Search Results for: employee

Urgent action needed to boost small business workplace productivity says CIPD

by • News, Workplace

The CIPD is calling on Government to invest £13m a year to provide HR support to small businesses, as new research shows that it could be a key part of efforts to resolve the UK’s workplace productivity puzzle. The call is based on the evaluation of year-long People Skills pilots providing HR support for SMEs in Hackney, Stoke-on-Trent and Glasgow. People Skills was developed by the CIPD, with support from the JPMorgan Chase Foundation. It provided up to two days’ worth of free HR support to small firms, including face-to-face advice, a telephone helpline, online information and templates, as well as group training events.

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High expectations mask large gap between understanding of artificial intelligence and its implementation

High expectations mask large gap between understanding of artificial intelligence and its implementation

by • AI, News, Technology

New research published by the Boston Consulting Group and MIT Sloan Management Review suggests that there remains a wide gap between the understanding and adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) at most companies. The global study of over 3,000 firms and industry experts claims that almost 85 percent of executives believe AI will allow their companies to obtain or sustain a competitive advantage. However, only about one in five companies has incorporated AI in some offerings or processes. The new report claims to identify the key characteristics of AI leaders and offers companies a starting point for developing an AI strategy.

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Scottish employers severely limiting their access to talent by not offering flexible working

by • Flexible working, News

Companies in Scotland who do not offer employees flexible working are failing in their attempts to recruit and retain the best talent, a report has said. Demand for flexible jobs massively outstrips supply, according to the study commissioned by the Scottish Government in partnership with Family Friendly Working Scotland and recruitment agency Timewise. The report claims it is the first research to look specifically at the ratio of supply to demand for flexible work in the country. Although the Scottish government said flexible working boosts productivity and is good for workers, the study found that just 11.9 percent of jobs paying at least £20,000 annually are advertised as flexible, while 34 percent of jobless Scots sought flexible work. The data came from analysis carried out by Timewise of more than 230,000 job adverts.

Report sets out building blocks of a successful digital workplace strategy

by • News, Technology, Workplace design

Digital workplace developments often lose their way, or fail, due to a fragmented approach that prioritises a few technology ‘fixes’ over business strategy, according to analysts at Gartner. To combat this, ‘digital workplace leaders’ in public sector organisations need to employ a framework to ensure their digital workplace initiatives address eight critical components required for a successful implementation, according to Gartner. The report (paywall) sets out what it claims are the eight critical components — “building blocks” — that application leaders need when planning, directing and evolving digital workplace programs:

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Quarter of women on maternity leave offered less training opportunities than colleagues

by • Flexible working, Legal news, News, Workplace

Quarter of women on maternity leave not offered same training opportunities as colleagues

One fifth of women (20 percent) feel overlooked by their employer during maternity leave and though three quarters (75 percent) see training as a key way to prepare for their return to work, nearly a quarter (24 percent) are not offered the same training opportunities as their colleagues. According to the new research from AVADO almost a third of women (32 percent) who’ve been on maternity leave in the past three years say they’d have felt more prepared to return to the workforce if they’d had the option to do some training; one in three (29 percent) would have felt better connected with their team members and for a fifth (24 percent), training would have allowed them to stay up-to-date with the latest developments in their industry. During maternity leave, an employee and employer can agree to have up to ten Keeping in Touch (KIT) days, which may include training, but the research found that just one in ten (16 percent) were given the option to use these for training. This is despite the fact that 72 percent of women see it as one of the key ways to help them successfully head back to work after having a family.

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Companies overlooking cost of cyber risks as variety and number of breaches increase

by • Facilities management, Legal news, News, Technology

Companies are overlooking cost of cyber risks as incidents of breaches riseCyber risk is becoming increasingly common while the types of breaches are becoming more diverse, claims a new white paper by the audit and accounting expert BDO. For instance, ransomware is now the fifth most common type of malware; with the cost of freeing up computer systems from ransomware tripling since 2016. Yet organisations are continuing to spend up to four times more on insuring other company assets (e.g. property, equipment etc.) than on cyber insurance, despite an increasingly widespread belief that their cyber assets are in fact up to 14 percent more valuable. The report also finds that as cyber incidents increase, they become more difficult – and therefore more expensive – to defend. In the new cyber insurance white paper, BDO’s global cybersecurity leadership group stresses the importance of businesses gaining an understanding of their unique risk profiles in order to ensure the right cyber insurance for their needs. Cyber insurance: managing the risk does include some of the positive trends around cyber security – for example, both the level of Board involvement and investments in cybersecurity have increased significantly in the last 2-3 years.

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Parents asking for flexible working face sanctions from bosses, claims study

Parents asking for flexible working face sanctions from bosses, claims study

by • Flexible working, News

Asking for family-friendly flexible working patterns can lead to many people getting fewer hours, worse shifts and in some cases losing their jobs altogether, claims a new report from the TUC. Half (47 percent) of low-paid young mums and dads are struggling to manage work and childcare, according to the Better Jobs for Mums and Dads report. More than two in five (42 percent) said they felt penalised at work when they asked for flexibility – telling the TUC they are subsequently given fewer hours, worse shifts or even losing their job.

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Third of sick notes are given out for mental health issues, claims NHS study

Third of sick notes are given out for mental health issues, claims NHS study

by • News, Wellbeing

One in three signed off cases of absenteeism in the UK is related to mental health problems, with more than five million Britons being signed off work for conditions including anxiety, according to an NHS study of fit notes issued by GPs over a 28 month period. The number of workers signed off sick or put on restricted duties because of stress and anxiety rose by 14 per cent in the most recent year according to the report. Mental health and behavioural conditions were the most common reason to be off work, making up 31 per cent of cases, followed by musculoskeletal conditions. The NHS Digital report, running to March 2017, said in 2016-17 there were 573,000 cases of people off sick with anxiety and stress-related conditions, compared with 503,000 cases the previous year.

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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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Half of UK workers plan to leave their current job over the next year

Half of UK workers plan to leave their current job over the next year

by • Cities, Flexible working, News, Workplace

Half of UK workers want to move jobs over the next year

Fifty percent of full or part-time workers in the UK want to leave their current job in the next 12 months claims a new study conducted by Citation. London businesses will be the worst hit, with two thirds (64 percent) of workers in the capital planning on eyeing up other employers. Furthermore, those aged between 18 and 24 are most likely to jump ship (64 percent), and men are 10 percent more likely to leave than women. For two in five workers, it’s salaries that’s forcing them to look elsewhere – this is most likely to be the key driver for 18 to 34-year-olds. Better career prospects (22 percent), drab company cultures (16 percent), dislike of managers (11 percent) and loathing of their job (10 percent) were other reasons given for wanting to leave. With, according to a study by Oxford Economics the average cost of recruitment costing £30,000, UK business owners look set for a costly year ahead. (more…)

UK workers waste over two hours a day on social media and other distractions

UK workers waste over two hours a day on social media and other distractions

by • News, Technology, Workplace

UK workers waste over two hours a day on social media and other distractions

UK workers spend just 3.7 days out of five doing office-related work, a new survey has claimed. According to research by Rebootonline.com – workers spend more than two hours a day procrastinating; including around three hours and five minutes of a working week on social media. In monetary terms this means companies are paying out on average £8,851.14 per employee for this time wasted annually. In the survey of UK office workers, it was discovered that on average, they were spending 122 minutes a day procrastinating; essentially, only working 73 percent of the hours they are employed to do. The annual income for office workers surveyed averaged at £32,782. Taking this into account, workers spend 27 percent of their time not doing the job they have been paid to, with companies paying out £8,851.14 per employee for this time wasted. The use of social media at work during office hours was the most popular form of internet usage; with 38 percent of office employees browsing social media sites more than any other website; with people spending 33 minutes’ daily surfing other websites.

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Shared experiences and even team building exercises might actually make people happier

Shared experiences and even team building exercises might actually make people happier

by • News, Wellbeing

A new study from the What Works Centre for Wellbeing, published in the Journal for Environmental and Public Health, claims that shared activities in workplaces can boost wellbeing and performance by improving their ‘social atmosphere’. The review of nearly 1,400 scientific papers and reports from across the globe led researchers from the Universities of East Anglia, Essex, Reading and Sheffield to conclude that team activities are effective at making us happier at work. All the successful examples they found shared common characteristics in that they involved everyone – including people who might be reluctant to interact in shared activities and involved more than a one-off activity and carried on over time. Examples ranged from as few as three one-hour workshops to a more extensive programme delivered over several years.

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