Search Results for: skills

BSRIA launches urbanisation megatrends report

BSRIA launches urbanisation megatrends report

by • Cities, Facilities management, News, Property

The Building Services Research and Information Association (BSRIA) has launched a new report called Megatrends – Urbanisation (registration needed) which claims to look at the major forces that are shaping the ‘world in which we live and do business’. The report cites as inspiration a 2015 McKinsey report called No Ordinary Disruption, which examined ‘The Four Global Forces Breaking all the Trends’. The four key trends which McKinsey pointed to as already impacting on almost every society, or will do soon, are urbanisation, an ageing population, globalisation and the technological revolution.  Since 1950 there has been a massive global movement towards urbanisation. In 1950 fewer than 30 per cent of the world’s population lived in urban areas. By 2010 this had reached 50 per cent and by 2050 the share is forecast to exceed two thirds of the world’s population. This represents one of the biggest and fastest human movements in history and the report sets out to explore its implications.

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Culture shift needed to drive a better gender balance in property and construction

Culture shift needed to drive a better gender balance in property and construction

by • Comment, Property

Despite compelling evidence of the bottom line benefits of gender diversity, too many sectors remain stubbornly male dominated. This is certainly the case with the property and construction industry where women still represent only 15 percent of the workforce. The growth of prop-tech, entrepreneurialism amongst women and a growing emphasis on service, demonstrated by the growth of the flexible office and serviced apartment sectors, which tend to have more balanced gender ratios, is helping to address this balance. However, many women in the industry still do not occupy managerial roles, and so the gender pay gap stubbornly remains. For these imbalances to be addressed a cross-industry, cultural shift needs to occur, and individual companies must work to drive change from the top down.

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UK productivity growing at quickest rate for six years

UK productivity growing at quickest rate for six years

by • News

Productivity in Britain is rising at its fastest rate in six years. Output per hour worked rose by 0.9 per cent between July and September of 2017, according to the latest quarterly report from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This was the biggest increase since 2011, when productivity grew by 1 per cent. The UK has a persistent problem with its productivity. Excluding the UK, G7 GDP per hour worked is 18 per cent higher than in Britain, with productivity in the United States 30 per cent higher, France 31 per cent and Germany 36 per cent. High productivity is considered the key to economic prosperity because it allows companies to produce more goods or services with fewer workers or hours worked. This in turn lets companies pay higher wages without having to raise prices. Many theories have been developed to explain the UK’s chronic low productivity, which are summarised by the Financial Times here (subscription or registration needed).

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SMEs employers’ recruitment strategies have altered as a result of Brexit

SMEs employers’ recruitment strategies have altered as a result of Brexit

by • News, Workplace

Half of SMEs (50 percent) questioned in a new survey have changed the way that they recruit their staff as a result of Brexit. The Albion Growth Report 2017 of more than 1,000 SMEs suggests that for businesses which have changed their strategy as a result of Brexit, 15 percent have decreased recruitment resources, 10 percent have begun recruiting in different ways and 9 percent have made redundancies. A difficulty in finding skilled staff is one of the biggest barriers to growth, behind broader political uncertainty and cash flow, which the research claims could lead to a potential war for talent which is likely to become more intense in the post-Brexit environment. By contrast, SMEs view difficulty in finding unskilled staff as the least significant barrier to growth. The report finds that nearly two thirds (65 percent) of SMEs believe their business lacks expertise. More than a quarter (26 percent) of businesses lack marketing talent, followed by business planning (19 percent), IT (17 percent), and software developers and technology specialists (17 percent).  Despite critical skills deficits, only a third of SMEs (33 percent) are currently hiring new employees.

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Automation will impact low paid jobs first because of the living wage, report claims

Automation will impact low paid jobs first because of the living wage, report claims

by • AI, News, Technology

The development of the living wage coupled with the growing automation of tasks could create a perfect storm that prices a growing number of people out of the jobs markets, a report from the Institute of Fiscal Studies claims. The authors suggest that one of the unintended consequences of the increase of the rate to £8.50 by 2020 could be that people in low paid work could find themselves in competition for jobs with robots and artificial intelligence. The report concludes that there will be a tipping point at which human labour becomes economically unviable, although it does not predict when that will occur.

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Poor management driving nearly half of UK workforce to seek a new job

Poor management driving nearly half of UK workforce to seek a new job

by • News, Workplace

Nearly half of the UK workforce (47 percent) will be looking for a new job in 2018, with nearly 1 in 5 people already actively searching for opportunities, according to new research produced by Investors in People (IIP) in their annual Job Exodus Survey 2018. These findings highlight an improvement in satisfaction across the UK job market according to IIP, representing a fall of 12 percent on last year’s figure, where 59 percent of respondents stated the intention to seek a new job. However, despite the reduction in the proportion of those considering a job move, there are still nearly 1 in 4 unhappy workers.

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Hard working females under 35 most likely to join January job exodus

Hard working females under 35 most likely to join January job exodus

by • Flexible working, News, Workplace

Hard working females under 35 most likely to join January job exodus

It probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise to learn that in the annual January ‘job exodus’, junior employees under the age of 35 years are most likely to leave their current roles, according to new research. However the Qualtrics Employee Pulse – a quarterly survey of more than 4,000 workers – shows that employees that pose the greatest flight risk are most likely to be female, think about work outside of contracted hours, and regularly checking emails on weekends. Of most use to employers, utilising its Experience Management Platform, Qualtrics has identified the top three drivers that will help encourage employees to stay in their jobs in the long-term. These are supporting a work-life balance, allowing employees to try out new tasks and skills in their existing role and ensuring managers are proactive in helping to solve problems or concerns in the workplace.

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We need to stop talking about self-employment as a monocultural phenomenon

We need to stop talking about self-employment as a monocultural phenomenon

by • Comment, Flexible working

Self-employment has grown considerably in the UK over the past 15 years, now totalling around 4.8 million workers, or 15 per cent of the workforce. There is a debate about the extent to which this growth in self-employment is a positive development: some believe that it is a positive feature of an entrepreneurial and flexible economy, while others fear that it is increasing levels of precariousness. This is a difficult issue to address as there is great heterogeneity among the self-employed workforce. In order to shed light on this, IES undertook research for the Centre for Research on Self-Employment (CRSE) to divide the self-employed workforce into segments. The policy debate on self-employment has often been carried out on the assumption that there is some homogeneity among the self-employed workforce. However, this is far from the case, and it could be argued that diversity is increasing due to the growth of the so-called gig economy. In order to help clarify the debate, IES undertook research for the CRSE that aimed to achieve greater clarity in terms of the size and nature of the different segments of the self-employed workforce. The aim is that if the sector is better segmented, this will help policymakers to avoid taking a broad-brush approach to the treatment of self-employed workers.

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Commercial property is undergoing tech disruption, but not as some believe

by • Comment, Facilities management, Property, Technology

According to a recent report, executives in the commercial property sector have significant reservations about emerging disruptive technologies such as Big Data and predictive analytics, augmented and virtual reality, Blockchain and driverless vehicles, but see huge potential for process automation. Disruption is a strong word.  It conjures up apocalyptic images and radical interventions leaving unrecognisable outcomes in its wake. Big terms like artificial intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT) and big data bring equally big expectations.  For those of us at ground level, it’s hard to see the cumulative impacts of the many changes taking place around us.  It’s also hard not to share the same view expressed above. Future-gazing is nice to a point, but board level conversations like to take signposts from what is actually happening around them as well, and the commercial property sector is no exception. This sector is undergoing profound disruption but not necessarily from Silicon Valley’s headline grabbers.

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CIPD predicts tighter labour market and continued poor productivity next year

by • Legal news, News, Workplace

 

There is little evidence that the pay squeeze will end soon, with only falling inflation likely to lead to meaningful wage increases next year. This is according to a CIPD analysis, which predicts that 2018 will see pay, productivity and migration top the agenda as the UK looks ahead to its exit from the European Union. It adds that the UK workforce could tighten, and with increased constraints on labour supply, 2018 could be the year that the UK finally runs out of people to fill jobs, despite unemployment levels being unlikely to see much change. There are also indications there will be no improvement in productivity, with continued stagnation in UK productivity, which will remain well below pre-crash levels. In the CIPD’s annual labour market predictions, Ian Brinkley, Acting Chief Economist, anticipates a flattening of employment growth and weak pay growth as the UK continues to struggle with its productivity problem.

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Employers want to grow workforce next year, but concerned about Brexit impact

by • Flexible working, Legal news, News, Workplace

Just over half (51 percent) of firms across the UK will grow their workforce in the year ahead, with confidence highest amongst small and mid-sized firms (58 percent) according to the latest CBI/Pertemps Network Group Employment Trends Survey. But the survey warns that delivering further jobs growth depends on businesses being confident they can remain competitive if they choose to base staff in the UK. Nearly two thirds (63 percent) currently believe that changes in the UK labour market will contribute to Britain becoming a less attractive place to invest and do business over the next five years – up from 50 percent last year and 25 percent in 2015. Skills gaps were the single most prominent worry facing firms, with nearly four in five (79 percent) respondents highlighting this as a worry – up from 64 percent in 2016. Access to overseas workers is a big contributor to this, with nearly half of respondents (49 percent) identifying uncertain access to labour supply – up from 35 percent in 2016 as a concern.

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One in three UK workers unhappy at work and a quarter plan career change

by • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

The majority (72 percent) of employees in the UK go to work just to afford to live rather than for job satisfaction and one in four are considering a career change in 2018, claims a new survey. According to  research conducted by Paymentsense, over half of those questioned say money is their biggest motivation, 67 percent say their degree went to waste and they work in an unrelated role, and 25 percent are considering a whole career change in 2018. According to the 2,000 UK participants in the survey, a career peak occurs at 42 years old, which is when you start to lose passion for your work. At this age, opportunities to progress seem to be rare which is why when asking those in their 40’s ‘why do you go to work every day’?  76 percent say to be able to afford to live. 51 percent say they need to just pay the mortgage and 57 percent have responsibilities to support the family.

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