November 12, 2020

Covid-19 crisis has created unique challenges for working single parents

by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Working lives

New research published by Gingerbread and the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) highlights unique challenges for working single parents including for those who will lose their jobs as a result of the Covid-19 Crisis. As the country experiences a second Lockdown, and with growing unemployment and continued childcare restrictions, it is vital that the government provide better support to single parents. More →

October 20, 2020

Future of the workplace: Sustainability, climate change and COVID-19

by Jayne Smith • Environment, News, Working culture

Environmental and sustainability professional, Dr Leyla Acaroglu, and next generation employee experience platform and intranet provider, Unily, have launched the Future of Workplace Sustainability Report, which explores how sustainability, climate change and COVID-19 are shaping the future of the workplace. More →

October 16, 2020

Younger people most affected by disconnect of remote work

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Workplace design

Over a third of younger office workers forced to work from home feel remote, unfocused and less committed to their employers, posing a real threat to businesses in the medium and long term, new research from Oktra claims. Of 1,500 people surveyed, who used to work in an office full time but have been working at home for the last six months, the experience has changed the way that 71 percent of them feel about their employer; 85 percent have struggled with the experience of remote work. More →

October 2, 2020

What (nearly) everybody gets wrong about work and the coronavirus

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace design

You’ve probably read and heard dozens, or even hundreds, of different viewpoints about the effect of the pandemic on the world of work. Most of them (until recently perhaps) have dished up one of the two binary options as part of a zero-sum game. Many are based on hackneyed ideas and expressed as clichés. More →

September 24, 2020

Under-35s face a confidence crisis at work

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing, Working lives

Under-35s are in the midst of a professional confidence crisis, with work seen as a place where they feel isolated and afraid to speak out, claims research carried out by culture change business Utopia. The study which interviewed over 2,000 respondents across the UK, claims that workers under the age of 35 feel immense pressure to hold a standard of professionalism that shuns emotion and favours traditionally masculine behaviour, all the while juggling responsibilities at home. More →

September 3, 2020

UK firms optimistic about COVID-19 recovery prospects

by Jayne Smith • Business, News

What impact is COVID-19 having on business confidence? And what recovery strategies are companies prioritising in response to the pandemic? Recruitment company Robert Half recently surveyed more than 1,500 executives to understand how they are responding to this ongoing period of unprecedented economic change. More →

June 10, 2020

Firms should adopt a hybrid model as they return to work

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

As mandatory working from home lifts, managers should be aware that employee expectations around how they work have evolved significantly. In a report (registration) published by Soldo in collaboration with several UK universities, management experts advise that companies need to radically redesign their business processes. Employees who worked productively at home throughout the lockdown will strongly resist managers enforcing limitations on where and when they do their work. More →

May 20, 2020

Organisational change is best achieved by `kinetic’ leaders, claims report

by Jayne Smith • News, Technology

Deloitte has published its 2020 Global Technology Leadership survey, “The Kinetic Leader: Boldly Reinventing the Enterprise,” which sets out to examine the broader scope and evolution of tech leadership roles. The findings claim to reveal the increased need for agile and kinetic leaders — change instigators adept at driving tech-enabled transformation and organisational change. More →

May 7, 2020

Remote working has a number of hidden risks

by Dave Cook • Features, Flexible working, Wellbeing

Many of us have had little choice but to resort to remote working in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. It is just days since Google, Apple and Twitter were making headlines by ordering their employees to work from home, but you could now say the same about lots of companies. More →

April 15, 2020

There are some behavioural insights you cannot afford to ignore

by Jono Marcus • Features

Behavioural insights combine psychology, neuroscience and behavioural economics with empirically tested results to understand and influence how people behave. These insights can be used to implement new policies more efficiently and successfully by nudging individual’s behaviour and shaping collective norms. More →

December 12, 2019

Climate change emergency demands more and better action

by Neil Franklin • Environment, News

Four years after the Paris Climate Agreement, tangible action from governments is falling well short of what is needed to restrict global warming to 1.5° Celsius. Meanwhile, the actions of the majority of businesses that do support emissions reductions also currently fall far short of where they need to be to address climate change. A new impetus for 2020 to raise company ambitions to net zero emissions by 2050 at the latest, is required. These are the findings of a new report, The Net Zero Challenge published by the World Economic Forum. More →

November 6, 2019

People game hiring processes they know are carried out by an AI

by Jayne Smith • AI, News, Workplace

New research into job-seeker attitudes to digitisation, automation and AI in the recruitment process claims to reveal how job-seekers are cheating recruitment technology platforms, to better their chances of landing a job. Seven in ten (67 percent) job seekers admitted to deliberately using optimisation strategies to improve their chances of getting a job. The study, Hiring Humans vs. Recruitment Robots, from recruitment software provider TribePad canvassed the views of over 1,000 employees and job seekers in the UK. The report’s key claim is that, as technology continues to permeate the recruitment and HR industry, job-seekers are looking for ways to game the systems. More →