Search Results for: workplace

Progress for women in executive roles remains disappointingly slow

Progress for women in executive roles remains disappointingly slow 0

Women in executive rolesAs the news breaks that the UK is to have a female Prime Minister by the Autumn, it emerges that progress for women among executive ranks and in the executive pipeline remains slow. According to the latest Female FTSE Report, by academics at Cranfield School of Management, City University London and Queen Mary University London, while the percentage of women on FTSE 100 boards has increased to 26 percent and to 20.4 percent on the FTSE 250 boards this year, the rate of progress has slowed since the Davies closing report in October 2015. As a result board turnover rates have decreased and the percentage of new appointments going to women over the past six months is only 24.7 percent, the lowest since September 2011. This is short of the increase required to meet the 33 percent board target by 2020 as set out in the Davies report, requiring FTSE 350 board to have 27 percent by the end of 2016.

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Ability to meet failure with resilience is a vital management skill

Ability to meet failure with resilience is a vital management skill 0

Management resilience

The political fallout since the Brexit vote has left many feeling that the UK’s politicians could do with brushing up their leadership skills and prompted debate on whether some of those whose ambitions have been derailed might bounce back. A timely report from the Chartered Management Institute offers advice on the management skills they might need to employ in times of uncertainty. The report claims that within the world of business, unsupportive cultures leave managers to struggle with the fall-out from crises. Most managers (94 percent) have faced crises during their career, but only half (55 percent) have handled them professionally, according to Bouncing Back: Leadership lessons in resilience. The absence of professional management ranks as a major factor in the cause of crises in the survey of 1,100 managers; 78 percent blamed a lack of support from senior management and 68 percent cited culture failure as responsible.

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Overworked UK staff are losing touch with their home lives

Overworked UK staff are losing touch with their home lives 0

Winners of Flexible-working-parentsOver half of all UK workers’ home lives are negatively affected by work, with one in five admitting they’ve missed important milestones in their children’s lives. According to a survey of 2,000 people in the UK, commissioned by Coople, 51 percent admit that their current workloads are affecting their lives at home. They are missing kids’ birthdays and other important milestones like school plays, parents’ evenings and award ceremonies because of work. The research claims that poor work-life balance has been detrimental to parents’ relationships with their children, with 11 percent saying working late and not ‘switching off’ has distanced them from their young ones. Most worryingly, 28 percent of those that admitted to missing important events have done so more than five times during their working life, 10 percent say they have missed their child’s event once, 26 percent say they have done so twice, 29 percent three times, and 7 percent admit they’ve done so four times.

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Sea and space: the final frontiers for remote working and connectivity

Sea and space: the final frontiers for remote working and connectivity 0

Captain_on_a_bridge_-_main2Tim Peake’s recent return home from space at the end of a six month stay in the International Space Station highlighted just how essential it is for people to stay in contact with their friends, family and the rest of the world, literally from wherever they may be. Of course, back on Earth we now take it for granted that we are in a state of constant connectedness to the rest of the world. So the idea of someone being out of contact, even for brief periods of time, strikes us as odd. Perhaps that partly explains our fascination with the experiences of astronauts and other people who cannot take connectivity for granted. But it’s not just astronauts who have to consider how to enjoy the connectedness that we normally assume to be ours by right. People who work at sea face the same challenge and you could argue that it is more important for such truly remote workers to be in contact with other people and the Internet. So who fares better when it comes to achieving connectivity?

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Managers responsible for promoting engagement distrust employers

Managers responsible for promoting engagement distrust employers 0

Workplace managersThey may be responsible for upholding their company’s corporate values and ensuring employee engagement, but HR and line managers lack confidence and faith in their employers. According to a survey by Cornerstone OnDemand almost a third (29 percent) of HR and line managers are not proud of their workplace nor do they recommend it. Managers in the Nordics (88 percent), Austria (84 percent), and Spain (81 percent) are the most satisfied with their places of work, whereas Italy (59 percent) and Switzerland (64 percent) are the least proud of their companies and the least willing to recommend it to others. Meanwhile, managers in the UK are struggling with this lack of positivity towards their own company, with only 37 percent agreeing that their company is an attractive employer. The survey also found that the greatest influences on ‘happiness’ in the workplace were revealed to involve career flexibility and technology.

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Employers need more help in navigating the Apprenticeship Levy

Employers need more help in navigating the Apprenticeship Levy 0

Apprentices levyAccording to the latest governmental statistics, apprenticeships reached a record high in 2014/15 with over 871,000 apprenticeship participants within the UK. The majority of these were in the service sector, and almost three quarters were concentrated in three sectors: Business, Administration and Law; Retail and Commerce Enterprise and Public Services and Care. Last year the government announced its plans to introduce a new UK-wide levy on large employers in a bid to fund apprenticeships and to create 3 million more apprentices by 2020. Due for implementation in April 2017, this levy promises to have a significant impact on the existing apprenticeship landscape. As the implementation of the apprenticeship levy draws nearer, it is rising to the top of companies’ HR and Finance agendas, as businesses attempt to work out how to reap a return on investment, with the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) calling for the Government to put off its introduction.

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This Friday will be the UK’s least productive for the whole Summer

This Friday will be the UK’s least productive for the whole Summer 0

$_35This Friday will be the UK’s least productive day for the whole Summer, according to a study by HR and payroll firm Moorepay. The study is based on the plans UK workers say they have to watch the various sports events on that day, which include Wimbledon, the British Formula 1 Grand Prix practice and Tour de France. The previous evening sees the semi final between Germany and France at Euro 2016. The report claims that one-third of the staff are planning on watching events while at work, with one in six (17 percent) admitting their productivity will drop as a result. The authors suggest that firms are underestimating the impact, with 79 percent believing productivity in their company will be unaffected. With, on average, 10 per cent of staff on leave any given week and another one in ten planning on calling in sick to watch sport, businesses face staff shortages and prolonged dips in productivity, claims the report.

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Government should stop using technology to put lipstick on a pig, says report

Government should stop using technology to put lipstick on a pig, says report 0

A new report from Brunel University London claims there needs to be a complete turnaround in the way governments and researchers think about how digital technologies can change the public sector. The report was published to coincide with the 11th National Digital Conference in London. The working paper, which invites feedback from practitioners in the field, explains how the only coherent way to achieve any real impact is to embed the potential of technology in the instruments that make governments’ policies real. Policy instruments are the tools that governments use to drive change in the economy and society and include licences, information campaigns and more tangible things like public services and infrastructure. The paper, entitled; Digital Government: Overcoming the Systemic Failure of Transformation, claims that even the most recent approaches still come from the perspective of technology, not the core policy-making functions of government.

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New office market briefing remains cautious about impact of potential Brexit

New office market briefing remains cautious about impact of potential Brexit 0

the_hitchhikers_guide_to_galaxy_don_panic_desktop_1920x1080_hd-wallpaper-805696JLL has published a new briefing document to look at the possible impact of the recent Brexit vote on the UK’s office market. The report’s main claim is that the underlying economic fundamentals in the UK remain solid in comparison to previous downturns, and, while expectations are unsurprisingly being downgraded,  there is still no need for occupiers or landlords to become too concerned at the moment before the full details and effects of the UK’s exit from the EU become apparent. The document also suggests: occupiers are taking stock, so flexibility is likely to become fundamental to near term decision making. Longer-term impacts or benefits of Brexit  are still to play out; office occupier demand in London will be subdued in the near term although low vacancy levels, coupled with an increasingly diverse occupier base, should prevent a dramatic fall in rents compared to previous market corrections; hotels will benefit from weakened sterling and increase in tourism although they may see costs increase.

Netherlands creates first countrywide Internet of Things network

Netherlands creates first countrywide Internet of Things network 0

Internet of ThingsDutch telecommunications company KPN claims it has created the world’s first national network devoted to the Internet of Things (IoT). The firms says its technicians have upgraded hundreds of existing towers with Long Range (LoRA) gateways and antennas, to create the new public network. The first (IoT) applications are already connected to the network, including at Schiphol Airport where it is being tested in logistical processes such as baggage handling and for facility services. An experiment is also being carried out at Utrecht Central station that allows LoRa to monitor rail switches, and depth sounders at the port of Rotterdam have been fitted with devices to connect them to the IoT network. “Last year we identified an increasing demand for low-power network technology for Internet of Things applications,” says Joost Farwerck, COO of KPN. ” We are responding to this by choosing LoRa, so millions of devices can be connected to the internet in a cost-effective manner. In less than a year KPN has implemented a network that allows us to satisfy this market demand.”

Beyond monoculture + Future shock + Confusion over productivity 0

Insight_twitter_logo_2In this week’s Newsletter; Mark Eltringham pays tribute to futurologist Alvin Toffler who died this week and is famed for introducing the concept ‘Future shock’; and Charles Marks looks at the ways our noisy world was foretold by some of the 20th centuries’ greatest minds. A study finds that people find meetings more useful than is widely reported; many office workers struggle to understand the meaning of productivity; and spending on workplace technology doubled over the past five years. Older workers – not millennials – are most positive about working freelance; more US over 65s are working now than at any time; and agile workers report the highest levels of productivity. You can download our new Briefing, produced in partnership with Boss Design which examines the link between culture and workplace strategy and design; visit our new events page, follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn Group to discuss these and other stories.

People find meetings more productive than you might think

People find meetings more productive than you might think 0

Boardroom meetingsPeople generally find they don’t spend as much time in meetings as is commonly assumed and find them more productive than is widely reported, according to a study of global workers by unified communications firm Shoretel. The report sets out what it suggests are ten misconceptions about how people meet based on the results of an online questionnaire carried out earlier this year with 1,000 respondents worldwide. It claims that over three-quarters of respondents (76 percent) say they spend one hour or under each weekday in a meeting. Inevitably, the report breaks things down by age demographics, claiming that Generation X’ers,  are more likely than other generations to spend more time in weekly meets as were respondents working in the tech sectors. Only 11 percent of respondents found meetings a waste of time. Forty percent of respondents reported meetings were productive and another 48 percent said they were ‘sort of’ productive.

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