Search Results for: economy

October 17, 2014

Google and Deloitte set out blueprint for collaborative work in Australia

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

Deloitte Digital has launched the final version of its report into the collaborative economy carried out on behalf of Google Australia. An interim report, published in July, estimated that the benefits of collaboration to the Australian economy is already $46 billion and could rise to $56 billion. The report also claims that collaboration could help to address specific structural problems including falling productivity and a comparative lack of innovation. The study claims that the average Australian worker spends just under half of a typical working day interacting with other people but that there remains considerable room for improvement in the way those interactions take place. The final version of the report also includes a toolkit to help individuals and organisations to gauge their level and success of their collaborative work. Tellingly, the test is weighted one-third to workplace design, one-third to technology and one-third to culture and governance.

October 13, 2014

HS2 will generate £40 billion in economic benefits and a surge of investment in office space, claims new report

by Mark Eltringham • News, Property, Public Sector

According to a report published today in The Daily Telegraph, the UK’s new HS2 high speed rail network will encourage housebuilding and commercial property development as part of a £40 billion boost to the UK economy. The report, produced by consultants EY, also suggests that new developments around the main stations along the route, including Birmingham, Manchester and West London would generate some £1 billion a year before the route’s completion in 2035, including some 850,000 sq ft of new office space. The newspaper claims the full report will be released by the Government this week as part of its campaign to win support for the controversial scheme and that its content will be a major talking point at this week’s MIPIM which takes place for the first time in London. It was revealed recently that the Government now expects the scheme to cost £73 billion, a figure which critics, including Mayor of London Boris Johnson claim could be spent more wisely.

October 8, 2014

Two thirds of the world’s workers would move to another country to find a better job

by Mark Eltringham • Knowledge, News, Workplace

Almost two thirds of job seekers worldwide say they would be willing to move abroad for work, a ‘startlingly high proportion’ that says a lot about the evolving marketplace for talent, according to a new study by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and The Network, a global alliance of more than 50 recruitment websites. The report claims that the proportion of people willing to seek a better job abroad is particularly (and unsurprisingly) high in developing and politically unstable countries. But there is also a very high willingness to work abroad for workers in countries that don’t face such challenges. For example, more than 75 percent of survey respondents in Switzerland, more than 80 percent of respondents in Australia, and more than 90 percent of respondents in the Netherlands say they would consider moving to another country for work, according to the report, Decoding Global Talent: 200,000 Survey Responses on Global Mobility and Employment Preferences, and their preferred destinations are London, New York and Paris.

October 7, 2014

Workers struggling to balance home and work, according to CIPD report

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

The UK’s workforce is struggling to find the right balance between their work and domestic responsibilities according to the latest Absence Management report from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. The report also suggests that, although overall absence levels are falling, much of this is down to people going into work when they perhaps shouldn’t with a third of employers reporting presenteeism. Stress and mental health problems in the workplace also remain high, with more than 40 percent of employers citing an increase, despite signs of economic recovery. One area in which absenteeism is rising is workers taking time off to care for children and elderly or disabled relatives and friends. More than a third of those employers surveyed reported an increase in absence levels amongst staff who are struggling to cope with their caring responsibilities outside of work. However only a sixth of employers have policies in place to provide a better level of support.

October 2, 2014

Increasing numbers of over-65s will require flexible working rights

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

We can get so preoccupied with meeting the younger generation’s more flexible approach to work, that we miss the fact that a much greater challenge for employers is in managing the needs of the older workforce. Figures released by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) show that nearly a quarter of a million more people aged 65 and over have remained at work since the default retirement age was abolished three years ago. This means that more than a million (103,000) over 65s now choose to stay in work, compared to 874,000 in the quarter October to December 2011 – an increase of 229,000. There are now 9.1 million people aged 50 plus at work, accounting for 29.7 per cent of all those in work aged 16 plus in the UK (30.6 million). This means employers not only need to accommodate an increasingly diverse range of ages but must enable older workers to work more flexibly as they wind down from working life. More →

October 1, 2014

UK Government urged to do more to support country’s technology sector

by Mark Eltringham • News, Property, Technology

Silicon Fen in Cambridge

The technology sector trade association techUK has published a new report urging politicians and policy makers to acknowledge the UK’s role in the global technology market, create the conditions in which it can thrive and oversee the roll-out of new digital services across the public sector and beyond. The body, which has more than 850 members employing 500,000, claims that Securing our Digital Future: the techUK manifesto for growth and jobs 2015-2020 offers a blueprint for jobs growth in the tech sector and the chance for the UK to establish a reputation as a world leader in the global digital revolution. The report coincides with the announcement that the UK Government has commissioned a report to explore how Britain can lead the development of the sharing economy based on the success of firms such as Airbnb and Zipcar. Ahead of next year’s General Election, the techUK report calls on the next government to use technology to improve the quality and accessibility of public services, increase productivity and secure a million new jobs.

September 30, 2014

Occupiers’ expansion plans fuel demand for Central London office space

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Property

Amazon to move to Foster & Partners’ designed development Principal Place

The already intense levels of competition for prime Central London office space look set to increase. New data by JLL reports that leasing figures in the Central London office market are set to top those reached in 2013, with City lettings showing potential to reach over 7 million sq ft for the second year in a row and the West End on track for 3.3 million sq ft by the close of 2014. Strong take-up in these markets, combined with a resurged market in the Docklands, will see Central London take-up figures on track to exceed last year’s total of 11 million sq ft. While consolidation and lease expiries have been main drivers up to now, a buoyant economy means occupiers expansion plans are bringing new requirements to the market. Amazon’s recent decision to take a 400,000 sq ft pre-let at mixed-used development Principal Place at Shoreditch, is an early example of this and it’s expected more occupiers will follow suit.

September 16, 2014

Exam board introduces workplace issues to psychology A Level syllabus

by Mark Eltringham • Company news, News, Workplace, Workplace design

One of the UK’s five main national examination boards is to introduce a range of workplace issues as part of its updated Psychology A Level syllabus from next year. Cambridge based OCR claims that Psychology is the UK’s fourth most popular subject at both A and AS level and is also one of the most popular subjects at degree level too. The issues will be introduced to the syllabus as part of an Environmental Psychology theme and will consider as issues such as the effects of allowing desk clutter on individual wellbeing (although it didn’t do much for Kanji Watanabe in Akira Kurosawa’s film Ikiru, above), gender roles in workstation personalisation and so on. Students will be expected to carry out their own research into the topics as well as draw on established sources of information. OCR also suggests that the subject may help to develop the emotional intelligence of those who take the subject.

September 4, 2014

The myths and the memes of public sector purchasing waste

by Justin Miller • Comment, Facilities management, Public Sector, Workplace design

There has always been a certain degree of skepticism within the UK’s business community about the way the public sector goes about buying goods and services. Some of it is justified but some is unfair. The efforts of successive governments to address the problem demonstrates that there is always a will to improve things. So while a recent BBC Panorama documentary highlighted claims from one report that the NHS loses billions each year thanks to a range of errors and fraud in its procurement processes, we might also ask whether an equivalent private sector organisation with an annual budget of £109 billion would not also be open to a wide range of eye-wateringly expensive failures and inefficiencies. Unfortunately there is a tendency in the media to want to expose ‘waste’ in public sector purchasing, which can politicise what are perfectly reasonable decisions, when you examine them.

August 20, 2014

Rise in staff social media profiling will transform the workplace

by Sara Bean • News, Technology, Workplace

Whether or not the younger generation are in fact more technically astute is still open to debate, but one thing is clear, they’re far less perturbed at the idea of being digitally monitored than the older generation. New research reveals that the younger generation are more open to sharing their personal data with their employees, with 36 per cent of Generation Y workers saying they would be happy to do so. Nearly a third of people would be happy for their employer to have access to their personal data, such as social media profiles and this kind of data monitoring of employees will rise over the next decade as Generation Y enters the workforce. Given the fact that by 2020 this generation will form half of the global workforce – they’re set to bring with them their different attitudes to technology and personal data. More →

August 12, 2014

Five sectors, one challenge: The importance of high staff morale

by Simon Prince • Comment, Workplace

Ever since the 2008 recession, the economy has been in flux, affecting both small businesses and corporate giants. Yet, despite the uncertain economic climate, many start-up business ventures have not been phased by the challenges it brings. We recently conducted a survey to find out what the biggest challenges small businesses expected to face over the coming year. The survey revealed some interesting results, and led to the creation of five whitepapers suggesting some possible solutions as to how they might consider investing both their time and money to overcome these challenges. Across the five industries taking part in our survey (Health and Fitness, Finance, Technology, Retail and Travel), one of the most prominent challenges faced by SMEs was regarding staffing. Ultimately, each staffing issue related back to keeping employee morale high and, therefore, boosting productivity. More →

August 4, 2014

Two fifths of workers ignore social media bans – and they’re right

by Mark Eltringham • Legal news, News, Technology, Workplace

We all remember the days, not that long ago, when companies actively discouraged the use of personal technology and social media at work. How quickly things change. Now many firms not only want people to use their own smartphones, they pretend that it was their idea all along by labelling it BYOD. Some even measure their employees’ social engagement and judge them on it. Even those firms who maintain policies to restrict the use of social media may be fighting a losing battle according to new research from Samsung Electronics, which found that British employees are most likely to ignore them. But then again, maybe businesses shouldn’t worry about it because a growing body of research suggests that people who use social media tend to be more collaborative and productive at work.