Columnists
July 16, 2020
We need to include disabled people in our conversations about diversity
by Toby Mildon • Comment, Working lives
This sounds really obvious but when organisations talk about diversity and inclusion they often forget to include disability. They talk about the importance of women in leadership and the gender pay gap, the need to include people from an ethnic minority background especially following the Black Lives Matter movement. And June just gone was dedicated […]
July 15, 2020
Some brutal realities about the future of work
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing
No author uses the built environment like J G Ballard. In his 1975 novel High-Rise, the eponymous structure is both a way of isolating the group of people who live and compete inside it and a metaphor for their personal isolation and inner struggles. Over the course of three months, the building’s services begin to […]
July 9, 2020
Mental health and coronavirus: a human resources perspective
by Ian Caminsky • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing
In March, coronavirus presented a stark challenge to businesses attempting to cope with workplace absence. FirstCare statistics show that during Q1 2020, more than 98 percent of Covid-19-related absences were due to unconfirmed cases, self-quarantining as a precaution, or caring for dependents. This has resulted in huge financial pressure on businesses. Now though, as restrictions […]
July 7, 2020
Overcoming the fear of going out
by Michelle McQuaid • Comment, Wellbeing
Over the last several months, some workers have exhibited a new ailment that has got nothing to do with the COVID-19 pandemic that sent them scurrying home to set up virtual offices in the first place. It’s called FOGO, as coined by Forbes magazine contributing writer Jodie Cook, and it refers to a new phenomenon […]
July 3, 2020
Watch where you sit: new workplace setups could hit productivity
by Geoffroy de Lestrange • Comment, Wellbeing
Slowly, it seems we are seeing a gradual return to some sort of normality. Shops are opening up as well as restaurants and pubs and many of us are now also heading back into the office. But these aren’t the offices as we once knew them. Workspace layouts and seating plans are being completely overhauled […]
July 2, 2020
Leaders need to develop a high care quotient for the new challenges they face
by Chris Parke • Comment, Wellbeing, Working lives
Everything has taken a hit in 2020. Nothing has gone unscathed or unchanged – and the same goes for leadership. From boardrooms to living rooms, meeting rooms to spare rooms, leadership has moved away from face-to-face interactions to digital communications. Meanwhile, forward-thinking initiatives, spurred on by continuing diversity imbalances and widening gender pay gaps, have […]
July 1, 2020
The loneliness of the long term flexible worker
by Dr Rachel Lewis • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing
Flexible working arrangements are those which ‘allow employees to vary the amount, timing or location of their work’ and may include part-time working, mobile/home working, compressed hours or job-sharing – among others. Before the lockdown, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD), more than half of all employees in the UK used at […]
June 30, 2020
Cracking the issue of work after lockdown
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace design
June 26, 2020
Talkin` about the quarantine generation
by Anthony Brown • Comment, Wellbeing
The year is 2045. It’s well over twenty years since the Covid 19 pandemic created chaos and fear throughout the world. But just like the ‘baby boomer’ generation who were born, celebrated and cherished in the wake of World War II, so the ‘quarantinis’ are starting to make their way in the world of work. […]
June 26, 2020
Work from home advocates beckon us to a living hell
by James Woudhuysen • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing
Look, I work from home. The liberal in me says: if you want to and can work from home, then why not? Yes, few of Britain’s cramped homes – especially those occupied by young people – are well equipped for home working, which can be stressful. But, as I say, I see no problem in working from home if you […]
July 17, 2020
Your working day is never finished, merely abandoned
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Technology
It’s been talked about for a number of years now but we can expect to be hearing a lot more about the four day week or six hour day soon. The modern conversation has its roots partly in a Swedish experiment designed to limit the hours people work in an attempt to improve their work-life […]