Search Results for: relationships

December 7, 2017

Flexible hours best way for employers to reduce staff stress Christmas lead up

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Over 50 percent of respondents to a recent survey want their bosses to offer more flexible hours in the weeks leading up to Christmas to help them deal with the stress of the season, while a significant minority do not want to attend their office Christmas party and see little value in building friendships with colleagues from such events. These are the key findings from the latest survey conducted over the past month by Peldon Rose which claims that 54 percent of people feel stressed in the lead up to the holidays. Yet, while many employers off the typical well-intentioned holiday benefits, such as Christmas parties, office decorations, team outings and lunches, what employees really value are perks that have a direct impact on improving their workload and allowing them to work in a more relaxed manner at this very busy time of the year, such as more flexible hours, finishing early on agreed days and a dress down code.

December 5, 2017

How do you really go about creating a great place to work?

by Jo Sutherland • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design

The topic of workplace wellbeing is becoming increasingly prevalent. And for good reason. In the UK, 45 million working days are lost due to stress, anxiety and depression and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) Absence Management survey reveals that over two fifths of organisations have seen an increase in reported mental health problems over the last year. What’s more, a recent government report found that up to 300,000 people leave their jobs each year due to mental health-related issues. Last month, Symposium hosted the “Workplace Wellness & Stress Forum 2017”, back for its twelfth year, to help employers step up and tackle the greatest inhibitor of growth, innovation and creativity – stress. Medical professionals have their definition of “stress”, health and safety execs have theirs, and the academic community promulgate another. Forum host Neil Shah, chief de-stressing officer of The Stress Management Society, offered a definition that resonated with the entire audience: “where demand placed on an individual exceeds their resources”.

December 1, 2017

Employee engagement only captures a small part of what ‘work’ means

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Workplace

The biggest driver of a positive employee experience at work is ‘meaningful’ work, claims a new survey. According to the findings of the latest edition of ‘The Employee Experience Index around the Globe’ survey from Globoforce’s WorkHuman Research Institute in partnership with IBM’s Smarter Workforce Institute – in the UK, meaningful work emerged as the single largest contributor (30 percent) 3 points above the global average. Meaningful work ensures that employees’ skills and talents are being fully utilized and there is greater alignment to shared, core values. The survey also notes a shift away from employee engagement, which only captures a small portion what ‘work’ means, towards employee experience. Experience is seen as being broader and more holistic – capturing the entire set of perceptions that employees have about their experiences at work, matching the higher expectations that employees bring to the workplace.

November 21, 2017

The missing LINC between the office and the future of work

by Mark Eltringham • Features, Flexible working, Technology, Workplace design

There is a theory that if you want to know how the economy is doing, you ask a taxi driver. The basis for this idea is that they are the first to know when money is getting tight, because people make more use of buses and tubes. In a similar way, one of the best ways of gauging workplace trends is to ask an office furniture company. They’ve always functioned in a fiercely competitive market, but are also the first to notice an economic downturn or a shift in the structure of their markets.

November 17, 2017

Businesses exploring potential of AI to improve customer experience and the bottom line

by Neil Franklin • News, Technology

Despite the growing interest in the potential of artificial intelligence, there is a sense of confusion amongst business leaders about how it is being used and how to take advantage of its potential. Independent research from SAS claims that while nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of business leaders are convinced AI can generate value for their business, nearly half (46 percent) are being held back by concerns around AI still being in its infancy. Nearly a third (30 percent) of companies are not sure if they are ready for the technology, citing concerns over a lack of required skills (66 percent), ROI (55 percent) and fears over stories of AI malfunctioning (38 percent). Many also expressed reservations over the cost of solutions (39 percent) and lack of trust in the technology (36 percent), reinforcing fears that AI would not deliver sufficient ROI.

November 16, 2017

Research details how staff satisfaction affects company performance

by Mark Eltringham • News, Workplace

Companies with high levels of staff satisfaction perform better financially, according to new research from the University of East Anglia (UEA) published in the journal Economics Letters. The study examined the effect of staff satisfaction on corporate performance using employees’ online reviews of where they work. Writing in the journal Economic Letters, the researchers from Norwich Business School say that firms rated highly by their current employees in terms of satisfaction achieve greater financial performance compared to firms characterised by low levels of employee satisfaction. More →

November 15, 2017

The contribution of personality to the performance of agile workers

by John Eary • Features, Flexible working

The introduction of agile working into organisations has typically focussed on the workstyles of different job roles, but has tended to treat the jobholders within these groups in the same way. The successful introduction of new ways of working clearly relies on the willingness of the people occupying the job roles to embrace new ways of working; yet there has been little investigation of the needs of agile workers with different personality types beyond looking at the needs of extroverts and introverts. These studies have tended to focus on the workplace; for example, the Cushman Wakefield Workplace Programme briefing paper examines how organisations can accommodate the needs of extroverts and introverts working together in the workplace. However, using OCEAN personality profiles, Nigel Oseland found that different personality types have different preferences, which in turn are likely to affect their performance at work.

November 9, 2017

Review: ushering in a new era for the coworking phenomenon ⁰

by Paul Carder • Comment, Coworking, Technology, Work&Place, Workplace design

Ramon Suarez has produced a very practical book, based on his own experience as one of the pioneers of coworking. And let’s be clear – it is coworking (not “co-working”; there is no hyphen), as Suarez explains, “a coworker (a member of a coworking space) is not the same as a co-worker (somebody who happens to work for the same company or in your same office)”. On his business card, Suarez describes his role as “Serendipity Accelerator”- you will understand that if you read the book. Suarez differentiates coworking from its many (and mostly false) aliases. Shared offices may be collaborative, but do not provide the network of people found in a good coworking space. Networked offices, where more than one company shares space and may collaborate, “come close” to coworking. Hacker & Maker spaces, Accelerators, Incubators and Cafes are similarly differentiated.

November 7, 2017

Over half of remote workers say their colleagues don’t treat them equally

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Technology, Workplace

Over half (52 percent) of people who work remotely feel their colleagues don’t treat them equally, claims a new study. Working remotely has become a highly sought-after job perk and having the flexibility to live and work where you please, regardless of corporate headquarters, often draws people to take one job over another. But a survey from VitalSmarts produced by David Maxfield and Joseph Grenny, authors of the bestsellers Crucial conversations and Crucial Accountability, found that remote employees have a significantly harder time with a number of workplace challenges than their onsite colleagues. 67 percent of remote employees complained that colleagues didn’t fight for their priorities compared 59 percent of onsite employees. 41 percent of remote employees believed colleagues say bad things about them behind their back compared to 31 percent of onsite employees and 64 percent of remote employees had changes made to a project without warning vs. 58 percent of onsite employees. Over a third (35 percent) of remote employees thought colleagues were lobbying against them vs. 26 percent of onsite employees.

November 6, 2017

One in four retired Britons return to work within 15 years, research shows

by Mark Eltringham • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Around one in four retirees in the UK return to work or ‘unretire’, mostly within five years of retiring, according to research by The University of Manchester and King’s College London. The researchers have found that while ‘unretirement’ is common, men are more likely to unretire than women, as are people in good health, those who are better educated and those still paying off a mortgage. People who report having financial problems before retiring are not more likely to unretire than those without, nor are those with lower incomes. After ten years, a retiree’s chances of returning to paid work are low. The research concludes that recently retired people, aged both above and below the state pension age, represent a pool of potential labour, if the right opportunity presents itself. They are a group that should not be forgotten by policies aiming to keep older people in work, say the researchers.

November 1, 2017

Division of workplace hierarchy on impact of office design and flexible working

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Workplace, Workplace design

There is a divide in the importance placed on the office environment among different levels of the UK workforce, with new research suggesting C-Suite executives do not fully appreciate the factors that keep employees happiest at work and the impact that the office environment has on their employees’ productivity and wellbeing. According to the new research by Peldon Rose and are happier and work most productive in the office, 88 percent of middle management and 84 percent of junior employees say they always or sometimes enjoy coming to work every day compared to 76 percent of C-Suite executives. In addition, junior and middle management employees are more inclined to work in the office, with 62 percent and 63 percent, respectively, saying they prefer to work in the office over at home (29 percent, 30 percent) compared to C-Suite who prefer to work at home (40 percent) rather than the office (24 percent). As a result, just a quarter of junior employees believe their office has a culture that allows them to work flexibly compared to nearly half of C-Suite.

October 23, 2017

An environmental psychology perspective on workplace design

by Nigel Oseland • Facilities management, Features, News, Wellbeing, Workplace design

I recently had the pleasure of travelling to Cape Town to present a keynote address at the Dare to Lead conference organised by Green Building Council South Africa (GBCSA). I had just 20 minutes to speak on a psychologist’s view of health, wellbeing and performance; that’s a huge subject area and pretty much my whole career condensed down to the typical time it takes to boil a pan of potatoes. So, I focused on just three psychological theories: motivation, personality and evolutionary psychology.