Search Results for: employee

Presenteeism culture in the US means sick staff spread colds and virus at work

Presenteeism culture in the US means sick staff spread colds and virus at work 0

by • Facilities management, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Presenteeism culture in the US leads sick staff to spread colds and virus at workIn the United States where taking a sick day is frowned upon heavily and where the annual number of holiday days are around half of that of the UK, going to work when you’re ill is almost a mark of dedication. However, for the unfortunate colleagues of those who display such martyred behaviours, trying to avoid cold and flu in the workplace has reached desperate levels, as nearly half of people in a recent survey would give up a vacation day to a sick worker to ensure they don’t bring illness to the workplace. According to the seventh annual cold and flu season survey from Staples, while the  workforce is keenly aware of the dangers as well as prevention tactics surrounding seasonal illness, personal accountability remains low, with nearly 80 percent of employees still going to work sick. This is despite the fact that employers increasingly appreciate that a sick employee at home is much preferable than one who has struggled into work.

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Half of UK firms will hold Christmas parties but just a fifth offer bonuses or extra time off

Half of UK firms will hold Christmas parties but just a fifth offer bonuses or extra time off 0

by • Flexible working, Legal news, News, Workplace

Office Christmas party will go ahead but not bonuses or extra time off

We’re entering the office party season now so it’s time for the usual flurry of Christmas related research. We kick off the season with this from XpertHR which claims that the majority of companies it has polled will host company-wide parties (50.8 percent) or departmental Christmas lunches (47.2 percent), but there will be fewer Christmas gifts, bonuses awarded or additional time off for employees this year. Employers plan to spend an average of £93.33 and a median of £50 per employee on their Christmas celebrations – a figure which hasn’t changed significantly since the last time XpertHR conducted this survey in 2012/13, when the median spend was £42.82. However, fewer than one in five organisations (17.9 percent) will be offering employee gifts this year compared to 21.1 percent in 2012/2013 and just 18 employers will award Christmas bonuses, with no increases planned compared with last year.

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Are these the best places to work in 2017?

Are these the best places to work in 2017? 0

by • News, Workplace, Workplace design

1_expediaRecruitment site Glassdoor has announced the winners of its ninth annual Employees’ Choice Awards to find the best places to work in North America and parts of Europe. The Awards are based on the input of employees who voluntarily provide anonymous feedback, by completing a company review, about their job, work environment and employer over the past year. This year, the Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Awards feature six categories, honouring the Best Places to Work across the UK, US (both large and small companies), Canada, France and Germany. There is one category in the UK: 50 Best Places to Work (honouring employers with 1,000 or more employees). Winners are ranked based on their overall rating achieved during the past year.  The top five UK Best Places to Work in 2017 are Expedia, ARM, HomeServeUK, Mott MacDonald and Hays plc

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Business as usual for recruitment and retention in post-Brexit Britain … for now

Business as usual for recruitment and retention in post-Brexit Britain … for now 0

by • Comment, Flexible working, Legal news, Workplace

BrexitOn 24 June 2016 Britain voted for Brexit. The shock (and narrow) victory caused country-wide concern among the 48 percent of the voting public that favoured remain – apprehension seemingly justified by the immediate weakening of the pound, Cameron’s resignation and the start of ongoing political in-fighting. Speculation over job losses and potential hiring freezes added to a general sense of uncertainty, leaving some UK workers fearing their job security. Since then however, recruitment experts have somewhat softened their predictions for the UK job market as recent reports of month-on-month vacancy growth and record high employment rates have served to inspire confidence.  Five months on, how has job applicant sentiment changed in the UK since the EU referendum vote? And what does this mean for businesses hiring in post-Brexit vote Britain? As part of our ongoing tracking of candidate confidence levels in the job market and their career prospects we analysed the responses of almost 28,000 job applicants across the UK and Republic of Ireland – from all ages, experiences and sector disciplines – to gauge how perspectives might have changed pre- and post-Brexit.

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Sleep deprivation hits workplace health and productivity harder than we thought

Sleep deprivation hits workplace health and productivity harder than we thought 0

by • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Sleep deprivation hits workplace health and productivity hardPoliticians and corporate bosses who seems to pride themselves on being able to function on less than six hours of sleep a night are sending out the wrong message to the workforce, as recent research suggests that a lack of sleep among UK workers is costing the economy up to £40 billion a year, 1.86 per cent of the country’s GDP. According to researchers at the not-for-profit research organisation RAND Europe, sleep deprivation leads to a higher mortality risk and lower productivity levels among the workforce, which, when combined, has a significant impact on a nation’s economy. A person who sleeps on average less than six hours a night has a 13 per cent higher mortality risk than someone sleeping between seven and nine hours, researchers found, while those sleeping between six and seven hours a day have a 7 per cent higher mortality risk. The report, Why Sleep Matters – The Economic Costs of Insufficient Sleep, describes sleeping between seven and nine hours per night as the “healthy daily sleep range”.

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Just one percent of UK firms are ready for the digital economy

Just one percent of UK firms are ready for the digital economy 0

by • News, Technology

tortoise-and-hareA new study by Oxford Economics and SAP claims that just one in every 100 organisations in the UK is capitalising on the digital economy, significantly fewer than in comparable European countries such as Germany where the figure is more than 2 in 5 and Spain (22 percent). According to the study, the benefits of digital readiness include greater workforce diversity. The ‘digital winners’ defined by the report have higher female representation at mid-management level level and slightly more women overall. Four in ten of the study’s digital winners globally reported effective diversity programmes, compared to 36 percent of all companies in France, 33 percent in Russia, 30 percent in the UK and 23 percent in Spain.

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The strange future of work + New edition of Work&Place + Workplace irritations 0

by • Facilities management, Flexible working, Legal news, Newsletter, Technology, Wellbeing, Work&Place, Workplace, Workplace design

Sky's new HQ featured in current issue of Work&Place

In this week’s Newsletter; Mark Eltringham dissects the current obsession with engagement and motivation; and from the Winter 2016 issue of Work&Place which is now available to view online; discusses the future of work and place in the 21st century. We discover why creativity in the workplace is a prime engagement tool; that 85 percent of employers believe workplace automation will create more jobs than it will replace; however, in the now, technology issues cause the most lost time for SMEs. One in three lawyers would not feel comfortable even beginning the conversation about flexible working with their employer; a fifth of employees are distressed by political discussions in the workplace and employers urged to develop strategies to help retain older workers.  Download our new Briefing, produced in partnership with Boss Design on the link between culture and workplace strategy and design; visit our new events page, follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn Group to discuss these and other stories.

Slow broadband prevents thousands of Brits working from home

Slow broadband prevents thousands of Brits working from home 0

by • Flexible working, News, Technology

slow-broadbandAlthough the vast majority of British people who work from home need a fast internet connection, around a quarter of them are hampered by slow broadband, according to a new survey from comparison website Broadband Genie. The news comes on the day the Government finally announces that BT is to divest its Openreach arm which looks after the nation’s broadband infrastructure. The timing is welcome news for broadband users who have been frustrated for years by the UK’s second rate technological infrastructure. According to the Brodband Genie study the majority of people who work from home believe it has a  positive impact on their happiness, work life balance, productivity and motivation. Yet while  90 percent rely on broadband in order to work from home almost a quarter of homeworkers are limited by slow connections.

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Majority of employers believe automation will create more jobs than it will replace 0

by • News, Technology

A new report published by Capita Resourcing claims that 85 percent of employers believe workplace automation will create more jobs than it will replace in their organisation in 10 years’ time. The main benefits to businesses and employees over this period are likely to be enhanced productivity (76 percent) and new skills development (54 percent). The ‘Workplace More Human’ report surveyed the attitudes of 200 business leaders in medium to large organisations and 1,000 full or part time employees. It revealed that the workplace is currently undergoing rapid transformation with over half (54 percent) of employers already automating business processes that were once performed by people. A further 39 percent plan to automate more processes in the next 12 months.

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Rigid attitudes to flexible working prevents lawyers raising it with employers

Rigid attitudes to flexible working prevents lawyers raising it with employers 0

by • Facilities management, Flexible working, Legal news, News, Workplace

Rigid approch to flexible workingFlexible working may be gaining ground across the professions but it remains so rare in the legal industry that more than one in three (35 percent) lawyers say they would not feel comfortable even beginning the conversation about flexible working with their employer. The reason for this, suggests new research from My Family Care and recruiters Hydrogen, is down to a rigid culture which encourages working anti-social hours; as almost a third (29 percent) of the 140 of lawyers asked, saying that the majority of their colleagues think that people who work flexibly are simply “having an easy life.”  Yet despite this, over two thirds (67 percent) would rather choose flexible working over a 5 percent salary increase.  The research also found a large gender divide when it comes to flexible working.  While significantly more female lawyers work part time (34 percent of women compared with 10 percent of men), female lawyers say they work considerably more than their contracted hours: 35 percent compared to just 28 percent of males.

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Britain is missing a trick by not getting workplace training right

Britain is missing a trick by not getting workplace training right 0

by • Comment, Workplace

workplace trainingNew research from PwC highlights Britain’s failure to provide opportunities for young people. The study brings attention to the fact that the country ranks a lowly 21st out of 35 OECD members for its ability to get 15 to 24 year olds into work, education or training. If the UK could equal Germany’s low youth unemployment rate it would stand to gain around £45 billion, a 2.3 percent increase in GDP. The PwC report compares numerous countries, however Germany, Austria and Switzerland come out on top when it comes to providing career opportunities and workplace training to young people. Perhaps a clue to their success is that these nations all have so-called ‘dual education systems’ where work-based learning sits with equal stature alongside traditional academic study.

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Surge in overall job vacancies, but consultancy sector bears Brexit brunt

Surge in overall job vacancies, but consultancy sector bears Brexit brunt 0

by • News, Workplace

461The number of advertised job vacancies in the UK increased by 2.6 percent to 1,162,342 in October, and according to the latest UK Job Market Report from Adzuna.co.uk, with Christmas on the horizon, employers will be seeking to hire an array of temporary jobseekers to meet a rise in demand. A rise in total advertised vacancies has also been fuelled by employers’ plans to expand and refresh their teams to capitalise on jobseekers intending to make a fresh start or change in career path in the first few months of 2017. However, despite the overall resilient nature of the jobs market, the consultancy sector appears to have taken the brunt of the implications of Brexit. As a result, average advertised salaries are currently down 8.7 percent. This suggests companies are withdrawing from placing as much reliance on temporary staff and freelancers and seeking expertise internally from senior employees who may be more familiar with the nature of the business. This also highlights the importance of employers widening their talent pool and attracting highly skilled workers.

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