November 3, 2022

Are digital skills the key to a happier, more productive workforce?

by Katy Liddell • Comment, Technology, Workplace

The rising cost-of-living is impacting life and work in all four corners of the UK. Research from BCC has found that businesses feel compelled to increase their own prices. With costs rising, businesses are facing growing pressures. Not least the need to attract and retain the talent they can depend on to deliver. Research has shown that taking time to upskill current employees, especially in terms of their digital skills, benefits both productivity and engagement at all levels of an organisation. Our own Tech and Battle for Talent report recognises that 42 percent of employees in organisations across the UK would be more likely to stay in their current role if employers provided regular and intensive training, while 47 percent would be happier. 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, Workplace

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 24, 2022

Orgatec 2022 preview – a chance to create new friends and new memories

by Mick Jordan • Comment, Workplace design, Works Magazine

For as long as we’ve been in this industry, we’ve sat and chatted with leading lights from the London furniture market, first listening to fantastic tales and raucous anecdotes, and later telling our own recollections of Cologne. We originally wondered whether these stories were simply that – mere myths and Chinese whispers. Then, of course, we headed to Orgatec, we walked the halls of the Messe, we spent our evenings in the Alter Markt, and we returned to Blighty with our very own Cologne anecdotes. More →

October 20, 2022

The rotting one hit wonders of the workplace

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing

On the 8 December, you’ll be able to get your hands on a new book called Out of the Blue: The inside story of Liz Truss and her explosive rise to power. Or not. At the time of writing, its publication still seems to be going ahead, but I’m not even sure this introduction will be current by the time I press ‘publish’ so I wouldn’t bet on it. I imagine the publishers of the book haven’t given the green light to the printers just yet but nothing a change of title, a hasty rewrite and few extra chapters can’t fix. More →

October 19, 2022

Remote workers can find it hard to switch off. There’s now an app for that

by Anthony Thompson • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing

The last few years have seen our approach to work change dramatically. Technology has helped to unlock whole new ways of communicating and interacting, providing the flexibility for employees to work in a way that suits them best and creating a large number of remote workers for the first time. Even before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, this switch was on the cards. From an employer perspective, digital tools can allow for communication across the world, opening up access to a whole host of talent and wider consumer exposure. More →

October 13, 2022

The success of hybrid working hinges on creating a great workplace experience

by Lee Rubin • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing, Workplace

Recent statistics underline the extent to which hybrid working is now a permanent fixture of US business life. A recent report suggests that 74 percent of US companies are using or plan to implement a permanent hybrid working model, whilst 44 percent of US employees prefer a hybrid work model, compared to 51 percent of employers. 55 percent of employees want to work remotely at least three days a week and 59 percent of employees are more likely to choose an employer that offers remote work opportunities over one that doesn’t. More →

October 5, 2022

Why should anyone care about your change?

by Jennifer Bryan • Business, Comment, JB, Workplace

Whenever I first meet a potential client or am brought onto a new change project, there are three questions I ask: why, why now and why should anyone care about your change? Now the first two have typically been thought through and there are answers for them – not necessarily crystal clear and concise answers, but answers, none the less. However, the third question, in my experience, is rarely even considered, much less discussed or thought through. If it has been thought through, then this is many times expressed starting with the words, “effective…efficient…,” which is what I would call the management spiel. These are not answers that will motivate or galvanise employees and teams to support and adopt a change. More →

October 5, 2022

Will employees return to the office to save on energy bills this winter?

by Nick Gold • Comment, Flexible working

This winter will be tough for many UK households. Rising energy bills are driving a huge upswing in inflation, causing real incomes to fall as the cost of living goes up. And despite the UK Government’s announcement that energy prices will be ‘capped’ at an average of £2,500 per year, the Bank of England believes inflation will remain high for at least the next two years. According to government estimates, a £2,500 energy bill is almost double the average household’s energy bill in 2021. And as employees continue to work from their home office regularly, energy consumption is likely to rise. More →

September 30, 2022

There is no F in work

by James Woudhuysen • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Neil Usher is an energetic, wiry critic of workplaces and offices. Long ago – in 2018, actually – his proposal that the good office is composed of 12 simple elements, beginning with daylight, was also energetic and wiry. Here he widens out from the delicious nitty-gritties of temperature control and lighting in The Elemental Workplace to the wider phenomenon of work. As the title already suggests, the style is laden with expletives: there are no fewer than 25 mentions of the word ‘crap’. He is withering, too, about the ‘easiest fat-arsed squatting duck of targets, the hapless office, with its rituals and theatrics’. On top of a fresh, Elemental-style bow to the nostrum of inclusion, there is a critique of management fads, but also reference made to (white male) privilege, plus, in a lofty manner, ‘our essentially Stone Age cognitive wiring’.

September 23, 2022

The Great Workplace Debate continues to improve (mostly)

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing, Workplace design

The great bandwagon of bullshit that is the home v office debate looks set to trundle into a third year. What is increasingly obvious is that it is the mainstream media that is holding the reins and refusing to release them. Here’s a BBC story from this week that doesn’t exactly mischaracterise the Microsoft report on which it is based, but does place the emphasis where it doesn’t need to be. The binary headline doesn’t help, of course, except to launder the idea and drive a needless wave of social media chatter. More →

September 23, 2022

What effect will the Employment Bill have on hybrid working?

by Debbie Coyne • Comment, Flexible working

The long-awaited Employment Bill may be published later this year. The draft Bill, first introduced in the Queen’s speech in 2019, was put on hold and repeatedly delayed due to the impact of COVID-19. There is some confusion around what the change to flexible working will entail should the Employment Bill come into force. In the Queen’s speech, as set out in the Conservative’s manifesto earlier that year, it was announced that the proposal was to make flexible working the default position unless an employer had a ‘good reason’ not to allow it. This proposal would have been a radical change in favour of employees as flexible working would become an automatic right – thereby weakening an employer’s ability to push back on hybrid working requests. More →

September 22, 2022

Getting working culture right is essential to hiring, supporting and retaining workers

by Richard Guy • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing, Workplace design

As workers continue to adjust workstyles to fit with their new priorities, a PwC survey reveals nearly two-thirds of workers are on the hunt for a new job. Many employers are scrambling for strategies to attract top talent and retain their employees. But actively developing working culture and designing new ways to secure the best talent and look after it requires first listening and reacting to the impact the changing work landscape is having on employees’ mental and physical health, as well as understanding and prioritising new and sought-after benefits. More →