Search Results for: working lives

HR teams are not sufficiently prepared to meet the fourth industrial revolution

HR teams are not sufficiently prepared to meet the fourth industrial revolution

by • News, Technology, Workplace

HR teams are not sufficiently prepared to meet the fourth industrial revolutionMost people who work in HR now recognise how essential technology is for delivering more strategic value to their organisation, but a new report suggests that HR teams are not prepared to meet the fourth industrial revolution. A survey from ADP and IDC across eight countries in Europe found that over a fifth (22 percent) of Human Capital Management (HCM) processes are still inputted manually. Equally alarming, was the lack of communication between HR teams and IT departments, with 28 percent of respondents claiming that IT is only somewhat involved in HCM solution decisions, and 3 percent claiming it plays no role at all. Yet despite a significant number of respondents revealing that IT departments are not closely aligned with HR, the research pointed towards a shift in the attitudes of HR experts. When asked which new technologies they find increasingly important, 68 percent said end-to-end integration of all HR and talent systems and 64 percent said HR dashboard and analytics were very or extremely important. What’s more, 56 percent said social or collaborative features were also very important.

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Business in the community aims to improve the quality of work for lowest-paid staff

Business in the community aims to improve the quality of work for lowest-paid staff

by • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Business in the community campaign to address workers' financial concerns

Financial concerns are increasingly affecting the performance of workers across the UK, with one in eight UK workers (3.7 million) now living in poverty. According to the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, a quarter of the UK workforce are, to some extent, experiencing financial insecurity. One in five employees (21 percent) report that they are just about managing financially, while a further 5 percent say they are finding things difficult. Aside from the undue stress this causes families, this can also have significant repercussions for employers, in terms of recruitment, retention and productivity. This has prompted Business in the Community, (BITC) with support from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, to make the case for all employers to improve the quality of work for their lowest-paid staff. Its new campaign, Good Work for All draws on best practice from forward-thinking organisations including Starbucks, Royal Mail and Sodexo, and over a third of BITC members have reported taking company-wide action on low-paid work with successful outcomes.

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Women and flexible workers significantly more at risk of illegal and inappropriate sexual behaviour at work

by • Workplace

Two in five women and one in five men in the UK say they have experienced unwanted sexual behaviour at work and only a minority ever report it, a BBC survey of 6,206 people has found. The study also claims that people in flexible work are significantly more likely to be subject to assault, rape, unwanted sexual advances and inappropriate behaviour. Around 42 percent of gig economy workers, the self-employed and freelancers reported that they had been subject to or exposed to such behaviour. Respondents were asked if they agreed with the proposition that: “Looking back over my working life, I have witnessed behaviour that I now believe to constitute sexual harassment but didn’t think it at the time.” Four in 10 (42 percent) over-55s agreed. Among those near the start of their working lives (18 to 34-year-olds), three in 10 felt the same way. The poll found that overall, 40 percent of women reported they have experienced some form of sexual harassment at work.  (more…)

Warnings of widening gender pay gap as women are hit hardest by low pay

by • Comment, Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

 

It is Equal Pay Day today (Friday 10th November) – the day in the year which is marked in the calendar as the one where women start to work for free, and the campaigning charity the Fawcett Society has warned that the pay gap is actually widening for some groups of women and will now take 100 years to close, based on the current rate of change. Research by the Living Wage Foundation published to mark the day has also revealed women are hit hardest by low pay in the UK. Women make up nearly two thirds (62 percent) of workers currently struggling to make ends meet on less than the real Living Wage claims the Foundation, which amounts to 3.4 million women compared to 2.1 million men. Nearly 1/3 of all UK working women (26 percent) are still earning less than the Living Wage, compared to just 16 percent of all working men. And this trend has been the case since 2011, when KPMG and the Living Wage Foundation launched its annual Living Wage report.

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Extreme dedication to work and career could damage long-term success, study claims

Extreme dedication to work and career could damage long-term success, study claims

by • News, Wellbeing

People who feel their work is integral to their lives and identity and so exhibit extreme dedication to work may actually find it difficult to sustain productivity over long periods of time, new research from King’s Business School suggests. According to Dr Michael Clinton, who studied the working lives of 193 Church of England ministers, people who view their career as an intense calling are less able to successfully disengage from work in the evenings which limits their energy levels the following morning. One would assume that these people would dedicate more energy to their work. However, Clinton claims that having an intense career calling motivates people to work longer hours which directly limits their psychological detachment from work, in turn reducing sleep quality and their ability to focus.

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Convergence of work and life defines September London workplace design shows

Convergence of work and life defines September London workplace design shows

by • Comment, Events, Flexible working, Furniture, Workplace design

It has always been a characteristic of the 100% Design exhibition that it has segmented along the demarcations of workplace, home, interiors, kitchens and bedrooms. This used to make perfect sense as the same distinctions existed in our lives, reflected in the form and function of the products we allocated to those spaces. This is no longer the case to anywhere like the same extent and consequently, the workplace section of the show is full of products that could make the crossover into a domestic, cafe or hotel setting with not an eyebrow raised. That is not to say that the mainstay products of the workplace – desks, task chairs, storage, screens – are no more. They are still specified in vast numbers. It is just that the interesting aspects of workplace design are to be found in its shared and public spaces. It is here where we witness the convergence that characterises modern working life. We might still talk about work life balance (too much) but there is a growing realisation that the distinction grows more meaningless with each passing year.

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British organisations must step up to the challenges of artificial intelligence, robotics and automation

by • AI, News, Technology

A report published by the RSA think-tank has encouraged UK businesses to embrace artificial intelligence, automation and robotics. arguing that new technology has the potential to raise productivity levels, boost flagging living standards, and phase out ‘dull, dirty and dangerous’ tasks in favour of more purposeful and human-centric work. The Age of Automation report warns, however, that the UK is fast becoming a ‘laggard’ in the adoption of new machines and called on UK business leaders to accelerate their take-up of technology. The RSA found that sales of robots to the UK decreased over 2014-15, with British firms falling behind the US, France, Germany, Spain and Italy. A YouGov poll of UK business leaders, commissioned by the RSA, found that UK business leaders are currently wary of adopting AI and robotics, with just fourteen percent of firms currently investing in this technology or soon planning to. Twenty-nine percent of businesses believe AI & robotics to be too expensive or not yet proven and twenty percent want to invest but believe it will take several years to ‘seriously adopt’ the new technology.

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Smaller businesses are more willing to grasp the nettle of artificial intelligence

by • News, Technology

Research from Adecco UK&I, claims that smaller businesses are more positive about new technologies such as artificial intelligence when compared to larger companies. The Humans vs Robots report (registration required if you really feel like it) based on responses from 1,000 senior managers and 1,000 workers in 13 sectors across the UK, finds that larger companies (employing more than 5,000 employees) are almost twice as sceptical about the business impact that AI will have compared to smaller companies (employing 250 or less employees), with 9 percent of the former believing its impact won’t be significant, compared to just 5 percent of the latter.

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Almost a quarter of Millennials are unhappy in their current work situation

Almost a quarter of Millennials are unhappy in their current work situation

by • Flexible working, News, Workplace

Almost a quarter of Millennials are unhappy in their current work situation

A majority (85 percent) of 18-34 year olds feel they are not putting their professional ambitions into practice and almost a quarter are unhappy at work, claims a new survey of Millennials by one of the UK’s largest independent higher education institutions, GSM London. By 2020, millennials will make up 35 percent of the global workforce, but despite being the generation told that they can have it all, nearly a third (32 percent) of those surveyed described their work as a ‘means to an end’, with 64 percent describing themselves as having just a ‘job’ rather than a meaningful ‘career’.  However, when it comes to pursuing a more meaningful career path, a quarter of respondents cited the pressure of uncertainty (25 percent), disruption to lifestyle (24 percent) and lack of confidence (22 percent) as the main barriers stopping them from fulfilling their goals.

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Workplace menopause study claims women need more support from employers

Workplace menopause study claims women need more support from employers

by • Flexible working, Wellbeing, Workplace

A new report from the UK Government and University of Leicester has called for menopause-friendly workplaces and culture change programmes. In what the authors claims is the most comprehensive study of its kind, the report claims that ‘many women tend to feel that they need to cope alone’ – because of ‘a reluctance to speak up at work’. The report ‘The effects of menopause transition on women’s economic participation in the UK’ was funded by the Government’s Equalities Office. The research, published by the Department for Education, was carried out by Joanna Brewis, Andrea Davies and Jesse Matheson of the University of Leicester School of Business and Vanessa Beck of the University of Bristol School of Economics, Finance and Management.

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Happiest workers more likely to be based in start-ups and to stay long term

Happiest workers more likely to be based in start-ups and to stay long term 0

by • Flexible working, News, Workplace

Happiest workers are based in start-ups and they intend to stay long term

Employees in companies with nine members of staff or less are most likely to ‘love’ their jobs and are more likely to take personal pride from the companies’ achievements, and to stay there long term a new report suggests. Almost 1 in 3 (31 percent) of workers in businesses containing a maximum of nine members of staff said they “love” their jobs – according to a new survey of 1,220 workers, commissioned by the One4all Spotlight Awards, a free to enter awards scheme that rewards exceptional staff in the UK workforce. By comparision, those in companies with the largest workforces – more than 500 members of staff – were the least likely to love their jobs, with just 15 percent claiming this is the case. Workers in microbusinesses – those with 9 or fewer employees – were also the most likely to say they plan to stay with their current employer for the rest of their working lives, with 18 percent saying they feel this way. They were also the most likely to take a sense of personal pride in their company’s achievements (23 percent).

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Job polarisation is being driven by lack of access to technological skills, warns OECD

Job polarisation is being driven by lack of access to technological skills, warns OECD 0

by • Knowledge, News, Technology, Workplace

productivityThe employment rate throughout OECD areas is finally returning to pre-crisis levels, but people on low and middle incomes have seen their wages stagnate and share of middle-skilled jobs fall. This is according to the latest OECD Employment Outlook 2017 which finds that the employed share of the population aged 15 to 74 years rose for the third consecutive year, and is expected to reach 61.5 percent by the end of 2018, above its peak of 60.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007. Its projections for the UK’s economy for 2017-18 anticipate that growth will ease as rising inflation weighs on real incomes and consumption, but business investment will weaken amidst uncertainty about the United Kingdom’s future trading relations with its partners.

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