Search Results for: health

A few demonstrable truths about agile working that aren’t talked about enough

A few demonstrable truths about agile working that aren’t talked about enough

by • Comment, Workplace design

Some topics generate a level of debate totally out of proportion with the underlying facts. Whether it’s the benefit of sit-stand desks, the influence of colour on productivity or the threat (or potential) of robotics in the office, too often it’s all sizzle and no sausage. Agile working falls into that category. It’s one of those ideas that sounds too good to be true: give people a raft of settings to work in, power them up with a few mobile gadgets and you can magically transform your workspace to ‘Google standards’ and attract all the best talent in town. But what about the reality?

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Reimagining the built environment would transform people’s lives, claims Design Council

Reimagining the built environment would transform people’s lives, claims Design Council

by • Architecture, Cities, News, Wellbeing, Workplace design

The Design Council and Social Change UK has launched its Healthy Placemaking report which highlights the outcomes from their survey of over 600 built environment practitioners across the UK including architects, town planners and urban designers. The aim of the survey was to gain insight and understanding of their experiences across multiple areas on the creation of a healthy built environment. The latest research from Design Council and Social Change UK claims that healthy placemaking can ‘sit outside mainstream UK housing, public health and placemaking policy. It continues to be seen as a cost to local development rather than an investment, and when considered alongside the plethora of local planning priorities and frameworks it often gets overlooked’.

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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

by • Legal news, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

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

by • AI, News, Technology

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.

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Seven workplace stories to round off the week

Seven workplace stories to round off the week

by • Features

In fairer societies, fewer women enter STEM fields of work

Sexual harassment at work in the era of #MeToo

The impossibility of focusing on two things at once

Robot cities: three urban prototypes for future living

The results of a 2018 global coworking survey

Late risers at increased risk of early death

WeWork to acquire Chinese coworking firm

Brexit: CBI stresses importance of getting new rules right for UK construction

Brexit: CBI stresses importance of getting new rules right for UK construction

by • Facilities management, News, Property, Public Sector

Brexit: CBI stresses importance of getting new rules right for construction

Brexit presents opportunities for rule changes in sectors such as agriculture, shipping and tourism that could ultimately benefit the British economy and consumers. This is according to a new CBI study, “Smooth Operations, compiled over a six-month period, which states that the opportunities for divergence are vastly outweighed by the costs of deviating from rules necessary to ensure smooth access to the EU market. Another important finding is that changes to rules in one sector have significant knock on effects for companies in other sectors and throughout supply chains. There are specific regulatory needs for the construction sector, according to the report, the first being regulatory convergence on rules for construction products and materials, vital to protect the competitiveness of manufacturers and avoid major barriers to trade. The CBI also argues that maintaining equivalence in procurement rules between the UK and EU is important, but there are still opportunities to improve how the UK procures work in the construction sector without diverging from EU rules.

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Combination of factors means UK faces severe workforce crisis by 2025

Combination of factors means UK faces severe workforce crisis by 2025

by • News, Workplace

New projections published in Mercer’s Workforce Monitor predict that a perfect storm of falling net migration driven by Brexit and an ageing population, will lead to a severe shortage in the UK labour market. If these challenges are not met with immediate action by UK employers, they will face significant costs trying to attract workers with the leadership and skills they need to execute their business strategies. Mercer anticipates the UK workforce will increase by just 820,000, or 2.4 percent, by 2025, a significant reduction in recent trends that have seen 9 percent workforce growth in the 10 years to 2015. For the first time in half a century, the overall population will be increasing at a faster rate than the workforce, creating long term structural challenges for the economy.

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Employers should not write off older female workers quite so readily

Employers should not write off older female workers quite so readily

by • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

An ageing population and changes to the default state pension age mean employers need to better prepare for the needs of older women in the workplace, according to a study by Anglia Ruskin University published by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). With more and more women aged between 50 and 65 now employed, the research reviewed published literature to look into the experience of those workers and how their needs might change in the future.

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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

by • News, Property

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.

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Local authorities and developers must work together to boost the quality of new developments, says Green Building Council

Local authorities and developers must work together to boost the quality of new developments, says Green Building Council

by • News, Property

The UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) has launched two new resources for developers and local authorities designed to help boost construction standards and improve ‘social value outcomes’.  The first resource is related to residential developments while the second is directly relevant to commercial property. The resource, Social Value in New Development, provides guidance for developers and local authorities to help deliver social value outcomes in new residential and commercial developments. The guidance looks at social value, its stakeholders, strategies for driving positive outcomes and measuring success, and the current barriers to delivery.

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Poor numeracy thought to account for an estimated £3.2 billion annual cost to businesses

Poor numeracy thought to account for an estimated £3.2 billion annual cost to businesses

by • News, Workplace

Poor numeracy thought to account for an estimated £3.2 billion annual cost to businessesAlmost one in two working age adults currently lack numeracy skills and this skills gap is estimated to cost businesses £3.2bn annually, with a cost to the UK economy of up to £20.2billion a year. This is why charity National Numeracy has joined together with founder supporter, KPMG, to establish the first ever UK National Numeracy Day – created to drive a change in recognition of the importance of numbers, as well as improve employee careers. The day, which takes place on the 16th May will be designed to celebrate numbers, and aims to help individuals to check their numeracy levels, and provide free tools to support improvement amongst those who could benefit. Businesses are being called on to get involved in a variety of ways; from becoming an official supporter, to encouraging employees, suppliers and the local community to check their numeracy levels using the free online numeracy assessment tool. 

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Ageing population and low fertility rate is leading to European labour force shortage

Ageing population and low fertility rate is leading to European labour force shortage

by • News, Workplace

Ageing population and low fertility rate is leading to Europe's growing labour force shortage

Europe faces an increasing labour force shortage, which means that between 2017 and 2025, 184 out of 263 metropolitan areas from the EU-28 will record a negative growth rate in their working age population. According to a recent analysis by GlobalData this is due to a combination of lower fertility rates across most European Union (EU) countries, which is causing a reduction the growth rates of the youth population, while increased life expectancy is leading to a steady rise in the growth of the elderly population. But according to Ramnivas Mundada, Economic Research Analyst at GlobalData, ‘‘Measures such as increasing the levels of post-retirement employment opportunities, offering more support for women returning to the workplace and investing in youth employment, education and training could help to mitigate the impact of these demographic changes over the long term.’’

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