Columnists
January 22, 2021
Working parents present new and important challenges for employers
January 21, 2021
Hybrid working gives managers the chance to excel
by Paul Jewitt-Harris • Comment, Flexible working
The past year will go down in history as one of dramatic change. One of the most notable upheavals was the almost overnight transition to full-time remote working for millions of ‘non-essential’ employees. With England now in its third national lockdown, many of us will likely not be going back to our offices until April […]
January 14, 2021
2021 presents the tech sector with once in a generation opportunities
by Uta Dresch • Comment, Flexible working, Technology
The COVID-19 pandemic left businesses in an unprecedented position of having to rapidly adapt workplace practices and implement new processes at a moment’s notice. Of course, those companies that were already accustomed to home office set-ups and flexible hours were in a much better place to adapt to these changing circumstances. However, not all businesses […]
January 13, 2021
Office design will respond to the events of the past year as it always has – by getting better
by Oliver Ronald • Comment, Workplace design
You may have heard that history repeats itself, but that’s not really true. It doesn’t repeat. It rhymes. And nowhere is this more true than when it comes to office design. It’s worth bearing this in mind when we consider the effects of the events of 2020. Not only the pandemic and lockdown, but also […]
January 12, 2021
Burnt out workers need to regain some balance
by Dan Zakai • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design
The pandemic and months of Zoom calls and remote work have begun to wear on us, so much so that in a recent survey from Blind – the anonymous workplace community app – 68 percent of respondents said that they are experiencing more feelings of being burnt out now, than they were before the pandemic […]
January 11, 2021
Your organisation really needs to stop talking about a second pandemic
by Stephanie Fitzgerald • Comment, SF, Wellbeing
It was in the summer of 2020 that conversations about a second pandemic of mental health issues first started. As we began to see and feel our mental health suffering due to the ongoing impact of COVID19, this idea gained momentum and interest within business sectors. This concept has also been leapt upon by health […]
January 7, 2021
You will hear a lot more about purpose, communication and rituals at work this year
by Imke Schuller • Comment, Working culture
Last year, many organisations were forced overnight to adjust to new ways of working. Digital transformation accelerated, and collaborative activities were recreated virtually. But while teams have adapted functionally to maintain productivity, organisational leaders need to pay special attention to the “intangible” cultural aspects and their overall purpose.
January 5, 2021
We shouldn’t become village idiots in our new ways of life
by Mark Eltringham • Cities, Comment, Flexible working, Technology
December 18, 2020
The shape of things to come for the world and the workplace
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Wellbeing, Workplace design
Originally published in March, right at the start of all this. Makes me wonder how far we’ve come in nine months. In Dorian Lynskey’s The Ministry of Truth, a “biography” of Nineteen Eighty-Four, the author describes how Orwell’s book was the end point of an obsession with utopian (and ultimately dystopian) fiction that characterised the […]
December 18, 2020
Events of 2020 have proved the value of personal resilience
by Silja Litvin • Comment, Wellbeing
No-one could have predicted what 2020 would deliver. A pandemic, lockdown, moving the workplace into the home. We are in uncharted waters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines resilience as being able to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions. Resilience is an almost stoic quality, and a pandemic a time of crisis. It almost feels […]
December 16, 2020
The weakness of purpose and the shift to problem-solving
by Steven van Belleghem • Business, Comment
BlackRock is one of the largest asset management companies on the planet. Each year, at the start of January, the CEO Larry Fink writes a letter addressed to the other CEOs of the world. In his New Year’s letter for 2020, Fink appealed in particular to his fellow CEOs’ sense of social responsibility. In particular, […]
January 28, 2021
Philanthrocapitalism: a century-old concept for the modern age
by Richard Glynn • Comment, Wellbeing
Philanthrocapitalism is a term that’s only 15 years old. A modern concept for the modern age. Or is it? In the late 1800s, George Cadbury bought a plot of land five miles south of Birmingham to relocate his factory and expand his chocolate empire. But greater levels of chocolate production weren’t his only concern; he […]