September 14, 2023

Is the Flexible Working Bill a game changer or paper tiger?

As LinkedIn data has shown, demand for work flexible working is high. And it outpaces the current availability of remote work offers. In the UK alone, listings for remote jobs have increased by 277 percent. Job postings for hybrid or remote positions received an increase in applications (189 percent) over in-office roles. People want to work remotely for various reasons. So they can live in their chosen home rather than in a tiny flat in London without sacrificing their career. So they can care for family – children, parents, grandparents. The demand for flexible work is driven by a desire for balance. The need has been clearly voiced – and the workforce is hungry for new modes of work. Looking at this background – the cheerful response to the passing of the bill is understandable. More →

September 12, 2023

Is there ever a genuinely good or bad time for change?

by Jennifer Bryan • Business, Comment

There are two questions, regarding change, that seem to plague quite a lot of people: “is there a good or bad time for change and is there a good or bad change?” Now it may seem the answers would be quite straight forward, but probably as no surprise the actual answer is “it all depends”. That is because change is about people and we all know there is no formula for people, so it is impossible to give a formulaic, straight forward answer. More →

June 8, 2023

What are the main issues that stop people embracing change?

by Jennifer Bryan • Comment, HR

Many times we talk about resistance – the resistance to change – how we manage it, the reluctance of having to deal with it, the disruption it causes either positively or negatively. But rarely do we talk about why people are resisting – what is driving the resistance. More →

May 25, 2023

Four million UK employees have changed careers due to a lack of flexible working options

by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

New research from the CIPD suggests that an estimated 4 million people have changed careers due to a lack of flexible working options, while an estimated 2 million have left a job in the last year for the same reason. As a result, the CIPD is warning that businesses may face a talent exodus if they fail to offer more flexible choices to people. The CIPD’s latest report, which explores employee and employer perspectives towards flexible and hybrid working practices, highlights that offering them is key to retaining and attracting staff, addressing the current skills shortage and fostering inclusive workplaces. More →

April 5, 2023

Do you have a crystal ball when it comes to leading change?

by Jennifer Bryan • Comment, HR

If you think about a change that is happening to you, in some way, right now – how are you feeling? Are you feeling scared, anxious, worried or happy, excited, looking forward to it? The same thing happens with a workplace change. Some people like the old ways of working because they are use to them, feel comfortable, they don’t have to think about it. Whereas others are looking forward to the new ways of working, as they think they are exciting, new and different. More →

March 6, 2023

Routes to Greater Sustainability event brings office furniture sector together to talk climate change

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Environment, Furniture

An inaugural conference that gave insight into how the UK furnishing industry is mitigating climate change proved an outstanding success. The Routes to Greater Sustainability Industry Day was organised by The Furniture Makers’ Company in association with the British Furniture Confederation (BFC) and took place on Thursday 16 February at Furniture Makers’ Hall, London.

February 2, 2023

Do you walk or talk people centric change for success?

by Jennifer Bryan • Comment, HR

In previous articles, I shared that there is a McKinsey report that states that 75 percent of the organisations that were listed at the time on the S&P would no longer exist by 2025 – they would either merge, be bought out or go bankrupt. This all means that organisations have to change and adapt or die. That is now less than 2 years away, so some organisations are now gone, some are struggling and some have adapted. With that said, organisations can no longer afford to get change wrong – they have to get it right and right now. And one way of doing this is to focus on people centric change. More →

December 12, 2022

Self-confident bosses are most resistant to change, study claims

by Jayne Smith • Business, News

Chief Executive Officers with exaggerated self-confidence show a preference for steadiness within organisations, claims new research from the University of Mannheim Business School. Marc Kowalzick, Post-Doctoral researcher at the University of Mannheim Business School, and Moritz Appels, former University of Mannheim PhD student and now Assistant Professor at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, address a central dilemma in our understanding of CEO hubris: Are these CEOs particularly inclined to change their firms’ trajectories or not? More →

November 2, 2022

Who’s driving this bus, anyway? A critical review of Leading People in Change by Jennifer Bryan

by Neil Usher • Comment, HR

Writing about change isn’t easy, but too many people try it. I tried it with Elemental Change (LID, 2020). Jennifer Bryan succeeded where I didn’t, and managed a short book about change. Her book Leading People in Change also succeeds where I didn’t by focussing on one aspect of change, leadership. So far so good, despite my initial uncomfortable reaction to the title suspecting it might be a handbook for ensuring people did what we wanted them to do, regardless. Fortunately, not so. More →

October 26, 2022

World Green Building Council launches guide to climate change resilience

by Neil Franklin • Environment, News

The World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) has launched a new industry guide on ‘Climate Change Resilience in the Built Environment’, collating effective and practical steps that can be taken on a building, community and city scale in order to adapt and build resilience to the changing climate. Under the inevitable impacts of climate change, which are affecting at least 85 percent of the world’s population, bringing acute hazards such as droughts, rising sea levels, heat waves and floods increasing frequency and severity, resilience action is essential to build community capacity to survive and thrive in our built environments. More →

October 24, 2022

Offices remain largely unchanged in wake of pandemic

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Technology, Workplace design

Most businesses are failing to invest in collaborative offices that could encourage people to spend more time in them and take advantage of new work cultures, a report claims. More than four in five UK workers (83 percent) surveyed by YouGov on behalf of Microsoft Surface find themselves still in the same office environment as before the pandemic. The majority of those surveyed believe that office work is better suited to both socialising with colleagues (57 percent) and strengthening relationships with colleagues (65 percent) compared to remote work. More →

October 13, 2022

Office utilisation in US returning to pre-pandemic levels, but structural changes remain

by Jayne Smith • News, Property

A new report from JLL claims that utilisation rates of US offices are returning to something closer to those of the pre-pandemic world, although hybrid working remains a far more widespread working practice than before. In addition, the focus of the market is shifting away from major city centres towards smaller, regional towns and cities. The US Office Outlook Report [registration] also suggests that higher quality office space is essential as lower grade offices are more likely to remain abandoned. More →