Data from our 2022 Work Trend Index Annual Report confirm the shift. We found that 53 percent of employees were more likely to prioritise health and well-being over work than before the pandemic. In addition, nearly half of respondents (47 percent) were more likely to put family and personal life over work than they were pre-pandemic.

Figure 1. Employee work attitudes post- vs. pre-pandemic. (Source: Microsoft, Work Trend Annual Report, 2022.)

At Microsoft, we believe technology can be a powerful ally in the journey towards better employee well-being. As such we wanted to take the opportunity to raise awareness of mental health issues and promote good practice both in and beyond the workplace.

To help you reclaim the right balance we’ve pulled together eight practical Microsoft 365-based tips to help employees and managers reshape today’s fast-paced work experience in the name of better mental health. 

1. Nurture community and connection at work

Research shows that, in a hybrid world, it’s even more important to forge meaningful networks and relationships at work. Employees who have thriving relationships with team members report better well-being than those without (76% vs. 57%).

To help you reconnect and find belonging at work, Microsoft Viva Engage – an add-on in Outlook – enables you to share work and experience with colleagues. Join digital communities and conversations, find answers to questions, and inspire others with your stories. You can also connect via the announcements, to-dos and check-ins on your personalised Viva Connections dashboard.

2. Book focus time each week

If meetings are dominating your days or weeks, it can be stressful to keep on top of incoming emails, messages and resulting actions. It’s also hard to focus on challenging work when you only have small chunks of time between meetings.

Blocking out time every day or week to focus without interruption can help. The Wellbeing tab in Microsoft Viva insights contains a section called “Take action to improve your wellbeing”, in which you can create a daily focus plan.

To help you stay in control and also step away from work, other available well-being features include:

• Make time for messages
• Schedule emails for later
• Take a break or two
• Make time for lunch

To help you concentrate, your status in Microsoft Teams will auto-switch to Focus during booked focus time. You’ll only get notifications for messages that are urgent or from contacts with priority access.

3. Schedule times to manage email

Most office workers check their email regularly throughout the day. But it’s a battle to get work done if you spend most of your time responding to tactical requests from other people.

Try limiting when you check emails to two or three slots per day. Disabling email notifications will help reduce the temptation. This can easily be done in Microsoft Outlook – go to the File tab, select Options, select Mail, and in the Message arrival section, uncheck Play a sound, Show an envelope icon in the taskbar and Display a Desktop Alert:

4. Stay on top of your to-do lists

A helpful way to get something off your mind is to write it down. But how many to-do lists do you have? Perhaps a grocery list on the back of an envelope, a list of things to do in notes or a phone app, maybe some tasks in Outlook?

You might also have flagged emails to get back to, not to mention a task someone has assigned you in Planner.

You can organise this avalanche with an app like Microsoft To Do. It’s free and syncs across Windows 10 and 11, iPhone, Android and the web. It’s also integrated with Outlook.com, making it easier to manage all your tasks in one place.

Planner tasks assigned to you also appear in To Do under the Assigned to you list:

5. Set limits to your working day

Our research has identified a third productivity peak outside the typical pre-pandemic 9am-5pm spikes, with the most common after-hours activity being email (source: Microsoft New Future of Work Report 2022). While working remotely can make this habit more tempting, it’s crucial to set boundaries to your working day and give yourself a break.

To do so, select the Wellbeing tab in Viva Insights and use the “Disconnect with quiet time” card, which allows you to set your quiet time.

As a manager or leader, you can also use Viva insights to help ensure your team properly disconnects after work. View their total weekly after-hours collaboration time and, if needed, recommend changes.

Taking a well-earned holiday? Set your Out of Office and stop syncing Outlook on your phone to remove temptation. You might even want to remove work apps from your phone to avoid peeking at emails.

6. Be aware of your after-hours impact on others

This follows from the previous point. While minimising after-work hours is an ideal, we recognise that work schedules must flex for many reasons. Some people are night-owls; others may choose to work late to prepare for a busy day ahead.

Whatever the case, we need to be aware of the impact our habits may have on others. As reported in a 2022 UK Parliament Post briefing, after-hours working in a hybrid setting can cause remote colleagues to feel under pressure to always be available online.

To help avoid this, Viva Insights can show you the after-hours impact you impose on co-workers. Its coaching tools can also help you build smarter habits.

If you must work late, minimise any unwanted impact by saving emails to your Drafts folder until business hours, or schedule the delivery of your email using Options > Delay Delivery:

7. Work the way that works for you

A key strength of technology is its potential to support inclusiveness, empowering everyone to access tools the way that suits them best. Microsoft 365 apps come with built-in accessibility features for a more comfortable experience at work. For example, Microsoft Teams supports inclusive collaboration in hybrid meetings with captions and live transcripts, which can help people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

To enable a personal and human touch in virtual meetings, Teams also incorporates live React controls (at the top of the meeting view).

8. Pay attention to the present moment

Mindfulness is about being aware of your body, mind and feelings in the moment. Practising it can improve your sense of well-being and how you approach challenges.

In Viva Insights, you’ll find guided meditations and focus music, including content from Headspace. Take a break to support your mental health.

Seizing the opportunity

We hope our commitment to well-being has a positive ripple effect in today’s workplace. However, while technology can help promote a healthier work-life integration, only we ourselves – workers and leaders together – can deliver it.

Find out more

• Work Trend Index Annual Report (2022)
• Microsoft 365
• Microsoft Viva
• Microsoft Teams

About the author

David manages Microsoft UK’s Employee Experience business, overseeing a suite of solutions designed to enhance employee engagement and boost business performance.

The post 8 ways Microsoft 365 solutions can empower employees to prioritise well-being appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

We spoke to Stephen Phipson, CEO of Make UK; Phil Hadfield, Country Director of Rockwell Automation; Ruth Nic Aodih, Executive Director at McLaren Automotive; Rina Ladva, Sector Lead, Manufacturing and Resources UK at Microsoft; Thierry Malleret, Managing Partner from The Monthly Barometer; and Juergen Maier, Chair of Made Smarter.

What have been some of the positives to emerge in manufacturing this year?

While the events of this year created disruption to supply chains, processes and our daily working lives, it has been refreshing to see how manufacturing business leaders quickly adapted to reflect the new ways of working.

As we return to work and operations in the new normal, we need to take advantage of these new technologies, and we are already working with industry bodies like the HVMC and AMRC to do so. Data and analytics can help us engage customers in new ways or even create more resilient supply chains. Digital Twins and AI can help us build more agile factories, and digital workspaces can help our teams stay connected no matter where they are, securely. During the session the panel shared their thoughts on the opportunities and challenges in these areas:

Stephen Phipson: “One advantage has been to heighten the awareness of digital possibilities. We need to dispel the myth about this being incredibly complicated and expensive for SMEs. The other opportunity is the UK is a world leader in innovation in manufacturing. We need support to scale up.”

Ruth Nic Aoidh: “There is a huge amount of innovation happening in the UK and we need to bring it to market. We took the Ventilator Challenge at McLaren; one of the things it highlighted was the ‘can do’ attitude that exists in UK manufacturing already. If we work cross sector, we can achieve anything and hopefully we will see more collaboration as well.”

Rina Ladva: “One of the challenges we faced at Microsoft was not just innovating but adopting and developing what technologies we already had. Microsoft was involved in the Ventilator Challenge as well. We brought together companies who were competitors in the past, to leverage data and collaborate. Some of the collaborators never met in person. Another benefit was that things were now getting done quicker.”

Phil Hadfield: “The pandemic has really emphasised the importance of adopting digital technologies with open standards to help manufacturing achieve greater flexibility. We’re having more virtual meetings, more remote maintenance and digital modelling; we’re using digital tools to accelerate production and improve cost efficiency and to minimise human interaction in the workplace. We also need to contextualise data from smart devices more and turn it into strategic information.”

Thierry Malleret: “The pandemic has given us a chance to reset our world. The race is on to a more sustainable future. It will be accelerated by rising activism of the younger generation. A new phenomenon is the combination of youth activism and investor activism and this will accelerate over the coming months and years.”

Jurgen Maier: “COVID-19 has, no question, accelerated the need for the adoption of digital technology. But the implementation has taken place in what I’d call ‘light tech’ areas, like remote monitoring and web conferences. In terms of ‘deep tech’,  less than 20% of manufacturers are really engaging with this more complex technology. We’re brilliant innovators in Britain but we’re not very good at being integrators of technologies.”

This question then led on to policy. In order for the UK organisations to remain competitive, they need to make incremental changes to attract the right skills, talent, tech and leadership. Currently, nearly half (46%) of British organisations fall into the worst performing category, posing a real threat to UK prosperity.

What should be the role of the government?

Another key discussion topic in the session was the role of the government. The panel concluded that in order to be successful, UK organisations need strong support from the government. They can help with access to the rights tools and resources or run fund initiatives to help enable the right set of digital and data skills. Most importantly, they need to incentivise organisations in the long-term to make these changes to support the UK recovery and emerge more prosperous and drive innovation.

Stephen Phipson: “ The government has done well short term with things like the job retention scheme. But over successive administrations, we have not been long term enough… Manufacturing is a long term game. The French and Germans are taking a much longer term view with regards to support. The UK recovery is going to take longer than government first estimated.”

Phil Hadfield: “I think the situation accelerates the need for manufacturing to train employees to leverage a digital future. Manufacturing also needs to have an ongoing dialogue with academic institutions and to make engineering more appealing and diverse. This all requires help from the government.”

Rina Ladva: “I think there is definitely more we can do with government support around common data platforms and data mechanisations. We’re hearing from our customers about getting the data strategy right. We also need to empower the next generation of skills and drive digital transformation quicker.”

Ruth Nic Aodih: “The government offered welcome support in the initial stages of the pandemic. But we’re not in recovery yet. I would ask two things of the government: firstly, we need to know what the medium to long term support will look like… Recovery is optimistically 18 months away. Secondly, I’d implore government to look at the supply chain… If we don’t support the suppliers and technology-leading SMEs, we’re going to see a massive impact on the bigger manufacturers. So I would say to government, what happens next?”

Thierry Malleret: “If the UK does not embrace wholeheartedly the fourth (digital) industrial revolution, it is doomed to fail. An industrial strategy or policy doesn’t give you a competitive advantage. But you do need one. Success will depend on things like how you relate to trading partners, how you harness the power of globalisation and the Brexit outcome. But we don’t know yet how Brexit will take shape. You can’t consider industrial policies in a silo; it has to relate to other circumstances.”

Jurgen Maier: “It’s not all doom and gloom; I think the situation will rally the industry, people will get incredibly passionate and, through innovation, we will find a way to get through this period. However, it would be incredibly helpful as an antidote to all of this, especially since we have Brexit on top of everything else, if we could learn more from Germany and France and inject a bit more of their long termism and their scale of investment.”

Creating a blueprint for UK competitiveness and innovation

A clear call to action from the panel’s industry experts is now is the time to build on our people’s skills and technology to drive innovation for not just recovery, but to create a competitive and exciting shared future for the UK.

This was emphasised in a recent study by Goldsmiths, University of London in partnership with Microsoft. It found that the UK economy could receive a £48 billion boost if companies leveraged digital technology to enable agile changes to employee and cultural transformation.

In the research, Clare Barclay, CEO of Microsoft UK, said: “UK organisations face a unique moment…The tech intensity that was starting to gather pace before the pandemic struck has become turbocharged – to keep up, leaders must act decisively and quickly. Small changes in approach to investment, people and technology can quickly boost the UK’s competitiveness, giving our economy the best chance of success in the post-COVID and post-Brexit era.”

To successfully navigate the current climate, and importantly thrive in the future, there is a need to deliver against four key areas:

• Talent
• Technology
• Future readiness
• The ecosystem.

Together, these four dimensions represent the key ingredients in any organisation’s future success.

In the research there was huge emphasis on the fourth area – the ecosystem and partnerships. It found that a collaborative approach, is absolutely essential to accelerate innovation and industry transformation, both at pace, and at scale. This is why Rockwell Automation and Microsoft are committed to working together to help customers deliver the right skills and technology to successfully navigate the current uncertain climate in manufacturing, and prepare as well as possible for the  new normal that is already emerging.

[msce_cta layout=”image_center” align=”center” linktype=”blue” imageurl=”http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/industry/blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2020/10/recover.jpg” linkurl=”http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-gb/business/uk-recovery/” linkscreenreadertext=”Download the report: Creating a blueprint for UK competitiveness” linktext=”Download the report” imageid=”42599″ ][/msce_cta]

About the authors

Rik joined Microsoft at the start of 2020, with responsibility for Microsoft’s strategy across manufacturing, energy and resources in the UK. He is Microsoft’s lead when working with regulators, industry bodies, industry partners, and our largest customers to ensure Microsoft enables the needs of industry. Since joining, Rik has become a board member in techUK’s Smart Energy & Utilities working group, techUK’s Digital Twin steering board, UK Research & Innovation Manufacturing Made Smarter board, and the BIM4Water Digital Skills steering group. Prior to Microsoft, Rik worked at Cisco for 13 years, with global lead roles in energy and resource industries, IoT and security, and digital transformation.

He has an MBA in international leadership and is currently studying for a Masters in Green Economy.

Phil studied with the Open University, where he gained his BSC (Hons) in Engineering, in 2000.

He joined Rockwell Automation in 2005 and has over 20 years of automation sales experience in a variety of different industries. He is responsible for overseeing continued growth of Rockwell Automation products, solutions and services in the UK, and leading the continued expansion of The Connected Enterprise principles that help its customers expand human possibility in the era of Industry 4.0.

A registered STEM ambassador he is passionate about enthusing the next generation of engineers, Phil has also recently been engaged across EMEA in a strategic role relating to the company’s investment into PTC.

Follow Phil on LinkedIn where he publishes his blogs and other company news, and posts regularly on issues most important for UK industry and its growing importance to the UK economy.

The post The future of manufacturing and innovation appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

The best thing about events is seeing the community come together to talk, learn, and share knowledge. You know what else is great? Wearing your comfiest clothes, drinking tea or coffee from your favourite mug at home.

So what do you get when you combine the two? A free 48-hour digital event for developers where they can gain new skills, and learn about the latest technology trends that could deliver better outcomes for your business.

Most importantly, they will have a chance to chat with other devs from around the world and share experiences. This will help them continue their learning journey and gain valuable insight to other people’s experiences to build better apps now and in the future.

Held from May 19-20, our first ever digital Microsoft Build will enable your development teams to jump in and out of channels, join interactive sessions, talk to other developers, and get the answers they need to progress with their latest projects.

There’s so much going on in the 48 hours, but we have a preview of what you and your team can expect from Build and how it can help you drive business goals.

1.      5 talks to look out for

There’ll be lots of interesting sessions and talks on offer, but we’ve pulled out some highlights you can share with your dev team. They can learn about the latest cloud innovation on Azure with Scott Guthrie, explore the modern dev toolkit with Scott Hanselman, and hear from Satya Nadella on the importance of devs.

Take a look at our dev blog to get the low-down.

2.      Gain new skills

It’s important for your team to keep their knowledge fresh and to learn new skills that will help make them better developers. Make it a team goal to leave Build with a new skill, or a learning pathway to one.

Encourage your team to join talks, Q&As, and interactive sessions on building new tools and using Microsoft technologies to improve their DevOps toolkit. They can then use these new skills to build new capabilities to really drive business goals.

Employees could also earn a free Microsoft Certification test voucher and a chance to win prizes by completing some online learning modules on Microsoft Learn.

3.      Learn about the latest trends

Think of Build as a Parisian runway – but for technology. The growth of data science and machine learning is bringing new tech that is changing DevOps. Kevin Scott talks about some of the emerging trends that are reshaping software development.

Inspire your team by getting them involved in in-depth sessions on new tools and processes that will further drive your business values.

4.      Get creative

We get our best ideas when we’re surrounded by creativity. And there’s no better place than Build. When you or your devs hear of new tools or learn a new skill, it could spark a new idea. Live sessions with other devs will get the creative juices flowing.

You could go completely off script by encouraging your team to join our film festival. Not only will it spark creativity in a different way, but it will also get your team working together in new and fun ways, driving collaboration and building strength.

So get your team’s Steven Spielberg on and make a dev-version of Indiana Jones, a space odyssey with your team’s pets, or whatever else you and your team can think of.

5.      Get expert guidance

If your devs have a specific question, or need some help with a particular Microsoft technology, they can go one-to-one with our engineers in specially crafted sessions.

6.      Join your community

At the end of the day, Build isn’t Build without our amazing community of developers. Your team can connect with other devs from around the world in our sessions or social hours. Share tips, get knowledge, and gain new friends.

And it doesn’t stop after Build is over. Our community will keep the conversation and knowledge sharing going. There might even find a new solution shared that you could use to improve something in your business.

Sound pretty amazing, right? Luckily, you don’t have to miss out. Build is for you as well as your dev team. It’s a great chance for you to gain valuable insight into what’s coming, and how you can use new and existing technology in inventive ways to really drive your business goals.

We can’t wait for everyone to get together and share knowledge so we can all innovate for the challenges of tomorrow.

Join us for the 48-hour digital experience, at no cost, May 19-20.

About the author

Find out more

5 talks to look out for at Build next week

Build

The post Empower your developer team to learn, connect and code at Microsoft Build appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

This impacts the skills students need to succeed in classrooms today and in the workplaces of the future. Schools, colleges, and universities need to evolve in order to deliver the best learning outcomes for students.

As educators, you’re tasked with the critical role of equipping students with the skills they need for the future digital workplace and to be the next generation of leaders. Not only does everyone needs to learn the skills required to live and work in a world that is increasingly digital, but we need more computer science, data science, and cybersecurity skills to build future products and services.

This can seem like an impossible task at times with an increased pressure around funding and student numbers, but we see many great examples of how colleges and universities are finding smarter ways of working, enabling students to take control of their learning whilst freeing up teachers to spend more time helping them overcome challenges.

The future of work and skills

The workplace of today and the future is more collaborative, productive, and diverse. It empowers employees to work how they see best, wherever they are. Technology is an integral part of the workplace today, and as technologies like IoT and AI grow, the role of technology will also expand.

It’s important we build up student’s soft and digital skills to ensure they can walk into these roles with confidence. The World Economic Forum listed analytical thinking, innovation, active learning, creativity, problem solving, and collaboration as some of the most important emerging skills of 2022. Students will also need to be committed to lifelong learning, to ensure they re- and upskill as we make new technology gains and jobs and industries evolve and need new skills.

Empowering educators with digital skills

For students to reach their full potential, they need educators at their full potential. Teachers who develop digital skills are empowered to use technology to improve their wellbeing and work better.

Office 365 gives educators access to time-saving tools that simplify marking and makes collaboration between students and peers easy. Predictive analytics can be used to predict student performance, improve learning outcomes, and provide customised support to students who need it.

Only 38 percent of teachers feel their training has equipped them with the skills they need. Microsoft Educator Community is a hub for educators to learn and explore resources to build those skills.

Equipping educators with the tools and skills to leverage technology in the classroom will ultimately help students develop vital digital skills that will help them succeed in the future. It will also empower educators to use technology to amplify their own work to improve their wellbeing.

Technology in the classroom

49 percent of teachers surveyed by us said that technology made a positive impact on student-teacher collaboration. One of these tools – Microsoft Teams is helping schools increase both peer-to-peer and student-teacher collaboration.

At City of Westminster College, the use of Teams empowered students to take responsibility for their own learning and encouraged collaboration amongst learners. Learning extends beyond the classroom, with teachers posting resources that students can view at any time – whether in class or studying at home. It’s also helped eliminate communication barriers faced by students with hearing impairments.

I’m incredibly proud of the work our customers are doing with our technology to support a learning environment that is both accessible and inclusive.

Over the next three years we have committed to train 30,000 teachers on how technology can help build an inclusive classroom, with our free built-in and non-stigmatising learning tools. Immersive reader, for example, helps students with dyslexia by reading out text, breaking words into syllables and increasing spacing between lines and letters.

Stronger together

As an education community, we all have a huge opportunity and responsibility to prepare students for a digital future and continued change. Join in on our sessions at Digifest or pop by our stand to discover how we’re helping other educators use technology to transform student and teacher outcomes.

Find out more

Help your students prepare for their careers

Discover more education blogs from Microsoft

About the author

Chris is the Director of Education at Microsoft UK.  He and his team work with education customers helping them make the most of technology to save time and increase the impact of teaching and learning.

The post Empowering every student on the planet to achieve more appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

Despite a minor slow-down at the turn of the year, primarily triggered by the political uncertainties in UK and ongoing global economic pessimism, the country’s manufacturing industry seems back on the track for growth. According to Microsoft’s AI research report, ‘Accelerating Competitive Advantage with AI’, both investment and employment are on the rise. Meanwhile, the UK government’s 2019 Industrial Strategy initiative will see £110 million of funding injected into AI development for the sector.

Our manufacturing is a global leader when adopting emerging digital transformation strategies such as AI, with the report revealing more than half of UK manufacturers (51%) are currently using AI to some degree, an increase of 3% since 2018. However, the sector faces challenges regarding the pace and scale of AI adoption.

Allaying Fears

A key challenge the sector faces is the fear among unions and workers about the risks automation poses to jobs, despite acknowledgement that these emerging technologies could give the much needed boost to productivity and safety. These concerns must be addressed and allayed if the industry is to truly move forward on its AI-led digital transformation.

The AI research report provides some interesting insights: we see more than half of UK manufacturing leaders (54%) saying they don’t understand how their organisation’s AI solutions arrive at their conclusions, while 51% admit they would not know what to do if they ever disagreed with their AI’s recommendations. Although lower than the national average (63% and 57% respectively), this still leaves a lot of room for uncertainty – and improvement – especially as UK manufacturers try to build on the positive beginnings and move towards becoming fully AI-enabled organisations.

Strong industry leadership is essential. Business leaders must to immerse themselves in the technology, fully getting to grips with how it works, where in the value chain it can be most beneficial, and what to do when teething problems or conflicts occur.

This challenge is appropriately described in the words of Mark McNally, Challenge Director UK Research and Innovation:

‘Leaders need to understand what you hope to achieve and what steps you need to take to get there. The capabilities of AI are growing, but you need to know what you are trying to fix before implementing anything. The danger is having a technology solution looking for a problem. The capabilities of AI are growing, but you need to know what you are trying to fix before implementing anything.’

An internal disconnect

Alongside the operational challenges, there’s also an important cultural impact to consider. In a sector where automation is increasingly commonplace, workers continue to feel uncomfortable about the effect this may have on their job roles. If leaders cannot communicate where, why, and how their organisation’s AI solutions are working, it’ll be difficult to create a culture where workers are empowered to re-skill. Teams need to participate and work alongside machines, rather than feel threatened by them.

Our research indicates a situation in which leaders are not telling and staff are not asking. 95% of staff say they’ve never been consulted by their boss about the introduction of AI. In the same vein, 85% of leaders claim workers have never approached them about AI either. And when asked if teams in their organisation are able to share knowledge and experiences from using the technology to help each other, 39% of manufacturing leaders said ‘yes,’ but only 26% of staff agreed.

The way ahead

Richard King, Sales Director, Manufacturing at Microsoft UK, explains a roadmap for the way ahead.

‘For manufacturers, there are broadly four stages of the AI journey: driving visibility and insights; creating predictability; automation and being prescriptive; and being cognitive and autonomous. Currently, organisations tend to be largely operating at stage one. So, to derive full value from AI, they need to start accelerating their progress. And that is as much about a cultural transformation as it is a technological one.’

It seems, then, that the biggest barriers to the UK manufacturing industry’s move through King’s ‘four stages’ and into full AI implementation at scale are more cultural than technical.

Staff at all levels need a chance to re-skill and help shape the technology’s impact on their day-to-day work. Employees on the front-line need reassurance about their future job prospects in an automating sector. And communication needs to flow freely in both directions to foster a culture of collaboration, inclusiveness and responsible use.

As Nancy Rowe, Head of Inclusion & Diversity at digital transformation firm Publicis Sapient, puts it:

‘From a structural perspective, organisations must instil processes for educating leaders, managers and employees across the business. They have to know what inclusion looks like, then help people build the skills required to be an inclusive manager or team member.’

Meanwhile, Rina Ladva, Sector Director Manufacturing & Resources UK appropriately summarises the next steps:

‘In an industry that, compared to others, is forging ahead on its AI-led digital transformation, it is vital organisations ensure they know exactly what problems they are trying to solve while keeping their eyes firmly fixed on the humans too.’

If UK manufacturing factors in these insights, it will be well positioned to achieve its vision of being among the largest five manufacturing and industrial nations globally by 2021.

The post State of the Nation: AI and manufacturing appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

This blog is the first in a series where we will shine a light on some of these ‘different things’. We’ll take a virtual tour up and down the UK to explore stories of new ways of working, partnerships and of course the role which data, AI and digital are playing in this field. Change is happening, not only in service transformation, (because you’d be right to expect that) but also in how digital is paving the way for consumers of care to make our own choices about the sort of care which really matters to us – after all, this will be all of us one day. So where will we be stopping off?

With many services currently experiencing more ‘front doors’ than citizens can cope with, there are some substantial changes in the way which organisations are thinking about how services of the future will be accessed by those seeking help. An increasing number of authorities are looking to AI-driven virtual assistant services (aka bots) to support people in helping themselves by, for example, using this technology to suggest appropriate assistive technology which can help people in the home. Newcastle City Council’s Adult Social Care Equipment bot is one of the first of its kind, with similar technology popping up elsewhere in the country.

Others are bringing the power of AI and blockchain to help people source the care they want close to their own homes, and in doing so are beginning to address the issue of care ‘blackspots’ which leave many people without any care at all. Using the Tribe Project’s platform, individuals in pilot sites in Dorset Council and Shropshire Council can choose how to spend their care budget on support delivered from carers in their local area, people they trust to support them at the time and in the way they most need help.

North of the border in Dumfries and Galloway, exploring and deepening partnerships between the sector, the IT industry and academia have given rise to a new breed of assistive technology which goes beyond detecting falls to actually predicting the likelihood of them happening – Loreburn Housing, supported by ARMED technology managed to eradicate falls during tests. This is a genuine step forward in using technology to enable early intervention in order to prevent (or delay) the otherwise seemingly inevitable journey into increasingly costly care pathways.

A little further south,  Manchester City Council, together with health partners forming the Manchester Care Organisation are looking to evolve their integrated health and care approach through a data platform to manage and respond to real time needs from people whilst they are still in the community. Putting a focus on supporting people wherever possible to stay in their homes supported by family and friends, the integrated team is looking to make its combined data work for the benefit of the whole system and for the people of Manchester delivering a person centred, data driven ‘whole system’ approach. This is a truly different way of delivering health and care and should be of interest to Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships and Integrated Care Systems up and down the country.

We hope that you will find this series of blogs useful and that you will enjoy reading this UKAuthority whitepaper which showcases some other examples of innovation in health and care.

If you would like more information, please comment below to get in touch or reach out to your Microsoft Account Manager.

Find out more

Download the whitepaper: Smart and Connected Health and Social Care

Discover how to transform patient outcomes with AI 

About the author

Helena is Microsoft UK’s Local and Regional Government Industry Lead. She is passionate about the positive impact which technology, sensitively applied, can have on communities and cities of the future. Technology embedded in the fabric and infrastructure of our lives should help improve our day to day experiences, but it must do so in a way which helps us build a strong sense of community with those around us, encouraging a shared sense of ownership about our immediate environment, and on those further afield. Helena’s remit at Microsoft involves looking at how technology can help transform public services, particularly integrated health and social care, and leading on Microsoft’s smart cities programme in the UK. During her ten years at Microsoft, Helena has worked in various public sector focused roles, working with a mixture of start ups and major commercial organisations serving the public sector and with local government customers in the UK on their digital transformation activities. Prior to Microsoft, Helena managed a number of large change programmes and is well versed in the importance of the people side of change and transformation. 

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The marketplace is rapidly changing and competition is fierce. And, since the financial crash of 2009, the UK is home to the world’s largest fintech sector. It’s a new way of banking, providing customers with increased choice as to how they access financial products and services.

AI is driving digital transformation across every industry – little wonder, then, that our recent report into the UK’s AI scene, ‘Accelerating competitive advantage with AI’, revealed that organisations using AI outperform competitors by more than 11%. From a sector perspective, 72% of financial services are using the technology; far higher than the UK average of 56%.

Key challenges

51% of financial services leaders want their organisations to pioneer AI use. It’s an ambition borne from the technology’s potential to touch every aspect of a financial services business – from improving cyber-security efficiency to prioritising workloads and deliver enhanced, intelligent, and personalised customer experiences.

But it’s a goal not without its challenges. As a highly regulated sector, and one concerned with the ever-present threat of cyber-security, deployment can be constrained. Fears over risk and compliance take hold. Moving from innovation to implementation can be slow.

As Abhijit Akerkhar of Lloyds Banking Group, explains, ‘The focus now for the financial sector is on scaling AI. How do we do that in the right, safe way while generating tangible value?’

This question is precisely explored in ‘Accelerating the competitive advantage with AI’. The report explores how organisations can become AI-enabled, and highlights three core requirements when undertaking this journey.

• Scaling AI – moving from experimentation to implementation
• Creating a culture of participation – empowering staff & supporting re-skilling
• Making AI work for everyone – considering standards and operating principles for deployment from an ethical and unbiased standpoint

Key opportunities

Most financial services organisations agree: that for successful scaling and effective deployment of AI, culture, awareness, and skills must be aligned. In particular, we find that…

• Adoption is highlighted as an area of focus. No-one wants to be left behind, yet 35% of leaders are concerned this isn’t accelerating fast enough.
• Finding and preparing usable data ranks highly as a challenge across the sector, especially in terms of introduction of AI at scale. Data, built up over time, is siloed across business divisions and legacy systems. Access to this data is imperative.
• 60% of staff in financial services are yet to complete training on AI; 93% are yet to even be consulted on its introduction into a business. The gap between ambition and awareness must be closed, helping employees embrace the technology’s potential to transform and augment their roles, rather than the fear that workers will be replaced by robots.

This serves as a timely reminder: deeper collaboration between business and technical divisions is needed. Or, as Chris Skinner, financial author and blogger, puts it: ‘Scaling AI is not a technology shift, it is a structure and a mindset shift. Banks cannot embrace AI and digital transformation if they are just doing it as a project.’

Find out more

Download the full AI report, ‘Accelerating competitive advantage with AI’

Develop your skills and AI understanding with the Microsoft AI business school

About the author

Janet currently leads the Industry Strategy for Financial Services at Microsoft UK. She ensures that drivers of change and emerging technological trends across the sector are core to how Microsoft works with Financial Services organisations, supporting their digital transformation.  Before joining Microsoft in 2018 Janet held roles within commercial banking;  latterly at Lloyds Banking Group and prior to that, Barclays and RBS. She has a personal interest in cultural transformation and has also played an active role in supporting and driving the inclusion and diversity agenda during her career.

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The way we work will be totally transformed in the future. And having the right skills – both being confident in applying digital skills to technology, and in developing soft skills like creativity and critical thinking – is key to success in the future digital workplace.

The introduction of intelligent technology will make room for more critical tasks. We must ensure, therefore, that we retain our uniquely human skillset and expertise to work alongside technology. By doing so, you’ll be able to achieve more and have much greater impact on real business outcomes – whether that’s improving patient care in healthcare or delivering more personalised customer experiences in retail with technology like chatbots enabling 24/7 support and guidance.

Making time to develop my own skills has been something that’s been central to my own career path. It’s led me from being a potentially over-enthusiastic student at school, to the working world by becoming part of Microsoft’s first apprenticeship cohort back in 2014.

Apprenticeships have come a long way since I first started my career at Microsoft, with the introduction of higher-level, business degree apprenticeship too. Fast-forward to 2019: I’ve been at Microsoft over five years and have just completed my final academic assignment as part of the first year of my degree apprenticeship with The Open University.

For those completing a degree apprenticeship, it’s now a mandatory requirement to have 20% of your time off the job to allow the time and space to complete the assignments which has been incredibly helpful in maintaining work-life balance throughout the journey. But it’s not been easy, and there’s definitely been bumps in the road.

Here are some tips on how you can prioritise your time to make time for skills development and for yourself based on learnings from my own journey.

1. Be intentional about your learning and what you hope to achieve

As with any business, there are times of the year that are busier than others. Managing the stress of looming deadlines at work with the due dates of assignment submissions has been a particular challenge throughout the year, but being strict about when I’m working and when I’m studying has been crucial to keeping me on track and in control of my workload.

Perhaps you can block out a Friday afternoon every couple of months and dedicate that time to learning and development. Put yourself into Do Not Disturb mode. Set yourself some goals. Be specific about what you plan to achieve in that time. Maybe you’re going to read about a certain subject. Or perhaps you’re going to enrol in our AI Business School and complete a particular module that day.

It doesn’t matter what you plan to do; being intentional about what you hope to achieve will make it easier to stay on track.

2. Create room for thought by prioritising your personal time

Having time away from work and study is essential to unwind. It gives you room for thought and creativity, helping you think about how you might apply your learnings.

It’s so easy to hop on your work emails and have a sneak peek at what’s coming through – but that can quickly de-rail your focus. In fact, research shows that receiving an email or chat is so distracting, it takes 23 minutes to get back on track.

Suddenly, it’s the end of the day and you’ve not achieved what you set out to do. That creates a vicious cycle, leading you to spend your valuable personal time getting work done instead of spending time with friends and family.

It sounds obvious when you write it down on paper but, from experience, it’s not so easy to see when you’re in the situation, facing deadlines and feeling like your juggling a million plates all at once.

Personally, I find Microsoft Planner to be incredibly useful in managing workloads and prioritising my agenda for the day. It means I can make the most of every working hour and every study day, so I can save my personal time for myself.

3. Use technology to help you manage your time better

I still find it difficult to stay off my work email entirely on my study days. As such, I’ve since made use of the screen-time function on my phone, setting all personal apps as ‘always allow’ and applying restrictions to work-based apps.

It’s been quite effective in steering me away from replying to emails after hours, so I’m more intentional about when I’m doing it.

And it also helps to use a different device when I study, otherwise I’ll inevitably end up in my inbox or replying to Teams messages as they pop up.

But it can be a struggle in your personal time too. One moment you’re scrolling through Instagram, checking your Twitter feed, LinkedIn posts – then suddenly, you’re in your work inbox replying to mails that can wait until tomorrow.

Every Monday morning, I get an email to start my week off that summarises how much time I’ve spent working after hours. A personal reminder to start my week with the right intentions and to be present in the moment when I’m outside of work.

Just because you have access to the technology, doesn’t mean you have to do it alone.

We get so wrapped up in our own worlds, we sometimes can’t see where we’re going wrong or where adjustments should be made. So, talk to someone – discuss your position with a manager, a colleague, or mentor who can offer a fresh perspective.

I find speaking about workloads and sharing that experience really helps with resetting priorities. Together, you can then apply solutions through the technology you have.

Realistically, there are times when you have to make sacrifices or work longer hours. Sometimes there are work commitments that I can’t miss, which fall on my study day, so I need to move it to accommodate.

Whichever way you decide to make time for developing your skillset, the key to success is in the balance. I’d love to hear your thoughts on how you manage work and life to get that perfect balance. Join the discussion and leave a comment below.

Find out more

Develop your digital skills

Discover MyAnalytics

Read more: 5 ways to work smarter and improve your work-life balance

Watch the session from Future Decoded: Learn it all – How Microsoft approached cultural change

About the author

Emma is passionate about leading with the customer and ensuring our content resonates and adds value, taking a data-driven approach to storytelling. She runs our blogging champions series as a way to unlock advocacy and influence across the business, so we can tell our story in an authentic way that builds a connection with audiences. Emma has been at Microsoft for over five years, having started as one of the first apprentices in the business back in 2014 and is currently working towards her Chartered Management Degree Apprenticeship with The Open University.  

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A recent study of 1,400 information workers commissioned by Microsoft found that 40% of people work outside of regular hours in a way that interferes with family time. The report also found 70 percent of professionals don’t fully unplug from work.

With our world becoming increasingly connected and the lines blurring between our work and personal lives. The very technology that introduced the benefits of being always on and always connected, has impacted our ability focus and disconnect, reducing our productivity and disrupting our family time.

Earlier this year, as part of Mental Health Awareness Week, Casandra Marrero and I collated a series of our favourite tips on how technology has allowed us to take back control and manage a healthier mental wellbeing at work. Here are the top 7 tips that I use personally:

1. Turn off notifications

According to Forbes, 98% of the population don’t multitask very well – we are only shifting back from one task to another.

Research also shows it can take up to 23 minutes to refocus after checking just one email or chat. Not to mention, the impact that other distractions like social media can have on your attention. I sat down one day and laid out all the mobile communications apps I use on my phone onto one screen.

One day I sat down and moved all the iPhone applications that I use to communicate personally and professionally onto one screen and came up with 20 of them. It was no wonder I had trouble focusing. I found the constant notifications so disruptive to my productivity that I made a conscious effort at the beginning of the year to turn them off completely. I haven’t looked back.

Turn off your notifications and regain your focus. On an iPhone, this can easily be done by going to Settings, tap on Notifications, and for each application toggle Allow Notifications to Off. On an Android device, go to Settings, tap Sound & Notification, then scroll until you see the App notifications. For each application, toggle Block All to Off.

2. Schedule time for email

The average person checks their email about 15 times per day. It’s hard to get important work done if you’re spending most of your day responding to tactical requests from other people.

Try limiting when you check your email to 2 or 3 key times of the day. Remove the temptation by disabling new email notifications. This can easily be done in Outlook 2013 or 2016 by going to the File tab, select Options, select Mail, and in the ‘Message arrival’ section, un-check ‘Display a Desktop Alert’ and ‘Show an envelope icon on the taskbar’.

3. Book focus time each week

There used to be weeks where my days were so jam packed full of meetings that I’d get home and spend the evening catching up on actions and emails. I also found it hard to get deeply involved in challenging work when I only had small chunks of time to focus in between meetings.

I started blocking out time every day or week to focus without interruptions to help me improve my concentration and effectiveness. MyAnalytics in Outlook can help suggest and book focus time on your behalf, particularly if it looks like your calendar is filling up. Go to MyAnalytics to open your personal dashboard.

We recently announced some exciting new focus features coming to MyAnalytics. When these features roll out, your status in Microsoft Teams will automatically switch to Focus during booked focus time to help you concentrate. You will only get notifications for messages that are urgent or from contacts with priority access.

4. Stay on top of your tasks

A great way to get something off your mind is to note it down. But how many to-do lists do you currently have? Perhaps a grocery list on the back of an envelope, possibly a list of things to–do in notes or an app on your phone and maybe some tasks in Outlook?

But what about those emails that you’ve flagged to get back to? And what if someone has assigned you a task in Planner?

One way to stay on top of all these tasks is to use an application like Microsoft To Do which is available for free, and syncs across iPhone, Android, Windows 10, and the web. To Do is integrated with Outlook Tasks, making it easier to manage all your tasks in one place.

Planner tasks assigned to you will also now appear in To-Do under a new Assigned to Me list.

5. Try using a digital assistant to save time

One of my biggest stresses at work used to be trying to find a mutually agreeable time to meet for a call, particularly when the attendees were external to my organisation and calendar free-busy information wasn’t available. I used to have to go back–and–forth with options and found it incredibly time consuming.

Not everyone can afford to have their own personal assistant, but how about a digital assistant? Now when I need to schedule some time to meet I used Calendar.help (calendar.help). I simply cc: Cortana in an email with other people and ask her to schedule a meeting. Cortana handles all the back-and-forth emails to find a time when everyone can meet and then sends out an invite on my behalf. I can even predefine what number to call, which meeting room to book or whether to add online meeting details by default.

Cortana.help is currently in exclusive preview. Other great tools that can help relieve the burden of booking meetings include Outlook plugins like Findtime and intelligent assistants like Zoom.ai that integrate with your chat apps and email.

6. Be mindful of after-hours impact on others

I love working for an organisation that fully supports flexible working. This means that I’m able balance personal commitments like school sporting events or parent-teacher conferences with my work commitments; allowing me the flexibility to take time out during the day and catch up in the evening. While some of us may be night owls or choose to work after hours to catch up or prepare for a busy day ahead, we need to be mindful of the impact that this work habit may have on others.

This is particularly important for people managers in setting expectations around availability where a study states that “employees do not need to spend actual time on work in their off-hours to experience the harmful effects. The mere expectations of availability increase strain for employees and their significant others –even when employees do not engage in actual work during non-work time.”

MyAnalytics in Outlook can show you the after-hours impact you impose on co-workers and coaches you towards building better work habits. If you must work late, trying saving emails to draft or delaying email delivery until business hours.

MyAnalytics in Outlook can show you the after-hours impact you impose on co-workers and coaches you towards building better work habits. If you must work late, trying saving emails to draft or delaying email delivery until business hours. 

7. Set yourself boundaries

A study of 1,400 information workers commissioned by Microsoft found that 40% of people work outside of regular hours in a way that interferes with family time. The report also found 70 percent of professionals don’t fully unplug from work.

“You need to regenerate your energy. Unplugging is an emotional recharge that we all need”

Set yourself boundaries to give yourself a break and a chance to recharge. Monitor your progress through the number of Quiet Days, days where you have spent less than two hours actively collaborating outside your set work schedule, in MyAnalytics in Outlook.

Whilst we may be tempted to work long hours at times, it is important to remember that sleep is as important as eating, drinking and breathing as described by the Mental Health Foundation. Turn on the night light on your screen or use dark mode to reduce the strain on your eyes and lessen sleep disruption.

And when you’re on holiday, set your Out of Office and stop syncing Outlook on your phone to remove temptation. Additionally, consider leaving your laptop at home and feel empowered to remove work apps off your phone to avoid sneaking a peek at your emails.

About the author

Angela Bos is Microsoft UK’s Marketing Communications Manager for Executive Engagement. Prior to that, she spent 4 years at a Technology Specialist in Microsoft’s Modern Workplace team, helping public sector customers deliver better citizen services using cloud technologies. Angela is a passionate communicator, regularly speaking at Microsoft and industry events. She loves sharing ways that we can use technology to simplify how we collaborate, be more productive, and have more time for the things we enjoy. An advocate for diversity, inclusion, and accessibility, Angela currently sit on the Women@Microsoft UK Board as the Women in Technology lead, supporting activities and initiatives to attract, inspire, develop, and retain women in technology careers. 

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1. Nurture unique skills

Grimsby, where I’m from, is a far cry from the streets of Paris. The old fishing town is almost completely cut off from the rest of England, with no direct motorway connections and a limited railway station (if you want to visit us, you’ll be taking country lanes to get here). During the entire event, I only met two people who had even heard of Grimsby, and I felt quite insignificant when chatting to people from more far-flung locales like Melbourne, Nairobi, or Ho Chi Minh City.

It got me thinking, if I was feeling like that, how must others from the town feel?

What would it be like if everyone from my home town experienced an event like E2? Strangers from across the globe, joined together, split into teams, and quickly finding that all-important team dynamic in order to co-operatively solve a problem.

Then it hit me: this isn’t limited to an event like the Education Exchange. This is life. This is how it should be, with individuals drawing on their own unique strengths, skills, and perspectives – listening to others and using these strengths to help everyone. Whether you’re a Grimbarian or a Parisian, we all have a unique set of skills to offer our peers. Developing that in our learners is vital to help inspire and build aspirations, no matter where they’re from.

2. Technology needs purpose

Technology is continuing to transform the classroom experience – but that doesn’t mean it’s something that should be used just because it’s there. It’s shouldn’t be simply a box-ticking exercise. To treat it as such misses the point and the power of technology in education.

As educators, we need to carefully plan and prepare for the introduction of any tech into the classroom. Consider…

• Why you’re deploying it
• How you want your students to learn
• What you wish to achieve

This lets our learners collaborate, communicate, grow, and – just as developmentally important – fail in a safe, guided environment.

Used in the right way, technology is an empowering force. In the hands of the right educators, we have the potential to change the world – one school, college, or university at a time. But any classroom technology must have a purpose if it’s to support and engage a learner’s journey.

3. Ed-tech breaks down social barriers

Education technology goes beyond a laptop in every school bag and engaging PowerPoint slides on hi-tech TVs. We only have to look at the work of inspirational educators like Koen Timmers to see how education can support the reduction of poverty and inequality.

Tech is helping to break down barriers like these, as well as overcoming obstacles like location, distance, and even time. With the right tools, ed-tech lets students gain a greater perspective, learn about and respect other cultures, and discover new worlds outside the classroom. We need to harness these tools not just to help educate students in terms of the curriculum, but also increase their worldly knowledge and empathy.

In other words, the final barrier is the four walls of the classroom. There’s a wide and exciting world beyond it. The Microsoft Education Exchange shows us that, but it’s the technology that helps every one of our learners not just explore it, but experience it in all its glory.

Find out more

Tools to transform your classroom

Student-centred learning

About the author

Elaine has worked for over 10 years in education, delivering ICT qualifications and training in Further Education, Higher Education, Community learning and apprenticeships. She now works as a Senior Learning Technologist at the Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education. In the role, she helps more than 400 academic staff implement technology solutions in the classroom, as well as fully integrating Office365 technologies into work processes of support staff. As a MIE Expert and active member of the Microsoft Educator Community, Elaine drives the adoption of learning technologies throughout the Grimsby Institute and provides Microsoft Office Specialist training and support for staff development. Dedicated and passionate, Elaine recognises the growing need for digital capabilities within teaching, and believes that with the right support, technology creates better learning experiences.

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