Search Results for: financial

March 18, 2019

Pressing self-destruct, a final solution to workplace noise, a broken psychological contract and some other stuff

I’ve never really wanted to go to MIPIM. I’m suspicious of it all for a number of reasons I won’t go into although you might reasonably guess what they are. So, I enjoyed this piece from Polly Plunket-Checkemian about her own misgivings. I understand that the testosterone level has been dialled down recently, but like Polly I’d like to see a re-examination of its format and intent, especially given that the real estate sector is having to rethink where it fits into the new era of work and meets the challenge of coworking.

March 15, 2019

Management skills are the key to solving the productivity puzzle

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

New research from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) claims that recently trained managers use on average 50 percent more of the structured management practices associated with increased labour productivity than those not trained within the last 12 months. The research, involving 940 managers, revealed that managers who received management training in 2018 used an average of 6 management practices, compared to an average of 4 practices for those who had received no management training over the same period. The impact of recent training on management practices can be seen across businesses of all sizes. More →

March 12, 2019

UK jobs boom set to end as finance and business sectors lose confidence

by Sara Bean • Cities, Facilities management, News, Workplace

The boom in the UK jobs market is coming to an end just as the Brexit countdown reaches its final stages. According to the latest ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey, the national Outlook for the second quarter of 2019 has fallen to +4 percent, on a par with the weakest levels of confidence seen in recent years. More worryingly, the negative Outlook in the Business and Financial services sector – which employs nearly a fifth of all UK workers – suggests jobs are set to be lost in Britain’s most important sector. The report found that the Finance and Business Services sector has fallen five points to -1 percent, only the second time in the last decade it has been in negative territory.

March 8, 2019

On International Woman’s Day – why advancing women is still not a business priority

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

It has probably not escaped your notice that today is International Woman’s Day, which for Workplace Insight means a plethora of studies on the topic of women/jobs/salaries and ways women might work differently to men. We’ve decided not to waste anyone’s time and ignored most of them (particularly the patronizing ones on how ladies are so intuitive) but managed to find a few kernels of information. First, the good news that women have doubled their share of top jobs at technology companies, pulling in higher salaries than men last year, according to executive search firm Odgers Berndtson. More →

March 4, 2019

London’s West End office market stays strong despite slow start to year

by Sara Bean • Cities, Facilities management, News, Property

The volume of transactions in London’s West End was down 45 percent, the lowest for January in over 10 years. This is to be expected with the continued ongoing Brexit negotiations, according to Savill’s, who expect to see a lower volume of transactions complete over the first quarter of this year. Despite this, space under offer still remains well above the long-term average, with 237,000 sq ft going under offer during the month. This held the overall total at just over 1.2m sq ft, giving a strong indication that leasing activity over the course of 2019 will remain robust. Pre-lets accounted for 42 percent of the overall sq ft let in January and there were five transactions to the Insurance & Financial sector and four to the Tech & Media sector.

March 1, 2019

Businesses pledge to work towards mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting

by Sara Bean • Legal news, News, Workplace

The government is being encouraged to implement mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting when it announces the outcome of its ‘Ethnicity pay reporting’ consultation, which closed in January. Pre-empting that, fifteen companies have signed a commitment today to work towards mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting. Signatories include the Bank of England, Deloitte, KPMG, WPP, Santander and EY. The commitment, driven by membership organisation INvolve, aims to get more businesses voluntarily reporting on their ethnicity pay gap. In 2018 The Resolution Foundation estimated the ethnicity pay gap at £3.2bn. A report from INvolve also showed that white people earn on average between £67 and £209 more per week compared to similarly qualified individuals of a different ethnic background, and that the most ethnically diverse workplaces are 35 percentage points more likely to financially outperform industry averages.

February 28, 2019

Communication skills trump experience as quality employers look for in candidates

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

New research from The University of Law Business School has analysed over 700 keywords from the job specifications of 30 common business roles (across three popular job sites), to reveal what employers are looking for from candidates. The research highlights the crossover in skills and requirements across roles and industries, helping encourage those considering a career move, or just starting out in the world of business by showing how qualified they may already be for a new career. Its key finding is that employers are hugely more interested in people’s interpersonal skills than their work experience.

February 25, 2019

A four day week, people-watching at work, the art of AI and some other stuff

by Mark Eltringham • AI, Facilities management, Features, Technology, Wellbeing, Workplace design

While the recent Finnish pilot of universal basic income had mixed results, a trial of the other most talked about solution to our problem with work – the four day week – has been reported as far more promising. A New Zealand financial services firm called Perpetual Guardian switched its 240 staff from a five-day to a four-day week last November and maintained their pay. The results (registration) included a 20 percent rise in productivity and improved staff wellbeing and engagement.

February 25, 2019

Growth of flexible working locations in London is lowering the costs of office space

by Sara Bean • Cities, Coworking, News, Property

There is a boom in the number of new flexible working locations opening in Central London, which has seen a growth of 42 percent year-on-year. According to the new report by Office Freedom this growth is driving ever more competitive rates and lowering the cost of all kinds of office spaces within the capital. Over the last two years, office prices in Hammersmith have fallen by 29 percent, whilst Paddington is 32 percent cheaper as a direct result of greater flexible space availability. The rates in prestigious Knightsbridge are still amongst the highest in Central London, but have dropped by 38 percent between 2014 and 2018. More →

February 22, 2019

When assessing workplace strategy: we should always test rather than guess

by Franklin Becker • Facilities management, Features, Workplace design

Would an investor plow millions of dollars into a stock and never bother to track how the investment does? Of course not. Nor would they confuse the expected return on investment (ROI) with the actual results. We don’t guess about financial investments. We don’t base investment decisions on what some stranger does or how they say they’ve done. So why then, do many of the largest companies in the world invest millions of dollars in buildings or renovating their workplaces and never even bother to measure results. Why are they so willing to copy the unproven workplace strategy of others? Why are they satisfied with projected results, rather than measuring how their investments actually perform? More →

February 21, 2019

SMEs intend to increase their headcount by over a fifth this year

by Sara Bean • Legal news, News, Workplace

SMEs intend to grow their headcount by over a fifth this year

Although official figures from the ONS show a decline in consumer spending throughout much of 2018, optimism amongst small businesses remains high, with UK SMEs hoping to grow their headcount by an average of 21 percent over the next 12 months. The new research from Opus Energy claims that half (51 percent) intend to grow their business in terms of people, with some even predicting they’ll increase their workforce by 50 percent. IT (39 percent), health (33 percent) and financial services (28 percent) were the sectors expecting the most growth. Even in the worst affected sectors, growth was still predicted. Half (50 percent) of retailers still expected to grow in 2019, at an average of 19 percent. 65 percent of food and beverage producers predicted an average headcount increase of 18 percent and 69 percent of manufacturers expected to grow at an average of 14 percent; despite facing the uncertainty of Brexit and the “death of the high street”.

February 20, 2019

Employers have a poor understanding of what actually motivates their employees

by Sara Bean • News, Workplace

Almost half of companies (45 percent) still believe that an attractive salary and package is what motivates their workforce, despite the fact that employees cite ‘soft benefits’ such a flexi-working, work-life balance, and ‘being valued’ as key to feeling fulfilled in their job role. The findings come from recent research ‘Meeting demands through the job offering’, by recruiter Robert Walters and job board CV-Library that highlight the disparity between what employees want and what companies are offering to staff. While 60 percent of professionals’ state career development as an important part of a job offering, less than 10 percent of companies believe that a lack of career progression and development would be a key reason for losing talent. The report also found that although companies claim that ‘staff being stuck in their ways’ is the main reason behind the lack of quality applicants, over 40 percent of professionals state that they would be willing to take up a role in another field where skills would be transferable, or work in a new sector to broaden their skills.