Search Results for: employed

December 18, 2018

Government’s new workplace reforms: the world responds

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Workplace

The UK government has introduced what it claims to be the most significant package of workplace reforms for 20 years in response to last year’s Taylor Report on working practices. The Good Work Plan has introduced a range of measures which the Government claims will improve the rights of agency and part time workers and discourage employers from indulging in unwelcome practices. The reforms are intended to stop businesses opting out of equal pay arrangements for agency employees and improve the conditions for gig economy workers generally, for example by giving workers details of their rights from the first day in a job, such as eligibility for sick leave, pay levels, maternity and paternity leave.

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December 14, 2018

Getting a better handle on the psychology of office design

by Paul Goodchild • Architecture, Comment, Workplace design

It was the Finnish architect Juhani Pallasmaa who described the door handle as ‘the handshake of the building’ in his book The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses. Buildings greet us in other ways too and we respond to those greetings in very human ways. So much so, in fact, that when we make decisions about the ways in which offices introduce themselves, we should take account of the psychological factors that can mean the difference between a successful or failed office design. (more…)

December 5, 2018

Government policy is making life increasingly difficult for freelancers

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

Freelancers expect government policy to drive their businesses and the economy into decline over the next year, a report from IPSE (the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed) claims. This quarter, amid widespread speculation about Budget announcements that would harm the self-employed, freelancers’ confidence in their annual business performance dropped nine points, sliding into negative territory. Their confidence in the wider economy – which was already in deep negative territory – fell another two points to near-record lows.

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November 28, 2018

Government treading carefully with proposed plans for gig workers

by Neil Tonks • Comment, Flexible working, Legal news

Leaked government plans to protect the working rights of people operating in the gig economy will help to stop unscrupulous employers from exploiting low-paid workers by stamping out false self-employment. But it is questionable whether this goes far enough. (more…)

November 25, 2018

Mental health problems are rife across Europe

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing

Greater efforts to promote mental health and improve early diagnosis and treatment of those with mental illness would improve the lives of millions of Europeans and contribute to stronger economic and employment conditions, according to a new joint OECD/European Commission report. Health at a Glance: Europe 2018 says that mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety disorders and alcohol and drug use disorders, affect more than one in six people across the European Union in any given year. Besides the impact on people’s well-being, the report estimates the total costs of mental ill-health at over EUR 600 billion – or more than 4 percent of GDP – across the 28 EU countries.

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November 21, 2018

Go Home On Time Day highlights one of the least discussed workplace issues

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

Today is National Go Home on Time Day (in Australia at least) and the 10th annual report by The Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work published to coincide with it estimates that Australian employees will work 3.2 billion hours of unpaid overtime for their employers this year, worth an estimated $106 billion in wages. It’s refreshing to see a figure applied to this issue, because most of the stuff we get tends to highlight how much time employers are losing to the myriad of distractions, responsibilities, foibles, preferences, cock-ups and ailments that come with giving jobs to humans. An issue we satirise here. (more…)

November 12, 2018

UK skills and labour shortage being driven by a fall in non-EU migrants

by Sara Bean • News, Workplace

A sudden reversal in the growth in the number of both EU and non-EU migrants in employment in the UK could hit employer plans to take on more staff and worsen skills and labour shortages, according to the latest quarterly Labour Market Outlook from the CIPD and The Adecco Group. While the net employment balance – a measure of the difference between the proportion of employers who expect to increase staff levels and those who expect to decrease staff levels – has remained extremely positive at +22 (compared to +23 in Q3 2018), among employers which currently have vacancies, seven in ten (70 percent) report that at least some of their vacancies are proving hard-to-fill, higher than in Summer 2018 (66 percent) and Spring 2018 (61 percent). (more…)

October 30, 2018

The workplace world responds to the UK Autumn Budget

by Mark Eltringham • News, Property, Workplace

Yesterday, the Chancellor Philip Hammond announced the details of the UK government’s latest budget. While Brexit and austerity inevitably cast their shadows over the whole thing, there were a number of announcements relevant to the workplace, construction, tech and built environment sectors, some of which have been broadly welcomed by commentators, industry bodies and experts. Some are decidedly less popular. Among the announcements in the budget were new plans for infrastructure and property, skills and training, tax regimes for the self-employed, productivity, business rates and mental health.

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October 29, 2018

The jobs of the future that will survive the AI revolution

by Neil Franklin • AI, News, Technology

While the debate rages on about the exact consequences of the use of automation in the workplace, IT firm Cognizant has identified what it claims are the jobs of the future. Of the jobs Cognizant tracks, 45 actually exist today, such as data scientist and aerospace engineer. The other five are “proxy” jobs, the key characteristics of which the report sets out to define.

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October 26, 2018

We need to move on from the stigma of mental health to finding solutions

by Gary Helm • Comment, Wellbeing

Just as in physical health, everybody has a level of mental health. And while companies have begun to offer corporate gym membership discounts, bowls of fruit around the office, monthly massage and investment in huge amounts of ergonomically supportive furniture to try to assist their colleagues in maintaining a good level of physical health, few seem to be getting to grips with their colleagues’ mental wellbeing, despite the reality that they are dealing with huge numbers of employees who struggle.

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October 25, 2018

Female graduates have lower salary expectations than male counterparts

by Sara Bean • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Impostor syndrome is holding female graduates back from earning as much as their male counterparts as new research from Milkround claims that women have lower salary expectations than men, with one third thinking they’ll earn under £20k. Despite a third of graduate’s belief that confidence is the top skill they need to excel in their career, a lack of confidence is holding back more women (41 percent) than men (28 percent). One in three (33 percent) women are worried about low pay and think they’ll earn under £20k in an entry level role, compared to less than a quarter (22 percent) of their male counterparts. (more…)

October 24, 2018

Commercial property uptake shows finance sector remains committed to London

by Neil Franklin • News, Property

Undeterred by political and economic headwinds in recent years, London remains a world leading financial centre and is by far the most active centre in Europe, according to the latest research from global real estate advisor CBRE. According to the report, 1.1 million people were employed in the UK financial services sector in 2017, of which 34 percent were in London. The industry contributed £119bn to the national economy (7% of UK GDP) – half of this was generated by London, where it accounted for 14 percent of the city’s economic output.