01732 759725 04 NEWS Majority home working down 50% Analysis from JLL, a global commercial real estate and investment management company, shows that the proportion of employees working fully remotely or attending the office just 1-2 days per week has fallen from 39% last year to 20% this year. Its Is hybrid really working? report reveals that 87% of international organisations are encouraging employees to return to the office, with one third now making attendance compulsory on particular weekdays. Take-up varies across Europe, with staff in France and Belgium spending an average of 3.5 days per week in the office and staff in the UK spending just 2.2 days in the office. Overall, in H1 2023, 79% of employees globally were in the office more than three days a week, compared to 51% in H1 2022. jll.com ······ Time to drop hybrid Over half (51%) of AV professionals believe it’s time to drop ‘hybrid’ from ‘hybrid work’ and just call it ‘work’. That’s according to Kinly’s Trusted Connections 2023 report, which surveyed 150 UK-based AV professionals, nearly two thirds (59%) of whom do the majority of their work from home, with 12% working completely remotely. info.kinly.com ······ IT pros AI fears Less than half (44%) of IT professionals have a positive view of AI tools, according to new research from SolarWinds, with one in four believing they will eventually pose a threat to society and 48% advocating stricter regulations. Even so, 28% are currently using AI tools to help with their work, with a further 28% planning to invest in AI tools. Sascha Giese, Tech Evangelist at SolarWinds, said: “The buzz around AI, particularly generative AI, is grabbing the attention of business leaders. There are clear opportunities to reduce costs, create new product lines or enrich existing offerings. While this enthusiasm from the C-suite is great for increasing IT budgets, it’s understandable certain reservations persist among IT professionals – particularly when it comes to AI replacing their key daily tasks. “Properly regulated AI deployments will benefit employees, customers and the broader workforce. But it needs buy-in from the right people. Transparency over AI concerns and a collaborative, open discussion between business leaders and IT teams is key. Until then, we will continue to see a cautious, ‘wait and see’ approach from IT teams slowing the adoption of these revolutionary tools.” ······ Zero power digital art winners London-based art collective C-LAB and Italian student Giacomo Erba have been named as winners of the inaugural PPDS MUSE Digital Art Award at the world’s first ‘zero power’ digital art exhibition in the Fabbrica del Vapore cultural centre in Milan. Supported by Italy’s National Museum of Digital Art (MNDA), the competition invited artists from around the world to visualise challenges posed by the global ecological and climate crisis and to inspire a better future. Twenty short-listed artworks from 200 submissions were displayed on 25in Philips Tableaux ePaper displays in full colour without using a single kilowatt of electricity. As overall winners, C-LAB received €3,000 in cash and a Philips Tableaux NEWS continued... Brother calls for smarter meetings Cut the small talk to boost productivity is the unambiguous message from UK workers surveyed by Brother UK as part of its Meaningful Meeting Manifesto campaign. More than half of the 2,000 whitecollar workers polled complain they attend too many unengaging and poorly structured meetings (53%) and spend too much time on calls and catch-ups that are a drain on their productivity (55%). A similar proportion (57%) say they only attend one useful meeting a week. Four out of five (81%) believe they could get just as much done in shorter meetings and catch-ups by eliminating time wasted by waffling colleagues (59%), small talk (48%), late-joiners (31%) and people not paying attention (31%). More than one third (43%) are convinced colleagues try and do other work during meetings. When it comes to the pre-requisites of a productive meeting, 88% agreed that timekeeping is important, followed by keeping to a strict agenda (78%), circulating actions notes (74%), putting laptops and phones away (73%) and keeping cameras on if virtual (61%). Two thirds (67%) believe face-to-face meetings are more productive than virtual meetings (24%). Phil Jones MBE, Managing Director of Brother UK, says that meetings are still important for corporate culture, problemsolving, building relationships and developing new customers, but believes many could be shorter. He said: “Our findings also uncovered that meetings that overrun and waste time have a negative impact on morale and attitudes at work. Half of respondents (54%) admitted that they feel frustrated, with 27% feeling demotivated and 25% going as far as to say they think less of their colleagues. Greater consideration of time, place and how to better facilitate calls and catchups will help nurture more productive meetings.” www.brother.co.uk photo: BraunS vis iStock
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