Search Results for: employee experience

New guides on mental wellbeing mark World Mental Health Day

New guides on mental wellbeing mark World Mental Health Day

by • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Two new guides to help employers manage mental health in the workplace has been launched today by Acas and by The Royal College of Psychiatrists. Hundreds of thousands of workers experience mental health problems during the course of a year, yet a recent report by Business in the Community found only 11 per cent of people questioned felt able to disclose a mental wellbeing issue to their line manager while half of line managers said they would welcome training on the issue. With the theme for this year’s World Mental Health Day, set by the World Federation for Mental Health, being mental health in the workplace; the Royal College of Psychiatrists has produced a pack of mental health information for employers and employees covering the most common range of conditions such as depression, anxiety, and sleeping problems.

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Our Twentieth Century approach to ergonomics has to change

Our Twentieth Century approach to ergonomics has to change

by • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Wellbeing, Workplace design

One of the big problems with the way some people talk about the term ‘ergonomic’ is that they tend to use it to describe the design of objects when really it’s about the relationship between a person and the things around them. It’s an abstract idea, about the relationships between design, facilities and management, so is dependent on a number of variables. When those variables change, what we understand to be good ergonomics changes too. The principle of ergonomics as we now understand it first came to prominence in the wake of the intensive growth in the use of computers. The legacy of this fixed view can be an approach based on an idea of desk-bound employees with a computer, whereas how we work now bears little resemblance to how we worked 20 years ago.

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How smart workplaces increase performance and attractiveness 0

by • Case studies, Facilities management, Premium Content, Technology, Work&Place, Workplace design

The workplace can and should be used as a strategic tool to support work and cooperation, to shape the experience of the brand and to produce competitive advantage for the organization. Even when not used as a strategic tool the workplace still affects all these parts and there is always a risk that the workplace has instead a negative impact if we are not aware of the relationship and really use workplace as a strategic tool to affect attractiveness, productivity, efficiency and sustainability. The workplace makes a great difference and it is becoming an important differentiator between successful and less successful organizations. I also strongly believe that the workplace management area is a key for us in the FM industry to bring FM to a higher level, to shift from cost focus to more value focus, and this is something we need to do together within the FM industry and we really should take the driver’s seat. But, let’s start from the beginning.

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Sexual harassment by colleagues may be associated with more severe depression

by • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Employees who experience sexual harassment by supervisors, colleagues or subordinates in the workplace may develop more severe symptoms of depression than employees who experience harassment by clients or customers, according to a study involving 7603 employees from across 1041 organisations in Denmark. The research is published in the open access journal BMC Public Health.

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British organisations must step up to the challenges of artificial intelligence, robotics and automation

by • AI, News, Technology

A report published by the RSA think-tank has encouraged UK businesses to embrace artificial intelligence, automation and robotics. arguing that new technology has the potential to raise productivity levels, boost flagging living standards, and phase out ‘dull, dirty and dangerous’ tasks in favour of more purposeful and human-centric work. The Age of Automation report warns, however, that the UK is fast becoming a ‘laggard’ in the adoption of new machines and called on UK business leaders to accelerate their take-up of technology. The RSA found that sales of robots to the UK decreased over 2014-15, with British firms falling behind the US, France, Germany, Spain and Italy. A YouGov poll of UK business leaders, commissioned by the RSA, found that UK business leaders are currently wary of adopting AI and robotics, with just fourteen percent of firms currently investing in this technology or soon planning to. Twenty-nine percent of businesses believe AI & robotics to be too expensive or not yet proven and twenty percent want to invest but believe it will take several years to ‘seriously adopt’ the new technology.

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Millions of older workers fear poor health will shorten their working lives

by • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Even though the age of the working population in the UM continues to rise, more than half of over fifties people have concerns around work and its impact on their health as they age, with women (61 percent) particularly worried about this. According to the study from Aviva, 13 percent intend never to stop work completely although only 14 percent of older workers say their workplace culture is positive towards them. According to Aviva’s latest Real Retirement study, 55 percent admit to fearing that work will become detrimental to their health or they might not be well enough to keep working, including 13 percent who say this is already an issue for them. Fewer than one in five (17 percent) over-50s workers say they have access to wellbeing advice and initiatives in the workplace which could help prevent health issues from impacting their careers.

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Banking sector will be ground zero for job losses from artificial intelligence and robotics

by • AI, Comment, Technology

Deutsche Bank CEO John Cryan has predicted a bonfire of industry jobs as automation takes hold across the finance sector. Every signal is that he will be proved right very soon. Those roles in finance where the knowledge required is systematic will soon disappear. And it will happen irrespective of how high a level, how highly trained or how experienced the human equivalent may currently be. Regular and repetitive tasks at all levels of an organisation already do not need to be done by humans. The more a job is solely or largely composed of these routines the higher the risk of being replaced by computing power. The warning signs have been out there for a number of years as enthusiastic reports about artificial intelligence have been tempered with fears about significant job losses in most sectors of the economy. Many roles have already all but disappeared in the march towards a fully digital economy. Older readers may recall typesetters, typists, and increasingly, switchboard operators and back room postal workers, as work of the last century. And the changing nature of work is relentless.

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Majority of US office workers demand technology that allows them to work anywhere

Majority of US office workers demand technology that allows them to work anywhere

by • Facilities management, News, Technology, Workplace

Majority of US office workers demand technology that allows them to work anywhereThe majority of North American office workers expect their employers to provide technology that allows them to work from wherever they choose and three quarter of employees (74 percent) would rather leave their job to work for an organisation that would allow them to work remotely more often, even if their salary stayed the same. This is because working remotely has moved from being a work perk to a necessity of 21st century living, claims a new study by Softchoice. Collaboration Unleashed: Empowering Individuals to Work Together from Anywhere, found that 85 percent of North American office workers expect their employers to provide technology that allows them to work from their desk, in a meeting room, at home, or the coffee shop down the street.

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Third of staff are too frightened to approach their line manager with a work problem

by • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Third of staff don't trust that their managers to help them with work problems

Nearly a third (30 percent) of the working population have a manager they feel they can’t approach with a problem, while two in five employees describe their manager as ‘temperamental’, one third say their manager makes them feel ‘uncomfortable’, and one in 10 labels their manager as ‘scary’. This is according to data compiled by Citation, which probed the working nation to gather some exclusive intel into the traits of bad managers, and the ramifications employers could face. The results suggest that three in 10 employees have unapproachable managers, with employees aged between 18 and 24 least likely to feel comfortable approaching their manager, and those aged 65+ most likely. However, employees aged 65+ were significantly more likely to label their manager as unreasonable than any other age group. Geographically, it looks like Londoners are faced with the least forthcoming bosses, with Northern Ireland a close second.

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New data protection legislation will lead to increased demand for specialist staff

New data protection legislation will lead to increased demand for specialist staff

by • Legal news, News, Workplace

New data protection legislation – due to come into force next year will lead to a boost in recruitment, claims new research from Robert Half UK.  Two-thirds (66 percent) of CIOs say they will hire additional, permanent employees to cope with the introduction of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The new data protection legislation will reshape the way organisations approach data privacy, providing the public with more visibility into data breaches. As organisations concentrate on compliance initiatives, demand for permanent project managers (33 percent), business analysts (26 percent) and data protection officers (26 percent) that oversee how data is processed, will increase. A further 64 percent of CIOs will hire temporary or interim staff to ensure they have the highly-skilled talent in place to manage the change in data management and reporting. The type of role that businesses are recruiting for with GDPR will vary according to company size. Overall, 16 percent of SMBs see GDPR as a concern, compared to 12 percent of large business. SMBs are more likely to hire project managers (32 percent) to help with compliance while larger organisations are placing a greater focus on recruiting data protection officers (33 percent).

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Artificial intelligence to become most important workplace tech trend over next decade

Artificial intelligence to become most important workplace tech trend over next decade

by • AI, News, Technology

Technology analyst Gartner claims in a new report that artificial intelligence (AI) will become the biggest technology megatrend of the next decade, suggesting that organisations need to focus their main efforts on AI based technology in the short to medium term. The study suggests that ‘digital business execution’ requires more frequent and complex decision making, continuous problem solving and rapid pattern recognition, all of which require workforce digital dexterity. In most organisations, however, responsibility for helping employees develop the desire and ability to exploit a wide range of transformative technologies — highlighted in the Gartner, Inc. Hype Cycle for Digital Workplace, 2017 — does not have to rest with any group or individual.

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Shake up of working culture and practices recommended to reduce pay gaps

Shake up of working culture and practices recommended to reduce pay gaps

by • Flexible working, News

All jobs should be advertised as available for flexible working, and greater support should be given to fathers to play more of a role in child care, in a shake-up of culture and working practices to reduce pay gaps, the Equality and Human Rights Commission said today. The call comes as the Commission’s strategy for tackling gender, ethnicity and disability pay gaps is released. A strategy to reduce pay gaps in Britain makes six recommendations outlining the action needed by government, in society and in our businesses to improve equality in earnings for women, ethnic minorities and disabled people. According to the EHRC, offering all jobs as flexible will remove the barriers faced by women and disabled people, who are more likely to have to negotiate flexible working or accept part-time jobs that are often low-paid. Creating work places with flexible cultures will increase opportunities for everyone, giving people greater choice about the role they play both at work and home. More →

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