Search Results for: people

April 24, 2018

Reimagining the built environment would transform people’s lives, claims Design Council

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Cities, News, Wellbeing, Workplace design

The Design Council and Social Change UK has launched its Healthy Placemaking report which highlights the outcomes from their survey of over 600 built environment practitioners across the UK including architects, town planners and urban designers. The aim of the survey was to gain insight and understanding of their experiences across multiple areas on the creation of a healthy built environment. The latest research from Design Council and Social Change UK claims that healthy placemaking can ‘sit outside mainstream UK housing, public health and placemaking policy. It continues to be seen as a cost to local development rather than an investment, and when considered alongside the plethora of local planning priorities and frameworks it often gets overlooked’.

April 20, 2018

Remote working may be doing some people more harm than good

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

Remote working isn’t necessarily as ideal as we have grown to believe, according to a new survey which claims it may be doing more harm than good in some cases. The new research report from Citrix claims that remote working may actually hurt productivity and often makes employees feel disconnected, lonely, and not having access to all the right and necessary technology to get the work done on time, and in proper fashion. Out of 1,000 workers and 500 managerial-level employees in the UK who were polled for the report, 81 per cent said their companies do have more than one location where they can work. These locations differ in performance regarding technology, culture, resources and collaboration.

April 17, 2018

Older people want the same things from their job as millennials, major new study shows

by Mark Eltringham • News, Workplace

This is a drum we’ve been banging for a long time along with a number of others, but a new study of half a million people proves what we should have known all along; people of different generations want broadly the same things from their workplaces, stereotypes are often wrong and any differences that do exist may well be explainable by the stages of their lives. The study of 500,000 people at 750 organisations in the US, Australia and Europe was conducted by employee feedback startup Culture Amp. It found that older workers are more likely to look for work where they can have a positive impact and workers want a job where they can develop personally and have confidence in leadership at all age levels. One of the significant differences between generations was that older workers are less likely than millennials to be looking for a new job at any one time.

April 6, 2018

Quarter of people are ready to welcome robots as our new overlords

by Mark Eltringham • AI, News, Technology

Around a quarter of British people would happily replace MPs with robots, according to a study of 6,000 individuals from Reboot Digital Marketing and Mindshare. The surveys asked people whether they would prefer machines or humans in eight different occupations and scenarios. It found that when making car comparisons with the intention to eventually purchase, a significant percentage of Brits would want robots (60 percent) aiding them instead of humans (40 percent). Thereafter, Brits would be most inclined to accept music and film recommendations from artificial intelligence at 49 percent – though 51 percent would still opt to do so from other people. Even though most respondents (75 percent) would still prefer humans to be MP’s, 25 percent would elect robots to be in this position of power.

March 15, 2018

Smart cities could give people back 125 hours each year, claims new Intel study

by Mark Eltringham • Cities, News, Technology

An Intel-sponsored study by Juniper Research estimates that smart cities have the potential to “give back” around 125 hours to every resident every year. The study also ranks the top 20 smart cities worldwide across four key areas: mobility, health care, public safety and productivity, and reveals how these cities deliver positive outcomes for increased time savings and productivity, increases in health and overall quality of life, and a safer environment. The study found that Chicago, London, New York, San Francisco and Singapore (pictured), are the world’s leading cities integrating IoT technologies and connected services. These cities stand out because of their cohesive efforts to connect city municipalities, businesses and their citizens to address a growing need to improve “livability” – specifically around mobility (San Francisco and Singapore), public safety (Chicago, New York and Singapore), health care (London and Singapore), and productivity (Chicago, London and Singapore) – as they transition to a smarter, more connected environment.

March 8, 2018

New working styles are risking the health and wellbeing of people, claims report

by Mark Eltringham • AI, Flexible working, News, Technology, Wellbeing

A new report from the British Safety Council and consultancy Robertson Cooper, explores what it claims is the probable impact of new working practices and technology on people’s physical and mental wellbeing, and what employers, unions and legislators should do to address them. The report, Future risk: Impact of Work on Health, Safety and Wellbeing, argues that the safety, health and wellbeing of older workers will become more important and new risks will arise related to the adoption of artificial intelligence and automation.

February 12, 2018

Finance workers are amongst most stressed people in the world

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing

Finance workers in the UK are among the most stressed in the world, according to a study by Robert Half UK. The survey of 2000 people including 200 senior finance managers claims that 78 percent of Chief Financial Officers in the UK believe stress levels will rise in the next two years, with over a third (31 percent) saying they would grow significantly. CFOs believe that increased workloads (51 percent), growing business expectations (49 percent) and a lack of staff (40 percent) will send stress levels soaring.

February 6, 2018

Technology can be a major distraction for people, making them less productive claims Microsoft report

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Technology, Wellbeing

A survey of 20,000 European workers carried out by Microsoft suggests that technology can distract workers rather than make them more productive. The study claims that a constant stream of messages, notifications and emails was particularly distracting. Workers also pointed out that the way employers use technology can also disrupt their work and make it harder for them to concentrate. Other factors identified in the report include lack of training and burn-out associated with always-on working.

January 25, 2018

Two fifths of people think their jobs will be obsolete within a decade

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Workplace

A new survey from job site Jobbio claims that more than two fifths of British workers think their job will be obsolete in as little as ten years, compared to over a third of those in the US. Respondents believe roles such as travel agents, telemarketers and factory workers will all disappear. in the longer term, a little over two-fifths of 2,000 British respondents (41 percent) think that they won’t be able to retire until the ages of 70-74 in 2050 with less than a fifth (14 percent) thinking they will get to retire under the age of 65. The survey focuses on the issue of happiness and what makes people happy at work. It found that there are some marked differences between the two countries although people are universally keen to address the issue of work life balance.

January 22, 2018

People who work in an open plan office feel worse and are less satisfied

by Mark Eltringham • News, Wellbeing, Workplace design

The ongoing debate about the impact of open plan offices on people’s wellbeing and productivity continues to divide opinion. While there is a large amount of data from the likes of Leesman Index and workplace expert Nigel Oseland to suggest that an open plan office is the best solution when applied in the right way and right context, a new study from Karlstad University claims the opposite. The more co-workers that share of a workplace, the less satisfied employees are, and the more difficult they think it is to work collaboratively.

January 17, 2018

One in ten people have fantasised about killing their boss

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

A new survey of 2,200 people claims that one in ten have fantasised about killing their boss at some point. Construction workers emerged as having the worst relationship with their line managers with nearly a quarter admitting to murderous thoughts (22 percent), followed closely by those working in the media industry (15 percent). The report from B2B comparison site Expert Market claims that more than half of respondents (52 percent) said that they hate their job specifically because of their boss. In fact, one in five workers said that they would actually turn down a pay rise in favour of firing their manager and it’s because people think their boss is not fit for purpose. The majority of those asked (73 percent) believe that they could do their boss’ job far better than them, particularly those in the energy and entertainment industries; 86 percent and 81 percent, respectively.

December 28, 2017

Automation will benefit the economy but many people could lose out

by Mark Eltringham • AI, News, Technology

Around a third of all jobs in the UK are vulnerable to the introduction of robots, automation and artificial intelligence and the government must intervene to manage the transition and stop new technology driving up wage inequality, a report from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) claims. Although the report suggests that the tech will have a generally beneficial impact on the economy, it warns that lower-skilled jobs are far more likely to be phased out over the coming decades, and only higher-skilled workers would generally be able to command higher wages.