April 1, 2020

Humanscale offers new service of online ergonomic consultations

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Insight promotion

Humanscale, the designer and manufacturer of high performance ergonomic products, has built its business by focusing on the health and wellbeing of workers around the world. In these unprecedented times, where employers and employees are unexpectedly working from home full time, Humanscale’s team of board certified ergonomists is offering a new digital service that provides online ergonomic consultations, to ensure a healthy and comfortable home arrangement. ErgoIQ LIVE is a first-of-its-kind online ergonomic consultation tool that provides online, on-demand access to Humanscale’s skilled network of certified ergonomists. (more…)

March 30, 2020

Employees struggle to adapt to new workplace technology

by Jayne Smith • News, Technology, Working culture

New research by Hays Talent Solutions claims workplace technology has had a significant impact on businesses and organisations when it comes to development, automation and growth; continuing to shake up the modern workplace and workforce in 2020. Paving the way for the change, younger workers are arguably redefining what workers want from their employers, while employees struggle to adapt to a technological workplace. (more…)

March 25, 2020

The good, the bad and the ugly of workplace wellbeing

by Chris Pinner • Comment, Wellbeing

FTSE companies that prioritise wellbeing and engagement outperform others by 10 percent according to a study from SOMA Analytics. Similar results are apparent across a range of related studies. With such a significant impact, it’s surprising that businesses are still not measuring the impact of wellbeing activities to optimise their offering. (more…)

March 20, 2020

Freelancer groups call for emergency fund during Coronavirus crisis

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing

IPSE (the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed), the Creative Industries Federation and other organisations representing freelancers have written an open letter calling on Prime Minister Boris Johnson for a Temporary Income Protection Fund to support the self-employed during the Coronavirus crisis. (more…)

March 20, 2020

How important is it to be happy at work?

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing

How supportive are you of your employees’ wellbeing? New research from CV-Library claims that two-thirds of Brits (61.7 percent) say being happy at work is the most important part of a job, but 87.9 percent feel their employer could do more to improve morale in the workplace.

What’s more, the study, which surveyed 2,300 UK professionals, suggests that Brits think being happy is more important than salary (22.1 percent) and location (15.5 percent) when it comes to work. Interestingly, being happy in their job was also more important for women (66.4 percent) than men (58.7 percent), as well as for 55-64-year olds (66.9 percent) and 45-54-year olds (64.8 percent). (more…)

March 18, 2020

One million young workers set to leave London before turning 33

by Jayne Smith • News, Property

The number of young workers leaving London is on the rise, with net migration away from the capital growing, claims new research from Totaljobs and Professor of Economics at Lancaster University, Geraint Johnes. The new research, taken from analysis of ONS data as well as the views of 2,000 Londoners, suggests that since 2014, more than one million professionals have left London, with just 900,000 coming in. This is a net loss of 88 workers every day, with the biggest shortfall down to workers aged 25-34, the majority (54 percent) of them having given up hope of ever owning property in the capital. There has been a 49 percent increase in outbound migration of those in their 30s over the last five years. (more…)

March 13, 2020

Digital transformation becomes number one skills issue

by Jayne Smith • News, Technology

Organisations across Europe are facing a skills challenge caused by digital transformation, with many struggling to keep pace with learning and development (L&D) needs, claims research from Skillsoft. Carried out in the UK, France and Germany, the research suggests that reskilling in the face of changing and increasingly digital working environments is the biggest single issue for L&D professionals across all three countries (42 percent of respondents on average). (more…)

March 10, 2020

Majority of Brits struggle to make ends meet

by Jayne Smith • News, Working lives

According to the latest survey from CV-Library, the majority of Brits admit that they struggle to make ends meet, but over half are still too scared to ask their employer for a pay rise. The study, which surveyed 2,000 British professionals, claims that 18-24 year-olds are the most likely to struggle financially; with 67.7 percent of respondents in this age group finding it hard to make ends meet. This is closely followed by 66.7 percent of 35-44 year-olds and 60.9 percent of 25-35 year-olds.

What’s more, the survey also suggests that 61.3 percent of Brits feel confident about securing a higher paid role elsewhere. Men were most confident about this (64.4 percent of men vs 57 percent of women), as were 25-34 year olds (65.5 percent) and 18-24 year olds (63.8 percent).

(more…)

March 9, 2020

Out of the shadows – and staying out?

by Neil Usher • Comment

Our understanding of the positive contribution a fantastic workplace can make to the people and organisations that inhabit them has come a long way since the Hawthorne experiments almost a hundred years ago. The conclusions of the study were that the physical workplace was a mere hygiene factor, able to make little difference. Claims to its almost mystical powers we frequently hear today would have been unthinkable for the majority of the century that the workplace spent in the shadows. (more…)

March 6, 2020

CIBSE issues new guidance on wellbeing in buildings

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing

CIBSE has updated its Technical Memorandum 40: Health and wellbeing in building services (paywall), to reflect what it says are “significant changes in the environmental conditions we are exposed to and advances in our knowledge of how these environments affect our health, comfort and cognitive performance.” (more…)

March 3, 2020

Accountants call for IR35 to be scrapped

by Jayne Smith • Business, News

Accountants are wary about the impact that the government’s IR35 off-payroll tax reforms will have on the UK’s contracting industry and would like to see them repealed altogether, a new survey claims. According to research by FreeAgent, an accounting software provider, 95 percent of UK accountants believe that the reforms will have a negative impact on the UK’s contracting industry when they are implemented in April this year and call for them to be scrapped.

• 84 percent call for private sector “off-payroll” reforms to be abolished
• 95 percent believe IR35 will negatively impact UK’s contracting industry (more…)

February 28, 2020

Average worker does nearly £7,000 worth of unpaid overtime a year

by Jackie Le Poidevin • News, Working culture

UK employers claimed £35 billion of free labour last year because of workers doing unpaid overtime, according to an analysis of official statistics published today by the TUC. More than 5 million people put in an average of 7.6 hours a week in unpaid overtime during 2019, it claims. On average, that equates to having £6,828 taken out of individual pay packets. (more…)