January 8, 2020

Majority of organisations remain unprepared for executive pay gap reporting

Three-fifths of UK organisations are still not ready to report their executive pay gap almost twelve months after the legislation came into force, claims a new poll by HR services provider MHR. This year UK listed companies with more than 250 employees are, for the first time, obliged to publish the pay ratio between their CEO and “average” employees in early 2020 and explain the reason for their executive pay ratios. (more…)

January 7, 2020

Toyota to build prototype city of the future at base of Mount Fuji

by Neil Franklin • Cities, Environment, News, Technology

Toyota has revealed plans to build a prototype city of the future on a 175-acre site at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan. Announced at CES 2020, the global consumer technology show in Las Vegas, the Woven City will be a fully connected ecosystem, powered by hydrogen fuel cells. Envisioned as a “living laboratory,” the city will be home to full-time residents and researchers who will be able to test and develop technologies such as autonomy, robotics, personal mobility, smart homes and artificial intelligence in a real-world environment. (more…)

January 7, 2020

The culling of freelancers with IR35 is a really, really bad idea

by Dean Sadler • Comment, Flexible working

Imagine a world with no freelancers, holiday cover workers, or people to help fill the hiring gaps on projects. With IR35 extending into the private sector, this could be a reality; and we should be worried that a skilled and flexible workforce of freelancers could soon be extinct. Instead of dealing with the headache of the new regulations, 20 percent of UK businesses said they plan to axe contract workers. Freelancers themselves might be worried about how the new iteration of IR35, due to come into force in April next year, will affect their ability to work, and hastily take on permanent positions. (more…)

January 3, 2020

Burnout remains a risk for workers of all generations

by Brendan Street • Comment, Wellbeing

Flexible working has become an important part of the modern UK economy, with over half of employees taking up a flexible working arrangement. However, Nuffield Health’s latest whitepaper The effects of remote working on stress, wellbeing and productivity has found while remote working is associated with higher workplace wellbeing, it can also present many business challenges including the risk of burnout for an increasingly diverse workforce. (more…)

December 23, 2019

The ten most read workplace stories of 2019

by Mark Eltringham • Features

Here’s a rundown of the best-read stories and pages on Workplace Insight first published over the last year. Taken together they may offer a snapshot of current workplace thinking although I would have to caveat that by saying that because we don’t publish obvious uninformed and hysterical nonsense, it will by necessity not include some stories that have gained traction elsewhere. (more…)

December 18, 2019

Anthropology might hold answers to the most difficult workplace challenges

by Christopher Diming • Comment, Workplace design

Many recent discussions have centered on the drawbacks of the open-plan office, a major format in the UK, and possible pathways to the communal workplace of the future. As part of this, it has been acknowledged that the factors responsible for determining the open-plan office’s performance are complex, and a number of the present-day workplace’s characteristics are messy and hard to quantify. In this brief article, I present anthropological methods as means for practitioners to further unpack the symbolic aspects of communication in open-plan offices and spark workplace solidarity.

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December 18, 2019

Most people have no idea what impostor syndrome is, but they know they have it

by Neil Franklin • News, Working lives

A new survey claims that only 15 percent of UK adults know what impostor syndrome is, although more than three-quarters (77 percent) claim to have suffered from it at some point in their lives. The survey of more than 500 UK adults was carried out by media agency UM. It suggests that office workers and those in professional services were the most likely among all those in full-time employment to suffer from impostor syndrome – behind only school and university students. (more…)

December 17, 2019

Gig workers like the work-life balance but would prefer permanent roles

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

More than one in ten (12 percent) so-called gig workers in the UK are working multiple roles and consider temporary work as their main role, taking advantage of improved work-life balance, greater variety of work and the ability to see more of their families, according to a new report. The research, carried out by Reed Specialist Recruitment, for its Temporary isn’t Temporary campaign, surveyed 5,000 workers and looked at their experience of, and attitude to, temporary and multiple career roles.

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December 12, 2019

Occupier priorities are shifting, according to new facilities management trends report

by Neil Franklin • Facilities management, News

CBRE Global Workplace Solutions (GWS) has published the 2019 edition of their Top Trends in Facilities Management report. The latest version of this annual report claims to highlight how changes in occupier needs are impacting FM strategies. The latest trends are broken down into four broad categories: client relationships; contracts; an increasing focus on people and technology. (more…)

December 6, 2019

Age discrimination now begins for tech workers at 29

by Jayne Smith • News, Workplace

A new study from tech recruiter CWJobs claims to identify what it calls the ‘staggering level’ of ageism that IT and tech workers face at work. From seemingly innocuous comments to being overlooked for promotion in favour of younger colleagues, a worrying number of the UK’s tech-sector employees are facing daily hurdles to prove they’re not yet a career ‘dinosaur’. Well over a third (41 percent) of IT and tech-sector workers said they have observed age discrimination in the workplace, compared to 27 percent average across other UK industries. It’s no surprise then that 61 percent of workers in the sector answered ‘yes’ when asked if, in the tech industry employees experience prejudice when considered to be older, the highest of any UK sector. (more…)

December 6, 2019

Firms turning to “corporate wellness” programmes as a solution for stress

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing

A new report by workforce performance firm CR Worldwide (CR), drawing on data from 287,000 employees at over 120 large enterprises, claims that as the incidence and awareness of the issue of stress grows, firms have responded with a 22 percent year-on-year increase in UK spending on perceived solutions such as corporate getaways with companies now spending an average of £3,100 per person per trip. The proportion of activity or nature-based business trips involved in such wellness programmes has more than doubled to 56 percent in 2019 compared to the previous year. With human-animal interactions believed to have therapeutic effects on mental health, UK firms are also increasingly offering ‘nature tourism’, from orangutan treks in Borneo to working with endangered rhinos in Rwanda and shark diving. Husky sledging is now among the top 5 Christmas corporate travel activities for UK firms. (more…)

December 3, 2019

Manifesto calls for action on disability inclusion as pay gap for disabled people widens

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing

A leading non-profit disability and business organisation is calling on the future Government to commit to a series of actions to support businesses to deliver on disability inclusion. Business Disability Forum published its ‘Manifesto for Inclusive Change’ today (3 December) to mark the United Nations International Day of Persons with Disabilities. The manifesto calls for action in seven areas to ensure that the role businesses play in disabled people’s lives is enhanced, not inhibited, by government policy. To read Business Disability Forum’s ‘Manifesto for Inclusive Change’ go to www.businessdisabilityforum.org.uk . Follow the debate at #DisabilitySmart. (more…)