September 5, 2023

Working from home won’t last forever… will it?

by Zain Ali • Comment, Flexible working, Technology

Have we all gone a little OTT on RTO? The so-called return to office and pushback on working from home seems to be the must-talk topic on workplace strategy right now; a heated debate ignited by Zoom’s recent call to reduce remote working days for its employees. Many have been surprised at how polarising this decision has become. Who would have thought that a global business asking employees to work from the office two days a week could cause such controversy? Even if that business does specialise in video calls for remote work? More →

July 31, 2023

Digital nomads are starting to price out local communities around the world

by Dave Cook • Cities, Comment, Flexible working

For eight years I have studied digital nomadism, the millennial trend for working remotely from anywhere around the world. I am often asked if digital nomads are driving gentrification. Before COVID upended the way we work, I would usually tell journalists that the numbers were too small for a definitive answer. Most digital nomads were travelling and working illegally on tourist visas. It was a niche phenomenon. Three years into the pandemic, however, I am no longer sure. More →

June 16, 2023

Whinging Poms? Why the UK workforce is one of the unhappiest in Europe

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Nearly all UK workers (90 percent) are not enthused by their work and workplace, according to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2023 Report. The UK workforce rate of engagement at work (10 percent) remains one of the lowest in Europe, ranking near the bottom among peer countries (33 out of 38) with countries like the US reporting triple the number of engaged employees (31 percent). The poor state of disengaged workforces is not unique to the UK, with just 13 percent of employees across Europe feeling engaged at work, and the lowest rates of engagement reported in France (7 percent) and Italy (5 percent). More →

June 13, 2023

People now less engaged, less fulfilled and more stressed in their working lives

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

New research from the CIPD exploring the quality of UK working lives suggests there has been a negative shift in how people think about and value their work. The CIPD’s Good Work Index 2023 claims that most people like their work and find it satisfying. However, as many as 6-9 million workers, experience poor-quality work in some major respects. CIPD’s survey indicators show that there has been no significant improvement in job quality in the past four years and, in some respects, job quality has gone backwards. Compared to 2019, workers today are less enthused about work, less likely to perceive their work as useful and more likely to simply see work as purely transactional – simply for the money. More →

May 23, 2023

Many people think workplace is a greater source of stress than a relationship breakdown

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing

A new poll claims that workplace stress is seen as having a greater impact by many people, compared to relationship breakdowns. According to the survey conducted by Westfield Health, more than a quarter of workers (27 percent) ranked their job as more stressful than a relationship breakdown (8 percent). These worrying statistics highlight the negative effects of workplace stress on individuals, surpassing even stressful personal circumstances. More →

May 18, 2023

Four in ten low income working parents have gone into debt to pay for childcare

by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Workplace

A new poll from Working Families in partnership with law firm Pinsent Masons, sets out to highlight the challenges that lower-income parents in the UK face as they balance work and caring for their children. The Working Families Index 2023: Spotlight on lower-income families reveals that many working parents on lower incomes are forced to go into debt, reduce their hours, or leave their jobs altogether due to problems affording and accessing childcare. The report also claims that working mothers on lower incomes take far less maternity leave than the UK average, and that working parents on lower incomes are often locked out of the flexible arrangements they desperately need to stay in work and earn vital income whilst balancing their childcare responsibilities. More →

May 9, 2023

Three quarters of small business owners say overwork leads to strife at home

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing

A new poll from Sky Business claims that whilst 67 percent of SME owners and decision makers would recommend someone should start their own business, more than half (54 percent) have found running their own business more stressful since the threat of impending recession in the middle of 2022. And one of the consequences of overwork for SME owners is a tendency for stress to spill over into other parts of their lives. More →

May 3, 2023

Around a quarter of jobs will shift over the next five years, WEF report claims

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

Almost a quarter of jobs are expected to switch in the next five years according to a new report from the World Economic Forum. Its Future of Jobs Report for 2023 suggests that employers anticipate 69 million new jobs to be created and 83 million eliminated among the 673 million jobs corresponding to the dataset, a net decrease of 14 million jobs, or 2 percent of current employment. The data is an extrapolation of data from 803 employers employing around 11 million people. More →

April 24, 2023

Reconnecting older workers with the office: have we retired what matters most?

by Julie Lecoq • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace design

Older workers now make up a larger percentage of the workforce than they did two decades ago. Data from Legal and General and the Centre for Economic Research (Cebr) suggests that the number of over 50s in employment has increased by 36 percent in the last 20 years, with 47 percent of this age group predicted to be in employment by 2030. A combination of the increase in retirement age and rising costs of living have made it a necessity for individuals to stay in work longer. From a corporate perspective, the growing skills shortages in a range of sectors has also meant that employers are consistently seeking to attract and retain those in the latter stage of their professional career. More →

March 27, 2023

The five ages of the office and the man who shaped the way we talk about them

by Rob Harris • Features, Flexible working, Workplace design

The office has passed through five ages. The ‘coffee houses’ of the 17th century, yielded to the ‘clerical factories’ of the 19th as machines revolutionised work. After the Second World War, the ‘corporate offices’ of global corporations and William Whyte’s Organization Man dominated the scene. Following the launch of IBM’s PC in the early-1980s, we saw the rise of ‘digital offices’ in the 1990s, complete with internet, email and social media. And for the past few years we have been moving inexorably towards the latest age: ‘network offices’. Each age was shorter than its predecessor: both the digital and network ages began less than a career span ago. More →

March 22, 2023

Half of people in the UK say they feel ‘overworked’

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

More than half (53 percent) of employees in the UK ay they feel overworked, citing factors like reaching their maximum capacity, being spread too thin, or stressing over the threat of additional work – according to a poll from Censuswide, commissioned by Visier. The survey of around 1,000 people claims that young professionals aged 25-34 say they feel most overworked, followed closely by those aged 55+. Four in ten (40 percent) employees polled would look for a new job with a better work-life balance if they felt overworked. More →

February 14, 2023

UK businesses are out of touch with the real sources of employee stress

by Nick Gold • Comment, Wellbeing

The cost-of-living crisis is driving a wedge between employers and their staff. In a recent research report, we surveyed 500 employers to discover what they believe causes their staff the most stress. Surprisingly, an overwhelming 96 percent did not believe that employee salaries are a major stress factor for staff during the cost-of-living crisis. Instead, they felt major contributors included heavy workloads, long hours, and tight deadlines. More →