September 18, 2019
Unless the Government steps up efforts to manage the transition to automation, many people and entire regions of the UK face being left behind and British businesses could find themselves becoming less competitive, says the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee in a report published today.
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September 18, 2019
More than half of all female professionals – 57 percent – have never attempted to negotiate a pay rise, according to a new report from professional recruitment firm Robert Walters. Its findings suggest that men are 23 percent more likely to negotiate a pay rise across all stages of their career, even though the amount that negotiators pitch for is not far removed from their female counterparts. More →
September 17, 2019
It’s interesting to watch what happens when politicians – even more so than normal people – are faced with evidence they don’t like. And it’s especially interesting when they asked for the evidence in the first place. You can pick your own examples but it was interesting to note Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell’s immediate and decidedly lukewarm response to his own report into the wisdom of introducing a 4 day week, which concluded that the idea is ‘not realistic or even desirable’. More →
September 13, 2019
Marking its ninth consecutive year, Workplace Week London 2019 – brainchild of Advanced Workplace Associates (AWA) – will take place the week commencing 11 November 2019. 30 organisations, a third of which are debutants, have confirmed their support for the philanthropic week, which has so far raised over £100,000 for BBC Children in Need. More →
September 13, 2019
Data from Engaging Works claims that recognition is a more powerful motivator than pay for employees. The data also suggests that a third of people feel they aren’t trusted to make decisions and have a poor relationship with their line manager. More →
September 10, 2019
If you’ve ever shopped around for a coworking space, you’ve undoubtedly heard every shared workspace operator brag that its offices aren’t just a place to work – they’re all about community and culture. As Fast Company’s Ruth Reader put it, we’re just a “bunch of co-work startups saying the same things about how different [we] are.” She’s not entirely wrong, but (with all due respect) I think she’s missed the point about coworking.
September 10, 2019
Managers should seriously consider giving their employees the reins for a day to test new research that indicates seven out of 10 employees worldwide (69 percent) say they can do their boss’s job better, despite nearly the same number of workers (71 percent) grading their boss’s competence a B or better.
The Global State of Managers research comes from The Workforce Institute at Kronos Incorporated and Future Workplace, which examined how nearly 3,000 employees in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Mexico, the U.K., and the U.S. would grade their manager’s effectiveness across five factors: communication, competence, empowerment, professional development, and support.
According to the study, employees grade their managers high on competence but nearly fail them when it comes to work-life balance and job coaching. Overall, people feel managers are good at their jobs, with the majority of employees grading bosses an A or B for competence (71 percent) – the highest grade given – and work ethic (70 percent).
Bosses also received high marks (B or better) for their communication skills, people management skills, and ability to handle performance-related issues (all 67 percent). The older the employee, however, the more critical they are of their boss: Baby Boomers1 and Gen Xers grade managers more harshly with a C, D, or F for overall people management skills (37 percent and 38 percent, respectively). Worldwide, the employee-manager connection remains critically important: 70 percent of employees say their relationship with their manager is an extremely or very important factor when deciding to remain at their current job, with 22 percent agreeing it’s somewhat important. Millennial (79 percent) and Gen Z (73 percent) employees feel strongest about the importance of the manager relationship for retention compared with Gen X (66 percent) and Baby Boomer (62 percent) counterparts.
Other findings
Differences by sector and nationality
Despite rating their managers No. 1 in all categories, 95 percent of Indian employees still say they could do their boss’s job better all of the time (47 percent) or some of the time (48 percent). This sentiment is followed by 87 percent of Mexican workers and 71 percent of French workers. Canada (61 percent) and U.S. (59 percent) workers feel the least confident that they could do their boss’s job better – yet it’s still more than half of all employees.
Managers in the technology industry are on top overall, scoring highest marks (A or B) in people management (81 percent), communication (75 percent), and modeling work-life balance (70 percent). Professional services managers (e.g. accountants, engineers, lawyers) rank second-best, with 70 percent of employees grading them a B or better for people management and communication. Employees in the technology (77 percent) and finance (70 percent) sectors say they have a strong or very strong relationship with their boss, followed by manufacturing (62 percent); education (61 percent); retail (61 percent); and professional services (61 percent).
There is room for managers to model better work-life balance in frontline industries – i.e. those who must be present to do their jobs – with 53 percent of employees in federal government, 42 percent in healthcare, and 42 percent in retail giving their boss a C or worse.
Regarding pure competence, managers are graded worst – C or lower – by public safety (44 percent); federal government (39 percent); transportation/distribution/logistics (35 percent); and healthcare (34 percent) employees. More than one in three employees give poor marks of a C or worse for their manager’s work ethic in federal government (37 percent); healthcare (34 percent); transportation/distribution/logistics (34 percent); and manufacturing (33 percent).
Image by Pixabay
September 9, 2019
As many as 120 million workers in the world’s 12 largest economies may need to be retrained or reskilled over the next three years as a result of the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, according to a new IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) study. It also suggests that only 41 percent of CEOs surveyed say that they have the people, skills and resources required to execute their business strategies.
September 9, 2019
Legislation and a difficult economic climate are the biggest challenges facing start-ups in eight major business sectors according to a survey carried out by Safestore. The survey set out to establish the biggest concerns for biggest owners, their most fundamental goals, and what they believe to be the main reasons for a business failing. More →
September 6, 2019
Hot-desking is a scourge on modern work. That’s the only conclusion you will draw by reading ‘The hidden hell of hot-desking is much worse than you think’ (published in the FT on 28 July 2019) and dozens more like it that continue to appear in national media and top business titles. The piece contends that organisations are using the guise of agile working to excuse their cost-saving prerogative. In reality it is a penny-pinching ploy that “strips people of their own desk and casts them out to the noisy, chaotic wasteland of shared work spots,” or so we’re told. More →
September 6, 2019
The debate on open plan versus enclosed offices rages on, but workplace design is not a such a simple dichotomy. Furthermore, office occupants clearly have different workplace preferences depending on factors like personality, personalisation, flexibility and sense of belonging etc. Herman Miller and Workplace Trends sponsored Workplace Unlimited to conduct a short on-line survey to help unravel some of the more personal factors underlying preferences in the modern office that are often forgotten or ignored. More →
September 18, 2019
A fantastic workplace does not have to be innovative, just fantastic
by Neil Usher • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace design
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