December 10, 2020

UK tech workers prefer better work-life balance to a pay rise

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing, Working culture

When it comes to job satisfaction, Denmark tops the list of the best places to work in digital in Europe – beating the UK, Germany and France – according to the 2020 Digital Talent Global Work Happiness Index. The Nordic country scored highly for work-life balance, family-friendly working models, purpose, personal safety and personal impact, which describes how much impact an individual feels they are making to their business. (more…)

November 25, 2020

Maternity leave causes women to lose out on £3.2 billion

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing, Working culture, Workplace

Women taking maternity leave collectively lose out on £3.2bn worth on earnings, a fall of nearly half their average annual salary, claims new research from Direct Line Life Insurance. (more…)

November 24, 2020

Work really has become much harder during the pandemic

by Eva Selenko • Features, Flexible working, Wellbeing

The pandemic has seriously altered how we work. According to statistics published by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in September 2020, US$35 trillion (£26 trillion) has been lost globally in labour income. There has also been an estimated loss of 17 percent of working hours worldwide since 2019, with young people and women being hit hardest. And many of those still in jobs are working under very different conditions. (more…)

November 16, 2020

Millions will struggle to access the Government’s new Lifetime Skills Guarantee

by Jayne Smith • Business, News, Working lives

New analysis published by the Work Foundation and Totaljobs claims that millions of low paid workers will struggle to access the Government’s new Lifetime Skills Guarantee (LSG) when it is launched next year amidst a growing jobs challenge. (more…)

November 13, 2020

People working from home should be taxed for the privilege, says Deutsche Bank

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

People working from home should be taxed at a higher rate to compensate for the money they aren’t spending on commuting and other expenses, according to a new report from economists at Deutsche Bank. The report argues that the move could generate billions in additional revenue which could then be redistributed to lower paid workers and those who cannot work remotely. The report argues that this should have happened anyway given that the number of Americans who regularly worked from home had already increased by 173 percent between 2005 and 2018. (more…)

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…)

November 2, 2020

Third of fathers unaware of their flexible working rights

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

A new study in the British Sociological Association’s journal Work, Employment and Society has found that 10 percent of mothers and 30 percent of fathers do not know that they have the right to ask their employer to consider changes to how they work as part of flexible working regulations introduced as much as 17 years ago. (more…)

November 2, 2020

Massive increase in numbers of self-employed people on universal credit

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

A new report from IPSE (the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed) suggests that there has been a massive increase in the number of self-employed people on Universal Credit since 2019. (more…)

October 30, 2020

Organisations shift attitudes on meeting costs of home office setup

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Workplace design

Eighty-two percent of US based employers now believe the organisation should absorb the cost of a home office setup for employees that work from home full-time. This is a dramatic increase over those who did so before COVID-19. These and other findings from The Future of Home Office Cost Sharing survey from Global Workplace Analytics and Design Public Group, will lead to profound changes in how companies procure and distribute technology and furniture, budget for workplaces, attract and retain talent, and manage safety risk, according to the report’s authors. (more…)

October 8, 2020

Mental health support from employers is top priority for employees

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing

Out of the four key pillars of wellbeing (mental, financial, physical and social), mental health is the number one priority that employees believe their employer should be responsible for supporting, with half (49 percent) of employees choosing this over the other areas of wellbeing, claims research from GRiD, the group risk industry body. (more…)

October 6, 2020

One in five consider a career change despite COVID

by Jayne Smith • News, Working lives

New research from financial advice and investment network Openwork, shows nearly one in five workers plan a career change underlining the growing trend of switching jobs.

Its nationwide study claims 19 percent of workers aim to move into a new industry or sector in the next years rising to nearly one in three among under-35s. The ambition to try something different doesn’t end with age – around 12 percent of over-55s plan a career change too. (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…)