Search Results for: skills

Majority of employers fear lack of sufficiently skilled people to meet tech challenges

Majority of employers fear lack of sufficiently skilled people to meet tech challenges 0

by • Legal news, News, Technology, Workplace

Majority of employers fear a lack of skilled staff to meet increased need for talentThree quarters (75 percent) of businesses expect to increase the number of high-skilled roles over the coming years, but 61 percent fear that there will be a lack of sufficiently skilled people to fill them. This is according to the 2017 CBI/Pearson Education and Skills Survey which highlighted that 62 percent see strong competition for candidates with appropriate qualifications as the most widespread cause of skills shortage, followed by a lack of candidates with appropriate qualifications (55 percent). According to the report, while the Brexit debate generates plenty of heat, ‘it’s the white heat of technological change that will mean huge change to the jobs of 2030’. Add that to the obvious question about what skills we’ll need to ‘home grow’ in the absence of free labour movement, and the skills gap is brought into sharper relief argues the report.

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UK remains stuck in stubborn low productivity trap

UK remains stuck in stubborn low productivity trap 0

by • News, Workplace

The persistently low productivity of UK workers has dropped back to pre-financial crisis levels, according to official figures. Hourly output fell 0.5 percent in the first three months of the year, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reports in its latest update. At the end of 2016, productivity returned to the level seen before the 2008 recession. But it has now slipped back again and is 0.4 percent below the peak recorded at the end of 2007, according to the ONS. It was the first quarterly fall in productivity since the end of 2015, according to the ONS. Economists have consistently warned that the UK’s low productivity continues to mean it lags behind its major trading partners such as the US, France and Germany.

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Digital workplace accelerates blurring of lines between IT, HR and finance roles

Digital workplace accelerates blurring of lines between IT, HR and finance roles 0

by • News, Technology, Workplace

To help ‘organisations thrive in a competitive digital marketplace’, Oracle and the MIT Technology Review have released a new study that highlights the importance of collaboration between finance and human resources (HR) teams with a unified cloud. The study, Finance and HR: The Cloud’s New Power Partnership, outlines how a ‘holistic view into finance and HR information’, delivered via cloud technology, empowers organisations to better manage continuous change in the workplace. Based on a global survey of 700 C-level executives and finance, HR, and IT managers, the study claims that a shared finance and HR cloud system is a critical component of successful transformation initiatives.

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Balfour Beatty predicts a human free construction site by 2050

Balfour Beatty predicts a human free construction site by 2050 0

by • AI, News, Property

Balfour Beatty has  published a paper called Innovation 2050: A Digital Future for the Infrastructure Industry, which predicts that the construction site of the future will be in stark contrast to what we see today. Most notably it will be human-free with work moved off-site with remote control of machinery and new materials and techniques exploited to improve cost, safety and efficiency. The report claims that technology has already revolutionised contemporary life to such an extent that it’s not so hard to imagine radical changes for construction not least the emergence of new roles and the requirement and evolution of new skills to support delivery of the future pipeline of construction projects.

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Fourfront Group announces merger of commercial interior businesses

Fourfront Group announces merger of commercial interior businesses 0

by • Company news, Workplace design

Fourfront Group has merged design and fit-out company Area Sq with contractor Cube to create Area, one of the largest workplace design and fit-out firms in the UK. The move comes off-the-back of an 80 percent increase in Group turnover over the last three years. Fourfront Group now consists of three businesses: Area, Sketch Studios which specialises in office furniture and logistics, and 360 Workplace which provides workplace consultancy services. Area’s CEO Gary Chandler, said the merger was agreed to ensure that Fourfront Group “can deliver a single, focused offering to the market, allowing professional teams to engage with one business irrespective of procurement criteria, for the first time. The commercial design and fit-out market is evolving at rapid pace, as professional teams become more prevalent in the procurement of projects, acting on behalf of end-user clients. This bold move of merging two well-recognised brands will enable us to be more agile and aligned to our clients and their diverse requirements. With the creation of Area, we are bringing together expertise, market knowledge and skills to create a platform for delivering excellence.”

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Majority of new managers are unprepared and unable to manage their teams

Majority of new managers are unprepared and unable to manage their teams 0

by • News, Workplace

Businesses across the UK could be experiencing significant losses in productivity because managers are unprepared and unable to manage their teams new research suggests. The research which was carried out by chartered fellow of the CIPD Susan Binnersley MD of development consultancy H2H, found that a majority (77.42 percent) of managers didn’t feel prepared to take on their first management role. Only 21.5 percent of people felt they had the full support of their manager when taking over a team and 69 percent admit they spent the majority of their time not managing their team in their first management role. This gets worse over time with 74 percent saying they now spend majority of their time not managing their team today; 81 percent say this is because they spend a large part of their time doing tasks their team should be responsible for. The majority (72 percent) claim this is because they want to lead by example but more than half (51 percent) admit they feel the task if done quicker if they do it. Managers also admit struggling with delegation, with 35 percent saying the struggled to let go of control, 35 percent saying they didn’t feel they had the resources and 29 percent saying it didn’t feel fair to ask someone to do the task.

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Artificial intelligence could add £232 billion to UK GDP by 2030, claims PwC research

Artificial intelligence could add £232 billion to UK GDP by 2030, claims PwC research 0

by • AI, News, Technology

UK GDP could be around 10 percent higher in 2030 as a result of artificial intelligence (AI) – the equivalent of an additional £232 billion, according to new research by PwC. This makes AI the biggest commercial opportunity in today’s fast-changing economy, according to the report’s authors. The research shows that the majority of the UK’s economic gains over the period to 2030 will come from increasing consumer demand resulting from AI driving a greater choice of products, increased personalisation of those products and making them more affordable over time. Labour productivity improvements will also drive GDP gains, but to a lesser extent. PwC’s research notes that the benefits from labour productivity growth will be felt first, with the increased consumption-led benefits from AI-enhanced products coming through later as more of them come onto the market. As this happens, competition within the AI goods market will increase dramatically, leading to future increases in the value of goods to consumers and therefore the amount people spend on them.

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Digital tech is fastest growing sector in Scotland, claims report

Digital tech is fastest growing sector in Scotland, claims report 0

by • News, Technology

The digital technology sector is forecast to grow twice as fast as the Scottish economy overall in the years to 2024, according to research published by Skills Development Scotland and the Digital Technologies Skills Group. This growth is ‘creating unprecedented demand for digital skills with employers across all sectors seeking to harness the benefits of technology to drive innovation and increase competitiveness’. The new publication, Scotland’s Digital Technologies, found that digital tech was the fastest growing sector of the economy accounting for five percent of Scotland’s total business base and employing two per cent of the national workforce.

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Firms still paying lip service to digital transformation, but change may be coming

Firms still paying lip service to digital transformation, but change may be coming 0

by • News, Technology, Workplace

Britain’s biggest businesses risk being disrupted by the pace of technological change because their senior leaders are paying lip service to the need for digital transformation, according to a study from tech startup AVADO. The study of senior managers responsible for the learning and development (L&D) of staff at Britain’s biggest firms with turnovers of over £100m found that the need for digital transformation is accepted, almost universally, among respondents. 86 percent say they have assessed the business risk of not taking action and 88 percent have taken steps to address this. Yet, despite 93 percent of L&D professionals saying a digital transformation strategy is in place, the report suggests critical top down buy-in is missing. Yet, a second report from recruiters Robert Half suggests that a growing number of firms in the key finance sector are now actively recruiting to improve their digital transformation strategy.

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Report sets out costliest cities for mobile workforce of multinationals

Report sets out costliest cities for mobile workforce of multinationals 0

by • News

In a rapidly changing world, mobility has become a core component of companies’ global talent strategy and as a result, multinational organisations are carefully assessing the cost of packages for their international mobile workforce, claims a new report which sets out the costs of living in the world’s major cities. Mercer’s 23rd annual Cost of Living Survey finds that factors like instability of housing markets and inflation for goods and services contribute to the overall cost of doing business in today’s global environment. Mercer’s 2017 Cost of Living Survey finds Asian and European cities – particularly Hong Kong (2), Tokyo (3), Zurich (4), and Singapore (5) – top the list of most expensive cities for expatriates. The costliest city, driven by cost of goods and security, is Luanda (1), the capital of Angola. Other cities appearing in the top 10 of Mercer’s costliest cities for expatriates are Seoul (6), Geneva (7), Shanghai (8), New York City (9), and Bern (10). The world’s least expensive cities for expatriates, according to Mercer’s survey, are Tunis (209), Bishkek (208), and Skopje (206).

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Lack of digital adoption is the greatest social challenge we face, claims new report

Lack of digital adoption is the greatest social challenge we face, claims new report 0

by • News, Public Sector, Technology

More than 50 percent of organisations claim existing processes are preventing digital adoption, claims a new report from Agilisys, a tech firm focussed on projects in the public sector.  The ‘State of the Digital Nation’ draws on findings from a survey of over 400 individuals from private and public sector organisations, who shared the progress they are making on their ‘digital transformation journeys’. The report, based on the key findings of a survey conducted by online publication Digital by Default News, considers the role of digital inclusion in the adoption of digital public services. The survey revealed that 40 percent of respondents had a clear digital vision and were already well on their way to realising the benefits. The majority (65 percent) of those surveyed considered digital one of their top organisational priorities.

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Businesses sound the alarm over Brexit as negotiations get under way

Businesses sound the alarm over Brexit as negotiations get under way 0

by • News, Workplace

The end of free movement of people from the EU will damage UK businesses and public service delivery unless post Brexit immigration policies take account of the need for both skilled and unskilled labour from the EU. This is a key message in new research from the CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development, and the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR). It also calls on businesses to broaden their recruitment and people development strategies to ensure they are doing all they can to attract and develop UK born workers, and highlights the need for significant changes to Government skills policy. The study joins a growing chorus of business leaders appealing for a rational approach to Brexit negotiations. Britain’s top business lobby groups have already come together to demand open-ended access to the European single market for as long as it takes to seal a final Brexit deal.

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