Search Results for: employee

Flexible working does not reduce levels of overwork

Flexible working does not reduce levels of overwork

UK employees are having to work harder to pay the bills, with the vast majority (91 percent) working beyond their contracted hours on a weekly basis and almost half (43 percent) not leaving the office or taking a break at lunchtime according to an analysis of Morgan McKinley’s Working Hours and Flexibility reports. And the growing practice of flexible working appears to be having no impact on the overworking culture.

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Uber Works may not be as good for workers as it is for businesses

Uber Works may not be as good for workers as it is for businesses

<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125519/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important" />Uber is still best known as a ride-hailing platform but it has been branching out into other industries. Food (Uber eats), electric scooters and bicycles (Jump), and now shift work with the launch of Uber Works. It is being trialled in Chicago, with plans to launch elsewhere soon, and enables casual workers such as cleaners, bar staff and warehouse workers to find work. More →

IPSE launches manifesto for the self-employed

IPSE launches manifesto for the self-employed

a self-employed man sits at a computerIPSE (the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed) has launched #5millionvotes, a manifesto for the 2019 General Election. The manifesto claims to highlight the size and influence of the self-employed sector in the election, as well as outlining the policies parties should adopt to secure the support of freelancers. The number of self-employed has grown enormously in the last ten years to almost 5 million. They are now 15 per cent of the workforce – almost as much as the entire public sector. Collectively, they contribute £305bn to the economy every year, which is enough to fund the NHS twice over. More →

Lack of leadership stifles workplace creativity

Lack of leadership stifles workplace creativity

the spotlight on leadershipThe UK’s workforces are being creatively stifled because of high pressure and a lack of leadership skills, a new study claims. A study of 1,000 workplaces published in Thinking On Your Feet, a report by the commercial arm of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, RADA Business, has found that almost half (41 percent) of UK workplaces implement practises that have a detrimental effect on employee empowerment and their ability to think creatively. The study also reveals that 75 percent of workplaces lack the right environment to enable improvisation to thrive, leaving workers feeling unsupported and stressed. More →

Infosys opens new digital innovation centre in Duesseldorf

Infosys opens new digital innovation centre in Duesseldorf

Infosys has announced the opening of its new Digital Innovation Centre in D?sseldorf, Germany.The Centre has been created to help Infosys work more closely with its clients in the region in supporting their digital transformation journey, while focusing on next-generation business suites such as SAP HANA, as well as cloud based services, Internet of Things, 5G, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. More →

More active lifestyles would have far reaching economic impact

More active lifestyles would have far reaching economic impact

activeThe results of a new academic study on the relationship between global economic growth and physical activity, carried out by Vitality and RAND Europe, reveal significant benefits to the economy and life expectancy if people adopted a more active lifestyle. The study suggests that the world’s GDP would gain more than $100bn (£80bn) each year until 2050 if people adopted a more active daily routine that could involve simple choices such as walking 15 minutes more a day, jogging slowly for half a mile a day, or walking 1,500 extra steps a day. More →

Short term spike in absence rates but long term trend remains downward

Short term spike in absence rates but long term trend remains downward

absenceAbsence rates dues to illness or injury for UK workers rose by 7 percent in 2018 to an average of 4.4 working days according to new figures, published by the Office for National Statistics. During the full year, people took 141.4 million sick days compared with 131.5 million in 2017, when the figure reached its lowest since records began. The long term trend remains positive despite last year’s spike.The rate of absence from work due to sickness in people in the UK with no long-term health problems has halved in the past two decades according to the government data. More →

People game hiring processes they know are carried out by an AI

People game hiring processes they know are carried out by an AI

people try game AI in hiring processNew research into job-seeker attitudes to digitisation, automation and AI in the recruitment process claims to reveal how job-seekers are cheating recruitment technology platforms, to better their chances of landing a job. Seven in ten (67 percent) job seekers admitted to deliberately using optimisation strategies to improve their chances of getting a job. The study, Hiring Humans vs. Recruitment Robots, from recruitment software provider TribePad canvassed the views of over 1,000 employees and job seekers in the UK. The report’s key claim is that, as technology continues to permeate the recruitment and HR industry, job-seekers are looking for ways to game the systems. More →

HR leaders feel unprepared for the future of work

HR leaders feel unprepared for the future of work

Gartner and the future of workOnly 9 percent of chief human resources officers (CHROs) agree that their organisation is prepared for the future of work, according to a new report from Gartner. The study ties in to Gartner Gartner ReimagineHR conference, which took place last week. It concludes that to address the needs of organisations and workers in the future, HR leaders must focus on five areas of work. It suggests that tackling the future of work should not mean looking at the various changing aspects of work, such as AI, the gig economy and the multigenerational workforce, in silos. Istead, HR leaders should focus on the big picture of what the future of work can and should look like in their organisation. More →

Four day week at Microsoft Japan boosts productivity by 40 percent

Four day week at Microsoft Japan boosts productivity by 40 percent

Microsoft Surface Hub and the four day weekMicrosoft Japan has announced the results of its four day work week trial, and claims the move increased productivity by almost 40 percent. The trial of the four day week, named the “Work-Life Choice Challenge Summer 2019” saw around 2,300 employees given five successive Fridays off, with no reduction in salary and no days taken from annual leave. The project also included an offer of subsidised holidays and further education opportunities. Microsoft claims that the increase in productivity was largely attributable to shorter and more efficient meetings. More →

Fear of failure holds people back at work

Fear of failure holds people back at work

fear of failure is holding people back at workAccording to new research from Nyenrode Business University and IE University, one out of two people think they could perform better at work  if they were not worrying about making mistakes. The researchers studied 1,000 people and found that more than 40 percent of them say they have a fear of failure and making mistakes between 20-40 percent of the time or more. More →

Corporate sanctioned mindfulness is no fix for stress

Corporate sanctioned mindfulness is no fix for stress

Corporate sanctioned mindfulness is often nothing but a sticking plaster for stressThe use of mindfulness techniques in the corporate world could actually do more harm than good to employees, having little more than a ‘band aid’ or ‘quick fix’ effect, according to new research from Durham University Business School. More →