March 12, 2019

Workers are pessimistic about employment prospects in post Brexit era

A new report from Personal Group claims that British workers increasingly concerned with Brexit’s potential impact on their employment. The data suggests that with just one month to go, more than a third (34.25 percent) of UK residents believe that Brexit would affect their current employment in a negative way, an increase of nearly 4 percent (+3.82 percent) when compared to survey results from 2018. Only a negligible 3 percent of respondents think that Brexit will positively affect their current employment.

February 27, 2019

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Workplace ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Technology, Workplace, Workplace design

We know, and have for a long time, that the workplace is in a state of near constant flux and so we often fall into the trap of assuming that there is some sort of evolution towards an idealised version of it. That is why we see so many people routinely willing to suspend their critical facilities to make extravagant and even absurd predictions about the office of the future or even the death of the office. This is perniciously faulty thinking. However we can frame a number of workplace related ideas in terms of evolutionary theory, so long as we accept one of the central precepts about evolution. Namely that there is no end game, just types progressing and sometimes dying out along the distinct branches of a complex ecosystem. As a nerdy sort of guy of a certain age, I’ve tended to frame my thoughts on all of this with reference to an idea from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by the great Douglas Adams.

February 13, 2019

Stark levels of stress among small business owners as they struggle to stay solvent

by Sara Bean • News, Wellbeing

Chronic work-related stress has risen sharply among small business owners, with a fifth of small business owners look to taking a job elsewhere to stay afloat this year. This is according to new research from AXA, which reveals that many are adopting short-term planning and cutting reliance on external funding ahead of Brexit. Staying agile and light is a common strategy, but may not give businesses the best chance of survival if financial cushions are not in place too. The study finds a sharp increase in financial anxiety amongst business owners. Over the course of 2018, those reporting they felt chronically stressed about their businesses increased by almost 50 percent, reaching 29 percent by year end. More →

February 11, 2019

Basic income experiment increased wellbeing but did not encourage people to find work

by Mark Eltringham • News

Giving jobless people in Finland a basic income for two years improved their self-perceived wellbeing but did not lead them to find work, researchers have concluded. In the trial, from January 2017 until December 2018, 2,000 unemployed Finns were paid a monthly flat amount of €560. The aim was to see if a guaranteed payment would help people to find jobs and support them in taking on more insecure work. While employment levels did not improve, participants reported to the researchers that they felt happier and less stressed.

February 6, 2019

A robot can do amazing things, but could it hold down a desk job?

by Amy LaViers • AI, Features, Technology

A colleague of mine, a roboticist, recently proclaimed that if one could teleoperate the robot he developed in his lab, it could hold down a desk job. It’s a common sentiment among roboticists that existing mechanical hardware is sufficient to replace humans in many of the tasks by which we earn a living. Rather than the hardware, the last, golden step to having human-like machine counterparts is in the development of appropriate algorithms. But this is wrong. There is in fact little evidence that robots have the mechanical features necessary to hold down a desk job, regardless of the algorithms.

January 29, 2019

Women in work report highlights importance of training and apprenticeships

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

Self-employed women, who earn an average of 16 per cent less than self-employed men, should be supported with greater training and development opportunities, a new report has said. The government should also remove any barriers preventing young women embarking on apprenticeships, according to the report published by the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Women and Work. The report, How to Recruit Women for the 21st Century, is the product of a year’s research by the APPG, which is jointly chaired by MPs Jess Phillips and Gillian Keegan.

December 18, 2018

Government’s new workplace reforms: the world responds

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Workplace

The UK government has introduced what it claims to be the most significant package of workplace reforms for 20 years in response to last year’s Taylor Report on working practices. The Good Work Plan has introduced a range of measures which the Government claims will improve the rights of agency and part time workers and discourage employers from indulging in unwelcome practices. The reforms are intended to stop businesses opting out of equal pay arrangements for agency employees and improve the conditions for gig economy workers generally, for example by giving workers details of their rights from the first day in a job, such as eligibility for sick leave, pay levels, maternity and paternity leave.

December 5, 2018

Government policy is making life increasingly difficult for freelancers

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

Freelancers expect government policy to drive their businesses and the economy into decline over the next year, a report from IPSE (the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed) claims. This quarter, amid widespread speculation about Budget announcements that would harm the self-employed, freelancers’ confidence in their annual business performance dropped nine points, sliding into negative territory. Their confidence in the wider economy – which was already in deep negative territory – fell another two points to near-record lows.

November 28, 2018

Government treading carefully with proposed plans for gig workers

by Neil Tonks • Comment, Flexible working, Legal news

Leaked government plans to protect the working rights of people operating in the gig economy will help to stop unscrupulous employers from exploiting low-paid workers by stamping out false self-employment. But it is questionable whether this goes far enough. More →

October 30, 2018

The workplace world responds to the UK Autumn Budget

by Mark Eltringham • News, Property, Workplace

Yesterday, the Chancellor Philip Hammond announced the details of the UK government’s latest budget. While Brexit and austerity inevitably cast their shadows over the whole thing, there were a number of announcements relevant to the workplace, construction, tech and built environment sectors, some of which have been broadly welcomed by commentators, industry bodies and experts. Some are decidedly less popular. Among the announcements in the budget were new plans for infrastructure and property, skills and training, tax regimes for the self-employed, productivity, business rates and mental health.

October 25, 2018

Female graduates have lower salary expectations than male counterparts

by Sara Bean • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Impostor syndrome is holding female graduates back from earning as much as their male counterparts as new research from Milkround claims that women have lower salary expectations than men, with one third thinking they’ll earn under £20k. Despite a third of graduate’s belief that confidence is the top skill they need to excel in their career, a lack of confidence is holding back more women (41 percent) than men (28 percent). One in three (33 percent) women are worried about low pay and think they’ll earn under £20k in an entry level role, compared to less than a quarter (22 percent) of their male counterparts. More →

October 24, 2018

Commercial property uptake shows finance sector remains committed to London

by Neil Franklin • News, Property

Undeterred by political and economic headwinds in recent years, London remains a world leading financial centre and is by far the most active centre in Europe, according to the latest research from global real estate advisor CBRE. According to the report, 1.1 million people were employed in the UK financial services sector in 2017, of which 34 percent were in London. The industry contributed £119bn to the national economy (7% of UK GDP) – half of this was generated by London, where it accounted for 14 percent of the city’s economic output.