May 10, 2018
London’s tech startups and SMEs shift focus from normal hotspots to migrate South of the river
Hubble, an office and coworking marketplace, has published new data which it claims shows that tech startups and other growing SMEs in London are leaving the capital’s best known tech hotspots, including Shoreditch and Soho, for south of the river. Hubble’s search data suggests that London Bridge (29 percent of all searches) is the most popular location in London for companies searching for flexible office space in 2018 (a sharp rise from 3.7 percent of searches in 2017), beating Shoreditch with 27 percent of all searches. More than 37 percent of searches were for office space in south London, counting London Bridge and the Southbank (8.5 percent). Startups and SMEs are branching out to different creative “hub-spots” within London, but most prominently is an unprecedented shift to south of the river. Searches for London Bridge specifically make up 29 percent of all searches and the Southbank, as a whole, making up 37.5 percent of all search queries.
Companies will need more, not less people, in the near-term to meet the demand stimulated by automation, claims a new report from ManpowerGroup. The report – Robots Need Not Apply: Human Solutions in the Skills, found that 91 percent of employers in the US will maintain or increase headcount in the next two to three years as industries shift to more advanced, automated processes. The report provides a real-time view of the impact of automation on headcount, the functions most affected and the soft skills that are both of greatest value and hardest to find. Frontline and Customer-Facing functions anticipate the most growth as organisations place higher value on customer service and human interaction. Manufacturing and Production functions are close behind. Back-office functions that are routine or add less value to customer interactions are under greatest threat as organisations implement new technology to drive efficiency. In this Skills Revolution the best blend of high-tech and high-touch will be the combination of human strengths with technical and digital know-how: 61 percent of companies say communication skills, written and verbal, are their most valued soft skill followed by customer service, collaboration and problem-solving.
Organisations are failing to get the basics right when it comes to providing the digital and virtual systems that support employees in their roles, despite an evolving technological landscape and rise in flexible working, a new report has claimed. Data released by Leesman analyses how organisations can better support employees by offering the technology tools and infrastructure that enable people to work in a flexible way. In Deloitte’s 2018 Tech Trends report issued at the beginning of 2018, there was a heightened focus on how disruptive technologies will help businesses achieve larger strategic and operational goals and drive greater value. It predicted that within the next two years, more companies will embrace the emerging ‘no-collar workforce’ trend by redesigning jobs and reimagining how work gets done in a hybrid human-and-machine environment. However, Leesman’s findings show that, as of yet, organisations are failing to get the digital basics right. According to its latest dataset (Q1 2018) 23 percent do not agree that they have the technology tools and infrastructure that enable them to work in different locations across the office or from different locations outside of the office.
There have already been warnings from workplace experts that the legal profession isn’t one to choose for those starting out on their careers as it’s ripe for automation, and a new survey claims these changes are happening fast. According to a survey of over a 100 law firms by CBRE, nearly half (48 percent) are already utilising Artificial Intelligence (AI) and a further 41 percent have imminent plans to do so. Of the firms already employing AI, 63 percent of firms are using it for legal document generation and review, and the same proportion for e-discovery. Due diligence (47 percent) and research (42 percent) were also common applications, along with compliance and administrative legal support (each 32 percent). The use of AI will affect employment levels, with the greatest impact predicted at the junior and support levels, where nearly half (45 percent) of firms believing that there will be a reduction in headcount. In contrast, only 7 percent of firms believe that senior headcount levels will be reduced.
May 2, 2018
The quest for wellbeing has taken over from our search for productivity
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design
More →