Search Results for: security

October 10, 2015

UK’s best workplace? + Apple’s new office + Design and happiness ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, Newsletter, Technology, Wellbeing, Workplace, Workplace design

In this week’s issue; Mark Eltringham says Jeremy Hunt’s views on the UK’s need to work longer hours does not make practical sense and explains why workplace design isn’t the only way to engage people. The Civic Centre & One Stop Shop in Keynsham, near Bath wins ‘Best of the Best workplace in the country’ in the BCO awards; Apple plans to add another tech palace alongside its Norman Foster designed campus in California; and a new survey finds that companies are rethinking the tools they use to keep employees loyal. Employers admit to an ad hoc approach to flexible working practices; millennials prefer value accelerated career paths and diversity over job security; and we preview a new Technology and Trends event. Visit our new events page, subscribe for free quarterly issues of Work&Place and weekly news here. And follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn Group to discuss these and other stories.

September 30, 2015

Human error remains the leading cause of data loss for UK organisations ⁰

by Neil Franklin • News, Technology

New research suggests that human error is still the leading cause of data loss for UK organisations. According to the study from technology security firm Databarracks, based on responses from 400 IT decision makers, around a quarter (24 percent) of organisations admitted to a data loss caused by a mistake by employees over the last twelve months. Other high-scoring causes of data loss included hardware failure (21 percent) and data corruption (19 percent). Perhaps surprisingly, only a little over half of respondents (55 percent) had a specific disaster recovery plan in place and another 15 percent intended to create one over the next twelve months. This is in spite of the fact that a quarter (25 percent) of those surveyed admitted they had been subject to a cyber attack in the preceding year. As we reported this week, such attacks now cost the UK some £200 billion each year.

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September 29, 2015

Cyber attacks cost global businesses over £200bn a year ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Technology

Ashley Madison and Sony are the high profile victims of cyber-hacking, but with hacks becoming more prevalent, nearly half of firms are putting themselves in the firing line by having no comprehensive strategy to prevent digital crime, the latest Grant Thornton International Business Report (IBR) has warned. It says the total cost of cyber-attacks globally are estimated to be more than £200bn (US$315bn*) over the past 12 months and more than one in six businesses have faced a cyber attack in the past year. The UK government has classified cyber security as one of the four top threats to the UK, alongside natural disasters, international terrorism and military invasion. The global survey of 2,500 business leaders in 35 economies found that 15 percent of businesses have faced a cyber attack in the past year, with businesses in the EU (19 percent) and North America (18 percent) the most heavily targeted.

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September 24, 2015

Unhelpful generalisations about generations based on hype, claims report ⁰

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

For the first time, the age span of people in any workplace is now routinely between 16 and 75, as more people work past 60 than ever before. This means the UK is experiencing the widest working demographic in living memory. Yet generalisations about generations may simply be unhelpful, a new study into employee benefits has concluded. The report by Martha How, reward partner at Aon suggests a trend towards generational segmentation is much too simplistic and not necessarily supportive of employees or employer’s needs. She argues that the common view that we now have five generations in the workforce, each with differing needs and preferences are being overplayed. In fact, there is often too much of a tendency drift into caricature – for example, that twenty-somethings aren’t interested in pensions, while fifty-somethings worry mainly about pension and health.

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September 9, 2015

Wellness policies often ignore the role of the workplace environment ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • News, Wellbeing, Workplace design

A new meta analysis compiled by researchers from Harvard Business School and Stanford University raises questions about the way Government and organisational policies designed to tackle the problems of work related health costs in the United States have largely ignored the health effects of ‘psychosocial workplace stressors’ such as high job demands, economic insecurity, and long work hours. The analysis of 228 existing studies assessed the effects of ten workplace stressors on four specific health outcomes. The researchers claims that job insecurity increases the odds of reporting poor health by about 50 percent, high job demands raise the odds of having a diagnosed illness by 35 percent, and long work hours increase mortality by almost 20 percent. They argue that any policies designed to address these issues should account for the health effects of the workplace environment.

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August 5, 2015

Proofs of the link between workplace design and productivity? Here are three

by Charles Marks • Case studies, Facilities management, News, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Three new studies have joined the already extensive body of work linking workplace design and productivity. The most extensive is the research carried out by communications consultancy Lansons which looks at every aspect of the British workplace to uncover the experiences and most commonly held perceptions of around 4,500 workers nationwide. The study is broken down into a number of sections which examine topics such as workplace design, wellbeing, job satisfaction, personal development and leadership. The second is a study from the Property Directors Forum which explores the experiences of occupiers and finds a shift in focus away from cost reduction and towards investing to foster employee productivity. The final showcases the results of a post occupancy survey conducted by National Grid following the refurbishment of the firm’s Warwick headquarters by AECOM.

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July 23, 2015

Autonomous workers put in a day extra each week, claims new research

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, Knowledge, News, Workplace, Workplace design

One of the usual arguments against offering people greater autonomy over where and how they work is a lack of control and a consequent lack of effort from employees. However new evidence published by German researchers suggests what actually happens is the opposite. When the employer relinquishes control, people work more. The paper, from researchers in Berlin based on an eight year study, found that people who enjoy ‘full and unrecorded’ autonomy over how they manage their work put in an extra seven hours each week. Interestingly, even those with fixed hours give their employers an extra two hours weekly, but the report suggests there is a clear correlation between personal autonomy and hours worked. Other factors that influence hours worked include seniority, job security, satisfaction and tenure. Taken together these account for nearly two hours of extra work each week.

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July 22, 2015

OECD nations need to urgently address the coming digital workplace

by Mark Eltringham • News, Technology, Workplace, Workplace design

There is now an urgent need for the world’s growing number of digital economies to shift their focus to how they help people to manage their own transition to a new form of digital workplace. That is the main conclusion of a new report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The OECD Digital Economy Outlook 2015 claims that while most countries have moved from a narrow focus on communications technology to a broader digital approach, they now need to address the significant and growing risk of disruption in areas like privacy and jobs. The report – which covers areas from broadband penetration and industry consolidation to network neutrality and cloud computing in OECD countries says more should be done to offer information and communication technology (ICT) skills training to help people transition to new types of digital jobs.

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July 16, 2015

Women are less assertive in asking for a pay rise than men

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, Legal news, News, Workplace

There has been much focus on gender pay this week with the announcement that larger companies will be forced to disclose pay rates. Now a new poll suggests another reason why women’s pay lags over their career, a lack of assertiveness. A report commissioned by Glassdoor found that only a quarter of UK women (27 percent) feel confident they will receive a pay rise within the next 12 months, compared to 40 percent of men. Women are also less likely to leave a job because of low salary than men – 30 percent of women said that low salary had been the major factor behind them moving on from jobs in the past, compared to 39 percent of men. The Glassdoor UK Employment Confidence Survey, conducted online by Harris Interactive, monitors four key indicators of employee confidence: job security, salary expectations, job market optimism/re-hire probability and business outlook optimism.

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July 15, 2015

One in five Brits distrustful of adopting wearable technology at work

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Technology, Workplace

Almost a fifth (18 percent) of European employees already have access to some form of wearable technology, but British workers are most worried about the privacy implications. According to research by ADP wearables such as augmented reality headsets, biometric identification and holographic video conferencing tools will create opportunity for businesses to improve productivity, connectivity and security. Yet more than half (52 percent) of employees are concerned about the amount of personal data employers can access via wearable technology, with attitudes towards privacy varying between countries. While as many as 60 percent of German employees express reservations, only 36 percent of Dutch employees feel this way. Overall, UK workers are the most hesitant, with as many as one in five (20 percent) saying that they would not use wearables at all, compared to 10 percent in France, and 8 percent in Germany and the Netherlands.

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July 13, 2015

Free Wi-Fi for agile workers is not quite as free as you’d like to think

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Technology

One of the underlying drivers of agile working is supposedly the availability of ubiquitous free Wi-Fi. Yet according to new research, free Internet access may cost quite a bit more than firms might think. The study from Rethink Technology Research, Enterprise Apps Tech and iPass claims that North American and European business travellers spent at least £855 million in connectivity charges while on the road last year. The report, based on data from around 78 million business trips, includes the costs of 3G and 4G roaming data and paid Wi-FI connections that would have been cheaper of paid for in advance. The report is particularly critical of the practice of offering business users free Wi-FI with deliberately slow connection speeds to encourage them to pay for faster connections. It also highlights the well publicised problems of data security.

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July 10, 2015

UK Government abandons zero carbon buildings pledges

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

The UK Government has today announced that it is to abandon its plans to introduce zero carbon buildings, including homes in 2016 and zero carbon commercial buildings in 2019. As part of a range of planning measures officially announced by the Treasury, it has been confirmed that the government ‘does not intend to proceed with the zero carbon Allowable Solutions carbon offsetting scheme, or the proposed 2016 increase in on-site energy efficiency standards’. Officials from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) have also separately confirmed that the zero carbon policy for non-domestic buildings will also be discarded as part of the new changes. The move has already been heavily criticised by the UK Green Building Council and senior figures in the construction sector, who are dismayed at the move by a Government that once claimed it was to be the UK’s ‘greenest ever’.