March 20, 2019
The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) has launched a new suite of resources that will help employers support blind and partially sighted people in the workplace. The resources have been created as part of the DWP’s Disability Confident scheme, the nationally-recognised Government accreditation that supports businesses to attract, recruit and retain disabled employees.
March 19, 2019
When property company Bericote acquired a 4-story mews building in central London, oozing character and charm, their aim was to transform it into a workplace like few others. From their first meeting at the new building, K2 Space quickly understood that this was not going to be a typical project or workplace, and that the objective was to create something truly unique and reflective of how the Bericote team worked. More →
March 19, 2019
Flexible working has developed a reputation as something of a silver bullet for a range of workplace challenges. It is the perceived solution to almost any of the major workplace problems you care to mention, including the gender pay gap, work life balance, churn, property costs, staff engagement, personal autonomy, stress, physical wellbeing, productivity and – of course – as a way of meeting the needs of those alien beings we refer to as Millennials. There is some truth in all of this, as we have known for some time, but things are far more complicated than often presented.
March 19, 2019
New research from LinkedIn (registration) claims that a third (36 percent) of UK professionals believe their employer does not do enough to support new parents. The release of the figures comes as LinkedIn claims that 18th March was the day that working families only just start getting paid for the year, once growing childcare costs are taken into account. The survey of 4,000 UK workers suggests that professionals feel they are being left in the dark when it comes to parental policies, with a third (37 percent) not even aware of what support their workplace provides for new parents. More →
March 19, 2019
Almost a third (31 percent) of UK professionals state that their expectations are ‘not being met at all’ by their current employer, whilst a further 24 percent state that their needs are only just ‘moderately’ being met. The findings, which come from research undertaken by recruiter Robert Walters and job board CV-Library – also suggest that while the amount they were paid was most important to staff, other benefits are increasingly playing a more prominent role in keeping staff motivated. Well over half (61 percent) claimed that work-life balance, flexible working hours (39 percent), and cultural fit (25 percent) are crucial to keeping them happy at work. More →
March 18, 2019
The UK has risen one place, to third, in a global ranking of most promising countries in the world for technology breakthroughs that have a global impact. KPMG’s 2019 Technology Innovation Hubs report sees the UK trailing slightly behind the US and China, in a ranking of countries expected to produce the most disruptive technologies. The UK and Japan were almost tied in last year’s survey with the UK coming in 4th place. This year however, the UK moved ahead to secure the bronze place, whilst Japan was ranked fourth, Singapore was ranked fifth and India dropped from third place to sixth. More →
March 15, 2019
A leading not-for-profit business and disability organisation is asking employees and managers to share their experiences of requesting and arranging workplace adjustments via an anonymous online survey. Business Disability Forum wants to use ‘The Great Big Adjustments Survey’ to create a clear and up-to-date picture of what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to making and managing adjustments. The membership organisation will use the findings to develop what it hopes will be one of the most informed pieces of research on the topic, ever created. More →
March 14, 2019
Immediately after the Workplace Trends Summit in London last October, Ian Ellison of 3edges and I retired to a side room to record an interview for a podcast over a glass of red wine. The main objective was to try to piece together a coherent summary of what we’d seen that day. Ian assures me the podcast (his are invariably excellent) will appear very soon, but I thought it would be worth exploring a theory I formed and rambled on about in our conversation ahead of the next Summit set to take place next week.
March 12, 2019
Capital values across UK Commercial property fell by -0.3 percent in February 2019, according to the latest CBRE Monthly Index. Rental values fell by -0.1 percent and total returns were 0.2 percent. However, for the thirteenth consecutive month the Office sector recorded positive capital values, rental values and total returns. February 2019 recorded capital value growth of 0.1 percent and total returns of 0.5 percent. Rental values increased marginally by 0.1 percent. West End & Midtown offices were the only submarket to record a fall in capital values (-0.1 percent). Outside of London, UK offices pulled up the sector average with capital value growth of 0.2 percent in February.
March 12, 2019
The boom in the UK jobs market is coming to an end just as the Brexit countdown reaches its final stages. According to the latest ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey, the national Outlook for the second quarter of 2019 has fallen to +4 percent, on a par with the weakest levels of confidence seen in recent years. More worryingly, the negative Outlook in the Business and Financial services sector – which employs nearly a fifth of all UK workers – suggests jobs are set to be lost in Britain’s most important sector. The report found that the Finance and Business Services sector has fallen five points to -1 percent, only the second time in the last decade it has been in negative territory.
March 11, 2019
The recruitment and retention of manual and elementary service workers has become a significant challenge for UK employers, claims a new study. The research by Quinyx in collaboration with Development Economics and Censuswide, found that factors such as low pay and a lack of flexibility are key issue, resulting in nearly half (49 percent) of UK employers finding it difficult to recruit these workers, and the same percentage reporting challenges around retention. Issues with recruitment and retention were discovered to be most acute in industries such as hospitality, catering & leisure and retail. In addition, larger businesses (those with a workforce of 250 to 500) are more likely to face challenges compared to smaller-sized businesses. Regionally, businesses in London and the East of England are most likely to struggle to recruit workers into manual or elementary service roles. The findings come at a time when UK employers are expressing growing concern around access to manual and elementary service workers post-Brexit.
March 15, 2019
When exactly did busyness become a sign of status?
by Francesca Langton Kendall • Comment, Wellbeing
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