Search Results for: employment

Property and workplace experts have their say on the Brexit outcome

Property and workplace experts have their say on the Brexit outcome 0

brexitWell, the results are in and the UK’s electorate has voted by a narrow margin for the country to leave the EU. There are likely to be other developments but whatever you make of the UK’s decision to vote to leave the EU – and I think it’s fair to say most independent people think it’s inexplicable – there’s no doubt that it will have a profound impact on the UK’s economy, relationship with the world, culture, working conditions and markets. What it will mean in practice won’t be apparent for months or years, of course, but that hasn’t stopped experts who work in the property, workplace, design, legal, HR and architecture sectors having their say on its potential implications. We’ll look at these specific issues in more detail going forward but for now, here’s a round-up of those we have so far, which we’ll keep updated throughout the day as the dust settles on what will prove to be a momentous decision for the UK, Europe and rest of the world.

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Small businesses outpace larger firms in adoption of virtual working

Small businesses outpace larger firms in adoption of virtual working 0

{9f354208-5623-47fc-9edf-1efb90f919df}_V9_launch_LP_lrg_1Around two thirds (60 percent) of knowledge workers in small and medium sized businesses in the US, UK and Germany now use virtual working technology that is internet or cloud-based in their professional roles. This figure is higher than in companies with 500 or more employees (53 percent). These are the findings claimed by the Way We Work Study commissioned by unified comms firm Unify. Surveying 5,000 British, American and German knowledge workers, it explores people’s attitudes and expectations about their workplace. Knowledge workers at SMBs expect to see large changes in their jobs over the next five years. More than a third (38 percent) believe their roles will not exist after this period, and almost two-thirds (64 percent) thinking they will be substantially different. On the subject of trust, 76 percent of SMB knowledge workers feel they are listened to in their organisation, compared to 71 percent in larger companies.

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New proposals to create legal status for robots as ‘electronic persons’

New proposals to create legal status for robots as ‘electronic persons’ 0

One of the main side issues in the generally unpleasant debate about the UK’s referendum on EU membership has been that about worker’s rights. Whatever the outcome of today’s vote, the EU is already exploring ways in which legislation should address the challenges created by the modern world. These now include, for the first time, a look at the implications of automation including the drawing up of a new set of rules about the rights and responsibilities of robots and other automated workers. A draft report from the European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs sets out to address the main issues associated with the creation of a widespread automated workforce and its impact on both people and machines, including looking at the impact on the social security and pensions budget (because robots don’t pay into the system), the legal rights of robots and new liability rules for the automated workforce of sophisticated ‘smart’ robots.

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Ageing workforce requires employers to better address skills gaps

Ageing workforce requires employers to better address skills gaps 0

Three day working weekThe Government’s 2016 Working Futures report revealed that the total number of jobs in the UK is expected to rise by 1.8 million between 2014 and 2024, while the working age population (16-64) is expected to increase by half this amount. Now a policy event being held in London by the Westminster Employment Forum will draw attention to the growing challenge faced by business leaders as the UK workforce continues to age. According to figures from the CIPD, 9.4 million people in employment in the UK are over the age of 50, equivalent to over 30 per cent of the workforce. The Open University is advising that, with employees staying in work longer, business leaders need to ensure that workers have the right access to education and the skills to remain competitive and productive at all stages of their careers. Ageing Workforce in the UK, will explore what steps need to be taken in order to adapt to this demographic shift.

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Home or away. What should employers be doing about the game?

Home or away. What should employers be doing about the game? 0

Watching-sport-at-workThe Euros 2016 are underway. It’s an exciting time for the nation, but not so much for businesses that are potentially facing a largely absent workforce, be it physically or simply because they will spend at least 90 minutes of their afternoon glued to their mobile phones watching the match. Some employees might have been organised enough to book annual leave for the afternoon, but for many, they will be devising a cunning plan as to how they can get away to watch the match. Employers can expect to be faced with a hike in “sickies” and last minute requests to work from home as suddenly there’s a delivery due or a poorly child to look after. Some employees will just decide to chance it and not come back to the office after their lunch breaks, with no pre-authorisation at all. So what should you be doing as an employer?

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Most likely scenario of a Brexit vote is minimal impact on employees 0

A more nuanced and balanced view from both leave and remain campaigns on how the EU Referendum will affect employees is needed, a leading HR authority has warned. Commenting on how the outcome of the EU Referendum will affect employees, Professor of Human Resources Chris Rowley, at Cass Business School, said: “The deluge of increasingly extreme polar dichotomy arguments and claims regarding possible post-Brexit life also applies to the critical area of work and employment where the Remain and Leave camps have some of their greatest internal tensions and contradictions. Both sides betray a lack of historical and contemporary grounding and analysis of both employee relations and politics. One problem is that there is much counterfactual argument of causation – what would have happened anyway.” In the short term and possibly even in the longer term he says that a Brexit vote would be unlikely to impact employment law, as so much is already enshrined at work.

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UK faces digital skills gap … but simply hiring Millennials won’t close it

UK faces digital skills gap … but simply hiring Millennials won’t close it 0

Digital skillsAlthough the UK remains a global tech leader, the country remains in the grip of a digital skills crisis which is holding back productivity and costs around £63 billion each year, according to a report published today by the Commons Science and Technology Committee. The report claims that 12.6 million UK adults lack even basic digital skills, and nearly half of these people (5.8 million) have never even used the internet. Meanwhile, a coincidental report published by Cisco claims that those organisations who apparently assume they can close the gap by merely employing so-called Millennials, will be disappointed because there’s no great correlation between age and confidence in using digital technology. The Digital Culture Clash report found the only meaningful correlations were between the type of work an individual does, their level of employment and their competence and confidence in using technology.

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Commercial real estate investment strong despite Brexit-related slowdown

Commercial real estate investment strong despite Brexit-related slowdown 0

commercial-propertyPartly due to the uncertainty leading up to the EU referendum, employment intentions within Financial and Business Services (FBS) have slowed, but rental growth within the commercial property sector should remain healthy, particularly if the ‘remain’ vote prevails, the latest Real Estate investment forecasts from Colliers has revealed. Offices will continue to drive rental growth across the commercial property sector and it’s expected that rents will rise by 6.8 percent this year and average 3.9 percent in 2016-2020. Although it’s slowed a little, Central London will continue to attract demand and push the overall rate up, with a still strong growth of 8.4 percent in 2016. In addition, the artificial barriers between individual London ‘villages’ are increasingly breaking down, creating a fluid market for office occupiers in the capital, with more options for geographical relocations and expansions. This will continue to benefit the Rest of London, which is expected to see rents increase by 8.1 percent this year.

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UK’s productivity crisis is not helped by lack of work-based training

UK’s productivity crisis is not helped by lack of work-based training 0

Work based trainingDespite the well-publicised productivity crisis in the UK, over a million of the country’s employees are spending more time on tea breaks than on any form of work-based training. Research from the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) has found almost a third (30 percent) of staff have never had any form of work-related finance training. Given this situation, nearly four in ten (38 percent) employees admit they search online to find out how to do their jobs better, in their own time. The survey of 2,000 workers, half who are employees and half of whom are managers working in finance/accountancy-related roles, also found discrepancies between attitudes towards training at work. A fifth of managers admit they think training their staff will only help them develop their own careers, not benefit their current role and a quarter (27 percent) believe training is good in principle, but disruptive in practice.

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Urban Millennials are worried about the same things as everybody else

Urban Millennials are worried about the same things as everybody else 0

MillennialsThe acid test for any survey of the attitudes and experiences of Millennials is whether you could replace its findings with those for another generation and come up with broadly the same results. The answer is very often ‘yes’, which can generally be explained by pointing out that, contrary to what you may have heard, Millennials are people too and not the Midwich Cuckoos. So, here we have a survey from an organisation called YouthfulCities which claims that Millennials living in the world’s major cities are concerned about the high cost of housing, employment opportunities, inadequate infrastructure, crime and their personal happiness. Just like everybody else then. Except that the conclusion the survey draws is that cities need to become more ‘youthful’. Presumably in exactly the same way that office occupiers are routinely told that they need to create youthful workplaces, which is not only patronising to Millennials but also ignores the fact they’re not the only people there.

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An out of hours email ban and why we all need the ‘right to disconnect’

An out of hours email ban and why we all need the ‘right to disconnect’ 0

Working late at homeThe recent announcement from President Francois Hollande’s Socialist Party that they plan to give French employees the “right to disconnect” by pushing through measures for an email ban out of hours has been the subject of great debate. Although many commentators have argued the need for employers to encourage people to ‘switch off’ when they aren’t in work, to date there have been no legal guidelines on this specific issue, despite several negative reports about modern technology blurring the boundaries between home and work, which some claim is creating a stress epidemic. In the UK, the Working Time Regulations specify that no worker should work more than 48 hours per week. However, there has been no case law as to whether or not checking work emails outside working hours would fall within this limit – and many UK staff check and respond to work emails outside work hours, even on holidays.

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Where is the data for disability on boards – and do businesses care?

Where is the data for disability on boards – and do businesses care? 0

BoardroomWhen it comes to diversity on boards, I would confidently say that disability comes in a poor fourth behind gender, age and ethnicity.  It’s something I take a great interest in as a blind person, a senior executive who sits on boards and as a start-up champion. While acknowledging a limited perspective, over the years I have noted a lack of disabled representation at board level and when I joined the NonExecutiveDirectors.com recruitment platform, we had a conversation about this. The result was that the organisation and its partners decided to commission some research into the issue. The research involved the Office of National Statistics, EU Equality and Diversity Commission, Department of Business Innovation and Skills, leading academic experts in disability, in social policy and in work and employment, Trade Union Congress (TUC), business surveys, policy documents and more.

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