Search Results for: labour market

January 26, 2016

Unethical employment practices drive ‘Gen S’ professionals away ⁰

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

Over half of ‘Gen S’ workers would refuse to work for employers who have a record of using slave labour, generating high levels of pollution, employing unsafe working conditions, poor environmental performance, questionable investments and unethical practices. According to the Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment’s (IEMA) annual Practitioner Survey these people see environmental roles as the career change of choice, with 42 percent of professionals who now work in these roles considering themselves “career changers”. Those entering the profession come from a variety of backgrounds including finance, operations, marketing and communications and R&D. Gen S workers are typically people in their mid-thirties, above average in their qualifications with 45 percent having a Master’s degree or doctorate, looking for more than just a career and earning money, but actively seeking a career which is primarily “ethical” in nature.

January 19, 2016

Skilled migrants attracted to regional and city work hubs, not countries ⁰

by Sara Bean • Cities, News, Property, Workplace

Highly-skilled migrants are increasingly attracted to cities and regions rather than countries, the latest Global Talent Competitiveness Index has revealed. Silicon Valley, Dublin, Helsinki-Espoo, Dubai [pictured] and London are the real hubs, rather than the United States, Ireland, Finland, the United Arab Emirates or the United Kingdom. The index, produced by Adecco Group, INSEAD and the Human Capital Leadership Institute, ranks the factors driving the international movement of skilled migrants of 109 countries, covering 87 percent of the global population and 97 percent of global GDP. Switzerland is in top place, followed by Singapore and Luxembourg in second and third place. At seventh place, the UK is ahead of Germany and France, but behind top performers such as the United States and Canada. It also trails behind in terms of gender diversity; ranking 56th for female graduates and 71st for the gender earnings gap.

January 18, 2016

Firms demanding more data about workplaces…and they’re about to get it ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • News, Property, Technology, Workplace design

Companies are increasingly focussed on generating workplace data as they seek to make better decisions about the ways their real estate supports their key organisational objectives. That is one of the key findings of the latest European Occupier Survey from property consultants CBRE (login required). The good news (or bad news, depending on your point of view) is they’re about to get it in spades, according to another study from researchers International Data Corporation which found that there will be a huge surge in the availability of Big Data infrastructure in EMEA countries over the next four years. The acquisition of data about buildings and their inhabitants remains a troublesome issue, especially when executives do things like introduce sensors to monitor working patterns of employees without their knowledge, as bosses at The Telegraph found in a very public way recently.

October 15, 2015

SMEs appreciate flexibility and freedom of running their own business ⁰

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

The latest ONS employment figures indicate that the boom in self-employment appears to have ended, as the number of self-employed people has fallen for the first time since before the recession. Yet those who’ve successfully started their own businesses have something to celebrate. According to a report from AXA PPP, SME owners appreciate the greater flexibility (58 percent) and the greater freedom (37 percent) that owning a business gives them. Seventy per cent of owners also said they are proud, inspired, content or fortunate to own their own business, highlighting the positive effects that having control over your working life can bring. More than a third (35 percent) admitted they could delegate more to improve the way they manage their business – with nearly half (47 percent) of business owners reporting that the pressure of work spills over into their home life.

September 2, 2015

Flexible working key to counteracting female workers’ ‘baby shame’ ⁰

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

Whether the gender pay gap is more of a motherhood gap is an ongoing debate, but now a new survey has found that when even planning to have children, one in five (18 percent) working women hide their family plans from their employers. In an interview with the BBC yesterday, Labour Party leader candidate Yvette Cooper revealed that when she took maternity leave from her ministerial job in 2001, there was no procedure in place and when she sought maternity leave a couple of years later, things were made very difficult for her. If that’s how a high powered government minister is treated then it is no wonder over half (58 percent) of women feel they would have to alter their career in order to have a child, and why three quarters feel flexible working which doesn’t leave women feeling ‘baby shame’ for working child friendly hours is essential.

June 25, 2015

Long distance commuting, agile working and dinosaur extinction in the UAE

by Douglas Langmead • Cities, Comment, Flexible working, Property

In Dubai, there are no suburban dinosaurs; those large-scale, single purpose office buildings that ignore the agile realities of modern working life. In the western world, these giants evolved on business parks, driven by the perceived benefits of having office workers agglomerated in order to achieve efficiency of communication and dissemination. The business practices and technologies that underpinned these buildings have evolved and improved and many are in the process of being re-purposed. Things happen on a grander scale in the Middle East where the mantra is “if the land-use doesn’t fit the land, make more land.” Here, the patterns of work and place have evolved differently from the west, and at a much faster pace with creeping tides of development spreading rapidly out from the small centres of traditional trade and commerce to vast tracts of new development.

May 25, 2015

Clerkenwell Design Week explores the links between design and the individual

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Events, Flooring, Furniture, Workplace design

For a show with such an international perspective there are many aspects of Clerkenwell Design Week that mark it out as a typically British event. There’s the weather, of course, which can vary from day to day between drizzle and bright sunshine, marking the difference between visitors dodging showers and huddling in showrooms or spilling out onto the pavements to drink beer and talk turkey. Then there’s the very idea of Clerkenwell itself, a district in East London historically associated with the arts and crafts movements, dodgy dealings, immigrant artisans and labourers and the sort of denuded former glories that those with the right mindset like to appropriate and reinvent. London may exist as a City State within the UK, but it also provides the beating heart for many nationwide industries. For the UK office interiors industry that heart can be found in Clerkenwell.

May 7, 2015

Understanding and overcoming the objections to sit stand workstations

by Marc Bird • Comment, Furniture, Wellbeing, Workplace design

In Sweden, sit-stand working is so commonplace that our Nordic colleagues are perplexed by how slow the UK has been to catch up. The expectation of varying working positions throughout the day is so widespread across Scandinavia that over 80 percent of Swedish, Danish, Finnish and Norwegian office workers already use sit stand workstations, and offering employees a height adjustable work station is now mandatory in Denmark. Despite sit-stand working still being in its infancy in the UK, with only 2 percent of knowledge workers having access to height adjustable workstations, there is plenty of compelling evidence, and a groundswell of expert opinion, to suggest that the UK office is going to have to get off its backside pretty soon.

December 10, 2014

‘Empty desks’ costing UK business 18bn a year, as job vacancies go unfilled

by Sara Bean • News, Workplace

The economic impact of unfilled job vacancies on the UK economy may be leading to a staggering annual cost of over £18bn. Research by job site Indeed, claims that falling unemployment and robust job creation is resulting in many businesses finding it a challenge to locate and secure the right employees. This inability to find and recruit the right hire for a role is impacting on both the business itself and the wider economy in two major ways. For the employer, failing to effectively resource a business slows both production and profits, while in the wider economy unearned wages reduce consumer spending power and contribution to economic growth. ‘Empty desks’ in the real estate sector are having the greatest impact on the UK economy, due to high levels of contributed economic value (the goods and services that could be produced if the position were filled).

May 22, 2014

Talent challenge ahead as UK employers struggle to fill skills gap

by Sara Bean • News, Workplace

With the economy picking up, nearly two thirds of UK employers are concerned that they won’t be able to find the people with the skills needed to fill their burgeoning job vacancies. A global PwC survey of over 1,300 CEOs in 68 countries reveals that a quarter of UK business leaders plan to increase their headcount by up to 5 per cent in the next 12 months, with a further 20 per cent planning increases of up to 8 per cent and a further one in five planning increases of over 8 per cent. But 64 per cent of UK business leaders are more concerned about the availability of key skills than any of their Western European counterparts, rating it as the biggest business threat to their growth plans. Technology and engineering firms report the most chronic shortage of skilled employees. More →

November 14, 2013

As economy picks up, change management is greatest employment challenge

by Sara Bean • News, Workplace

The latest figures from the Office of National Statistics show that the unemployment has fallen to 7.6 per cent, its lowest rate in more than three years, and the signs are that employers can plan for the future with renewed confidence. In a poll conducted at the recent Chartered Management Institute’s National Annual Conference, 74 per cent of managers said market conditions for their business are currently more conductive for growth than they were last year. Their biggest management challenge in the coming year will be implementing change initiatives, with other priorities being: coordinating business development activities; getting the best performance out of their team; achieving results with fewer resources; internally promoting their department as a value-adding business partner; and managing and bringing through star performers.

October 22, 2013

Germans prove that long hours and productivity are often two completely different things

by John Sacks • Comment, Workplace

Earlier this year, Insight published the results of a survey which showed that the World’s hardest workers, contrary to what Jeremy Clarkson might say, are Mexican. But that poll told half the story because it only measured the number of hours people work. When it comes to productivity measured by output against time spent working, it turns out that it’s the Germans who are the undisputed champions according to research from the PEW Trust. This won’t come as a surprise if you believe the Teutonic stereotype, as many people assuredly do. The survey also found that, when asked which nation had the most productive workers, respondents in the UK, France, Italy, Spain, the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany itself all believe that Germans are Europe’s hardest workers.