February 2, 2018
Every company should champion design and creativity at board level
All business and life are about selling. Well that’s what Mark Price (Lord Price) the previous Managing Director of Waitrose and former Minister with the Department for International Trade said in a recent book, Workplace Fables: 147 True Life Stories. I like Mark Price and his writings but certainly don’t agree with his view about selling. To me business and life are about design. Just close your eyes and imagine life without it. If your imagination could handle this, and when you opened your eyes you would be standing in a field stark naked, because nothing apart from nature would exist. If you had bad eyesight things would be blurred and any illnesses could not be medicated. You may even have trouble eating unless you found some palatable vegetation or a creature willing to be caught, unless of course it did not eat you first.
The UK has been ranked as the eighth best country in the world for the ability to attract, retain, train and educate skilled workers, but while its ability to leverage diversity for talent competitiveness is boosted by its global knowledge skills – the UK is undermined by its weaker performance on tolerance and gender equality. According to the Global Talent Competitiveness Index GTCI) produced by the Adecco Group, with international business school INSEAD and Tata Communications, the UK has a particularly strong pool of global knowledge skills, a variable for which it is ranked third in the index boosted further by its strong regulatory, market and business landscape. But this is undermined by its internal openness, where it still lags behind, especially when it comes to gender equality. The report also suggests that although Article 50 was triggered in 2017, the ongoing negotiations and continuing lack of clarity over the UK’s position once it leaves the European Union in 2019, means the impact of Brexit is not yet clear.
Managers are working an extra 44 days a year over and above their contracted hours, up from 40 days in 2015. These long hours are taking their toll, causing a surge in sick leave amongst managers suffering from stress and mental ill health, claims the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), which is calling on UK employers to provide greater support. Long hours and constant communication are having a detrimental effect on the wellbeing of managers it argues resulting in one in ten managers taking time off for mental health in the last year, and for those who do take time out, it’s for an average of 12 days. Of the 1,037 managers surveyed for the report, the average boss puts in an extra day each week. This is an extra 7.5 hours beyond their contracted weekly hours (44.4 hours actual compared to 37.3 contracted), adding up to an extra 43.8 days over the course of the year. This is up from 39.6 days in 2015. The rising gap between contracted and actual hours of work is in addition to an ‘always on’ digital culture, with 59 percent of managers saying they ‘frequently’ check their emails outside of work – up from 54 percent in 2015.
February 5, 2018
Developing a cultured nose for what makes workplace design great
by Steve Brewer • Comment, Workplace design
(more…)