1% Greener, 7% More Engaged: Landmark Study Quantifies ROI of Sustainable Workspaces in India

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) – Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), in collaboration with the Confederation of Danish Industry (DI), today launched the landmark research report "SUSTAINABLE WORKSPACE – Catalyst for Productivity and Profitability in Indian Businesses" at the CII Green Business Centre, Hyderabad.

The unique one-of-its-kind research study in the world with academic support from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, reveals that sustainable workplaces are transformative for Indian businesses. The key findings of this research are that organizations that adopt Green Building Practices are more likely to have a thriving and engaged workforce, leading to increase in business performance for the organization. Moving far beyond environmental responsibility, the study demonstrates that green building strategies substantially enhance employee productivity, well-being, and organizational profitability.

The multi-year project presents the strongest evidence to date that adopting green solutions in India’s workplaces leads to marked improvements in employee thriving, engagement, and over all wellbeing outcomes. Through a rigorous, multi-phase approach involving inputs from 75 case study partners with over 1,100 occupant responses from 6 cities and analysis of more than 900 indoor environment quality data points, the study offers robust, data-driven proof that building sustainably delivers measurable value for both organizations and their people.

Key Findings

• A 1% increase in Green Index (a composite of indoor environment quality and comfort) lifts employee thriving by 3% and engagement by 2%, respectively, and enhances physical well-being by 3%.
• A 1% increase in Indoor Environment Quality leads to 7% increase in employee engagement and 2% increase in Thriving.
• Improved Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ)—covering temperature, lighting, noise, humidity, and CO₂—boosts both psychological vitality and learning at work, driving organizational performance, innovation, and staff retention.
• The findings confirm that sustainable workspaces deliver far-reaching outcomes: higher employee satisfaction, well-being, and organizational profitability across varying climatic and cultural zones in India.

The report was unveiled by H.E. Rasmus Abildgaard Kristensen, Ambassador of the Royal Danish Embassy to India; Shri R V Karnan IAS, Commissioner GHMC Government of Telangana; Mr. M Goutham Reddy, Vice Chairman, CII Telangana State Council; and Mr. C Shekar Reddy, National Vice Chairman, IGBC; Ms Bente Toftkær, Director, Global Talent & International Services, Danish Industry; Ar. Srinivas Murthy, Chairman, IGBC Hyderabad Chapter; and Mr. K S Venkatagiri, Executive Director, CII GBC in the presence of other dignitaries and sustainable industry champions.

Speaking at the launch, H.E. Mr. Rasmus Abildgaard Kristensen, Ambassador of the Royal Danish Embassy to India, said "Denmark is delighted to partner with India in advancing the agenda of sustainable and people-centric development. Over the years, our collaboration has demonstrated how shared knowledge, technology, and innovation can deliver solutions that benefit both people and the planet. The launch of the DI and CII-IGBC report on Sustainable Workspaces is yet another milestone in this journey. It reinforces the importance of designing workplaces that reduce environmental impact while enhance well-being, creativity, and productivity. Together, Denmark and India can accelerate the green transition and create resilient urban futures that serve as a model for the world."

Shri R V Karnan IAS, Commissioner GHMC Government of Telangana, while addressing the gathering said, "Telangana is proud to lead the sustainable transformation of India’s built environment, with Hyderabad emerging as one of the country’s green building hubs. Our state has consistently championed IGBC-certified projects across residential, commercial, and institutional sectors, setting benchmarks in energy efficiency and eco-friendly urban development. Collaborating with national and international partners, we reaffirm our commitment to harnessing the power of green workspaces to enhance quality of life, drive innovation, and build resilient urban futures. This report provides compelling evidence that sustainable workplaces are not only vital for citizen well-being but also a strategic investment in Telangana’s economic growth and global competitiveness."

Mr. C Shekar Reddy, National Vice Chairman, IGBC, stated, "As IGBC celebrates 25 years of championing the green building movement in the country, the launch of the DI and CII-IGBC research report on Sustainable Workspaces – Catalysts for Productivity and Profitability in Indian Businesses marks an important milestone. This study reinforces the need to move beyond traditional metrics like energy and water savings to embrace workplaces that prioritize people’s well-being, creativity, and productivity while ensuring environmental stewardship. Together, we can transform our work environments into powerful catalysts for both sustainability and business growth, shaping a greener and healthier future for India."

The report provides actionable guidance for business leaders, Developers, policymakers, urban planners, architects, ESG investors and industry associations. It urges all stakeholders to:

• Prioritize IEQ and comfort in both new and existing workplaces.
• Integrate measurable green metrics in design and operations.
• Assess workspaces with evidence-based tools to drive employee engagement and organizational success.

LTIMindtree Launches GenAI Powered Autonomous Sourcing Platform

The platform boosts productivity by 20% and reduces overall procurement cost by 10-15%

LTIMindtree, a global technology consulting and digital solutions company, today announced the launch of Navisource.AI, a GenAI powered autonomous sourcing platform. Using the power of AI driven pricing and negotiation engine, the platform aims to reduce overall procurement cost by 10-15 percent.

Navisource.AI revolutionizes procurement with AI, streamlining processes from requisition to risk management. It integrates with LLM and Model Catalogs via Canvas.AI, enhancing enterprise workflows. Compatible with Ariba and SAP S/4HANA, it provides comprehensive navigational and decision-making support.

“We believe that GenAI will drive transformation in three dimensions: functional reimagination, paving new ways of working, and intelligent automation. Enabling business transformation using GenAI is core to our strategy. With the reliability and trust in AI increasing, we foresee more autonomous AI-driven business processes being orchestrated. Navisource.AI will simplify indirect procurement processes, bring predictability, and free up a lot of time spent on manual activities so that procurement functions can focus more on strategic initiatives,” stated Vineet Moroney, Senior Vice President, and Global Head of Enterprise Apps, LTIMindtree.

Procurement teams can use Navisource.AI for market research, pricing intelligence and recommendations with cost efficiencies at its core. The analysis engine powered by GenAI understands the requirements and arrives at the best fit sourcing strategy. It also eliminates manual touchpoints and enhances collaboration across supplier, procurement function and requestor.

Developers Increasingly Experiencing "Zoom Fatigue", 22% Says It Affects Productivity

Developers are increasingly experiencing “Zoom Fatigue” which affects their productivity according to a survey report by HackerEarth titled “Code in Progress: HackerEarth 2021 Developer Survey.”

As per the report, developers and engineers remained in high demand throughout 2020 and 2021 amid the Covid-19 pandemic as organisations accelerated their digital transformation efforts to ensure business continuity.

“Things have changed however with remote work being the norm for many tech employees and the task of recruiting, screening & interviewing, and nurturing developer talent becoming more competitive than ever,” it said.

As per the survey, 22 per cent of developers said that ‘Zoom Fatigue’ is real and directly affects their productivity. For 18 per cent of developers, a ‘No Interruption’ policy when they have their headphones on helps boost productivity.

The survey also explored the trends in talent. 68 per cent of developers said that they were least happy working at large enterprises vs. growth-stage startups, especially those that clock over 60 hours per week.

In terms of challenges in recruitment, a lack of feedback post-interview is a major issue in the recruitment process according to 40 per cent of experienced developers. Too many rounds in the interview process (16 per cent) and misleading job descriptions (14 per cent) are other things about the tech hiring process that professional developers dislike, the report said.

With increasing reliance on digital, 0 per cent of developers said that they prefer remote interviewing tools that are equipped with video and code editors.

Separately, the survey also explored the popular programming languages among experienced and student developers. A majority of student developers (88 per cent) cite Rust as the programming language they aim to master in 2021. Other languages that interest students are Lua, Groovy, and Erlang. A majority of experienced developers (73 per cent) want to know more about Go. For top developer frameworks, a majority of students (88 per cent) are interested in learning Padrino and experienced developers (55 per cent) would like to excel in React.

“There’s no way we could have predicted all of the radical changes the pandemic brought upon the tech industry over the past year,” said Sachin Gupta, CEO of HackerEarth.

“The one constant is the immense challenge facing hiring managers and CTOs responsible for assembling and nurturing tech teams in a fiercely competitive market. This year’s report is meant to help decision-makers understand how code will progress and guide their strategic roadmap for hiring in 2021 and beyond,” said Gupta.

The survey results include responses from 25,000+ developers across 171 countries, with women comprising more than 20 per cent of participants.

Why Ireland Is The Most Productive Country on Earth ?

The latest figures from the OECD show, once again, Ireland at the top of the list of the most productive countries on earth. Since the 1990s, Ireland has more than doubled its labour productivity, while countries such as the UK, Germany and France have failed to reverse declining levels.

The biggest takeaway from Ireland’s success is the predominance of multinationals in the Emerald Isle.
The Biden administration has proposed a global minimum corporate tax rate that could have serious implications for Ireland’s economy.

Multinationals are the Secret of Ireland’s Success

The simple reason for Ireland’s success is the predominance of multinationals in the Emerald Isle.

Lured by one of the most attractive corporate tax rates in the world, Ireland is home to more than 1,000 FDI giants. Companies such as Google, HP, Apple, IBM, Facebook employ tens of thousands and have bought over 54 billion in revenue to the island.

Since the 1990s, Ireland has more than doubled its labour productivity, while countries such as the UK, Germany and France have failed to reverse declining levels.

Could Joe Biden’s Tax Changes End Ireland’s Competitive Advantage?

This month’s announcement by the Biden administration, that they will be pushing for a global minimum corporate tax rate, could have drastic implications for Ireland’s economy.

“We are working with G20 nations to agree to a global minimum corporate tax rate that can stop the race to the bottom,” said US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

Biden’s plan means that if a company paid tax at the lower Irish rate, then the US (or other countries) could top up that company’s tax within their jurisdiction to bring it to the global minimum. Yellen hinted that the figure of 21% is what they have in mind.

For the Biden administration, this would be a way of preventing tax revenues leaking to other countries, and a means of injecting $2trn into American’s economy.

Irish economic pundit John Wheeland commented that Ireland “had got away with it for quite some time” and that the significance of Biden’s bid for a global 21% minimum rate should not be understated.

With Ireland’s corporation tax receipts rising from about €4bn (£3.5bn) in 2013 to around €12bn (£10.5bn) in 2020, the country may face a starkly different economic future if Biden’s plan succeeds.

SOURCE - Businessexpert.co.uk

Few Productivity Hacks for Startups

Most businesses owners never feel like they have enough time to do all the things that need to get done. Startup founders feel especially burdened since their teams are usually small and they have limited resources. While there’s nothing you can do about the number of hours in the day, you can make every day more productive. Here’s how to get the most out of each day.

Monitor Your Online Time and Minimise Distractions

The Internet can be a key facilitator of modern businesses but it can also prove to be a major distraction. Apps like RescueTime and even the new Screen Time feature on iPhones provide lots of insight into your online activities. The stats collected by these apps may shock you. If you’re running an online business, social media screen time will be key to your productivity. However, if most of your business is done offline, 3 hours on Twitter per day may not be the best use of your time. Try muting the notifications from these apps. If you still find yourself checking them for updates, log out at the start of the workday.  Only log in during breaks or at the end of the day.

Don’t Reinvent the Wheel; Use Templates

You can get templates for virtually anything you need to create. These include editorial calendars, social media audits, purchase orders and more. These will keep you organized, ensure everything has a uniform look, and save you lots of time. Customize the templates with your brand colors and logos and any special sections you need. This will take a lot less time than designing everything from scratch.

Automate Tasks Where Possible

Take advantage of the wide range of tools which can help you automate some of your functions. This can free up some of your time so you don’t have to do repetitive processes manually. Apps like Hootsuite, Drip, and Autopilot allow you to schedule your social media posts, manage inbound messages and track audience growth and performance. UiPath can take over both front and back office processes. Invoice generators and accounting tools make it easier to manage your finances and make tax season a lot more hassle-free. You can also use an alert system to monitor online brand mentions. Tracking social media manually for reviews and comments can be very time-consuming.

Sign Up for a Managed Email System

Startups get lots of emails and forgetting to follow up on a critical one can have a significant impact on business. Managed email systems allow you to have more control over your inbox. You can schedule alerts, mark emails which have been successfully handled and organize messages according to importance. This may not seem necessary in the beginning but once you start to get lots of offers, orders or queries, you will see the need.

Make Sure Your Workspace is Work-Friendly

Getting the most out of your day doesn’t only revolve around digital tools. Your office environment can either boost or hamper productivity. You should have adequate space for each worker, good lighting and proper equipment. You also need to ensure that office furniture is ergonomic. Your office should be set up in a way that employees can interact as necessary and have access to the tools they will need. If privacy and security are important in your field, make sure these are not compromised in any way. You can also add some custom neon lights in your workspace to remind you to work hard.

Outsource Small Tasks to Freelancers

The gig economy is growing and startups should take advantage of this. There are certain small jobs which may not suit anyone in your team. Instead of leaving the task undone or giving it to someone who can’t handle it, hire a skilled freelancer online. Fiverr, PeoplePerHour and other freelance marketplaces list hundreds of people who work for as little as $5. Outsourcing allows your team to focus on their areas of specialty and the core aspects of business.

Ban Meetings on One Day of The Week

Asana is one startup which has put this policy in place. Having one day of the week free of meetings allows workers to focus on their respective tasks. While meetings can be valuable, if they aren’t properly planned or organized, they can simply be a waste of time. Unless there is an emergency, impromptu meetings can stop everyone from actually getting work done. Leave one day each week for focused work.

The Bottomline

You can land clients, build your brand and bring in revenue without spending every minute of the day working. Create a workspace that’s conducive to work, automate where possible and outsource when necessary to make sure you and your team operate at optimum levels. Don’t forget that there are ways to market your business with minimal effort.

How A Simple 'Office Chair' Can Affect Your Productivity

On average one spends 40 hours a week at workplace, and the majority of those at desk – in fact, the average office worker spends 5 hours and 41 minutes every single day sitting down at work.

Piles of clutter at workplace, and things like cheap and uncomfortable sitting chair is indeed a disorganization that can lead to frustration, lost productivity and difficulty completing tasks. In fact, one study found that employees spend an average of 4.3 hours a week searching for documents. The proper office furniture can keep important files and documents managed and organized. Employees can better meet deadlines, be prepared for meetings and answer phone calls efficiently.

Lower back pain is the single leading cause of disability worldwide, and it’s one of the most common reasons for absenteeism on workplace, according to the American Chiropractic Association. Therefore, any company especially a startup can’t keep production rates up if someone is always out of the office. Ergonomic furniture reduces pain and injury, plus makes employees more likely to come to work because they know they will be comfortable.

Many studies have found that employees’ productivity can be increased by 17.5% simply by providing them with the right chair and training.

As surprising as this may sound, the chairs that you sit on at workplace affect your total output aka productivity.

You have to know that there is an undeniable connection between the chairs in your office and your level of productivity.

According to Adeyemi Adetilewa, your state of health and overall wellbeing as an employee or an entrepreneur considerably affects your productivity. Traditional office chairs that don’t give room for flexibility hinder proper blood circulation. When you crouch into an uncomfortable chair for several hours, it hinders the flow of blood to your body parts.

This hindrance could prevent your vital organs – the brain and heart for example – from being properly oxygenated. A heart or brain that isn’t well oxygenated induces a foggy sensation in your system, which would affect your productivity in a great measure.

Also, not having proper blood circulation could cause various degrees of numbness. Numbness of certain parts of your body slows you down and could keep you from being able to work.

Another thing here to mention is Balance Balls, which were originally developed in the 1960s for physical therapy purposes. Nowadays, using these Balance Balls as office chairs seems to be taking off as the latest strategy aimed at reducing fatigue, discomfort and sitting disease.

Besides office use, Balance balls might also be just what the doctor ordered to help kids reach their full potential in the classroom, especially for those with sensory processing disorders, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or just a strong need to fidget. These balls, along with the adults, can be purposeful for their kids as well, which working parents can find quite handy along with Kids bedroom furniture at Urban Ladder. Notably, according to a report having children in the workplace can also boost your productivity.

Coming to office chairs and its relation with productivity, a study which took in hundreds of university students, showed test subjects a series of computer generated pictures of rooms. Some with rounded furniture and layouts, some with straight edged furniture and layouts. The results showed that the curved arrangements were found, almost unanimously, to be seen as more pleasing and inviting.

Furthermore, there was another study carried out, which showed that office environments with rounded furniture and more curvilinear furniture arrangements triggered more activity in the brain than offices with straight edges.

5 Robots aka AI Tools To Make You More Productive At Work

While the tech world is advancing at an impressive pace, it is still a few decades away from giving humans the gift of superhuman artificial intelligence. But don't you worry, till that happens, we have got machine learning by our side to get us through the daily mountains of tasks that we have to face at work.

Machine learning is being used at top-tier organisations for quite sometime now. According to a Forrester report, 2016 saw $5 billion in machine learning venture investment. The report also added that corporate investment in artificial intelligence will triple this year, and become a $100 billion market by the year 2025.

Here's a list of five machine learning tools that Indianweb2 has handpicked that can help people from different walks of life to work efficiently.

X.Ai

Who doesn't want an assistant of their own? With x.ai, your dream of having a personal assistant will come true as the technology company makes an artificial intelligence personal assistant who can efficiently schedule all your meetings for you. According to Dennis R. Mortensen, CEO, x.ai, the idea for an artificial intelligence personal assistant came to him when he personally went through the enormous pain of manually scheduling 1019 meetings in 2012, of which roughly 670 had updates and or were rescheduled at least once. If you're also reeling with this problem, you know now what you have to do.

Cassette

Whether you're a designer, journalist or maybe even a person who simply just wishes to keep a track of their conversations, Cassette is the go-to app for you. With its real-time speech-to-text transcription, Cassette documents all your conversations effortlessly – so you don't ever miss an important detail. Currently only available for iOS, the Cassette app also allows you to bookmark your important moments for later with just one tap, while it records your entire conversation's audio automatically. Once the transcription of a conversation is done, the app can effortlessly share the transcripts and recordings to your favourite apps – like Dropbox, Google Drive, Evernote, Slack, Box, and your email client.

Textio

If you're into hiring or talent acquisition, then you should definitely give Textio a try because we are almost certain that you're going to love it. The augmented writing platform for creating highly effective job listings analyses the hiring outcomes of more than 10 million job posts a month and then predicts the performance of your listing and gives you real-time guidance on how you can improve it. According to the company, on an average, hiring teams with a high TextioScore recruit 25% more people qualified enough to interview and 23% more women—and they do it 17% faster, which is quite impressive in a world where time is money.

Troops

Troops breathes a new life into how the sales teams interacts with the company's CRM system by leveraging the power of one of the more popular productivity apps, Slack. Troops makes use of artificial intelligence to display information based on conversations an employee is having in Slack while making customer data available without having to go through the trouble of jumping in between multiple applications. While it is capable of working for any CRM system, according to the company, its initial focus is Salesforce, which is one of the biggest players in the space. With Troops by your side, looking up Salesforce details won't be a painful process for you anymore.

Grammarly

Writing mails to and fro are a part of almost every job profile. So, if you wish to write mails with impeccable grammar and no mistake whatsoever, then the Grammarly writing app is the app for you. Built by the world’s leading linguists, Grammarly makes sure that everything you type is easy to read, effective, and mistake-free. What makes Grammarly different from the basic spell check and grammar check built into the word processor is the fact that Grammarly can identify correctly spelled words that are used in the wrong context. The app's vocabulary enhancement feature allows you to enhance your sentences with context-optimized word choice suggestions that instantly improve the readability of your document.

Related Reading - This Tool Estimates If You'll Lose Your Job To AI, Robots

[Top Image - Shutterstock]

5 Robots aka AI Tools To Make You More Productive At Work

While the tech world is advancing at an impressive pace, it is still a few decades away from giving humans the gift of superhuman artificial intelligence. But don't you worry, till that happens, we have got machine learning by our side to get us through the daily mountains of tasks that we have to face at work.

Machine learning is being used at top-tier organisations for quite sometime now. According to a Forrester report, 2016 saw $5 billion in machine learning venture investment. The report also added that corporate investment in artificial intelligence will triple this year, and become a $100 billion market by the year 2025.

Here's a list of five machine learning tools that Indianweb2 has handpicked that can help people from different walks of life to work efficiently.

X.Ai

Who doesn't want an assistant of their own? With x.ai, your dream of having a personal assistant will come true as the technology company makes an artificial intelligence personal assistant who can efficiently schedule all your meetings for you. According to Dennis R. Mortensen, CEO, x.ai, the idea for an artificial intelligence personal assistant came to him when he personally went through the enormous pain of manually scheduling 1019 meetings in 2012, of which roughly 670 had updates and or were rescheduled at least once. If you're also reeling with this problem, you know now what you have to do.

Cassette

Whether you're a designer, journalist or maybe even a person who simply just wishes to keep a track of their conversations, Cassette is the go-to app for you. With its real-time speech-to-text transcription, Cassette documents all your conversations effortlessly – so you don't ever miss an important detail. Currently only available for iOS, the Cassette app also allows you to bookmark your important moments for later with just one tap, while it records your entire conversation's audio automatically. Once the transcription of a conversation is done, the app can effortlessly share the transcripts and recordings to your favourite apps – like Dropbox, Google Drive, Evernote, Slack, Box, and your email client.

Textio

If you're into hiring or talent acquisition, then you should definitely give Textio a try because we are almost certain that you're going to love it. The augmented writing platform for creating highly effective job listings analyses the hiring outcomes of more than 10 million job posts a month and then predicts the performance of your listing and gives you real-time guidance on how you can improve it. According to the company, on an average, hiring teams with a high TextioScore recruit 25% more people qualified enough to interview and 23% more women—and they do it 17% faster, which is quite impressive in a world where time is money.

Troops

Troops breathes a new life into how the sales teams interacts with the company's CRM system by leveraging the power of one of the more popular productivity apps, Slack. Troops makes use of artificial intelligence to display information based on conversations an employee is having in Slack while making customer data available without having to go through the trouble of jumping in between multiple applications. While it is capable of working for any CRM system, according to the company, its initial focus is Salesforce, which is one of the biggest players in the space. With Troops by your side, looking up Salesforce details won't be a painful process for you anymore.

Grammarly

Writing mails to and fro are a part of almost every job profile. So, if you wish to write mails with impeccable grammar and no mistake whatsoever, then the Grammarly writing app is the app for you. Built by the world’s leading linguists, Grammarly makes sure that everything you type is easy to read, effective, and mistake-free. What makes Grammarly different from the basic spell check and grammar check built into the word processor is the fact that Grammarly can identify correctly spelled words that are used in the wrong context. The app's vocabulary enhancement feature allows you to enhance your sentences with context-optimized word choice suggestions that instantly improve the readability of your document.

Related Reading - This Tool Estimates If You'll Lose Your Job To AI, Robots

[Top Image - Shutterstock]