Search Results for: economy

Poor numeracy thought to account for an estimated £3.2 billion annual cost to businesses

Poor numeracy thought to account for an estimated £3.2 billion annual cost to businesses

by • News, Workplace

Poor numeracy thought to account for an estimated £3.2 billion annual cost to businessesAlmost one in two working age adults currently lack numeracy skills and this skills gap is estimated to cost businesses £3.2bn annually, with a cost to the UK economy of up to £20.2billion a year. This is why charity National Numeracy has joined together with founder supporter, KPMG, to establish the first ever UK National Numeracy Day – created to drive a change in recognition of the importance of numbers, as well as improve employee careers. The day, which takes place on the 16th May will be designed to celebrate numbers, and aims to help individuals to check their numeracy levels, and provide free tools to support improvement amongst those who could benefit. Businesses are being called on to get involved in a variety of ways; from becoming an official supporter, to encouraging employees, suppliers and the local community to check their numeracy levels using the free online numeracy assessment tool. 

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Growing disconnect between pay and workplace effort, claims report

Growing disconnect between pay and workplace effort, claims report

by • Cities, News, Workplace

Exclusive polling undertaken by YouGov for Localis showed exactly half of those surveyed felt they were paid less than they deserved, a third (31 percent) paid roughly the right amount and 7 percent felt overpaid. The polling figures also indicated nearly two thirds (61 percent) of people felt unrewarded for hard work. The findings are contained in a report entitled ‘The Delivery of an Industrial Strategy – Raising prosperity across England’ which examines how strategic authorities, such as Mayoral Combined Authorities and county councils, can take the industrial strategy forward at a local level to raise local prosperity and living standards. (more…)

Gender pay gap could in part be due to women’s lack of confidence in seeking job progression

Gender pay gap could in part be due to women’s lack of confidence in seeking job progression

by • Legal news, News, Workplace

Gender pay gap could be due to women’s lack of confidence in seeking job progression

A new survey that confirms the ongoing gender pay gap with stats that show men are paid 42 percent more than women after ten years in workforce, goes on to suggest that the reason is not just to do with a lack of diversity but the attitude of women moving up the corporate ladder. The report from Adzuna claims that British men are significantly more confident than women in furthering their career. The career progression confidence gap between the genders widens greatest with those who have more than ten years’ experience in the workplace, with men twice more likely than women to hold a top job. The research analysed 500,000 CVs submitted through Adzuna’s ValueMyCV tool, comparing the gender and estimated pay grade with number of years’ experience in each respective industry. The research also highlights a disparity in the average salary commanded by men and women for the same position with the same number of years in experience.

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A growing number of employers are driving demand for independent professionals

A growing number of employers are driving demand for independent professionals

by • Comment, Workplace

A new industrial revolution is underway, with almost every organisation on the frontline. Executive leaders, notably HR Directors, are grappling with what this means for the structure and design of their companies and the composition of their people. Changing business models, new technologies to access people, skills and capabilities, are common threads, with widespread implications for workplaces. With more people working remotely, flexi-time and on contract, designing workspaces, for instance, has become more challenging. Economic challenges impact every business and reduce appetite for investment, notably in permanent full-time staff. But scratch below the shared surface and every situation is different.

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Employees demand more, not less automation in the workplace

Employees demand more, not less automation in the workplace

by • AI, Facilities management, News, Technology, Workplace

Employees demand more, not less automation in the workplaceOver half (52 percent) of workers in a new poll have admitted looking for a new job because of frustrations over what they see as outdated ways of thinking around work practices and automation at their current company. The Digital Work Report 2018 commissioned by Wrike, surveyed just over 3,000 workers from across the UK, France and Germany, and highlighted a number of perceived benefits around automation, but its findings suggest that calls for greater adoption by employees are not being taken seriously. Nearly half of those surveyed (45 percent) in the UK believe automation would give their company a competitive advantage. However, while 39 percent are considering automation tools for some of their job functions, just 4 percent of UK companies have an automation strategy (i.e. planning to implement tools/techniques within next 12-24 months) for the whole company – considerably lower than European counterparts in Germany and France (both at 8 percent).

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Action is needed to protect commercial property driving growth of UK cities

Action is needed to protect commercial property driving growth of UK cities

by • News

A new report from the Centre for Cities think tank outlines the scale of urban transformation in big Northern and Midlands cities over recent decades and its dependence on the ready availability of commercial property. The report, City Space Race, shows that the number of people living and working in Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham city centres has soared in comparison to other cities across the country but also warns that planning reforms are needed to enable these cities to provide both the commercial space and housing they need to continue to thrive. The report, sponsored by law firm DAC Beachcroft, examines the challenges British cities face in managing competing demands for residential and commercial space – especially in their city centres, where high skilled, high paying businesses increasingly choose to locate.

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There are at least some reasons to be optimistic about the UK’s tech sector post Brexit

There are at least some reasons to be optimistic about the UK’s tech sector post Brexit

by • Comment, Property, Technology, Workplace design

Making detailed predictions about the economic consequences of Brexit has proved a mug’s game many time over the past couple of years. The most accurate summation of what is happening might be ‘mixed’. Most recently, a report from the CBI has highlighted the resilience of many sectors while bemoaning a lack of skills in the economy. Meanwhile former Commercial Secretary to the Treasury Lord O’Neill also recently conceded that the UK economy had been more robust than he had expected following the Brexit vote, which he attributed primarily to the thriving world economy. An argument almost immediately dismissed by the economist Ruth Lea writing for the LSE, who put forward a more nuanced and mixed explanation. The same picture of tempered resilience is also evident in specific sectors, and especially those that were seen as the most likely to feel the consequences of the Brexit vote, including London’s crucial tech sector.

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Equal Lives survey to look at ways men can better balance work and home life

Equal Lives survey to look at ways men can better balance work and home life

by • Flexible working, Legal news, News, Workplace

Equal Lives survey to look at ways men can better balance work and homeThe challenge to achieve gender equality at work isn’t made any easier by the attitudes of some employers. Although men increasingly want to be more present at home, currently fathers are twice as likely as mothers to have their requests for flexible working turned down. This means their work-life balance is increasingly a source of stress. For this reason a new survey is being launched to look at men’s roles at home and work with the hope that the results will support employers to help men take up more equal caring roles.The Equal Lives project, launched by Business in the Community in partnership with Santander UK, aims to highlight the issues men face when managing responsibilities at work and home and identify workplace practices and policies to help employers retain skilled male and female employees. The study is open to all men in work over 18, regardless of whether they have people who depend on them for their wellbeing. It is also open to women in work, but only those with care responsibilities.

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What the Chancellor’s Spring Statement means for the employment landscape

What the Chancellor’s Spring Statement means for the employment landscape

by • Comment, Workplace

It may only have lasted 26 minutes, but chancellor Philip Hammond’s inaugural Spring Statement included a number of very encouraging points. Critics were quick to criticise Philip Hammond’s first Spring Statement. But that is perhaps simply the nature of politics. If an impartial party carefully dissects the 26-minute speech, there are undoubtedly many positives to take away. Yes, growth projections still lag slightly behind those highlighted in March 2016. However, it must be accepted that pre-Brexit forecasts are a different story altogether. On 24 June 2016, very few people would have predicted the growth story that was told in the House of Commons today – one of continued economic development with further growth on the horizon. This story is therefore an extremely encouraging one, and a welcome narrative amidst the doom and gloom that so often dominates the media headlines and political debates.

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Future cityscape will feature driverless transport, smart buildings and co-working says JLL

Future cityscape will feature driverless transport, smart buildings and co-working says JLL

by • Cities, Facilities management, News, Property

Future cityscape will feature driverless transport, smart buildings and co-working says JLL

Wi-Fi trees, driverless transport, smart buildings and co-working will be commonplace in 2040 predicts a report (registration required) published by JLL that outlines the ideal cityscape by 2040. The report incorporates a transformation framework aimed at enabling real estate businesses to adapt and thrive in a future city. According to the report, “The Transformation Framework”, the ideal cityscape in 2040 will have adapted to the trends driving the real estate sector over the next 20 years and will include co-working and living space, smart and healthy buildings, Wi-Fi trees, reverse vending machines, driverless transport and multi-generational housing as standard. To create the future cityscape, JLL asked some of the UK’s leading real-estate owners, occupiers, developers and investors what they thought the ideal city would look like in 2040, while taking into account the seven trends that JLL predict will influence real estate and infrastructure globally over the next two decades. These trends included tech innovation, urbanisation, land & resource scarcity, the low carbon economy, demographic & workplace change, health & wellness and transparency & social value.

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Four UK cities ranked in Europe’s top ten most attractive locations for businesses and employees

Four UK cities ranked in Europe’s top ten most attractive locations for businesses and employees

by • Cities, News

London has been ranked as Europe’s most attractive city for businesses and employees for second year running according to Colliers International’s latest European Cities of Influence report, which reviews and ranks cities based on their occupier attractiveness, availability of talent, and quality of life factors alongside economic output and productivity; Paris, Madrid, Moscow and Birmingham making up the rest of the top five. The report claims that the UK remains a highly desirable destination for capital and occupiers, largely driven by its ‘magnetism as a centre of diverse high-quality service sector talent’, which is in turn is helping to drive economic output and productivity. Other UK cities which score in the top 10 include Birmingham (5th), Edinburgh (7th) and Manchester (10th).

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Organisations need to create a ‘smart everywhere’ environment finds Smart Summit

Organisations need to create a ‘smart everywhere’ environment finds Smart Summit

by • Events, Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Workplace

Organisations need to create a ‘smart everywhere’ environment finds Smart SummitWork is no longer a place but a set of activities which lead to a set of outcomes that could be delivered anywhere. Or as John Blackwell, Quora Consulting’s Managing Director succinctly described it at the first of the 2018 Quora Smartworking Summit’s held last week, organisations need to create a ‘smart everywhere’ environment. New digital platforms make far it easier for people to work in exactly the way they want.  Research by Quora has revealed that there are 5 million people currently working in the UK gig economy or around 15.6 percent of the total workforce. More people are working post retirement age and want to work in a way that they can control, while there are increasing numbers who simply want more autonomy in their lives in the way that self-employment can offer. (more…)

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