Search Results for: management

Skills gap costs British employers over £2 billion a year

Skills gap costs British employers over £2 billion a year 0

by • News, Workplace

A shortage of people with the right skills has cost companies more than £2 billion over the past year, despite employment being at a record high, according to the latest findings of The Open University Business Barometer. The study of hundreds of employers found that the majority of businesses have had to pay as much as £527 million above the market rate to recruit skilled workers. At small and medium-sized companies, the average salary increase amounted to £4,150 per recruit. At larger groups, it stood at £5,575. Companies said that they also had faced increased recruitment costs, including paying temporary staff to fill the gap while suitable candidates were found. Nine out of ten said that they had struggled to recruit people with the right skills.

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Over half of employers believe strong workplace friendships increase productivity

Over half of employers believe strong workplace friendships increase productivity 0

by • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Nearly three quarters (70 percent) of employers say it’s healthy for employees to have someone to confide in at work, according to new research, but it claims, 1 in 4 employees would consider leaving the company if their friend left. The totaljobs research which featured responses from over 4,000 employees and 103 employers on the latest trends in workplace relationships and office politics found that two thirds (65 percent) of UK workers are finding ‘work spouses’ in the office – that one person who they are very close. Although over half of employers (56 percent) say strong work friendships increase productivity and 60 percent of work spouses say their relationship means ‘they look forward to going into work’, which can help improve staff retention, 1 in 4 (23 percent) say if their friend left, they would consider leaving themselves. Nearly one in 10 (7 percent) go as far as to say that their work spouse leaving the company would be ‘like a bereavement’.

It is perhaps no surprise that work socials are encouraged by employers. Three-quarters of employers organise social events, with the most common including the Christmas party (92 percent); meals out (56 percent); celebrating company milestones (contract wins, hitting targets – 53 percent); and drinks (47 percent). A massive 89 percent of employers provide coffee and tea facilities, while 67 percent provide a kitchen with a sitting area and 47 percent provide breakout areas to encourage more conversation.

A significant 60 percent of employers encourage employees to socialise out of work, while in most social events are regularly organised by teams independently – 42 percent monthly and 40 percent quarterly.

A line was drawn in terms of seniority however, with only 24 percent of employers believing it is appropriate for management to be friends with people more junior than them.

John Salt, Director at totaljobs, said: “It is certainly revealing that so many employees relate to having a ‘work spouse’ and someone they feel they can confide in above others. Our research shows employers recognise the value of strong work relationships, with many already offering social events. The key is to accept work spouse relationships and encourage broader team cohesion. The two do not need to be mutually exclusive: get the balance right, and employers will reap the benefits of a happier, more productive, team.”

The research also showed that work relationships are often formed out of facing adversity in the workplace. Half of those (50 percent) with a work spouse admit to being frustrated in their job, compared to only a third (33 percent) who say they are satisfied, suggesting a spouse may be viewed as some with whom frustrations can be shared.

Social Media Etiquette

Social media has led to a blurring of the lines in terms of people’s personal and professional lives. 42 percent admitted they communicate with their work spouse via social media outside the office. Facebook is by far the leading social network, with 83 percent saying they add colleagues who are at their level on Facebook, compared to 32 percent who would add them on LinkedIn, 24 percent who would follow them on Instagram, and 19 percent who would message their work spouse out of office hours.

Workplace communication expert Judi James has worked with totaljobs to identify the different types of workplace friendships.  She comments, “The notion of having a ‘work spouse’ in the office is clearly a growing phenomenon. British people are notoriously hard workers, often working long hours in stressful environments so it is no surprise to see that they find a colleague with whom they can share their frustrations and celebrate their successes.

“Whilst this is perfectly healthy, it can be helpful for workers to understand how these relationships can come to be viewed and how to prepare for the inevitability of their work marriage being broken up when one party heads for pastures new. That’s why I have worked with totaljobs to create this guide to enable people to understand what type of relationship they have.”

Why using recyclable materials is no longer enough to protect the environment

Why using recyclable materials is no longer enough to protect the environment 0

by • Comment, Environment, Workplace design

recyclable materialsA few years ago, the most commonly recognised symbol of humankind’s impact on the environment was the image of a solitary polar bear, adrift on a rapidly shrinking ice floe. Google a term like ‘melting ice caps’ even now, and you’ll still derive a host of variations of the same meme. More recently a new and even more unpleasant series of symbols has emerged for a similarly environmentally catastrophic phenomenon, carried worldwide on the tide of social media. This time, they are not about the way we pollute the atmosphere but also the land and seas, particularly with plastic. Social media feeds are packed with images of the corpses of seabirds, their flesh rotted away to expose the amount of plastic they have consumed. This is the new face of environmental disaster. This is not just an issue that affects birds, however. Barely a day passes when we cannot see a new image of turtles malformed after getting caught up in plastic netting or six pack rings, whales beached after choking on dozens of discarded plastic bags they’ve mistaken for food, clogged waterways and oceans, piles of rubbish and beaches that consist in large part of plastic eroded to the size of sand grains. Most recently Sky ran a heartbreaking documentary about a whale that had died with a stomach full of plastic rubbish.

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Automation and data need radically new systems of governance according to scientists

Automation and data need radically new systems of governance according to scientists 0

by • AI, News, Technology

automationThe current framework for governing automation and the management and use of data cannot keep pace with technological advances, according to a new report by the Royal Society and the British Academy. The report calls for the establishment of a new, independent body to steward an overall framework that can safeguard public confidence and ensure that the potential benefits of data use such as improved public services, better healthcare and business innovation are fully realised. The two National Academies convened leading figures from the Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences to undertake a detailed review of the current governance landscape for data usage and management. Data Management and Use: Governance in the 21st Century found that data usage, data collection and management are increasingly intertwined, and new ways of using data make it difficult to define which data is sensitive.  It found that, while the current governance architecture provides a lot of what is needed to deal with these challenges, there are clear gaps and too many silos, such that tensions between how individual and collective benefits and risks are negotiated are not always identified and addressed in a transparent and inclusive way.

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Majority of new managers are unprepared and unable to manage their teams

Majority of new managers are unprepared and unable to manage their teams 0

by • News, Workplace

Businesses across the UK could be experiencing significant losses in productivity because managers are unprepared and unable to manage their teams new research suggests. The research which was carried out by chartered fellow of the CIPD Susan Binnersley MD of development consultancy H2H, found that a majority (77.42 percent) of managers didn’t feel prepared to take on their first management role. Only 21.5 percent of people felt they had the full support of their manager when taking over a team and 69 percent admit they spent the majority of their time not managing their team in their first management role. This gets worse over time with 74 percent saying they now spend majority of their time not managing their team today; 81 percent say this is because they spend a large part of their time doing tasks their team should be responsible for. The majority (72 percent) claim this is because they want to lead by example but more than half (51 percent) admit they feel the task if done quicker if they do it. Managers also admit struggling with delegation, with 35 percent saying the struggled to let go of control, 35 percent saying they didn’t feel they had the resources and 29 percent saying it didn’t feel fair to ask someone to do the task.

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Major global study identifies the priorities of students and their most favoured potential employers

Major global study identifies the priorities of students and their most favoured potential employers 0

by • News, Workplace

A new study of 290,000 students worldwide claims that the majority studying business, engineering and IT would prefer to work for medium sized businesses and that they have a very clear idea about the sort of employer they would like to work for. The World’s Most Attractive Employers (WMAE) study from employer branding consultancy Universum Global is now in its 9th year and draws on data from the world’s 12 largest economies to rank the companies students find most desirable for employment. Overall, the majority of students (74 percent) reported that they would prefer to work for a company with fewer than one thousand employees. A larger proportion of talent from Germany, France, and Brazil would prefer to work for larger employers, but overall talent in these markets also said they would prefer to work for smaller firms. For business and engineering / IT students in all countries excluding Russia, India and Germany, work/life balance remains the overall top career goal. Results reveal Russian students in both fields of study still prefer job security, while Indian students in both fields of study are far more interested in having an international career than they are in other career goals.

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Largest trial of driverless vehicles takes to the streets of two cities in the UK

Largest trial of driverless vehicles takes to the streets of two cities in the UK 0

by • AI, News, Technology

The UK’s largest trial of connected and autonomous vehicle technology has been given the green light to move out onto city streets, after a UK consortium completed its final set of private test track demonstrations. Project partners Jaguar Land Rover, Ford and Tata Motors European Technical Centre (TMETC) are set to trial vehicles on the roads of Milton Keynes and Coventry, as Jaguar Land Rover announced the latest version of their automated, driverless vehicle technology. The three vehicle manufacturers are taking part in the £20 million UK Autodrive research and development project, jointly funded by government and industry. UK Autodrive claims to be the first project in the UK to showcase the benefits of having cars that can “talk” to each other across multiple makes of car. Three of the seven key features of connected cars (see full list below) will be trialled during the three-year programme.

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The changing world of people analytics and digital ethics in the workplace

The changing world of people analytics and digital ethics in the workplace 0

by • Flexible working, Podcasts, Premium Content, Technology

This year’s Think FM conference at the Science Museum may prove to be a watershed moment for the global facilities management and workplace sectors, as its focus was on connectivity, data and the Internet of Things. The event’s keynote speaker was Ben Waber, one of the world’s leading thinkers on the ways in which this unprecedentedly connected era relates to people and the workplace. Ben is the president and CEO of people analytics firm Humanyze, an alumnus of MIT and a visiting scientist at MIT Media Lab.

I was fortunate to be able to sit down with him recently to discuss the characteristics of this new age of connectivity and the changing nature of digital ethics and ask him whether the future of HR, IT and FM is at the mercy of people data analytics, amongst other things. This is becoming a common theme for the Workplace Matters podcast as we see a more widespread realisation that the workplace is no longer a merely physical entity and our attention shifts to people and how they interact with each other and the places they work. Subscribe and listen to this and all episodes on Acast or iTunes, on any mobile device.

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Ian Ellison is one of the UK’s foremost commentators on workplace and facilities management issues. He is a Partner of consultancy 3edges (@_3edges) and the host and creator of the Workplace Matters podcast (@wpmpodcast). Prior to that he was a lecturer at Sheffield Hallam the University and had a ten-year career in operational FM in both in-house and outsourced roles. If you have any feedback or suggestions for future episodes – contact him @ianellison or at www.3edges.co.uk.

Neuroscience: the next great source of competitive advantage

Neuroscience: the next great source of competitive advantage 0

by • Facilities management, Features, Knowledge, Premium Content, Work&Place, Workplace design

The average worker is interrupted or distracted every three minutes and it takes them fully twenty-three minutes to return to a task after being interrupted. Office workers are overwhelmed by distractions, due mainly to a lack of understanding of how to manage attention. Distractions and the inability to focus negatively affects productivity, engagement, wellbeing and overall performance in organisations. We long to be more effective, but the harder we try, the more tired our brains become. Attention meltdowns are epidemic because workers do not understand what attention is, how to manage it or have access to the best places to support their tasks. In workplaces throughout the world scenarios of near constant distraction have become the norm, to such an extent that often people do not even feel compelled to comment on them and their consequences.

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Many business owners are baffled by workplace law jargon

Many business owners are baffled by workplace law jargon 0

by • Legal news, News, Workplace

A survey of 250 business owners by Attest market research for HR and employment law advisors Peninsula found that 54 percent of business owners were baffled by workplace law jargon with many thinking the human resource management method – Bradford factor – stood for the best singer in Bradford instead of a means of measuring worker absenteeism. 44 percent thought TUPE meant total under taxation of parliament expenses not transfer of undertaking regulation, 30 percent thought EAT meant employment advice team not employment appeal tribunal. Meanwhile the Conservatives’ election slogan ‘strong and stable’ clearly left a huge mark on people’s thoughts as a number of business owners thought that ‘SSP’ stood for ‘strong and stable professionalism’ instead of the correct meaning of ‘statutory sick pay.’

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British Land launches Storey flexible workspace brand

British Land launches Storey flexible workspace brand 0

by • Company news, Flexible working, Property

British Land has launched Storey, a new brand providing flexible workspace for businesses employing between 20 to 70 people and larger organisations seeking additional space on flexible terms. Created to fill a perceived gap in the London office market which customers say is not being satisfied, Storey provides offices for companies who have outgrown co-working space and whose needs have evolved. Storey also suits existing or larger office customers seeking project or shorter term space on top of their core requirements. Storey will operate within British Land’s existing London assets, predominantly at its Broadgate, Paddington Central and Regent’s Place campuses. These have ‘a critical mass of office customers and offer the ideal environment for ambitious organisations looking to grow. Storey customers will be able to access facilities traditionally reserved for larger organisations and automatically benefit from the broader campus environment where a focus on wellbeing also supports growth and productivity.’

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Report sets out costliest cities for mobile workforce of multinationals

Report sets out costliest cities for mobile workforce of multinationals 0

by • News

In a rapidly changing world, mobility has become a core component of companies’ global talent strategy and as a result, multinational organisations are carefully assessing the cost of packages for their international mobile workforce, claims a new report which sets out the costs of living in the world’s major cities. Mercer’s 23rd annual Cost of Living Survey finds that factors like instability of housing markets and inflation for goods and services contribute to the overall cost of doing business in today’s global environment. Mercer’s 2017 Cost of Living Survey finds Asian and European cities – particularly Hong Kong (2), Tokyo (3), Zurich (4), and Singapore (5) – top the list of most expensive cities for expatriates. The costliest city, driven by cost of goods and security, is Luanda (1), the capital of Angola. Other cities appearing in the top 10 of Mercer’s costliest cities for expatriates are Seoul (6), Geneva (7), Shanghai (8), New York City (9), and Bern (10). The world’s least expensive cities for expatriates, according to Mercer’s survey, are Tunis (209), Bishkek (208), and Skopje (206).

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