April 27, 2021
Search Results for: lockdown
April 21, 2021
Majority of UK workers don’t want to go back to the office until everyone is vaccinated
by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing
As lockdown starts to lift, more people are having to think about going back to work as normal. That means commutes, offices, cafeterias, and face to face meetings. CPD Online College, surveyed over 1,000 UK employees to find out how they feel about returning to the office prior to everyone being vaccinated. More →
April 21, 2021
HR professionals expect employees to split their time between the office and home
by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Working lives
Research commissioned by CANCOM, conducted with UK HR professionals about post-COVID work habits claims that only one-in-ten organisations does not intend to run a hybrid way of working – with nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of HR professionals of the opinion that employees will divide their time between the office and home after all COVID restrictions have lifted. More →
April 20, 2021
Nearly a million workers struggling with mental wellbeing due to remote working
by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing, Working lives
As April is Stress Awareness Month, Instant Offices researched how the last year has affected employees mental health also what business and individual employees can do to improve and support mental wellbeing. More →
April 20, 2021
FUTURE Designs awarded the IMMUNE Building Standard
by Freddie Steele • Company news
FUTURE Designs, a UK based designer and manufacturer of luminaires and lighting solutions, obtains the first IMMUNE Building Standard certification in the world for an Industrial Building, awarded by Healthy by Design Building Institute (HDBI). The factory and headquarters achieved the label ‘IMMUNE – Strong’ following the company’s successful implementation of the health and safety set of measures for its employees. More →
April 16, 2021
Mental health concerns at SMEs have surged during the pandemic
by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing
Breathe has released the findings from a recent survey aiming to understand business attitudes and approaches to mental health in the workplace. According to the firm, the pandemic has fuelled a health crisis which continues to impact the mental and physical wellbeing of staff in a number of ways. As a result, employers are under pressure to introduce adequate safeguarding measures, according to the report. More →
April 8, 2021
Working from home surveillance drives rise of digital presenteeism
by Neil Franklin • News, Technology, Wellbeing
Lockdown has meant the majority of UK office-based employees have taken up working from home arrangements over the last year, and it seems that many employers lack trust in their employees when they can’t physically see them. Last year saw a rise in the implementation of surveillance software, to ensure that workers are acting in best corporate interests. However, this is having a negative impact on some employees – who are feeling forced to work longer hours due to a new perceived need to remain visible to their manager or team leader, revealed in a survey by cybersecurity firm Kaspersky. With remote working set to stay post-COVID, these findings indicate a worrying growing trend around broken working from home employee trust. More →
April 7, 2021
The binary choices and multiple outcomes of flexible working
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working
A year of unnecessarily binary conversation about work leads inevitably to this. A stupid question. Is Big Tech going off work from home? Betteridge’s Law takes care of that, just as it did another question from 12 months ago. Even though the article is slightly better than the headline, the insistence that the only two choices we have are home or office remains. More →
April 6, 2021
Workplace interruptions may help people feel a sense of belonging
by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing
In those heady pre-lockdown days, the most common complaint about office life, and especially open plan office life, was the inability to get work done without distraction. Now a new paper from researchers at the University of Illinois suggests that the interruptions may have served some purpose in the way they helped people feel a sense of belonging in the workplace. More →
April 6, 2021
Government makes it easier to convert unused offices into homes
by Neil Franklin • News, Property
New rules allowing commercial premises to be converted into homes come into force as part of a package of measures the UK government claims will help to revitalise England’s high streets and town centres. It believes the new rules will help “support the creation of much-needed homes while also giving high streets a new lease of life – removing eyesores, transforming unused buildings and making the most of brownfield land.” More →
April 1, 2021
European office workers are not prepared for ‘work from anywhere’ model
by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Working culture
New research by Targus claims that European office workers are to generally unprepared to adopt a new ‘work from anywhere’ model. The representative survey in France, Germany and the UK, claims people are willing to set foot in offices again but expect greater flexibility and trust to work from other locations. More →
April 28, 2021
The hybrid workplace sagas, part two. Valhalla
by Neil Usher • Comment, Flexible working
“Wow, Dougie, they’ve remodelled our office while we were away!”
“Fantastic. Did you know about it?”
“No, they said the surprise was a key part of the change programme.”
“So what’s different?” More →