September 29, 2017
Is the British solution to the ‘sitting disease’ and low productivity to put the kettle on?
We’ve heard a great deal about the key challenges of the danger of sitting down too much at work and low UK productivity. The solution appears to be that popular British answer to all ills, to put the kettle on. New research by an appliance company ApplianceDirect found that 87 percent of British workers believe that regular tea breaks aid their productivity. It also pulls them away from their desk as they’re spending on average 109.66 hours annually making themselves a drink while having a break from their desk or workstation. In the research, which looked in to workplace eating and drinking habits, respondents cited the optimum tea break time was seven minutes, and they also believe they should happen on average four times per day outside of lunchtime – totaling 28 minutes per day. Despite the rise of coffee culture, the data also revealed it’s still the great British cup of tea that tops the poll for workers as 56 percent say it’s their hot drink of choice. Coffee came in second place, with 38 percent of the vote.
UK workers are largely optimistic about the impact automation will have in the workplace, with three in four believing it will give them more time to concentrate on their primary job duties and work more flexibly, claims new research. Workfront’s annual State of Enterprise Work report, which aims to capture not only how work is being done and what challenges office workers see in the present, but also how they see current workplace trends playing out in the near future reveals that 84 percent agreed with the sentiment that “the use of automation in the workplace will let us think of work in new and innovative ways.” 82 percent expressed excitement at the chance “to learn new things as the workforce moves toward more automation;” and while the overwhelming view on automation was positive, around 2 in 5 (38 percent) feared that rising automation will place humans and robots in competition for the same jobs in the future.
The number of large scale Internet of Things (IoT) projects have doubled in the last year, as projects move from small pilots to global rollouts, according to Vodafone’s fifth annual IoT Barometer Report. The range of benefits that users are getting from IoT is also widening as adoption increases – greater business insights, reduced costs and improved employee productivity top the list globally. Large scale users report some of the biggest business gains with 67 percent of them highlighting significant returns from the use of IoT. Energy and utility companies are at the forefront of the largest IoT projects worldwide, with applications such as smart meters and pipeline monitoring. Security in IoT is still the biggest barrier for organisations regarding deployment. However, in companies with 10,000 or more connected devices in operation only 7 percent say security is their top worry. Organisations are taking more steps to tackle security concerns including an increase in security training for existing staff, working with specialist security providers and recruiting more IT security specialists.
With a plethora of reports around that generalise the behaviour of an entire generation of people, yet another exploration of the Millennial has to be approached with caution. But for this latest study, “The Millennial mindset: Work styles and aspirations of the most misunderstood worker”, 
Work is the biggest barrier to taking regular exercise a new survey suggests, with 20 percent of people citing being too busy with work as the reason why they are not more physically active. The research, which is published by not-for-profit health body ukactive to mark today’s National Fitness Day 2017 also reveals that only 1 in 10 adults (12 percent) know NHS recommended physical activity guidelines and well over half of Brits spend at least six hours each day sitting down. In addition to shunning exercise, more than 64 percent of adults spend at least six hours each day sitting, be it at work, in front of the TV, commuting or on social media. The average UK adult also spends more than twice as much time sitting on the toilet as they do exercising, with the study of 2,004 British adults by ComRes reveals that British adults say they are on the loo for an average of 3 hours and 9 minutes each week, compared to just 1 hour and 30 minutes spent doing moderate exercise such as fast walking or riding a bike.
Research published to mark the beginning of 
UK workers are still uncomfortable about having honest conversations at work, with nearly two thirds (61 percent) feel they keep an aspect of their lives hidden in the workplace. The research from Inclusive Employers found family difficulties (46 percent) was the most likely hidden issue at work, followed by mental health (31 percent). One in five also admitted they would hide their sexual orientation while at work. It also found a generational divide, with 67 percent of employees aged between 18 -24 years old keeping something secret compared to 55 percent of those over aged 55 years or over. The data, released to mark National Inclusion Week 2017, found this lack of openness can have negative impacts on workers and employers, with over a quarter of workers (26 percent) admitting they would feel less connected to their workplace if they hid an aspect of themselves and 18 percent saying their performance would suffer.
