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July 28, 2017

Men and women report similar work life balance problems

Contrary to commonly held perceptions and media narratives, women and men report similar levels of work-family conflicts, both in the form of work interfering with family and family interfering with work, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. The study found men are less likely to complain about or address the issue however. Researchers spent several years examining the findings from more than 350 studies conducted over three decades that included more than 250,000 participants from across the world. The results were surprising, said lead researcher Kristen Shockley, PhD, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Georgia. The research was published online in the Journal of Applied Psychology.

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June 23, 2017

Neuroscience: the next great source of competitive advantage ⁰

by Beatriz Arantes • Facilities management, Features, Knowledge, Premium Content, Work&Place, Workplace design

The average worker is interrupted or distracted every three minutes and it takes them fully twenty-three minutes to return to a task after being interrupted. Office workers are overwhelmed by distractions, due mainly to a lack of understanding of how to manage attention. Distractions and the inability to focus negatively affects productivity, engagement, wellbeing and overall performance in organisations. We long to be more effective, but the harder we try, the more tired our brains become. Attention meltdowns are epidemic because workers do not understand what attention is, how to manage it or have access to the best places to support their tasks. In workplaces throughout the world scenarios of near constant distraction have become the norm, to such an extent that often people do not even feel compelled to comment on them and their consequences.

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June 12, 2017

What will the UK General Election mean for the workplace? Some experts respond ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Comment, Flexible working, Property, Workplace, Workplace design

Any residual feelings of certainty that anybody in the UK may have had about the country’s future following last year’s Brexit vote, will have had them pretty much eradicated by last Thursday’s General Election result. However, we must try to make sense of things for society and the wider economy as well as specific facets of it, such as the world of work. The whole thing looks like the pig’s ear that it is, of course. Fortunately, as some experts have already argued, there are some reasons to see some positive outcomes, including a soft (or softer) Brexit and the chance of a more positive approach to workplace rights, now that the Government needs to maintain a broader consensus. The fear or hope that the UK would lighten its already soft touch approach to workplace legislation would seem at least to be less well founded.

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May 23, 2017

British Council for Offices launches competition to imagine the office of 2035 ⁰

by Neil Franklin • News, Property, Workplace design

Participants in a new competition to define the ‘office of the future’ will be asked to consider ‘what it will look like, and how it will support the way we will work’ by the British Council for Offices (BCO). The free-to-enter competition is seeking ‘forward-thinking and innovative responses, challenging the conventionalities of today’s workplaces and anticipating future needs’. The BCO hopes that the NextGen programme will allow it to ‘mentor the next generation of professionals – designers, agents, developers, consultants and others – and provides a platform for emerging talent to share their ideas’. The announcement cites social, economic, cultural and technological factors as the main agents of change, leading to changes in the expectations of employers and workers. It suggests that ‘ubiquitous and instantaneous technology; a growing interest in health and wellbeing; a greater desire for organisational flexibility; and an increased awareness of individual’s needs are now all competing factors within the workplace’.

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March 28, 2017

Post Brexit UK sets out its case at MIPIM 2017 ⁰

by Anna King • Cities, Features, Property

Cannes-based international real estate fair MIPIM has always been a magnet for cities, determined to extoll their virtues to investors, developers and occupiers, but this year the UK was in charm overdrive. Buoyed no doubt in part by the presence of the UK government’s Department of International Trade (DIT), waving its ‘open for business’ flag for UK PLC, many of the towns and cities that would normally have ploughed their own furrow, instead came together to leverage critical mass. So Bradford and Leeds combined, conurbations across the central belt conjoined on a Midlands pavilion, and so on. Whether it was panic or confidence, the net result was an unusually prominent UK presence, up a quarter on last year. Of course the UK is just one nationality among the 24,200 real estate and city professionals from 100 countries who come together in Cannes every March.

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March 14, 2017

RSA report sets out nationwide strategy for inclusive growth ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Cities, News, Podcasts, Premium Content, Property

The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) has published the final report from its Inclusive Growth Commission. The report sets out a series of recommendations which it claims will address the lack of an inclusive approach to the economy. In the context of Brexit, this is one of the underlying drivers of dissatisfaction with the way the UK is run by central and local government, the report claims, and hence a factor in the Brexit vote. Its forward looking proposals include a greater commitment to lifelong learning, a greater focus on place to ensure the UK’s cities and regions get a greater stake in the national economy. As well as the main report, its conclusions and proposals are discussed in a podcast.

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March 9, 2017

What the budget meant for the workplace; experts have their say ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Property, Technology

As has been the case with recent UK Government Budget announcements, Chancellor Philip Hammond’s first Budget addressed a number of issues related to the workplace, technology and infrastructure. It was the first Budget delivered in the post Brexit era and this clearly informed many of the announcements made. While most of the headlines over the past 24 hours have related to the changes to the tax status of the self-employed as a way of raising around £2 billion, the announcements also covered a broad range of topics related to the workplace, HR, technology and property sectors and have drawn an immediate response from key figures in the sector. These include nearly half a billion pounds relief on the vexed question of business rates reforms, a new focus on technical qualifications and a greater investment in 5G and other forms of digital infrastructure. We’ll be having our own say about the implications of the Budget in the near future, but in the meantime, here’s a rundown of the key announcements and the reaction of industry experts.

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February 14, 2017

More people will have smartphones than running water or bank accounts by 2021, claims report ⁰

by Neil Franklin • News, Technology

By 2021, more members of the global population will be using mobile phones (5.5 billion) than bank accounts (5.4 billion), running water (5.3 billion), or landlines (2.9 billion), according to the 11th annual Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast for 2016 to 2021. Strong growth in mobile users, smartphones and Internet of Things connections as well as network speed improvements and mobile video consumption are projected to increase mobile data traffic seven-fold over the next five years.

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December 15, 2016

KPMG first UK firm to publish socio-economic make-up and diversity of staff ⁰

by Sara Bean • Company news, Legal news, News, Workplace

The first business in the UK has published detailed workforce data outlining the socio-economic make-up of the firm as a way of understanding its workforce diversity. KPMG has published data, which measures employees’ parental occupation and education and the type of school employees attended along with graduate and school leaver socio-economic data from the past three years. It reveals that the vast majority of the workforce – 74 percent of respondents – received a state school education: 60 percent attended a non-selective state school and 14 percent attended a selective state school, with 23 percent receiving private education. Additional detail on parental education shows that 48 percent have a parent or guardian with a university degree, while 43 percent do not. On parental occupation, 58 percent have parents in a higher managerial, administrative and professional occupation, 16 percent have parents employed in a manual occupation and 11 percent have parents in intermediate occupations. KPMG is the first business in the UK to share details of the parental occupation of its workforce, which is recognised by social mobility experts as a strong indicator of socio-economic background.

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November 15, 2016

‘Western’ millennials rate sense of purpose most important job criterion ⁰

by Sara Bean • News, Technology, Workplace

A sense of purpose remains the top priority among ‘Western’ millennials from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and France; but in the largest emerging economies, including China and India, salary and career advancement remain the most important job criteria, according to the Global Shapers Annual Survey for 2016. While the US, UK and Canada lead the list among young people who would like to live abroad to advance their careers, the United Arab Emirates and China are the most preferred emerging-market countries, the survey from the World Economic Forum survey claims. They came in at 11th and 12th place, respectively, ahead of the Scandinavian countries, all other BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries and Singapore. One reason for the strong performance of the UAE may be the good prospects for landing a job in the country. While 34 percent of millennials globally identified the lack of economic opportunity and employment as one of the three most serious issues affecting their country – making it the biggest issue of concern after corruption –only one in 10 of the UAE respondents said they see unemployment as a serious issue.

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October 24, 2016

Gartner report identifies the Top 10 strategic technology trends for 2017 ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • News, Technology

A new report from tech analysts Gartner highlights the top technology trends the firm believes will be ‘strategic for most organisations in 2017’. Gartner defines a strategic technology trend as one with substantial disruptive potential that is just beginning to break out of an emerging state into broader impact and use or which are rapidly growing trends with a high degree of volatility reaching tipping points over the next five years. They include artificial intelligence, blockchain, intelligent devices, digital technology platforms and advanced machine learning.

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October 13, 2016

Design is the top factor when it comes to workplace happiness, claims study ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • News

New research from Office Genie claims that office design makes the most significant difference to employee happiness levels. According to the survey of 2,000 British workers, when someone felt comfortable with the design of their workplace, it boosted their happiness by 33 percent compared to those who felt uncomfortable. Workplace design was found to have a larger impact than office temperature levels, light levels, noise levels, and social interaction levels: temperature made an average difference of (5 percent), light (6 percent), noise (8 percent), and social interaction (8 percent). It also came in ahead of the ability to work flexibly, specifically the ability to work from home which made a 12 percent difference to happiness levels. This is particularly remarkable when flexible working is often cited as one of the biggest factors affecting employee happiness, according to the study.