December 18, 2018
Only small number of workers happy with their office temperature
Just 16 percent of workers are satisfied with the temperature of their office, while a majority (89 percent) claim they lose productivity if the temperature isn’t quite right, new research suggests. Nearly half (46 percent) experiencing cold office temperatures say this makes them the most unproductive, according to research by Workthere. Only 8 percent of those based in coworking and shared workspace and 10 percent of staff in leased workspace, believe that their office is always the right temperature, while just 3 percent of respondents revealed they have a separate space to work in if they’re too hot or cold. It seems that keeping warm is the biggest challenge for British office workers with 47 percent admitting to wearing additional layers at their desk and 37 percent often making themselves a hot drink to fight the office chill. A surprising 17 percent of respondents even admitted to bringing in a personal heater to warm up which is a worry for employers, given that it costs £3.43 on average to run a 3 kilowatt heater for eight hours.
All the chatter around the growth of flexible working might suggest it has now become the norm, but an academic paper refutes that view by revealing a third of all UK workers believe those who work flexibly create more work for others. A similar proportion believe their career will suffer if they use flexible working arrangements. This is the main finding from Dr Heejung Chung from the University of Kent who set out to analyse data from the 2011 Work-Life Balance Survey conducted by the government. Specifically, she wanted to examine whether stigma against flexible workers exists, who is most likely to hold such beliefs and who is most likely to suffer from it. The research also found that the majority of respondents that held negative views against flexible workers were male, while women and especially mothers were the ones who were most likely to suffer from such stereotypes.
Fifty percent of UK employees feel their employers don’t understand them or their potential – higher than the European average of 46 percent according to a study of over 2,000 workers across the UK, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands from ADP. The research found that 40 percent of UK workers are unhappy with the quality of leadership, with only France reporting slightly higher figures, where 52 percent saying they feel misunderstood by their employer. This was followed closely by Italy (48 percent) and Germany (46 percent), while the Netherlands reported the most positive results with only a third stating such feelings (35 percent). However, UK and European employees are more likely to feel their direct reports understand them better, with 61 percent reporting that their managers know and support them, and want to see them succeed. This shows that those working more closely together enjoy better relationships, which in turn is likely to lead to better quality of work and greater productivity. The lesson for businesses is that close relations between all staff, regardless of seniority, matter.
December 13, 2018
Flexible working should not mean employers ask people to work all the time
by Oliver Shaw • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing
Talking about the role of technology within the flexible working arena is hardly ground-breaking. For decades, technological advancements have been hailed as pivotal to developments within the employment landscape. But this year, conversation appears to have reached another level. In an article for Open Access Government in June 2018, for instance, Richard Morris, UK CEO of International Workplace Group (IWG), explained the extent to which technology-driven shifts have caused significant social change. And in September, HR headlines homed in on a study by Capita and Citrix, which stressed that an inability to quickly introduce new IT services is restricting organisations’ flexibility proposition, and consequently their competitiveness.
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