May 1, 2018
Quarter of UK managers would take a pay cut for a job with a clear purpose beyond profit
More than a quarter of managers (27 percent) in British companies would likely accept a salary cut to work for a company that has a clear purpose beyond profit a new report claims. A third (32 percent) would actually consider leaving their job if a greater purpose was unclear, while more than half (53 percent) would if their company’s values and purpose didn’t align with their own. The YouGov survey, commissioned by Danone UK, highlights the importance of having a defined company purpose that marries commercial success with social progress. The findings support a new report by not-for-profit think tank Tomorrow’s Company and Danone UK, that explores the importance of having a purpose beyond profit in helping companies to prosper in the face of workplace challenges created by an uncertain world. The Courage of their Convictions is built from interviews with senior leaders from within some of the UK’s biggest purpose-driven brands, including Danone, John Lewis, Mars, Philips, Tata Consultancy Services and Unilever.






It can be proven that a well implemented Occupational Health service can offer a good return on investment, finds a new report. A white paper, produced by the Society of Occupational Medicine (SOM), the International SOS Foundation and KU Leuven University, 






More than a third of employees’ waste significant chunks the working day because of difficulties retrieving valuable information, with two-fifths of businesses admitting to having no processes in place to capture, record and retrieve business communications. The research conducted by 3Gem on behalf of TeleWare, claims that 36 percent of employees have wasted a lot of the working day attempting to resolve an issue when they have forgotten valuable information. A similar number (34 percent) explained that forgetting information has led them to deal ineffectively with customers, suppliers or clients. While around a quarter have missed important deadlines (26 percent) or let their colleagues down (25 percent) due to not having the necessary information front of mind. Britain is not doing very well when it comes to workplace productivity. According to the latest G7 productivity analysis from ONS, in terms of output per hour worked, the UK scored 15.1 percent below the average for the rest of the G7 advanced economies.








It should come as little surprise that graduates who have undertaken an internship are more likely to have honed the skills businesses needs, one of the main findings of the Institute of Student Employers (ISE) annual Development Survey, which launches today (28 March 2018) at the ISE Student Development Conference. The report found that 63 percent of employers believed graduates who had undertaken work experience had the required soft skills, yet less than half (48 percent) thought this of graduates in general. According to the report the five most common graduate skills gaps are; managing up (5 percent of employers believed graduates had this skill); dealing with conflict (12 percent); negotiating/influencing (17 percent); commercial awareness (23 percent and resilience (31 percent). This is why closing skills gaps is a priority for businesses with 74 percent of employers taking specific actions to tackle the issue in 2017. Changes to recruitment and on-the-job training were the most common actions and 16 percent of organisations improved their internship development programmes specifically to close skills gaps.

April 9, 2018
How the UK car industry is driving the future of workplace design
by Paul Dunn • Comment, Workplace design
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