it becomes the norm in an organisation.

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September 6, 2016

Two thirds of US gig economy workers would choose not to repeat the experience ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

While the number of independent workers in the US gig economy is expected to grow to 54 million people by 2020 and some 40 percent of workers have already experienced it according to MBO Partners: State of Independence in America 2016, a new online poll by Deloitte of nearly 4,000 workers found that 67 percent of those who have worked as an independent contractor would choose not to do so again in future. Additionally, more than 60 percent of employed workers said that their stability would suffer if they moved to independent contract work, and 42 percent worry about sacrificing good compensation and benefits. Four-in-ten respondents (41 percent) recognise that independent contracting offers more flexibility to work where, when, and how they want to as compared to full-time employment. However, respondents cite inconsistent cash flow and lack of employer-paid benefits as drawbacks that discourage them from pursuing independent work.

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September 4, 2016

Bisley release details of The Workification of Home event ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Company news, Events, Flexible working

On 14th September, Bisley is hosting a panel discussion at its showroom led by Professor Jeremy Myerson of the Royal Academy of Art. The event is called The Workification of Home – the future trend for the flexible workforce? Jeremy will be joined by a panel of experts to debate the blurring boundaries between our domestic and professional lives, the rise of the freelance economy, tech start ups, mobile technology and the trend for co-working, The panel will debate how these factors have penetrated the culture, design and expectation of where, when and how we want to work and how workers can manage and maintain a successful work/life blend, by creating effective and conducive spaces in the home. Joining Jeremy are: Kirstin Furber – People Director at BBC Worldwide; Sebastian Conran- Leading product and furniture designer; David Barrett – Buyer of Living, Dining and Home office at John Lewis; Amelia Coward – Founder and Creative Director at Bombus.com. The event takes place at 6pm on the 14th September at the Bisley Showroom, Great Portland Street, London.