Search Results for: employers

Workers’ attitudes to data theft at odds with employers’

data theft

Half of employees who left or lost their jobs in the last 12 months kept confidential corporate data, according to a global survey from Symantec and 40 percent plan to use it in their new jobs. The results show that employees’ attitudes and beliefs about intellectual property (IP) theft are at odds with the vast majority of company policies. Employees not only think it is acceptable to take and use IP when they leave, but also that companies don’t care. The survey reveals 62 percent believe it is acceptable to transfer documents to PCs, tablets, smartphones or file sharing applications and the majority never delete the data they’ve moved because they do not see any harm in keeping it.
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Work-life balance proposals could cause employers to wobble

flexible work

Employment experts have raised concerns on the impact on employers of the Children and Families Bill, announced by the government this week, which introduces shared parental leave and extends the right to request flexible working to all employees. The idea behind the reforms is to give parents greater flexibility about how they ‘mix and match’ care of their child but Jonathan Exten-Wright, Partner from DLA Piper said: “Employers would no doubt welcome further guidance on how the new shared leave should operate in practice.”

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Employers overlook flexible working alternative to redundancy

Flexible

Only 22 per cent of UK managers believe their companies are very effective at redeploying employees rather than making redundancies. And according to new global research it’s a worldwide problem, with almost three in ten employers believing their organisations are “not effective”. Mark Hodgson, practice leader of Talent Management in Right Management UK & Ireland said: “The results suggest that businesses aren’t seeing redeployment as a feasible way of making savings and keeping staff. Businesses can’t afford to underestimate the importance of a flexible workforce in this tough economic climate.” (more…)

A word or two on what people tell you about work and workplaces

A word or two on what people tell you about work and workplaces

All of those surveys about work and workplaces must be telling us something about people and what they do, mustn't they? One of the many criticisms you could make of us as a business is a reliance on company sponsored surveys to generate news stories about workplaces. We don’t publish all of them, you’ll be relieved to hear. The ones we reject are usually too nakedly self-serving. Even the ones that have some degree of statistical cred must be viewed in the right context, distorted as they might be by loaded questions, self-reporting, deliberate lying and other response biases.  Our attitude towards these polls is that they often contain some element of truth, especially if results are repeated over a period of time. When surveys over many years tell you that noise is the biggest gripe about office life, you should believe them.    (more…)

Women working from home or on reduced hours at greater risk of damaging their career

Women working from home or on reduced hours at greater risk of damaging their career

Women working from home or on reduced hours are at greater risk of losing their professional and managerial careers, but men are not affectedWomen working from home or on reduced hours are at greater risk of losing their professional and managerial careers, but men are not affected, new research suggests. Women professionals not working a standard week in the office were more likely to end up in less prestigious careers than those in full-time work, the study found. Sizhan Cui, of the University of Oxford, analysed survey data on 11,981 British women and 9,829 men gathered from 2010-2024 to link changes in careers to the use of flexible working arrangements such as working from home, part-time work, job sharing and flexitime. (more…)

Creativity, thinking and expertise in the workplace should be safeguarded from AI

Creativity, thinking and expertise in the workplace should be safeguarded from AI

Workplace professionals and general managers should proceed with caution if they want to use AI to improve efficiency and human capital in the workplace, and should take steps to ensure creativity and critical thinking are preserved, new research from the University of Bath School of Management suggests. The research team identified two types of knowledge which appeared partially compatible with AI – encoded knowledge, which encompasses rules, procedures, policies, and datasets; and embedded knowledge – essentially digitalised processes and routines. (more…)

Parliamentary group warns misuse of NDAs undermines workplace trust

Parliamentary group warns misuse of NDAs undermines workplace trust

While NDAs can serve a legitimate purpose, their use to mask harassment or discrimination risks undermining accountability and eroding trust within organisations.A cross-party group of parliamentarians, business leaders and experts has warned that non-disclosure agreements are “good for no-one” when used to conceal harmful behaviour in the workplace rather than address it. The warning followed a roundtable held in Parliament on 18 March, hosted by the Policy Liaison Group on Workplace Wellbeing. Participants agreed that while NDAs can serve a legitimate purpose, their use to mask harassment or discrimination risks undermining accountability and eroding trust within organisations. (more…)

AI will either save work or destroy it. Apparently.

AI will either save work or destroy it. Apparently.

It's too early to know what precise impact AI will have on jobs, writes Jo Sutherland. Fortunately for us, the future is still ours to shapeAs someone who works at the intersection of communications and responsible AI, I spend a lot of time thinking about how emerging technologies are explained, sold, feared, embraced and misunderstood. Nowhere is that more palpable than in conversations about AI and the future of work, where certainty is sometimes projected before it’s earned. Over the past few months alone, taking part in debates at both the Westminster Employment Forum and the University of Cambridge, I’ve been struck by just how wide the spectrum of opinion still is. Depending on who has the floor, AI is framed either as a magical productivity fix or an existential threat to jobs. The reality probably lies somewhere in the middle. (more…)

Employment Rights Act is already putting the brakes on hiring, CIPD warns

Employment Rights Act is already putting the brakes on hiring, CIPD warns

New research from the CIPD suggests the Government’s Employment Rights Act could discourage employers from recruiting permanent staff, add to business costs and increase workplace conflictNew research from the CIPD suggests the Government’s Employment Rights Act could discourage employers from recruiting permanent staff, add to business costs and increase workplace conflict. The findings come from the CIPD’s latest Labour Market Outlook, based on a survey of more than 2,000 UK employers. It reports that overall hiring intentions remain at their lowest level on record outside the first year of the pandemic. (more…)

Hybrid working is stabilising around the world, office occupancy report claims

Hybrid working is stabilising around the world, office occupancy report claims

A new study of office utilisation trends around the world suggests hybrid working patterns have largely settledA new study of office utilisation trends around the world suggests hybrid working patterns have largely settled, with average occupancy remaining well below pre-pandemic norms and peak attendance continuing to cluster midweek. The Hybrid Occupancy Index 2025–2026 [registration] published by workplace analytics firm HubStar, draws on data from more than 300 million square feet of office space across 173 buildings in 13 countries, covering more than 27,000 workspaces between January 2023 and December 2025. (more…)

New white paper offers actions for managing trauma in the workplace

New white paper offers actions for managing trauma in the workplace

A new white paper offering practical guidance for employers on how to recognise, understand and respond to trauma in the workplace has been published by Nottingham Business SchoolA new white paper offering practical guidance for employers on how to recognise, understand and respond to trauma in the workplace has been published by Nottingham Business School (NBS), part of Nottingham Trent University. Recent national figures show that more than 8.5 million adults in England and Wales are survivors of childhood abuse, underlining the scale of trauma?related experiences within the UK workforce. Managing Trauma in the Workplace: Strategies for Wellbeing and Organisational Resilience brings together research, survivor perspectives, and evidence?based recommendations to help HR professionals and managers create psychologically safe working environments. (more…)

Artificial intelligence appears to cut more jobs than it creates

Artificial intelligence appears to cut more jobs than it creates

Artificial intelligence appears to be contributing to a net loss of jobs, according to a new analysis of how organisations are adopting the technology across their operations.Artificial intelligence appears to be contributing to a net loss of jobs, according to a new analysis of how organisations are adopting the technology across their operations. Research by Morgan Stanley, based on responses from nearly 1,000 companies that have been using AI for at least a year, suggests that British firms have shed more roles than they have created as a direct result of AI deployment. The study indicates a net reduction of around 8 percent of roles in the UK over the past twelve months, a higher figure than reported in comparable surveys of companies in the United States, Germany, Japan and Australia. (more…)