Search Results for: performance

Report calls for investment in line management training

Report calls for investment in line management training

by • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

More than two-fifths (45 percent) of workers believe their line manager don’t help morale at work and one in three (32 percent) feel uncomfortable approaching management about work problems, according to a poll published today. The TUC report, Improving Line Management claims that while the majority of UK workers feel supported by their bosses, more than a third (35 percent) don’t think that their line manager treats them and their colleagues fairly. The TUC says the findings expose the patchiness of management training in the UK, as despite being crucial to workers’ well-being and productivity, less than half of UK managers got any training in the last year, according to most recent government statistics.

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Hiring the best people is bad for creativity

Hiring the best people is bad for creativity

by • Comment, Workplace

A child's hand shows creativity covered in many paint colours and a smiling faceWhile in graduate school in mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I took a logic course from David Griffeath. The class was fun. Griffeath brought a playfulness and openness to problems related to creativity and other issues. Much to my delight, about a decade later, I ran into him at a conference on traffic models. During a presentation on computational models of traffic jams, his hand went up. I wondered what Griffeath – a mathematical logician – would have to say about traffic jams. He did not disappoint. Without even a hint of excitement in his voice, he said: ‘If you are modelling a traffic jam, you should just keep track of the non-cars.’

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Employers still not doing enough to support working parents

Employers still not doing enough to support working parents

by • Flexible working, News

Working Families and Bright Horizons have launched a new report which focuses on flexible working and the reality of flexible jobs from the perspective of working parents in the UK. According to the report, the experience of parents shows that flexible working is widespread, although patchy in some sectors and for some workers. It is beneficial in helping parents get a better work life fit, although it is not a panacea. Issues around job design, workloads and organisational culture undermine some of the benefits of flexibility, and proper management of flexibility to ensure it works is, for many parents, missing. (more…)

Role of AI and automation in recruitment poses a challenge for HR

Role of AI and automation in recruitment poses a challenge for HR

by • News, Technology, Workplace

Last week, news emerged that an automated system at Amazon had started firing low performing workers, highlighting the new role of AI and automation in traditional HR practices. Now a new report from the CIPD claims that the use of such systems will have a widespread but mixed impact on jobs. According to the study, the introduction of these new technologies at work will see job opportunities grow, by enhancing roles, employee skills and their pay. However, lack of thought and planning on how people and technology work together is reducing productivity improvements and increasing the risk of people being left behind.

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UK productivity slump linked to employee experience and lack of meaning, claims Deloitte report

UK productivity slump linked to employee experience and lack of meaning, claims Deloitte report

by • News, Technology, Workplace, Workplace design

Only half of UK employees consider their organisations to be effective at creating a positive work environment and only two fifths consider their employer to be effective at creating meaningful work. With 84 percent of workers stating that employee engagement and productivity are linked and 68 percent say their organisations do not measure the correlation between employee engagement and productivity – suggests UK business leaders need to think differently to prevent productivity slumps. The findings are from the Deloitte Human Capital Trends 2019 survey, which tracks the top trends shaping the agenda for HR and business leaders both in the UK and globally. Employee experience, leadership and learning, respectively, led this year’s top 10 UK trends.

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Lies about work, the limits of wellness programmes, sleepwalking architects and some other shoes

Lies about work, the limits of wellness programmes, sleepwalking architects and some other shoes

by • Architecture, Features, Flexible working, Wellbeing, Workplace design

There are lots of reasons to worry about where the World might be taking us, or perhaps where we are taking it. You can take your pick but for me one of the most worrying aspects of contemporary discourse is the obvious dearth of empathy. We might like to think of this as an innate characteristic of human beings, but it really isn’t. It’s something that we also need to learn. This idea is explored in this piece by Hanna Rosin who centres her argument around an analysis by Sara Konrath, an associate professor and researcher at Indiana University who has discovered that our willingness to empathise with people is eroding rapidly, especially for those who we see as ‘other’ or irrelevant. If you want an example of lack of empathy, you can see it in this footage of a banker being taken to task for it in a US committee hearing.

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MPs to investigate impact of placemaking and built environment on productivity

MPs to investigate impact of placemaking and built environment on productivity

by • Cities, News, Property, Workplace design

The All Party Parliamentary Group on Building Communities is calling for evidence and contributions from all organisations with an interest in the built and natural environment to contribute to its new consultation, which aims to explore how placemaking can lead to greater productivity in the UK. As part of its remit, the APPG seeks to conduct research on the concept of ‘placemaking’ and investigate design practices that maximise the social value of infrastructure. In this way the APPG hopes to build an evidence base that can be used by policy makers when engaging with the build and natural environment.

 

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Flexible working seen as top workplace benefit by workers

Flexible working seen as top workplace benefit by workers

by • News, Workplace

A survey of 1,000 UK workers by corporate gift suppliers Adler claims to identify the top benefits workers want to see offered as standard by their employer. Flexible working topped the list with half of respondents (48 percent) saying it should be offered as standard by UK companies.

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Initiative launched to support workplace health and wellbeing

Initiative launched to support workplace health and wellbeing

by • News, Wellbeing

Not-for-profit, wellbeing provider Westfield Health has launched an online initiative to support workplace health and wellbeing which will educate employers across the UK on how they can make a positive difference within their organisation. With over half (54 percent) of businesses reporting that they don’t have any measures in place to support the health and wellbeing of their staff, The Orange Table will offer HR Directors and business owners free webinar and educational content to help improve workplace culture and in turn the performance of their employees. (more…)

Uncertain times demand a new approach to strategic people management

Uncertain times demand a new approach to strategic people management

by • News, Workplace

A street scene of workers in LondonIs the management of people in organisations today really about growing the long-term value of an employers’ most important asset in an increasing uncertain and skills-short labour market? Or is it more to do with continuing to drive costs down and shareholder returns up; and meeting the bare minimum standards required by legislation? The Institute for Employment’s (IES) latest research, carried out in partnership with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), looks at the reality of people management and comes up with some generally positive findings and conclusions. (more…)

BW: Workplace Experts completes new GAM London office

BW: Workplace Experts completes new GAM London office

by • Company news, Workplace design

BW: Workplace Experts has completed the new London headquarters for GAM, an independent global asset management firm. Located at the BREEAM Excellent rated building 8 Finsbury Circus, London, the new location consolidates the business from three separate locations into one. GAM occupies four floors totalling 48,500 sq. ft in order to accommodate its London employees under one roof, further strengthening the culture and operations of the business. (more…)

UK employees work £3.2 billion in unpaid overtime every week

UK employees work £3.2 billion in unpaid overtime every week

by • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Three workers discuss a project around a tableThe UK is the unpaid overtime capital of Europe. This is according to new research by ADP (registration), which has found that employees are giving away an average of £5,038 of their time every year, amounting to £164.8 billion annually across the working population. The study of over 1,400 UK employees reveals that two-thirds (66 percent) of respondents regularly work longer than their contracted hours, with respondents averaging 6.3 hours unpaid per week. However, for more than a fifth (22 percent) of employees, this rises to at least 10 hours per week – twice as many as in other European countries, including Germany and France (10 percent and 12 percent respectively). (more…)

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