Search Results for: financial

Globalisation prompts increase in number of CEOs from abroad at FTSE companies

Globalisation prompts increase in number of CEOs from abroad at FTSE companies

Globalisation increasing number of CEOs from abroad at FTSE’s largest listed companies

Globalisation is leading to a growing trend amongst FTSE listed companies to hire senior leaders from abroad as organisations look for leaders with international experience. Although UK CEOs remain the first choice, with 60 percent of CEOs who were appointed through internal promotion last year being British, according to the Robert Half FTSE 100 CEO Tracker, UK companies are now increasing the number of global CEOs within the FTSE 100. In practise this means that the total number of UK CEOs leading the FTSE 100 has slipped to 61 of the total 100 companies from 65 a year ago. Nearly half (47 percent) of those CEOs who were hired externally for the top position were of other nationalities and of the 14 new CEO hires made this year, eight were of UK heritage, while six are leaders from the rest of the globe, edging the dial ever closer to a 50/50 split.

More →

Business leaders struggling to keep up with demands of individuals and technological developments in the workplace

Business leaders struggling to keep up with demands of individuals and technological developments in the workplace

Organisations are struggling to keep pace with workplace shifts including skills gaps, the development of artificial intelligence, the demands of employees and new social expectations, according to the latest Human Capital Trends report from Deloitte. In its 2018 edition, The Rise of the Social Enterprise, Deloitte focuses on the growing expectations of individuals and the pace at which technology is shaping organisations’ human capital priorities.

More →

Majority of staff say employers must do more to support their physical and mental wellbeing

Majority of staff say employers must do more to support their physical and mental wellbeing

Majority of staff say employers should do more to support physical and mental wellbeingMore than half of working adults believe that UK businesses are not doing enough to support the physical and mental wellbeing of their employees. The vast majority (86 percent) believe that firms are specifically not doing enough to help employees deal with work-related stress, anxiety and other mental health issues. And with seven out of 10 of those surveyed by Westfield Health saying that the NHS does not have the budget to provide wellbeing services, such as health check-ups and cognitive behavioural therapy, almost three quarters agreed it would be a good idea for a portion of their National Insurance contributions to be redirected towards employee wellbeing programmes. More →

Artificial intelligence should have a clear ethical dimension, claims new government report

Artificial intelligence should have a clear ethical dimension, claims new government report

While the UK is in a strong position to be a world leader in the development of artificial intelligence which would deliver a major boost to the economy, ethics should be at the heart of its development, according to a new report from the House of Lords. AI should never be given the “autonomous power to hurt, destroy or deceive” people, it adds. The Lords’ report called on the government to support businesses in the field. It also recommended that people be educated to work alongside AI in the jobs of the future. It said that such education would “mitigate the negative effects” on jobs which are possible as AI develops.

More →

British employers are failing to prepare staff for automation

British employers are failing to prepare staff for automation

UK employees aren’t being equipped with the skills required by an automated workplace, according to a new study from ADP. The findings suggest that despite a third (32 percent) of workers believing their job will be automated within 10 years and one in ten (10 percent) predicting it will happen in two, half of those affected (49 percent) say their employer isn’t preparing to train or reskill them for the new world of work. ADP surveyed 1,300 UK working adults across the country as part of The Workforce View in Europe 2018, which gives a snapshot of employees’ views about their jobs, workplace and career plans. The report claims that thousands of workers are worried about the prospect of mass automation and how this will impact their own career prospects if they aren’t prepared with the right skills.

More →

Rising demand for Grade A office space helps sustain Edinburgh commercial property market

Rising demand for Grade A office space helps sustain Edinburgh commercial property market

State Street Bank at Quartermile 3 EdinburghTechnology, media, and telecommunications (TMT) companies are continuing to play a prominent role within Edinburgh’s office market, accounting for approximately 30 percent of transactions in the city. But rising demand for Grade A office space in Edinburgh by a variety of organisations, including coworking,  private and public sector tenants has fuelled significant occupier demand during the first quarter of 2018, according to analysis by property consultancy, Knight Frank. The latest commercial property figures show approximately 460,000 sq. ft. of new occupier requirements came onto the market in the first three months of the year from companies looking to lease office space in Edinburgh. More →

UK enjoys largest jump in productivity for a decade but challenges remain

UK enjoys largest jump in productivity for a decade but challenges remain

Britain’s economy enjoyed uncharacteristically solid productivity growth in the last three months of 2017 to record its strongest six months in more than a decade, new official figures show. Economic output per hour worked rose by 0.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017 – above its long-run average though marginally less than estimated in February – and the third-quarter figure was revised up slightly to 1.0 percent. Together they show the strongest growth since the second half of 2005. British productivity has largely stagnated over the past decade and is commonly seen as a chronic challenge. Over the past 10 years Britain’s productivity growth has been the weakest since modern records began and appears to be the slowest since the early 1820s. Overall output per hour, a driver of living standards, is only 1.8 percent above the pre-financial crisis peak it reached at the end of 2007.

 

More →

Quarter of people are ready to welcome robots as our new overlords

Quarter of people are ready to welcome robots as our new overlords

Around a quarter of British people would happily replace MPs with robots, according to a study of 6,000 individuals from Reboot Digital Marketing and  Mindshare. The surveys asked people whether they would prefer machines or humans in eight different occupations and scenarios. It found that when making car comparisons with the intention to eventually purchase, a significant percentage of Brits would want robots (60 percent) aiding them instead of humans (40 percent). Thereafter, Brits would be most inclined to accept music and film recommendations from artificial intelligence at 49 percent – though 51 percent would still opt to do so from other people. Even though most respondents (75 percent) would still prefer humans to be MP’s, 25 percent would elect robots to be in this position of power.

More →

Take up of shared parental leave is held back by cultural inertia

Take up of shared parental leave is held back by cultural inertia

A recent report by the House of Commons’ Women and Equalities Committee, Fathers and the workplace, has brought into sharp focus the problems fathers have juggling participation in family life with their employment obligations. We are moving away from the traditional gender stereotypes of the father being the breadwinner and the mother being responsible for childcare. Today, many families have two parents in either full or part-time work, with dual income households being far more common now than just 30 years ago. The pace of technological change and the growing gig economy have both contributed significantly to this shift in working patterns. As a result, some of the UK’s laws are becoming outdated, as many laws were formulated on the assumption that it would usually be the woman within a family who would have responsibility for childcare.

More →

With a year to go, occupiers are less concerned than they were about the impact of Brexit

With a year to go, occupiers are less concerned than they were about the impact of Brexit

Occupiers are less concerned about Brexit than they were a year ago, according to a new CBRE research survey of over 100 major occupiers across Europe, most of whom have pan-European or global operations. By late 2017, the proportion of European occupiers worried about Brexit having a ‘very significant’ impact on their operations in the UK had dropped from 15 percent to 6 percent compared with a year earlier. The proportion of occupiers worried about Brexit having a ‘significant’ effect has also fallen, from 38 percent to 33 percent, meaning that the number of occupiers worried about negative impacts from Brexit has fallen in total from 53 percent to 39 percent. A year to the day on which Britain aims to exit from the EU, global real estate advisor CBRE has published an updated guide unpicking some of the key real estate impacts of Brexit.

More →

UK Government shrinks size of its estate for eighth consecutive year

UK Government shrinks size of its estate for eighth consecutive year

The size of the UK government’s estate fell for the eight consecutive year in 2017, according to the annual State of the Estate report. The Cabinet Office’s report found that the government reduced its land holdings by more than 1m sq ft over the period 2016-2017, netting the government £620m in capital receipts and slashing running costs, which the Government claims is a direct consequence of its use of mobile technology and workplace design. The report outlines the property disposals in 2016/2017, which included the sale of its stake in the King’s Cross Central development and the 70-acre Sunningdale Park estate. The aim of the divestment programme is to generate £5bn in receipts and sell enough land for 160,000 homes by 2020. In the first two years of the Asset Efficiency programme, £1.66bn has now been raised in capital receipts from disposals, according to the report.

More →

Flexible working and the rise of coworking reducing demand for London office space

Flexible working and the rise of coworking reducing demand for London office space

The number of new office buildings constructed since the financial crisis in 2008 has fallen in a year on year comparison by 56 percent, according to an analysis of planning applications carried out by property lending platform Lendy. The authors claim that the primary reason for the sharp decrease has been the greater uptake of flexible working and coworking models of space use. According to the study, only 2,300 applications to build new office buildings were approved last year, down from 5,200 in 2007/8. Lendy adds that applications to build new offices have also fallen since the financial crisis – down 58 percent to 2,500 last year from 6,000 in 2007/08.  Flexible working has reduced the requirement for new office buildings. Other innovations, such as shared workspace and coworking, have reduced the need for employees to have their own dedicated workspace, according to the report.

More →