March 6, 2019

Beware the great apex fallacy of workplace design ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Furniture, Technology, Workplace design

Of all the memes and narratives that corrupt public discourse about workplace design, the most pernicious is the one that suggests there is a linear evolution to some grand end point called the Office of the Future. There is a natural human inclination to buy this sort of idea, fed by an assumption that what we find most interesting, aspirational and hence what we read and talk about forms a goal. Read any style magazine and you’ll see the same process at work in every facet of our lives. This is why so many people are quick to consume and then regurgitate the idea that what we see happening in the world’s great tech palaces and creative offices represents the apogees of design to which the rest of us must one day succumb. (more…)

March 6, 2019

Flexible working means longer hours and different outcomes for fathers and mothers

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

Flexible working and especially the ability to work from home mean that people tend to work longer hours, a study published by the Hans Böckler Foundation in Germany claims. According to the study, working mothers and fathers make different uses of flexible working practices. While fathers spend substantially more time working, mothers work only a little more overtime, primarily because they are more likely to be balancing work with extra childcare duties. The report concludes that while flexible working should help to balance work and family life, in practice it can also reflect and cement traditional gender roles. The report calls for greater clarity and more onus on fathers to take a greater responsibility for childcare, although it notes that flexible working does not offer workers of either sex more free time. (more…)

March 6, 2019

Less time spent commuting is key to workplace wellbeing

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

Lenovo has released a study on ‘Britain’s evolving workplace’ (registration). It claims that more than three quarters (76 per cent) of those that have no commute by working from home are overall satisfied with their job and a third (37 per cent) of those surveyed admit to choosing their current role based on its close proximity to their home. The report claims that the changing nature of the modern workplace benefits both workers and employers, with one in ten workers most productive outside of typical 7am to 6pm working hours and a quarter (26 per cent) wishing to work more flexible hours.

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March 5, 2019

Employees want good tech and flexibility but stick with their own fixed desk

by Sara Bean • AI, Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Technology, Workplace

Almost two-thirds of those staff (60 percent) say inadequate technology is the biggest productivity blocker at work and by failing to do its job properly it is making life difficult for employees. This frustration trumps unnecessary bureaucracy, inefficient processes and annoying colleagues – other factors that stop employees from being productive, claims research from Cloudbooking. The research suggests that the digital piece of the employee experience puzzle is more prominent and important than expected – it is in fact the single most important factor with 90 percent of UK office workers who said efficient technology is important to their overall experience. Currently fewer than one in ten UK employees are “extremely satisfied” with their workplace experience, indicating there is significant room for employers to improve it by delivering better technological resources. However, despite wanting to embrace more flexible working, staff still prefer their own fixed desk.

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March 1, 2019

National Employee Appreciation Day? What a joke!

by Helen Jamieson • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing

Today is (apparently) a hot new date for all employers’ calendars as we ‘celebrate’ National Employee Appreciation Day. This US import seems to be finding feet in UK workplaces as employers plan to hand out freebies, gifts and perks to their hard-working staff. We all like to receive a thank-you, and likely won’t turn down free cakes, boxes of chocolates, or an early-finish. However, ‘moments’ like these do nothing to improve employment conditions. They are often nothing more than hollow gestures, designed to show the outside world how great an employer is rather than demonstrate true appreciation.

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March 1, 2019

Overworking staff hurts productivity, says TUC on ‘work your proper hours day’

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Today is the TUC’s 15th annual Work Your Proper Hours Day, marking the fact that, according to the union, the average person doing unpaid overtime has effectively worked the year so far for free. A new analysis of official statistics published today by the TUC argues that UK companies claimed £32.7 billion of free labour last year because of workers’ doing unpaid overtime with more than 5 million people putting in an average of 7.5 hours a week in unpaid overtime during 2018. TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “It’s not okay for bosses to steal their workers’ time. L (more…)

February 26, 2019

Men are less likely to be stressed by long hours at work, research suggests

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

Men who work long hours are less likely to become depressed than women who have similarly time consuming roles, a study from researchers at University College London and Queen Mary University has found. The study of more than 20,000 adults published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, found that women who worked 55 hours or more a week had 7.3 per cent more depressive symptoms than those on a standard 35-40 hour week. No significant link was found for men working the same hours.

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February 22, 2019

Managers blame cost of adjustments for reluctance to hire disabled workers

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Flexible working, Legal news, News, Workplace

Nearly a quarter (24 percent) of UK employers admit they would be less likely to hire someone with a disability, new data from disability charity Leonard Cheshire shows, and over two thirds (66 percent) of managers cite the cost of workplace adjustments as the barrier to employing a disabled person, up from 60 percent in 2017. Seventeen percent of disabled candidates that had applied for a job in the past five years said the employer withdrew the job offer as a result of their disability. Attitudinal barriers continually featured in the latest research. Of the employers across the UK that said they were less likely to employ someone because they were disabled, 60 percent were concerned that a disabled person wouldn’t be able to do the job. Of the disabled people in the UK who applied for a job in the last five years, 30 percent said they felt like the employer had not taken them seriously as a candidate.

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February 21, 2019

Vast majority of organisations still struggle with videoconferencing

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Technology

The overwhelming majority of enterprises (90 per cent) report that they experience challenges when connecting to video conference calls. This is according to a new survey from StarLeaf, conducted by Vanson Bourne, which includes responses from 500 IT decision-makers and Line-of-Business leaders in the UK, France, Germany, and the US and from a broad spectrum of private sector enterprises (with over 1,000 employees) with the aim to understand attitudes towards the general use of video conferencing systems.

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February 20, 2019

It is time for organisations to embrace the digital workplace

by Christian Brøndum • AI, Comment, Facilities management, Flexible working, Technology, Workplace

With the rise of both cloud-based technology and the worldwide gig economy, the last ten years of the 21^st century have seen some near-revolutionary changes in workplace practice. Entrepreneurs everywhere have been more than happy to make use of these developments, taking advantage of the new business models these changes have brought. For example, IDG found that 73 percent of the organizations that they surveyed have at least one application already in the cloud, and according to ONS, since 2010 there has been a 25 percent increase in the number of non-employer businesses in the private sector, a change attributed to the growing popularity of the gig economy. However, despite all the advances in workplace culture, thousands of workers in the UK are being left behind in outdated modes of work.

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February 19, 2019

Gendered label of maternity leave may contribute to parental earnings gap

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, Legal news, Workplace

It’s been argued that one of the main drivers behind the gender pay gap and inequality in the workplace is when it comes to having children. Now new research from Money Guru has revealed that 70 percent of UK employers believe that women should declare their pregnancy during the recruitment process with one in seven (14 percent) of employers admitting to being reluctant to hire someone who may go on to have children. Studies show that 39 percent of young mothers have been illegally asked in job interviews about how being a mother would affect their ability to work.

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February 17, 2019

Century Office begins experiment into six hour working day

by Neil Franklin • Company news, Flexible working

Century Office will soon be commencing an experiment into a shorter working day. In collaboration with the University of Essex, Century Office will be shortening the working day down to 6.5 hours. They expect that, although it remains to be proven, that employees will become more focussed and productive as the desire for more leisure times and time for self-care, family, hobbies etc outweighs the tendency for idle chat and periods of low productivity. It is also hoped that participants will feel less anxious or tired as they have more time to pursue personal endeavours and come out of work mode.