Search Results for: innovation

Levels of engagement amongst the UK workforce trail behind other European countries

Levels of engagement amongst the UK workforce trail behind other European countries

UK employers need to improve working conditions to increase workforce satisfactionEmployers in the UK need to improve working conditions, as the UK’s workforce pride is trailing behind other European countries, a new report claims. The survey from Cornerstone OnDemand and IDC found just a 48 percent approval rating by UK workers, with just 52 percent of respondents “completely agreeing” that they are proud to work for their organisation – a steep drop compared to countries such as Italy (59 percent) and Norway (66 percent). While UK work satisfaction is falling behind the rest of Europe, it is however ranking higher for employer recommendations. Almost half (47 percent) of Brits “completely agree” that they would recommend their current employer to others, versus 43 percent in Sweden and 41 percent of respondents in the Benelux regions. When it comes to employer attractiveness, only 47 percent of UK respondents “completely agree” that their organisation is an attractive place to work, in comparison to 51 percent of Spanish respondents and 56 percent of Finnish respondents. So while the UK is ahead in some criteria, the findings suggest there’s work to be done if British employers want an improved result.

More →

Younger workers risk missing out on career opportunities by shunning SMEs

Younger workers risk missing out on career opportunities by shunning SMEs

Younger workers risk missing out on career opportunities by ignoring SMEsYoung people leaving education and looking for work may be missing out on potential employment opportunities by failing to consider Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and the advantages they offer, new research from Santander UK claims. ‘Gen Z’ and Millennials do not believe SMEs offer the same job security or salary as large businesses, meaning just a third (35 percent) of young people leaving education in 2018 want to work for smaller employer, and an even smaller proportion, just one in six (18 percent), want to work for a start-up or micro business. The most popular career aspirations for Generation Z and Millennials are to work for a large firm (51 percent), the public sector (51 percent) or a global multinational (49 percent), because of a perceived lack of job security (56 percent). There is also the belief that SMEs offer a lower salary (46 percent) and fewer opportunities for progression than large companies (33 percent). Yet the majority (70 percent) of SMEs are actively recruiting for entry level roles, whether that be graduates (43 percent), further education leavers (36 percent) or school leavers (35 percent).

More →

Facilities managers are smarter and more data driven than ever

Facilities managers are smarter and more data driven than ever

Facilities managers are responding to a range of macro influences such as changing demographics, the uptake of flexible working, new technology and social change by adopting a new way of looking at the workplace, claims a new report from CBRE.  The report claims to identify the major trends in facilities management, most important that people increasingly want to choose where and when they work and the effect this has on the physical workplace and its features, services and technology.

More →

Financial stress can impair employee performance and attendance

Financial stress can impair employee performance and attendance

Financial stress can impair employee performance and attendance

Businesses that fail to tackle their employees’ financial stress are more likely to encounter poor work performance, lack of engagement, mental health issues and staff absenteeism, a new report from Neyber has claimed. Since last year, there has been a significant increase in the number of employees affected by financial worries; up from 58 percent to 63 percent, as well as those with less than one month’s savings; up from 24 percent to 32 percent. This stress on individuals is having a severe business impact. One in four employees said they had lost sleep over money troubles in the last year, one in ten said that they couldn’t focus on work and 6 percent said they had had to take time off work. All this adds up to a substantial cost for employers to bear. Neyber has calculated that the lost productivity and increased absence and employee turnover associated with financial stress costs UK companies in the region of £120.7 billion every year.

More →

Flexibility, daylight and a well-designed office are amongst most desirable workplace features

Flexibility, daylight and a well-designed office are amongst most desirable workplace features

Capital One has published the results of its latest survey of US full-time professionals for their thoughts on workplace design and the working environment as it relates to their productivity, innovation and collaboration with colleagues. According to the resulting 2018 Work Environment Survey of 3,500 office based respondents in urban centres across the US, many value flexibility and workplace design, particularly when evaluating whether to stay at their current job or consider a new employment opportunity. Employees also place a great deal of focus on technology, design elements such as lighting and agile workspaces, and personal wellbeing.

More →

Shortage of tech skills and 600,000 job vacancies costing UK economy £63 billion a year

Shortage of tech skills and 600,000 job vacancies costing UK economy £63 billion a year

An estimated 600,000 vacancies in digital technology are costing the country £63 billion a year, according to information provided by techUK in a report on skills shortages published by the Edge Foundation.The second of the education charity’s bulletins on the UK’s skills shortages, shines a spotlight on the tech industry and the devastating economic impact of the government’s failure to encourage young people to study relevant subjects and upskill existing workers. The bulletin, Skills Shortages in the UK Economy, brings together the most current statistics and analysis of skills shortages in the UK which cost the economy £6.3 billion each year in direct costs such as recruitment and temporarily filling gaps, according to the Open University’s 2018 Business Barometer.

More →

Barclays to create up to 2,500 jobs at new Glasgow tech hub

Barclays to create up to 2,500 jobs at new Glasgow tech hub

Barclays has announced plans to develop a new campus at Buchanan Wharf, Glasgow, which will provide what it claims is a state-of-the-art workplace for the bank’s functions, technology and operations teams. The aim is to create a working environment that will ‘help the bank deliver outstanding services to customers and clients by fostering innovation and collaboration’.  Barclays has agreed to purchase the campus development from Drum Property Group Ltd and is currently working with them to finalise the design of the new facility as part of the wider Buchanan Wharf development. It is expected that, once completed, the campus will be able to accommodate up to 2,500 additional roles, doubling Barclays’ current workforce in Scotland and making the bank one of Glasgow’s biggest commercial employers.

More →

Cities should make the most of their digital connectivity

Cities should make the most of their digital connectivity

Cities need more powers and resources from Government to address digital divides – but also need to make better use of existing technology to transform public services. This is according to a report published by the think tank Centre for Cities in partnership with Telefónica UK. It examines how digital technology – in terms of both fixed and mobile connections – is transforming urban Britain, and the steps national and local leaders can take to ensure people and places across the country benefit. However, the report also warns that many UK cities are not taking full advantage of existing digital connections, and the benefits it could offer to residents and businesses – as well as the potential it has to improve public services.

More →

White Paper: the magic of disruption and what it means for the workplace

White Paper: the magic of disruption and what it means for the workplace

In a 1973 essay called Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination, the science fiction writer Arthur C Clarke sets out Three Laws regarding our relationship with technology. Only the third of these is well remembered these days:. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. He was one of the first writers to coin the sort  of law that have now become commonplace on the subject of the way our world, including the workplace, can be disrupted by technological developments. They include a corollary to Clarke’s:  Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced (Gehm’s Law)

More →

Artificial intelligence will create more jobs than it displaces, claims new study

Artificial intelligence will create more jobs than it displaces, claims new study

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and related technologies are projected to create as many jobs as they displace in the UK over the next 20 years, according to new analysis by PwC. In absolute terms, around 7 million existing jobs could be displaced, but around 7.2 million could be created, giving the UK a small net jobs boost of around 0.2 million. While the overall net effect of AI on UK jobs may be broadly neutral, this varies significantly across industry sectors. The most positive effect of AI is seen in the health and social work sector, where PwC estimates that employment could increase by nearly 1 million, equivalent to around 20 percent of existing jobs in the sector. On the other hand, PwC estimates the number of jobs in the manufacturing sector could be reduced by around 25 percent, representing a net loss of nearly 700,000 jobs.

More →

London, Singapore and Seoul are the top smart cities in the world

London, Singapore and Seoul are the top smart cities in the world

London, Singapore and Seoul make up the top three smart cities worldwide, according to new research from the Eden Strategy Institute. The 2018-19 study, in partnership with ONG&ONG Experience Design (OXD), involved 140 smart cities ranked across 10 measures; clarity of vision, leadership, budget, provision of financial incentives, support programmes, talent readiness, a people-centric approach, development of an innovation ecosystem, implementation of ‘smart’ policies and, finally, a track record of previous initiatives and projects. New York and Helsinki rounded off the top five cities, with Montreal, Boston, Melbourne, Barcelona and Shanghai finishing in the top 10.

More →

Avenue HQ is named as Coworking Space of the Year by IPSE

Avenue HQ is named as Coworking Space of the Year by IPSE

Liverpool’s Avenue HQ has been crowned ‘National Co-Working Space of the Year’ by The Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed (IPSE). The award claims to ‘recognise and celebrate the important role coworking spaces play in creating a nurturing, inclusive and stimulating environment for the UK’s 4.8 million-strong self-employed workforce’. The coworking industry is booming globally as companies of all sizes recognise the importance of working environment on employee and business performance. Pioneered by start-ups, entrepreneurs and freelancers, a growing number of companies, large and small, are incorporating the concept and rapidly reaping the benefits.

More →