Search Results for: leadership

June 20, 2022

People are searching for better work, not just more pay

New research from the CIPD claims that more than 6.5 million people in the UK expect to quit their job in the next 12 months, with those reporting the poorest job quality the most likely to have itchy feet. Better pay and benefits are the main motivator to leave, but people are also looking for increased job satisfaction and better work life balance. In response, the CIPD is calling for employers to not treat pay increases as a ‘silver bullet’ for attracting and retaining staff, but instead look at overall job quality by being more creative with job design and people management practices. (more…)

June 14, 2022

Loneliness might hold back hybrid working productivity gains

by Gosia Bowling • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing

Loneliness is defined as the difficult emotion we experience when our need for meaningful social contact and relationships is not met, and it’s something we’ve all had experience of. Nearly half of the UK population have reported feeling lonely at times, with other research showing that 39 percent say their wellbeing was negatively impacted because they were lonely too. Why people feel lonely can be attributed to many reasons. Humans have a deep need for attention, warmth, and attachment to others. When such relationships end, or if someone finds themselves in an abusive or emotionally non-existent relationship, this can lead to elevated levels of loneliness. (more…)

June 9, 2022

Work-life balance more important than pay for two thirds of people

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Rising inflation and the UK’s cost-of-living crisis have put a lot of pressure on employers to increase wages and starting salaries this year, but a new survey suggests that there’s something that employees value more than pay – work-life balance. HR and payroll software provider CIPHR polled over 1,000 UK workers to find out which job aspects matter most to them. Based on the results, over two-thirds (70 percent of women and 65 percent of men) see work-life balance – albeit a term that can mean different things to different people – as being more important than their pay and employee benefits combined (selected by 60 percent of women and 57 percent of men). (more…)

June 8, 2022

Strategic workforce planning blocked by lack of data and defined employee responsibilities

by Neil Franklin • Facilities management, News, Technology, Workplace, Workplace design

Poor data quality and a lack of clearly defined roles and responsibilities within the organisation are amongst the key challenges management faces when implementing vital strategic workforce planning (SWP), according to new academic research. The researchers also claim that a lack of methodology to execute a strategic workforce plan and the lack of support across all organisational units of the firm were contributing to a slower and less efficient strategic workforce planning. (more…)

May 26, 2022

Extraverts don’t always make the best leaders

by Blaine Landis • Comment, Workplace

The ‘extraverted leadership advantage’ is a well-recognised phrase among researchers which describes how the characteristics of an extraverted personality create an advantage in the workplace when it comes to leadership roles. Extraverts are typically outgoing, loud, assertive, and high energy, so if you’re in a meeting with them they tend to speak up often. They can be hard to miss, which is what leads to many extraverts naturally taking on the role of a leader. (more…)

May 20, 2022

Half of people aren’t comfortable talking about disability in the workplace

by Jayne Smith • News, Technology, Wellbeing, Workplace

A new poll from Samsung UK claims that people are generally uncomfortable talking about disabilities, including the issue of disability in the workplace. According to the survey, nearly half of the population (45 percent) admit to feeling uncomfortable saying the word ‘disabled’ or ‘disability’ in everyday conversations. Meanwhile, over half of people with disabilities say they have tried to conceal their challenges from work colleagues due to the fear of stalling their professional progression or landing a promotion (almost 45 percent) or being judged and made to feel like an outsider (41 percent). Forty percent felt that their colleagues valued them less after they realised they had a disability. (more…)

May 19, 2022

Clerkenwell Design Week should leave us all feeling in the pink

by Mick Jordan • Features, Workplace design, Works Magazine

It feels like a long, long time since we all came together for Clerkenwell Design Week. Mainly because it is. This month, however, conditions allow us to once again come together to enjoy the largest event this sector has to offer in the UK – you may even be reading this during the festival itself. With a vast variety of showrooms and pop-ups offering new product presentations, talks and seminars, food and drink, parties and workshops, Clerkenwell Design Week has plenty to keep even the most fidgety of us happy. (more…)

May 17, 2022

Despite low productivity, UK firms still don’t look for ways to improve on past performance

by Neil Franklin • Business, News

Despite the UK’s persistent low productivity, less than a fifth of business owners are actively looking back at projects to identify areas for improvement. A large proportion of business owners (65 per cent) and senior managers (82 per cent) have increased their use of project-based methods on everyday tasks, such as introducing measures to identify and manage risk. Despite this, many are still failing to assign enough dedicated project managers to the work. New research from the Association for Project Management (APM) claims that only 35 per cent of senior managers who participated in the survey regularly assign dedicated project managers to tasks, and only a quarter for business owners. (more…)

May 12, 2022

ESG ambitions should top organisational agendas

by Siobhan Byrnes • Comment, Environment, Wellbeing

When the idea of ESG (environmental, social and governance credentials) first surfaced nearly two decades ago in a 2005 United Nations report, it was just an acronym businesses were trying to understand and get to grips with. But in the last few years, ESG strategies have gathered steam – it has become integral to C-Suite strategy and business purpose, and is a deal-breaker not just for investors but also for those considering new roles. In fact, a recent report revealed that job-seekers are turning down job offers by companies showcasing weak ESG credentials, a sure sign of the importance of substantive ESG policies for potential talent. Most of the larger conglomerates (if not all) have set targets to reach net-zero by a set date – ranging from as early as 2025 to anywhere within the next two decades. But is this going far enough for employees, stakeholders, future talent, and more broadly, for society? (more…)

May 6, 2022

The Workplace Geeks on what we need to learn about the office now that everything’s changed

by Freddie Steele • Facilities management, Podcasts, Premium Content, Workplace design

The Workplace Geeks are out and about for their very first LIVE episode, recorded at The Workplace Event, Birmingham NEC, UK in April 2022. For this special show they’re joined by Dan Pilling, workplace strategy consultant at TSK Group. Their discussion explores the scope and value of practical workplace research pre and post pandemic, with some great questions from the audience (thanks to Brock James from iOtSpace, Stuart Watts from the GPA, and Steve Henigan from HCG). (more…)

May 2, 2022

Five new companies join Urban Land Institute net zero carbon goal

by Jayne Smith • Environment, News

The Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) Greenprint Center for Building Performance announced today that five more of its real estate members have aligned to ULI Greenprint’s net zero carbon operations goal. These real estate leaders join the 25 ULI Greenprint members that have already adopted this goal to reduce the carbon emissions of their collective portfolio under operational control to net zero by the year 2050. (more…)

April 29, 2022

Working from home can present particular challenges for women

by Rachel King • Comment, Flexible working

The pandemic has brought with it many different trials and tribulations over the course of the past few years. An area that has impacted teams across the country, and the world, has been working from home and other forms of remote work. Once a necessity imposed by the UK government to stop the spread in the early stages of the pandemic, it has now become a part of working life for many people in many different sectors. It has offered many employees the new luxury of time: no commutes resulting in more time to spend with family and friends and creating a better work-life balance. (more…)