March 10, 2016
Staff believe 91 percent of UK firms will no longer be competitive by 2020 0
Studies using 2020 as an apocalyptic landmark are thinner on the ground these days as we get closer to the actual year, so it’s great to see the old chestnut given another roasting in a new report from tech consultancy Infomentum. The headline stat from their new Beyond Digital report is that 91 percent of UK employees believe that new technology will mean that their current businesses will no long be competitive by 2020 unless they face up to the challenges of the digital economy. The report, based on a study of over 1000 office workers, examines how new technology is set to disrupt businesses and employment. Around 50 percent of respondents believe their employers will have to invest in new technology in order to fend off extinction. The survey also suggests that organisations resort to bandwagon jumping when it comes to new technology rather than assessing their needs before making decisions.
March 8, 2016
Eight in ten women believe gender discrimination still prevalent at work 0
by Sara Bean • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace
Today is International Women’s Day, which marks the official day of the year when gender equality across the world comes under the spotlight. In the UK, a poll by Investors in People found that 8 in 10 of women (83 percent) in full time employment believe gender discrimination is still present in the workplace. According to the poll of 2000 employees almost half of women (45 percent) think they have personally experienced discrimination in the workplace because of their gender. And what is depressingly unsurprisingly to many women is that when the poll explored employee perceptions of gender discrimination versus the reality, 30 percent of men believe there is no difference between men and women’s pay, when according to the facts, women are earning on average 19 percent less than men an hour (UKCES, 2015). More encouragingly though, 41 percent of employees believe their workplace has a culture of encouraging gender equality, a statistic that has room for growth.
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