The future of work will see profound changes in the way firms engage with customers

The future of work will see profound changes in the way firms engage with customers

by • Comment, Technology

Businesses are managing a new work dynamic that’s made up of three parts, or three ‘types’ of employee. Some are keen to go back to the office, some want to stay working from home, and some want an entirely flexible arrangement so they can fit work around important personal commitments. (more…)

What’s a landlord to do when the office is a destination, not a routine?

What’s a landlord to do when the office is a destination, not a routine?

by • Cities, Comment, Property, Workplace design

Office for Estee LauderEvery week a new survey is published or a statement from a CEO hits the press related to corporate occupier’s desire to adopt a form of hybrid working for the long-term post Covid 19. And as a result, the desire to occupy less space in their central office hub. Landlords are asking- What do we do now to attract and keep great occupiers, and fill our buildings? I have an idea that is of its time. A time when the world has started to cooperate, collaborate, and work towards a common purpose. When work, life, values, and priorities are shifting. Employers are seeking to look after their people in a holistic way in and out of the office. (more…)

The hybrid workplace sagas, part two. Valhalla

The hybrid workplace sagas, part two. Valhalla

by • Comment, Flexible working

“Wow, Dougie, they’ve remodelled our office while we were away!”

“Fantastic. Did you know about it?”

“No, they said the surprise was a key part of the change programme.”

“So what’s different?” (more…)

The hybrid workplace sagas, part one. Ginnungagap

The hybrid workplace sagas, part one. Ginnungagap

by • Comment, Flexible working

An image of Odin to illustrate the hybrid workplace saga“Hi Dougie – how’s the new hybrid workplace going?”

“Morning Clara. You mean the Team-Rostered Attendance Programme. It’s fantastic – we have control at last!”

“Wow, I’m jealous. I guess you all just fell into it?”

“Yeah. How did you know?”

“Just a hunch. So how does it work?” (more…)

What are the limits of an employer’s duty of care to employees?

What are the limits of an employer’s duty of care to employees?

by • Comment, Wellbeing

Earlier this month the ONS (Office for National Statistics) released a rather dismal map of the UK charting our population’s soaring levels of loneliness. Perhaps surprisingly, it is young people and those living in urban areas reporting the highest levels of aloneness. It really does go to show that the ‘social’ in social media doesn’t mean very much, and that you can indeed be surrounded by others and still feel lonely. So what does this new study mean for employers, if anything? (more…)

Hybrid working risks becoming a meaningless term

Hybrid working risks becoming a meaningless term

by • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace design

Hybrid working - people working in an officeHybrid working runs the risk of becoming a blanket term, interpreted on a very surface level, when it has the potential to offer a much greater opportunity for businesses to open up and re-examine the culture and experience of their staff, alongside where they want to take their business in the future, as well as fast-tracking mental health and wellbeing to play a central role in workplace strategy. (more…)

The digital world is not necessarily greener than the physical world

The digital world is not necessarily greener than the physical world

by • Comment, Environment, Technology

No sooner had the world learned about the existence of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) than we also learned how much of a problem they could be for the environment. An NFT is digital token in a similar way to Bitcoin, except there’s only one of each NFT. It is associated with a piece of content, guaranteed unique and so is worth whatever somebody will pay for it. In the case of a digital artist called Beeple, who had only ever previously sold a piece for $100, this was $69 million for an NFT for a digital collage of images called Everydays: The First 5000 Days sold at Christie’s in March. Bought by a collector in Singapore, this made him one of the world’s “top three most valuable living artists,” according to the auction house.  (more…)

After a year of lockdowns, people are burnt-out but happier

After a year of lockdowns, people are burnt-out but happier

by • Comment, Wellbeing

Woman approaching pile of work looking stressed and burnt-outGlint’s latest insights report shows that there is a worrying increase in employees experiencing challenges with their mental health, with burnout risk trending upwards year-over-year. That spiked in late March 2020 and climbed by nearly 4 percent between August and December 2020. That’s not a big surprise, given the first challenging months of the global pandemic. Paradoxically, employees say that despite feeling burnt-out, they also feel happier at work at the end of a year of lockdown than they did at the start. Is this some sort of contradiction—or evidence of something very encouraging about the state of HR? (more…)

The binary choices and multiple outcomes of flexible working

The binary choices and multiple outcomes of flexible working

by • Comment, Flexible working

A year of unnecessarily binary conversation about work leads inevitably to this. A stupid question. Is Big Tech going off work from home? Betteridge’s Law takes care of that, just as it did another question from 12 months ago. Even though the article is slightly better than the headline, the insistence that the only two choices we have are home or office remains. (more…)

Finding a new sense of purpose in the way we all do business

Finding a new sense of purpose in the way we all do business

by • Comment, Environment, Property, Wellbeing

Mental health and purposeIt is now a truism that society expects more of business than merely maximising shareholder value. Milton Friedman’s conviction that unswerving commitment to this single goal would ensure that business and society would prosper has come to be seen as blinkered, unfit for the twenty-first century and enabling of corporate greed. Instead of shareholder value maximisation, an idea that The Economist called ‘the biggest idea in business’ in 2016, businesses are now encouraged to recognise their responsibilities to an array of ‘stakeholders’, from employees, suppliers and customers, to the planet itself and other communities (real or imagined). So, it has never been more important for businesses to do good, have a clear sense of purpose and be seen as doing so. (more…)

From the archive: A new approach to office design is redefining property

From the archive: A new approach to office design is redefining property 0

by • Comment, Facilities management, Property, Workplace design

office design At the end of the 18th Century it was becoming apparent that overpopulation was something the human race would need to address for perhaps the first time. Advances in technology and the urbanisation that followed the Industrial Revolution had created a new set of challenges. These were most famously laid out in a 1798 book called An Essay on the Principle of Population, written by an English cleric called Thomas Malthus.

(more…)

Mental health transparency at the top is the key to workplace wellbeing

Mental health transparency at the top is the key to workplace wellbeing

by • Comment, Wellbeing

wellbeingAs the world emerges from the grip of the pandemic, the mental health crisis continues to worsen. One thing is for certain as we look to rebuild – the business community must put the mental health of all employees as top priority.  But is there something that’s missing in the current conversation around workplace mental health and wellbeing? One thought is around leaders themselves, and that intrinsic connection to their own mental health and wellbeing. What many leaders have been carrying throughout the pandemic is exceptional, including the added weight of responsibility for the wellbeing and mental health of employees and to create mentally healthy workplaces, yet we rarely hear how leaders themselves are coping. (more…)

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