March 25, 2021
New research by environmental charity Hubbub suggests that workers want to almost double the time they work from home compared to life before COVID-19 arrived – from 35 percent to 63 percent of their working week. However, the increase in household energy use associated with working from home is a cause for concern. (more…)
March 15, 2021
One of the most significant consequences of the 2008 economic crash was a remarkable shift in the nature of employment. The recession led to a surge in the number of people categorised as self-employed. The numbers have been increasing ever since, albeit at a lower rate. By the end of 2019, the number of self-employed people in the UK exceeded five million people for the first time. Fifteen percent of the workforce. (more…)
March 11, 2021
A new BCO research paper, Thoughts on ventilation design and operation post COVID-19, has called for UK offices to ensure they have adequate ventilation ahead of the return to work. The paper highlights that while most offices that follow good practice guidelines do benefit from indoor air quality, there are also many examples of poorly ventilated offices that fall short of the best practice guidelines set out in the BCO’s 2019 Guide to Specification. Poorly ventilated indoor spaces have been linked to COVID-19 super spreader events and the paper states that ventilation in these offices must be “addressed urgently.” (more…)
March 5, 2021
Despite the financial hardship wrought by COVID-19, half of employers (49 percent) don’t have a financial wellbeing policy. This is according to the latest Reward Management Survey from the CIPD (which 420 employers responded to). (more…)
March 5, 2021
A new study on recruitment and workforce trends has crowned London as the world’s most desirable city to work in, with the UK capital holding onto the top spot, despite uncertainty around Brexit and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. (more…)
February 22, 2021
UK employers are reporting their strongest employment intentions in a year, the latest CIPD/Adecco Labour Market Outlook claims. The survey’s net employment intentions figure, which measures the difference between the proportion of employers expecting to add jobs and those planning to cut positions, rose to +11 this quarter – its highest in a year. This compares to -1 in the previous quarter. (more…)
February 11, 2021
More than 40 percent of young people aged 16-24 surveyed in the UK say they are putting their career or education plans on hold until the pandemic is over. The research, commissioned by BAE Systems to mark National Apprenticeship Week (8-12 February), looks at the impact the pandemic has had on the ‘lost generation’ and their career aspirations. (more…)
February 10, 2021
We’ve been talking to our clients a lot over the last eighteen months, informing and educating them about when upcoming green legislation might come into force and what that will mean for the construction industry. So, it’s with interest that we saw the UK government unveil its ten point green plan in mid-November that reflected our predictions to date. The hope is that this route to a green industrial revolution will have a game-changing impact, similar to the positive effect on people and places the original industrial revolution had some 260 years earlier. (more…)
February 8, 2021
Generating £27.8 billion gross value added annually, and employing more than 360,000 people, the West Midlands is the UK’s largest centre for business, professional and financial services (BPFS) outside London. Now, business leaders from Shoosmiths, Wesleyan, Bruntwood CBRE amongst others, are working with the region’s just under 12,500 leading tech and digital companies to see how they can integrate AI and advanced technology into their everyday activities. (more…)
February 5, 2021
HR leaders are finding it increasingly difficult to quickly find and develop talent with the most in demand skills, yet 58 percent of the workforce needs new skill sets to get their jobs done, according to Gartner, Inc. (more…)
February 5, 2021
The UK jobs market recovered 170,000 jobs in January as the COVID-19 vaccination roll out boosted employer optimism, claims new research from job search engine Adzuna. The research analysed over 12 million+ live job vacancies aggregated in real-time from thousands of unique job sources across 12 international markets. (more…)
March 5, 2021
A shift from competition to community has never been more important
by Hannah Koole-Browne • Business, Comment