Search Results for: employers

June 3, 2013

Infographic: how work related social media use varies by country, gender and sector

by Mark Eltringham • Knowledge, Technology, Workplace

A new survey from Microsoft has highlighted a widespread mismatch in the use of social media in a business context across regions and between gender and age groups. It also claims that firms should be more open to social media use and that their unwillingness to adopt them more openly is hampering personal productivity. In the survey conducted in conjunction with Ipsos, nearly half of employees report that social tools at work help increase their productivity, but more than 30 percent of companies underestimate the value of these tools and often restrict their use. An infographic of the survey’s main results can be found here.

May 31, 2013

UK employment recovery could take up to four years finds research

by Sara Bean • Knowledge, News, Workplace

It will now be more than four years before the UK restores the employment rate of 2008 – and jobs recovery could take far longer. According to a new analysis from independent think tank the Resolution Foundation, it is now all but certain that the current jobs recovery will take longer than that following either the 1980s or 1990s recessions. The new findings are based on calculations of the UK ‘jobs gap’, the number of jobs the UK needs to create in order to restore the 2008 employment rate. The tough figures are explained partly by the UK’s ageing workforce, as a third of the current jobs gap is down to the growing share of the workforce aged over 64, which is growing twice as fast as the population aged 16-64. More →

May 28, 2013

Wellness programmes largely a waste of time, claims US report

by Mark Eltringham • Knowledge, News, Workplace

According to press agency Reuters, a long-awaited report on workplace wellness programmes, which has yet to be published, delivers a blow to the increasingly popular efforts by employers to address the waistline of employees as well as the bottom line of their businesses. According to a report by researchers at RAND Corp in the US, the now commonplace corporate sanctioned wellness programmes that encourage employees to become healthier and reduce absenteeism and medical costs only have a modest effect. RAND delivered the analysis to the U.S. Department of Labor and the Department of Health and Human Services last Autumn as part of a Government review ahead of new legislation.

May 23, 2013

Guidance on designing in accessibility for disabled workers

by Pam Loch • Comment, Facilities management, Knowledge, Legal news, Workplace design

The government launches a campaign today using TV celebrities and disabled groups to help promote positive role models for disabled people. It’s aimed at building on the latest stats that show 81 per cent of people thought the Paralympics had a positive impact on the way disabled people are perceived. Currently they’re not well represented in the workplace, as according to DTI figures half of all disabled people are unable to find work. This is why the Equality Act 2010 plays such a vital role in promoting diversity in the workplace. Put into practice, understanding and adhering to the Equality Act 2010 requires employers to take positive action to remove certain disadvantages to disabled people posed by working practices and the physical features of premises. More →

May 23, 2013

New report offers latest evidence of link between office design and productivity

by Mark Eltringham • Briefing, Knowledge, Workplace, Workplace design

So, does workplace design have any impact on productivity and business performance? Well duh. So why are we still trying to convince managers when there is so much evidence and experience to prove it. The latest study to demonstrate the link builds on decades of research and adds further compelling evidence in a debate that should have been over a long time ago. In this report, workplace strategist Nigel Oseland and the Atomic Weapons Establishment’s estate masterplanner Adrian Burton describe their research quantifying the effect on worker performance of improvements to the office environment. The question these reports always beg is why the argument still has to be made.

May 23, 2013

UK employee engagement and productivity lags behind most of world

by Sara Bean • Knowledge, News, Workplace

You might regard the concept of employee engagement as just a new way to describe industrial relations, but there is a growing body of research that UK employers need to do more to keep their employees on side. According to the latest missive, low employee engagement and lagging productivity is the greatest employment challenge facing UK business in 2013. Global research by Right Management found that this was the key concern for one in three (31 per cent ) employers compared to a global average of just one in five (21 per cent ) HR professionals, suggesting that after years of economic uncertainty and doing ‘more with less’, the UK workforce has reached a productivity impasse. More →

May 22, 2013

Fearful UK employees benefit from engagement policies finds survey

by Sara Bean • Knowledge, News, Public Sector, Workplace

A new study provides some proof that the employee engagement lobby has some validity. According to a new national survey, job stress has gone up and job-related well-being has gone down since the start of the recession, with Britain’s employees feeling more insecure and pressured at work than at any time in the past 20 years. The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) report the biggest concern was about pay reductions, followed by loss of say over their job. However, the survey found that where employers pursued employee engagement practices, giving employees more involvement in decision making at work, staff were less anxious about their jobs. More →

May 21, 2013

Flexible working boosts employee satisfaction and lowers business costs

by Tim Clapham • Comment, Knowledge, Technology, Workplace

May 2013 played host to Work Wise Week, an initiative from Work Wise UK that aimed to promote and encourage smarter working practices to the benefit of businesses and employees. Cultural, economic and social changes are affecting attitudes to how we balance work and personal lives, and increasingly, mobility and technology is shifting away the need for the traditional 9-5 work patterns, replacing it with more flexible working practices. There are many benefits of flexible working and, as such, we are seeing more businesses starting to understand that forcing employees to work in an office does not guarantee productivity. More →

May 20, 2013

Groundbreaking study reveals work is better for you than retirement

by Sara Bean • Knowledge, Legal news, News, Workplace

The scrapping of the UK’s Default Retirement Age (DRA) two years ago is seen by many employers as a negative step. But now a ground-breaking new study provides evidence that working past a set retirement age is much better for the nation’s health. Work Longer, Live Healthier: The relationship between economic activity, health and government policy, published by the Institute of Economic Affairs and the Age Endeavour Fellowship finds retirement has a detrimental impact on both mental and physical health over time. The stats make for uncomfortable reading for anyone considering taking that long cruise. You’re more likely to be clinically depressed, have at least one diagnosed physical condition and are less likely to enjoy good or excellent health. More →

May 13, 2013

Green responsibilities of the built environment highlighted by CIBSE

by Sara Bean • Environment, Facilities management, News

We’ve already focused today on the role individuals can play in supporting the green agenda of their employers, but for those working within the built environment they may have particular responsibility when it comes to helping to reduce energy consumption and provide for the adaptation of buildings that respond to the challenges of climate change. This is the message from incoming CIBSE President, George Adams Engineering Director for Spie Matthew Hall, in his Presidential address, “Whole Life Thinking” where he stresses the need for a new energy engineering conscience and calls for an increased pace of action to improve the industry and reduce its environmental impact.

May 13, 2013

Employment rates set to grow but applicants must battle for jobs

by Sara Bean • Knowledge, News, Workplace

Employment growth is set to continue in the second quarter of this year, but the jobs market remains a ‘battleground’, particularly for low-skilled workers. According to the Spring 2013 Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)/Success Factors Labour Market Outlook (LMO), the net employment balance – which measures the difference between the proportion of employers who expect to increase staffing levels and those who intend to reduce staffing levels, has increased to +9 from +5 for the previous quarter, the fifth consecutive quarter of projected growth. However, the median number of applicants employers receive for medium-skilled roles is 29, highly-skilled vacancies typically receive 10 applicants and pay rates continue to be squeezed.

May 3, 2013

What workers really want from their offices? The basics.

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, Technology, Workplace, Workplace design

So what do people really want from their offices? It’s a question that has tasked the minds of researchers for many years. According to a recent survey from Overbury, the ideal office design seemed to be a Starbucks, but a new report from the British Council for Offices suggests that what people want isn’t actually that much. Top of the list of priorities for the 1,200 or so people surveyed were fast Wi-Fi, comfortable surroundings, a convenient location and a decent, if unspectacular, fit-out, although responses varied to a certain degree across age groups and sectors. Is that really too much to ask? And are the pool table and the slide absolutely necessary?