UK Business Barometer

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The 20th UKBAB Survey asked for views on Time Management, use of the Internet, the 'Paperless' office, Environmental Sustainability, Smoking in the workplace and keeping up to date with government regulations.

126 Business Advisers responded to this Survey.

Survey Findings

Time is a limiting factor for all business people. A number of courses are offered that purport to help with better management of time and a very high proportion of respondents to the UK Business Advisers Barometer (UKBAB) have attended such courses. A lesser, but still substantial, proportion of respondents to the parallel survey, the UK Business Advisers Barometer (UKBAB) have also attended this type of course:

Have you ever attended a Time Management course?

When asked if the principles advocated in such courses were applied in practice, more respondents to the UKBAB than to the UKBB were routinely using them, with 14% rather than 4%. Similar results were obtained for the 'frequently' and 'sometimes' categories. Although this initially looks as though as though the courses may have little impact on working practices, focusing on the results from those who had been to the courses shows that they are indeed influential. When recalculated as percentages of only those who have attended the courses, UKBB respondents were ahead of UKBAB with 74% as opposed to 70% over the two categories taken together.

The general impression that the Internet is becoming more integrated into the process of doing business was backed up by the response to this months survey question on its use. 78% of UKBAB respondents use the Internet for business daily and 20% use it weekly. The overall average use of the internet by UKBB respondents was very close to that of UKBAB respondents.

The paperless office may be an ideal goal especially in environmental terms but it seems that it may be still some way off. 14% of UKBAB and 17% of UKBB respondents routinely feel the need to make hard copies, while 75% of UKBAB and 62% of UKBB say they frequently or sometimes need to make hard copies. However, 11% of UKBAB and 17% of UKBB respondents rarely do so, while 4% of UKBB respondents never do.

Environmental sustainability appears to be a significantly increasing area of concern for the clients of few Business Advisers responding to this survey. Compared with the responses from the UKBB, although the responses differ in detail the message is broadly similar - between 12% and 15% say concern is not increasing at all; between 3% and 6% say concern is increasing significantly, and the remaining 81%, excluding 'don't know's, fall in between the extremes.

Smoking in the workplace has been recently been a hot topic following the January 2004 introduction in Ireland of the ban on smoking in any space which is also someone's workplace. However it appears that many respondents to both surveys are ahead of the game - nearly 90% of both UKBAB and UKBB respondents say that they do not allow smoking in the workplace.

Do you allow smoking in the workplace?

As might be expected, given the responses to the previous question, both groups were very supportive of a general ban on smoking in the workplace. When it comes to monitoring staff time taken for cigarette breaks, the responses were more moderate, with 70% of UKBAB, and 54% of UKBB supporting.

Four questions in the April Survey addressed issues surrounding changes in regulations affecting business. Businesses find change time consuming and therefore costly to cope with, and being aware of relevant changes is an issue.

The first question was related to whether keeping up to date with government regulations is becoming more time consuming. 75% of Business Advisers find this highly or moderately highly time consuming.

When it comes to whether businesses are responsible for ensuring they are up to date, 85% of UKBAB respondents think they are, to a high or moderately high extent. In contrast, only 55% of UKBB respondents said that it is business's responsibility to keep up to date.

In terms of getting hold of the information needed to keep up to date, the favourites were different between the two groups. Unsurprisingly, UKBAB respondents chose Business Advisers first. Second was the Internet and third, Media. Other Business Organisations was top for UKBB respondents, with Media second and Accountant third. Business Advisers were fifth on their list.

The final question asked about the impressions of those advising businesses, or in the case of the UKBB survey, in business themselves, about compliance with changes in government regulations by businesses generally. 74% of UKBAB respondents and 65% of UKBB respondents strongly, or relatively strongly, have the impression that many businesses, in practice, choose to ignore changes until forced to comply.

Views expressed are those of individual panellists and may not represent those of the IBA or the University of Nottingham.

We should adopt Irelands lead and ban smoking in public places

Some of the questions in this survey are too "general", particularly on workplace smoking (I am a non-smoker but have to settle disputes between the two camps!)

In relation to the smoking questions, I would support a total ban in all workplaces, including pubs and restaurants, and if smokers are allowed smoking breaks, then non-smokers should be allowed equivalent breaks to go and read a book, or whatever they prefer.