Search Results for: workforce

October 25, 2017

Employees motivated by bad news as well as good news, research finds

by Mark Eltringham • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Bad news is better than no news at all when it comes to motivating staff, according to new research from academics in Warwick and Zurich. The study found that withholding important information from staff could mean the difference between a motivated workforce and an unmotivated one – irrespective of whether it was good or bad news for workers. The study, led by Leif Brandes, of Warwick Business School, found that many managers underestimate the motivational power of bad news. In the paper The Value and Motivating Mechanism of Transparency in Organizations, published in the European Economic Review, Dr Brandes and Donja Darai, of the University of Zurich, designed a new version of the so-called ‘dictator’ game to study the effect of information sharing on motivation.

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October 20, 2017

Office ping pong tables a waste of money as solution to low productivity

by Sara Bean • News, Technology, Wellbeing, Workplace, Workplace design

Over half (55 percent) of UK employees are productive for less than 30 hours per week yet UK employers plough money into quirky benefits that a majority of employees see as a distraction a new report claims. New research from Sage. ‘Why your workforce isn’t working’ found that while many companies invest in quirky benefits to keep staff happy, their employees aren’t impressed. Only 9 percent believe company outings are a valuable benefit, and even fewer were favourable on office games such as ping-pong – with only 6 percent saying they value it as part of the work experience. In fact, in some cases people felt these were doing more harm than good: with over half (55 percent) saying that they are distracting and decrease productivity. Commissioned by Sage People, the study spoke to 3,500 global workers to uncover what people really want from their employers. The UK findings show the disconnect between the benefits employers provide and what employees want.

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October 20, 2017

Gulf in levels of employee engagement between US and Europe

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Workplace

A new report from Gallup called The State of the Global Workplace (paywall although there is an information light executive summary) claims that only one in ten European workers are engaged with their work compared to 31 percent in the US and Canada. In the UK, British workers were found to be 11 percent engaged with around a fifth (21 percent) actively disengaged. The report cites American management practices as one explanation for the apparent gulf. One of the more notable findings from the study is that just 32 percent of Latin American residents aged 23 to 65 say they are employed full time for an employer compared to 56 percent of US and Canadian residents in that age range.

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October 18, 2017

Report warns of growing cybersecurity threat to organisations by their own staff

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

An overwhelming majority of employees are deliberately seeking out information they are not permitted to access, exposing a major cybersecurity problem among today’s workforce, claims new research published by One Identity. The survey, conducted by Dimensional Research, polled more than 900 IT security professionals on trends and challenges related to managing employee access to corporate data. Among key findings, a remarkable 92 percent of respondents report that employees at their organisations try to access information that is not necessary for their day-to-day work – with nearly one in four (23 percent) admitting this behaviour happens frequently. Most alarmingly, the report indicates that IT security professionals themselves are among the worst offenders of corporate data snooping. One in three respondents admit to having accessed sensitive information that is not necessary for their day-to-day work.

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October 16, 2017

Government outlines plan to become the UK’s most inclusive employer by 2020

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

The Government has today announced its plans for how it says it will become ‘the most inclusive employer in the UK’ by 2020. The Civil Service Diversity & Inclusion Strategy outlines a range of ambitious proposals to achieve this aim, including: building a dedicated ethnic minority programme to improve the representation of ethnic minority staff at the most senior levels across the Civil Service; creating a Diverse Leadership Task Force that will report to the Cabinet Secretary; publishing a data dashboard tracking progress on diversity and inclusion targets by April 2018; establishing a new framework for measuring inclusion; and ’embedding’ diversity and inclusion in Single Departmental Plans.

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October 13, 2017

Major US surveys uncover ambivalent attitudes towards the impact of technology and automation on our lives

by Mark Eltringham • AI, News, Technology

The ambivalent attitude many people hold towards technology is laid bare in two major new studies from the Pew Research Centre. When asked to name what has brought about the biggest improvements in their lives over the last 50 years, technology is the most commonly cited factor by people across the US. They are even optimistic that technology will have a similarly beneficial impact over the next half century. Yet when asked about their specific attitudes towards artificial intelligence and automation in a second survey, many are apprehensive about the impact the technologies will have on their jobs and income.

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October 11, 2017

UK improves opportunities for young workers, but faces longer term challenges from automation

by Mark Eltringham • News, Workplace

The UK could boost GDP by £43 billion if it reduces the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) to match Germany, the best performing EU country. This is equivalent to a GDP increase of around £7,500 per 18-24 year old, according to estimates in PwC’s latest Young Workers Index. This year, the UK reached its highest position since the Index began in 2006, climbing to 18th out of 35 OECD countries from 20th last year. The UK’s improvement reflects lower youth unemployment and NEET rates as the economic recovery from the financial crisis has continued, but it still lags behind many other OECD countries, with Switzerland, Iceland and Germany leading the pack.

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October 10, 2017

Presenteeism leads a quarter of UK workers not to take a sick day unless hospitalised

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

A quarter (23 percent), or 7 million UK workers, wouldn’t take a sick day unless they were hospitalised or had no other choice, claims a new survey by Canada Life Group. Nine in ten (89 percent) UK workers say they’ve gone into work when feeling ill, a proportion which is virtually unchanged compared to 2016 (90 percent), suggesting employers’ efforts to improve wellbeing are failing to reduce presenteeism. The issue is pronounced, with the survey indicating that 47 percent of respondents would come into work with a stomach bug and more than half (55 percent) would go into work if they had the flu – despite the high chance of this illness spreading to their co-workers.

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October 10, 2017

Europe does not offer appropriate support for breast cancer survivors

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing

Although the rate of breast cancer diagnoses is rising in Europe and a higher proportion of women are surviving this particular form of cancer, returning to everyday aspects of life prove challenging with many survivors unable to return to work in full, due to a lack of support and consideration by employers. A new report by The Economist Intelligence Unit and commissioned by Pfizer investigates the challenges involved in returning to employment for a growing number of breast cancer patients and survivors of a working age.

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October 9, 2017

World Mental Health Day is a day to recognise our duty of care

by David Hope • Wellbeing

The five-year period since August 2012 has seen a 40 percent rise in mental health issues contributing to absenteeism in the workplace. Our data reveals this from examining more than 13 million days of absence across some 180,000 employees. With an estimated 31 million people working in the UK, this percentage rise is the equivalent of 4.34 million Days Lost Per Employee (DLPE) – or more precisely, an additional 1.25 million more days lost due to mental health in 2017 than 2012. And, in June to August this year, it was the most common reason for absenteeism in the UK.

This tells us two things that you don’t need to be a statistician to deduct. That there has been a steep increase in mental health absenteeism in recent years and that the summer months adds additional stress upon individuals. And this is at a time when we’d hope to be rewarded with some R&R time.

Holidays, and children being home from school, have a clear impact here, and these stresses can more often than not be carried over in to the workplace. But, with children back at school and the holiday season now over, we predict that absenteeism due to mental health issues will drop over the next three months and should account for 0.13 DLPE in November compared with 0.14 in August.

This is all very well but there’s no point in delivering this data if it’s not used in a positive way. We encourage employers to take a look at these trends and recognise who could be affected and where this may impact their business. And in doing so, implement policies accordingly to support those that are living with, or could be susceptible to, mental health issues.

Organisations should ensure their stress management policies are up-to-date, that staff are encouraged and comfortable raising stress related anxieties and concerns and line managers have sufficient training. By doing so, employers will see the benefit to their workforce in both health and productivity while making significant healthcare cost savings, too. There is a raft of information out there to help with this and HR and OH professionals are skilled at recognising signs and trends and helping those that require assistance. Every year World Mental Health Day recognises this awful illness and it deserves close attention. Because as corporate entities we don’t just have a commitment to the bottom line, we have a very serious obligation and duty of care to the wellbeing of our employees.

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David Hope is CEO of FirstCare

October 6, 2017

Flexible ways of working are definitely on the rise and it suits all ages

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Workplace

The majority (94 percent) of workers are open to flexible ways of working such as part-time, freelance, contract, temporary or independent contract work a new report from ManpowerGroup has revealed. Coining the trend as NextGen work, the research suggests this approach to a job is a choice (81 percent) not a last resort (19 percent). Findings from #GigResponsibly: The Rise of NextGen Work – a global survey of 9,500 people in 12 countries – identifies a shift towards this new way of getting work done, and that it works for people and employers. People were asked how they want to work, what motivates them and their views on NextGen Work. More control over their schedule (42 percent), boosting their bank account (41 percent) and developing new skills (38 percent) are top reasons why this flexible kind of work is on the rise. The report also found that this flexible approach is not just attractive to Millennials, as meaningful work and employer appreciation are valued more by Boomers than any other generation. More than 80 percent of US workers say NextGen Work is a choice, not a last resort, and builds resilience for less predictable futures.

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October 5, 2017

Stop whinging about robots taking your job and develop the skills you need for a new era of work

by Mark Eltringham • AI, News, Workplace

A report from researchers at Pearson, Nesta and the University of Oxford called The Future of Skills: Employment in 2030 claims that while the new era of robots, automation and artificial intelligence in the workplace will be disruptive, it will not spell the end of work and people need to develop new skills to meet its challenges. The study claims to take an entirely new approach to forecasting employment and skill demands in the US and UK. In contrast to many recent headlines, the study finds that many jobs today will still be in demand by 2030 and beyond. However, while jobs may remain, the skills needed for success are changing. The researchers combined diverse human expertise with active machine learning to produce a more nuanced view of future employment trends. Using this innovative approach, the study forecasts that only one in five workers are in occupations that face a high likelihood of decline.