Search Results for: retention

August 13, 2014

Small business has no problem with flexible working – it’s just sceptical of legislation

by Justin Miller • Comment, Flexible working, Legal news

At the end of July, the UK Government introduced new legislation that allowed any employee with more than six months in a job to apply to their employer for some form of flexible working arrangements. Now, research from Sage claims that a third of small businesses are ignoring the legislation, a fact which might be interpreted as suggesting that the UK’s SMEs are not so keen on the idea. What other data suggests, however, is that they’re probably more likely to offer flexible working than larger firms. This can only mean that it’s the legislation that’s the problem, not the practice. Leaving aside the ten percent of SMEs who the Sage report claimed were unaware of the new rules, this still leaves a large number of smaller businesses open to litigation and industrial tribunals. But, as the Federation of Small Businesses warned ahead of the new law’s introduction, the right to request was always likely to lead to headaches for business owners anyway.

August 4, 2014

Two fifths of workers ignore social media bans – and they’re right

by Mark Eltringham • Legal news, News, Technology, Workplace

We all remember the days, not that long ago, when companies actively discouraged the use of personal technology and social media at work. How quickly things change. Now many firms not only want people to use their own smartphones, they pretend that it was their idea all along by labelling it BYOD. Some even measure their employees’ social engagement and judge them on it. Even those firms who maintain policies to restrict the use of social media may be fighting a losing battle according to new research from Samsung Electronics, which found that British employees are most likely to ignore them. But then again, maybe businesses shouldn’t worry about it because a growing body of research suggests that people who use social media tend to be more collaborative and productive at work.

July 17, 2014

More construction developments required to solve office supply shortage

by Sara Bean • News, Property

The development of new workplaces, shopping centres and industrial facilities is playing an increasingly important role in the UK’s economic recovery, according to the inaugural Commercial Construction Index by JLL and Glenigan. But the report raises concerns that the development of commercial space is still lagging behind the UK’s booming economy. Although the quarterly index reveals that work began on £22.7bn of commercial projects over the 12 months to June 2014, an increase of 6.6 per cent on the previous 12 months, Jon Neale, Head of JLL’s UK Research team warns that: “despite these positive trends, the volume of commercial space being started has not risen substantially since the recession and is still significantly behind the position before the crisis. There is evidence of an increasing supply shortage, particularly in the office market, and the amount of development needs to accelerate if this is not to hamper longer term recovery.” More →

July 16, 2014

Keeping remote employees motivated is key to successful flexible working culture

by Gemma Falconer • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace

Flexible working has barely been out of the news since the latest government changes. But while allowing employees to work remotely can do wonders for staff retention, motivating them and keeping them in the loop presents a new problem. Although self-starting employees feel that they have more control over their work and fewer distractions, it can also lead to a sense of isolation. It is important for retention that you not just offer a flexible working option to employees, but that all the staff make an effort to continue allowing them to feel like a part of the team. The four best practices that will help you motivate employees that telecommute are: ensuring you build trust between those who telecommute and their colleagues from the start; establish regular communication between remote and in-office staff; manage goals, expectations and outcomes and take steps to establish that remote working is made part of the company culture. More →

July 7, 2014

UK’s men and women have significantly different attitudes toward flexible working

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Workplace

As we have seen, the implementation of new flexible working legislation in the UK at the end of June has already shone a spotlight into some intriguing corners of the nation’s workplace. The latest revelation, according to a new survey from recruitment firm Kelly Services, is that men and women have markedly different attitudes towards the idea. While just over half (51 percent)of the UK’s female workers believe that the chance of flexible working would make an organisation a more attractive employer, just over a third of their male counterparts (36 percent) feel the same way. Similarly, a fifth of women surveyed (20 percent) would consider moving job in search of flexible working arrangements compared 15 percent of men and nearly two thirds of women (62 percent) believe their ideal working environment would include flexible working arrangements compared to under half of men (49 percent).

May 28, 2014

Money alone isn’t enough to attract and hold on to Gen Y employees

by Jessica Pryce-Jones • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace

The retention of Gen Y employees is key for all organisations. No organisation wants to invest in their next generation of management only to find that they leave, and someone new needs to be trained. But the 20-30 year old workers of Gen Y exhibit a new-found job mobility. Which makes for a ticking time-bomb of potential cost and disruption to their employers. The iOpener Institute has gathered and studied questionnaire responses from over 30,000 professionals across the world, gaining insights into how employers can retain their Gen Y talent. The research clearly shows that while pay and financial rewards are important to Gen Y (i.e. they are not prepared to be under-paid for their work), there is no significant correlation between increased levels of pay and greater talent retention.

May 23, 2014

Workplace design and management of TMT sector aped by other firms

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, Flexible working, Property, Technology, Workplace design

The publication of a report last week by the British Council for Offices highlights the wider impact of workplace design trends and commercial property arrangements in the increasingly important Technology, Media and Telecoms (TMT) sector. Not least it suggests that they are having a transformational influence on the way firms in other sectors approach leases, workplace design and the changing nature of work. It is no coincidence that the TMT sector is the one most commonly associated with the employment of the much-talked-about Gen Y demographic, nor that the business practices most commonly associated with this overly-stereotyped group are those that are having the greatest influence in the way we design and manage offices.

March 17, 2014

The engaged employee remains as elusive as ever, claims global Deloitte report

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, Knowledge, Technology, Workplace

To describe the truly engaged employee as elusive would be something of an understatement. It seems as if the more firms strive to engage with the people who work for them, the less engaged they become, like somebody responding to the gifts and attention of a needy and increasingly creepy lover. A new study from Deloitte frames the paradox. The Global Human Capital Trends survey of 2,500 organisations from around the world found that as they pursue policies to engage employees, they also exhibit a startling inability to do so. Regardless of what they try, they struggle to attract and retain the right people and are all too dispiritingly aware of their ability to create a compelling and engaging brand. The findings back up those of a worldwide Gallup report published last October which found just one in eight employees feel committed to their jobs and able to make a positive contribution.

March 6, 2014

British employees are most stressed workers in Europe

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Workplace

UK office workers are more affected by stress than their European counterparts, with only 13 per cent of British employees saying they don’t suffer from any stress and deal with their workload well, compared to the European average of 42 per cent. According to new research by recruiters StepStone and totaljobs.com nearly one quarter (24 per cent) of British workers are feeling increased pressure at work. At the other end of the spectrum, the Dutch and the French are the most relaxed, with sixty four per cent of employees in these countries not at all stressed and feeling perfectly able to handle their workload. These disturbing revelations follow recent statistics from the ONS that showed absence related to stress, depression and anxiety accounted for 15.2 million lost days of employment last year, up from 11.8 million in 2010. More →

March 3, 2014

World Green Building Council to quantify productivity benefits of sustainability

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Environment, Facilities management, Property

In an attempt to broaden the business case for sustainable building, the World Green Building Council has launched a new initiative to define the productivity and wellbeing benefits associated with low carbon and sustainable property. The initiative, launched ahead of this week’s Ecobuild conference in London, will be steered by a group of experts who will produce a final report later in the year. The premise of the study is to show that, as well as cutting costs and improving environmental performance, green buildings have a beneficial effect on the health, wellness and productivity of occupants. According to the announcement, around 85 per cent of an average organisation’s costs are associated with salaries and other costs of employment so a modest improvement in productivity can have a huge impact.

December 6, 2013

Businesses missing the potential of property to benefit performance says BCO

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Workplace design

The UK spent an estimated £28.5 billion on offices in 2012 – outstripping business expenditure on legal services (£24.3bn), accounting (£14bn) and insurance services (£23.8bn). Yet despite this, nearly three fifths (57%) of 250 senior executives from large organisations in a recent poll said property issues are not regularly discussed in the boardroom and responsibility for property is still likely to fall outside management teams. The research, carried out by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) and Populus, found businesses take a very cost-centric view towards the workplace. Although almost three-quarters of organisations were constantly analysing and assessing whether their space is being used efficiently, cost was still found to be the most important factor in assessing the office’s performance (73%). More →

December 3, 2013

Majority of businesses acquire employee data; far fewer apply it, claims report

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, News, Workplace

Peter Drucker’s old adage that ‘what gets measured gets managed’ may be a cliché, but it’s endured to become one because there is a lot of truth in it. Now a new report commissioned this year by recruitment consultants Alexander Mann Solutions and the HRO Today Institute has found that firms that use employee data to inform strategic decision making outperform their competitors around 58 percent of the time. Which is great except the survey of HR managers and directors at over 300 companies also found that only a third of businesses use data in this way. This is in spite of the fact that nearly all (90 percent) of companies acquire employee performance data. According to the report, Success: How metrics & measurement correlate with business, nearly a third don’t use the data in any way whatsoever.