Search Results for: employee experience

January 3, 2019

Anti-team legislation can make us slaves to individual rights

by Helen Jamieson • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace

Society is becoming more selfish. At least that’s what the most commonly held view on the issue suggests, and it’s only set to get worse. Whether or not you believe the headlines, my 20 plus years’ experience as an HR consultant has led me to believe the hype. Increasingly many (I stress, not all) employees no longer see themselves as part of a team, but are increasingly ‘lone wolves’ single mindedly pursuing their needs and wants above those of the team. Each decision they make is with ‘I’ first and foremost, with ‘we’ maybe just a passing thought. It could be argued this was inevitable. How do you create a culture of team engagement, and group morale when for decades UK workplace legislation has focused almost exclusively on Individual Rights, rather than the ‘rights’ of the group? I’d argue it is simply not possible to develop successful teams where each individual has numerous legal rights but no corresponding responsibilities. My wish for 2019 would be for the government to set out a ‘responsibility’ alongside every ‘right’ it confers.

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.

December 17, 2018

Meatspace, cyberspace, the uncertainty of expertise and some other stuff

by Mark Eltringham • Features, Technology, Workplace, Workplace design

The sign that somebody knows their stuff about a subject is often that whatever they say about it is full of questions, equivocations and caveats. They’ll often start out by saying things are complicated in mitigation of their opinion on a particular topic. They’ll say there are no silver bullets. It’s almost always neophytes, chancers and the conflicted that offer certainty. To prove my point here is David D’Souza of the CIPD making a point about the tendency to look for pat, narrow solutions to complex, broad challenges. Not only does he have something interesting to say, you know that he has the depth and breadth of knowledge to expand on each of the points he makes with yet more sophistication. It’s fractal thinking.

December 13, 2018

The scale and complexity of public sector procurement makes a change of direction difficult

by Mark Eltringham • News

A new report from the Institute for Government claims that the British government spends around £284bn – almost one-third of its total expenditure – with external suppliers. Given its scale, public sector procurement could not easily be abandoned even if politicians wanted, the report concludes. It says that four departments spent more than half of their entire budgets with external suppliers last year. It also finds that the largest suppliers are winning more and more government business.

December 6, 2018

Siemens new Swiss campus showcases workplace technology and use of BIM in construction

by Mark Eltringham • Case studies, Company news, Facilities management, Technology, Workplace design

Siemens AG has officially opened its new campus in Zug, Switzerland. The Siemens Zug campus features a new office building with 1,000 work spaces and a newly constructed production building. The investment volume for new buildings, renovations and related measures amounts to CHF 250 million. The campus is the international headquarters of the Siemens Building Technologies (BT) Division, which has 29,000 employees. Construction of the office and production buildings began in May 2016 and was completed in July 2018. The Siemens Zug campus is one of the first new projects to use Building Information Modeling (BIM) for design and construction. The digital twin – a 3D model of the building, enhanced with technical information relevant for later operations – is the foundation for efficient, cost-optimised and forward-looking building management. More →

December 3, 2018

Ten UK employment law changes to look out for in 2019

by Alan Price • Comment, Legal news

From gender pay gap reporting to widespread claims of workplace sexual harassment, 2018 has been a busy year in employment law. Although employers may hope for a quieter 2019, it’s looking likely that there will be a number of issues that are prevalent throughout the year, amid the ongoing uncertainty of Brexit. Below are just ten changes employers need to look out for. Whilst there are sure to be other new developments introduced throughout next year, employers would do well to keep a close eye on these particular topics and put plans in place to ensure their business complies with any new requirements.

November 30, 2018

Business confidence linked to attitudes towards digital transformation

by Mark Eltringham • News, Technology

A report published by Vodafone suggests there is a clear link between digital transformation and levels of business confidence in the UK. 79 percent of business leaders say digital transformation is a strategic priority and are keen to exploit its full potential. Organisations that prioritise digital transformation are also more confident about future growth. Of those business who see digital as a low-priority, only 17 percent are very confident about their future growth; for those who see digital transformation as a high-priority, this figure almost triples to 50 percent. The Digital, Ready? report surveyed 2,001 business leaders across the UK, from sole traders through to large enterprises and the public sector. It found that a fifth have already successfully implemented digital transformation projects; and more than half believe they are making good progress (53 percent). 69 percent recognise that their organisation will not survive if they fail to embrace digital transformation.

November 29, 2018

New workplace trends will bring people back to the office, Gensler report suggests

by Neil Franklin • Architecture, Cities, News, Workplace design

The next generation of office buildings will draw employees back to the workplace, a new report from architect and design firm Gensler suggests. It suggest that an increased number of employees are set to be drawn back to the office, as the importance and power of face-to-face interaction grows, and office design increasingly caters towards this. This year’s 2018 Design Forecast report, Shaping the Future of Cities (registration required), created by the Gensler Research Institute explores over 200 of the latest trends that are changing cities across the world. The overarching prediction is that design will “put people back at the centre” and become the driving force behind resilient, liveable cities. Buildings that react and respond to the people within it will be critical to the workplace experience, harnessing data to interpret internal workplace data and make intelligent adaptations.

November 28, 2018

Line up of speakers announced for Workplace Trends: Research Spring Summit

by Maggie Procopi • Events, Facilities management, News, Technology, Workplace design

The research-driven Workplace Trends Spring Summit returns for 2019. We have two sessions with invited guest speakers, our keynote and the after lunch debate. Following a recent Call for Abstracts and a blind peer review by our two moderators for the day, Nigel Oseland (Workplace Unlimited) and Mark Eltringham (Workplace Insight), the remaining sessions have now been filled with the highest ranked submissions.

November 20, 2018

Employers urged not to think of mental health as a minority issue

by Sara Bean • Events, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Following the call yesterday by business leaders for the mandatory provision of mental first aiders at work, new research claims many more workers are affected by mental ill health than usual estimates. Instead of a perceived one in four people affected by mental health, according to the results of new research from Accenture, nine out of ten workers (90 percent) are touched by mental health challenges. Two-thirds (66 percent) have personally experienced mental health challenges and even more — 85 percent — say someone close to them such as a family member, close friend or colleague had experienced them. More →

November 19, 2018

A cheap day return to Farringdon, please

by Neil Usher • Comment, Facilities management

Timing is everything. Re-launching a professional body while the country’s politics unceremoniously implode could not have been foreseen, but the vacuous space was full of the registered and invited, many with a trail of string going back a few decades or more. What a lovely gathering of old friends it was. On Monday 12th The BIFM formally changed its name to the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management. This event was to reveal the new creative collateral and celebrate the optimism/excitement/apprehension (delete as applicable).

November 15, 2018

Majority of office workers discontented with workplace environment

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Workplace, Workplace design

The vast majority (97 percent) of office workers in UK feel frustrated by their workplace environments, with many feeling the need to escape office life as a result. A new report from Staples has discovered that one-in-five (22 percent) end up browsing LinkedIn job ads for something better when they’re frustrated. As a result, job-hopping is prolific, with workers now predicted to have 11.7 jobs between the ages of 18 and 48. The expectation that the grass must be greener elsewhere is leaving most thinking about switching jobs. However, when they do end up jumping ship, many just experience a short-term fix. According to the study, a third (37 percent) get frustrated in their new office before the end of their first six months. The majority of office workers say they seek fulfilment (89 percent) at work, and for most (77 percent), the quality of their office workspace is a contributing factor in how fulfilled they feel.