Search Results for: people

Flexible working should be the norm for as many people as possibe

Flexible working should be the norm for as many people as possibe

The UK government has announced that all workers will now gain the right to request flexible working as a day one right – as to after 6 months of employment in the previous legislation. This move is a very welcome one, yet not enough to make flexible working a norm for all workers. To ensure that workers are truly able to access flexible working arrangements, we need to tackle the flexibility stigma still rampant in the UK. More →

Poor indoor air quality is a threat to health, say people coming into the office

Poor indoor air quality is a threat to health, say people coming into the office

An image of the windows at the famous dancing house to illustrate the importance of ventilation and indoor air qualityA new poll claims that ‘hybrid employees’ in the UK are worried about how healthy their work environments are as we approach the winter season, with 53 percent saying they’re concerned poor air quality and ventilation will impact their general health, rising to 70 percent amongst London-based hybrid workers. The survey of 2,000 UK people by OnePoll, on behalf of Infogrid, claims that hybrid workers are facing a Catch-22 moment as we enter the colder months; balancing worries over the cost of working from home with concerns about their own wellbeing in the office as a result of poor indoor air quality. More →

Firms should focus on people in the drive for long term growth

Firms should focus on people in the drive for long term growth

A new report by Economist Impact, sponsored by Kyocera Document Solutions, claims that human-centric strategies are needed for businesses to drive sustainable business growth, focusing on three pillars: productivity and infrastructure, employee engagement and culture. The Magnetic Workplace Barometer claims to gauge confidence both today and in five years’ time across  what the report terms the three main pillars of productivity and infrastructure; employee engagement; and culture. The barometer scores are scaled from 1 to 7, 7 being the most confident. More →

Inconsistent flexible working strategies drive people away from businesses

Inconsistent flexible working strategies drive people away from businesses

A group of people in a shared flexible working / coworking spaceA new poll of 3,450 people in a dozen countries from Unit4 claims that around two in five organisations have lost employees over the last year because they believed they would enjoy better flexible working options elsewhere. While most firms now have a formalised approach to flexible working, the report claims that policies vary enormously, exacerbating the challenge of recruiting and retaining people for those firms with an inconsistent approach.  More →

Imposter syndrome stands in the way of people aiming for a ‘portfolio career’

Imposter syndrome stands in the way of people aiming for a ‘portfolio career’

A man holding a mask away from his face to show how imposter syndrome is holding back people wanting portfolio careers.A new report from the UK’s Department for Education claims that over half of adults in England (52 percent) would consider developing a portfolio career if they had more confidence in their own abilities. The figure rises to 71 percent for those working in HR, and 45 percent of workers would do so if they suffered less from so-called imposter syndrome. The research comes as the Department for Education launched a new campaign earlier this year calling for skilled workers to pass on their valuable experience by teaching in further education (FE). The campaign promotes the flexibility of teaching part-time in FE, enabling industry professionals to ‘change lives without changing careers’ by passing on their work-based skills and knowledge to the next generation of learners in their field alongside their current job. More →

People become dysfunctional in the face of restrictive management controls

People become dysfunctional in the face of restrictive management controls

A wooden mannequin to illustrate the issue of management controlsEmployees who perceive management controls to be restrictive and punitive will develop dysfunctional and negative responses to the organisation where they work, according to a new study involving the University of East Anglia (UEA). These responses might be observed through what the researchers call ‘workplace deviance’ – for example absenteeism, reducing effort, daydreaming, taking longer breaks – and turning a blind eye, also referred to as ‘deliberate ignorance’ by the research team from the UK and Spain. More →

The networks people build often hold them back rather than help them

The networks people build often hold them back rather than help them

Laurel and Hardy to illustrate the problems we have with the networks we createThe networks of ties we build in the workplace are key to our success and performance. Yet, researchers at ESMT Berlin claim in a paper published in the Academy of Management Journal that we often build networks that hamper our performance. Professors Gianluca Carnabuci and Eric Quintane, both from ESMT Berlin, investigated how and when people build networks that allow them to perform at their best. To this end, they conducted a longitudinal field experiment within a business unit of a large semiconductor company, tracing the network and performance of each employee over two and a half years. More →

Cost of living forcing people to seek out sources of extra income

Cost of living forcing people to seek out sources of extra income

A selection of British cash to illustrate cost of living crisisWorkers are looking for new jobs, asking for extra shifts, or taking on side hustles to make ends meet as everyday expenses eat up a bigger chunk of their pay cheques. A new Qualtrics study claims that 77 percent of workers say it’s harder to pay for their living expenses than it was a year ago. In the UK, inflation recently rose above 10 percent for the second time this year amid soaring food prices. Compounding the impact of the cost of living, many of the work-related expenses that were relieved by remote work, such as commute costs and full-time childcare, are returning as an increasing number of people head back to the office. More →

Who’s driving this bus, anyway? A critical review of Leading People in Change by Jennifer Bryan

Who’s driving this bus, anyway? A critical review of Leading People in Change by Jennifer Bryan

A caterpillar sits on a dew dropped leaf to serve as a metaphor for changeWriting about change isn’t easy, but too many people try it. I tried it with Elemental Change (LID, 2020). Jennifer Bryan succeeded where I didn’t, and managed a short book about change. Her book Leading People in Change also succeeds where I didn’t by focussing on one aspect of change, leadership. So far so good, despite my initial uncomfortable reaction to the title suspecting it might be a handbook for ensuring people did what we wanted them to do, regardless. Fortunately, not so. More →

Hybrid isn’t working for many people because nobody can agree what it is

Hybrid isn’t working for many people because nobody can agree what it is

A new poll published by Landsec  claims there is a distinct lack of clarity around what hybrid working means, with less than one in five UK workers agreeing on a definition. The report suggests that this hybrid ‘hotchpotch’ is having a negative impact on bosses’ relationships with their teams. More →

Hybrid working balance isn’t right for a third of people

Hybrid working balance isn’t right for a third of people

An isolated house to depict the loneliness for some people of hybrid workingSome 39 percent of office workers are so-called hybrid “misfits” and don’t have the right balance of home and office working, a survey funded by the Economic and Social Research Council claims. The researchers discovered that workers who were in the office more often than they wanted were more likely to want to change jobs, have lower job satisfaction and have worse work-life balance.??The research suggests that office working is often beneficial for people who are able to enjoy hybrid working. More →

Flexible working may help to entice large numbers of older people back into work

Flexible working may help to entice large numbers of older people back into work

A middle aged man in a suit to portray flexible working for older workersThere are 712,000 additional people aged over 50 who are economically inactive compared with the same period three years ago (pre-covid pandemic), according to new analysis from Rest Less, a digital community and advocate group for people in their 50s, 60s and beyond. The organisation is now calling on firms to ensure their flexible working practices and in-house training schemes are suitable for all age groups and not just targeted at younger people. More →