Search Results for: job satisfaction

June 4, 2018

Your happiness at work is not just down to your employer

by Cary Cooper and Ivan Robertson • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design

When Google promoted a software engineer named Chade-Meng Tan to the role of “Jolly Good Fellow”, his career – and the entire culture of Silicon Valley – took a sharp turn. Meng, a cheerful employee valued for his motivational qualities, went from developing mobile search tools to spreading happiness across the organisation. Happiness became his job. Google wasn’t the first to hire someone with the sole remit of enforcing employee contentment. In 1999, when Google was still a start-up, French fashion brand Kiabi hired Christine Jutard as its chief happiness officer. She was one of the first to perform the role. But once Google did it, happiness at work became a key metric and other organisations quickly adopted their approach. Three years after Meng’s appointment, fast food giant McDonald’s even promoted Ronald McDonald from brand mascot to CHO.

May 31, 2018

Majority of global workforce now work somewhere other than the office every week

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Workplace

Technological change, globalisation and changes in employee expectations mean that over two-thirds of global employees now work remotely every week, and over half do so for at least half of the week. Though it must be said this is according to a new study from IWG, which is the parent group of workspace companies including Regus and Spaces, the study found that every week 70 percent of employees are working at least one day a week somewhere other than the office. More than half (53 percent) work remotely for half of the week or more, whilst more than one in 10 (11 percent) people work outside of their company’s main office location five times a week. The survey adds also that flexible working and the use of shared workspaces are no longer the preserve of start-ups. The world’s most successful businesses – including varied companies such as Etihad Airways, Diesel, GSK, Mastercard, Microsoft, Oracle and Uber – are already adopting a flexible workspace approach.

April 30, 2018

Majority of US workers still prefer to work from an office

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Workplace design

According to data from the quarterly Randstad Workmonitor survey,, although 82 percent of U.S. workers surveyed say the ability to work from anywhere at any time allows them to maintain a healthy work-life balance, more than half (62 percent) still prefer to work in the office — and this number is even higher among young workers. Sixty-five percent of those aged 18-24 said they prefer working in a traditional office environment, challenging the widespread perception that millennial and Gen Z workers tend to prefer digital interactions over personal ones.

April 25, 2018

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

by Sarah Booth • 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?

March 22, 2018

Activity and a positive attitude are best treatments for back pain, claims major new study

by Mark Eltringham • News, Wellbeing

Although lower back pain is the leading cause of disability worldwide, affecting an estimated 540 million people at any one time, it is often mistreated, according to a new series of papers in The Lancet medical journal. The series provides evidence that back pain should be managed with activity, in the workplace and in primary care. However, a high proportion of patients worldwide are treated in emergency departments, encouraged to rest and stop work, are referred for scans and surgery or prescribed pain killers including opioids. The authors claim this is at best pointless and at worst harmful. Exercise and psychological therapy are the only things that work for the majority of cases of chronic back pain but too many people wrongly believe the idea that rest is best for the condition, according to the authors. The series of papers also concludes that job satisfaction and a positive attitude are among the strongest indicators of how well people will overcome chronic back pain and related issues.

February 20, 2018

Built environment needs to address the talent gap to make the digital transition says WEF

by Sara Bean • AI, Architecture, Facilities management, News, Technology, Workplace

The construction industry needs new talent and skills to help in the adoption of new technologies to meet the challenges of digital transformation. It must also become more diverse, including increasing the percentage of women in the industry. These are the recommendations of a new report from the World Economic Forum, developed in collaboration with The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Shaping the Future of Construction: An Action Plan to solve the Industry’s Talent Gap. The report argues that the Infrastructure and Urban Development (IU) industry has failed to innovate as quickly as other sectors, resulting in stagnating productivity and negative effects on the economy, society and the environment. An ongoing industry-wide shortage of qualified workers is among the key reasons for this issue. It has undermined project management and execution, adversely affecting cost, timelines and quality. It also has impeded the adoption of new digital technologies, such as building information modelling (BIM), automated equipment and cloud-based collaboration tools, which could improve productivity. The report provides twelve key actions which needs to be implemented to close the structural talent gap of the construction industry.

February 12, 2018

Business leaders increasingly optimistic about benefits of artificial intelligence in the workplace

by Neil Franklin • AI, News, Technology

Executives at major organisations increasingly believe that pairing humans alongside machine intelligence will create a more effective, engaged, and meritocratic workplace, according to a new study released by software provider Pegasystems Inc (registration required). The authors surveyed 845 senior executives working globally across industry sectors including financial services, insurance, manufacturing, retail, telecommunications and media, and government, on the increased role of automation and artificial intelligence in the workplace of the future. The potential impact in the workplace seems to outweigh any lingering fears, the report claims. Around 69 percent of of respondents say “workforce” will refer to both humans and machine intelligence in the future. Nearly three-quarters of executives said using machines to augment human abilities would lead to increased efficiency. Over 60 percent said it could be used to improve customer service.

January 29, 2018

New RSA report highlights increasingly precarious and diverse nature of work

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Technology, Workplace

Britain is dividing into seven new classes of worker as the gig economy grows, according to think-tank the RSA (the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce). Striving, Thriving or Just About Surviving has been published to coincide with the launch of the RSA’s Future Work Centre, following RSA chief executive Matthew Taylor’s employment review for Theresa May last year. The report warns of a 30:40:30 society: while around 30 percent live comfortably, economic insecurity is “the new normal” with 40 percent just managing and a bottom 30 percent not managing to get by.

January 22, 2018

People who work in an open plan office feel worse and are less satisfied

by Mark Eltringham • News, Wellbeing, Workplace design

The ongoing debate about the impact of open plan offices on people’s wellbeing and productivity continues to divide opinion. While there is a large amount of data from the likes of Leesman Index and workplace expert Nigel Oseland to suggest that an open plan office is the best solution when applied in the right way and right context, a new study from Karlstad University claims the opposite. The more co-workers that share of a workplace, the less satisfied employees are, and the more difficult they think it is to work collaboratively.

January 19, 2018

Bad managers who fail to support employees are driving talented staff away

by Sara Bean • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Bad managers who fail to support employees are driving talented staff away

A new survey suggests that bullying, aggressive behaviours and micro-management is endemic within the British workplace. The research by YouGov on behalf of MHR found that 80 percent of employees having experienced what they consider poor management, or a poor manager, at least once during their career; 73 percent of employees who have experienced poor management or a poor manager have considered leaving a job and, among these, a staggering 55 percent actually left their job because of bad management. When asked whether managers are equipped to deal with the human or emotional side of management, 58 percent of respondents said that they are not. Bad managers were described as often inexperienced, out of their depth, lacking the necessary people skills, expressing favouritism, failing to offer recognition and feedback and failing to communicate effectively. But the most shocking comments were around the subject of mental health, with several respondents citing a complete disregard or lack of awareness of issues surrounding mental health in the workplace. As well as failing to support employees suffering from anxiety or depression, several respondents claimed that their manager was directly responsible for causing the decline in their mental health.

January 2, 2018

We need to stop talking about self-employment as a monocultural phenomenon

by Andrea Broughton • Comment, Flexible working

Self-employment has grown considerably in the UK over the past 15 years, now totalling around 4.8 million workers, or 15 per cent of the workforce. There is a debate about the extent to which this growth in self-employment is a positive development: some believe that it is a positive feature of an entrepreneurial and flexible economy, while others fear that it is increasing levels of precariousness. This is a difficult issue to address as there is great heterogeneity among the self-employed workforce. In order to shed light on this, IES undertook research for the Centre for Research on Self-Employment (CRSE) to divide the self-employed workforce into segments. The policy debate on self-employment has often been carried out on the assumption that there is some homogeneity among the self-employed workforce. However, this is far from the case, and it could be argued that diversity is increasing due to the growth of the so-called gig economy. In order to help clarify the debate, IES undertook research for the CRSE that aimed to achieve greater clarity in terms of the size and nature of the different segments of the self-employed workforce. The aim is that if the sector is better segmented, this will help policymakers to avoid taking a broad-brush approach to the treatment of self-employed workers.

December 14, 2017

One in three UK workers unhappy at work and a quarter plan career change

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

The majority (72 percent) of employees in the UK go to work just to afford to live rather than for job satisfaction and one in four are considering a career change in 2018, claims a new survey. According to research conducted by Paymentsense, over half of those questioned say money is their biggest motivation, 67 percent say their degree went to waste and they work in an unrelated role, and 25 percent are considering a whole career change in 2018. According to the 2,000 UK participants in the survey, a career peak occurs at 42 years old, which is when you start to lose passion for your work. At this age, opportunities to progress seem to be rare which is why when asking those in their 40’s ‘why do you go to work every day’? 76 percent say to be able to afford to live. 51 percent say they need to just pay the mortgage and 57 percent have responsibilities to support the family.