November 29, 2023

Creating the epicentre: unlocking the untold benefits of next-generation office spaces

by Nathan Thomas • Comment, Flexible working, Property, Technology

Many associate the notion of futuristic office spaces, filled with equipment like sleep pods and beer taps, with companies that have a young workforce or challenger brand identity. The association is often linked to tech giants like Google, which created quite a stir when it originally revealed its indoor slides. Whilst the inclusion of playground furniture in the office is not right for every business, the assumption that unconventional workspaces should be limited to unconventional companies simply isn’t true. More →

October 9, 2023

SMEs turn to AI and acquisitions to navigate an uncertain future

by Neil Franklin • Business, News, Technology

More than half of all business leaders (55 percent) believe that the overall economic conditions in the UK and Ireland have worsened compared to a year ago. Yet, 58 percent of SMEs anticipate an increase in their firm’s sales revenues over the next 12 months; while nearly half (47 percent) expect profitability to improve within a year and 47 percent of SMEs are confident that their firm’s total number of employees will grow in the next 12 months. Business leaders are planning to invest more in AI and acquisitions to help them navigate an uncertain future. More →

October 5, 2023

An uncertain world, but CEOs remain broadly bullish about the future

by Neil Franklin • Business, Flexible working, News, Technology

Geopolitics and broader political uncertainty are now the greatest risk to business growth, according to a survey of more than 1,300 CEOs of the world’s largest businesses. The KPMG 2023 CEO Outlook claims that geopolitics and political uncertainty have become the leading perceived risk this year for senior executives – concerns that didn’t even make the top five in the 2022 survey. More →

July 14, 2023

To boost productivity in the UK, we need to think big and different

by Peter McAteer • Comment, Technology

The decline in UK productivity since the Great Recession of 2008/2009 has been a matter of concern for business leaders, policymakers, and economists alike. Despite hopes that the pandemic would act as a catalyst for transformation and boost productivity, recent figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that the UK still lags behind several other G7 economies. More →

July 12, 2023

Generations in the workplace: setting the record straight

by Jo Sutherland • Comment, Workplace

If there were an algorithm to create a word cloud in response to searches for ‘What millennials want in the workplace?’, you’d expect to see Google spew out terms such as ‘flexibility’, ‘meaning’, ‘fairness’, ‘equality’, ‘inclusivity’, ‘opportunity’, ‘connections’, ‘socialising’ and ‘experience’. Do the same with ‘Gen Z’ replacing ‘millennials’ and – guess what – you’ll see the exact same word cloud, although perhaps in a different colour and order so you don’t think it’s based on the same homogeneous assumptions about younger generations. 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 →

May 10, 2023

Majority of employees see themselves as cogs in corporate machinery

by Jayne Smith • News, Workplace

A significant majority (85 percent) of employees feel like they are just a cog in the machinery of their organisation and 43 percent have no idea how their performance contributes to business success, according to a new survey of employee experience and expectations. According to the new study [registration] from Oracle, HR leaders are struggling to keep up with changing employee expectations and this can have dire consequences for businesses. The survey of 1,000 employees and HR leaders across the United Kingdom (UK) found that despite current economic uncertainty, worker expectations are higher than ever, and HR leaders need help to get the employee experience right or risk losing profits and market share. 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 →

March 1, 2023

Nearly all senior managers say stress is a characteristic of their job

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing

The cost-of-living crisis is the top cause of stress at work for people working in leadership and senior management roles, according to the findings of a new survey by HR software provider Ciphr. Around 98 percent of the 265 leaders and senior managers polled found at least one aspect of their work stressful, while two-fifths (83 percent) are affected by three or more work-related stressors (the average, per person, is eight). Yet, despite the obvious stress their work causes them, just 4 percent claim not to like their jobs. More →

February 22, 2023

Most US employees don’t believe remote working colleagues are really working

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

Only 24 percent of people trust their remote working colleagues to get work done from home, according to a new poll from Envoy. However, the latest edition of its Return to the Workplace survey also suggests that 94 percent of workers believe their managers trust them to do their work from anywhere, home or the office. And the older the worker, the greater the confidence they have in expressing such a belief. Only 57 percent of ‘Gen Z’ feel strongly that they have their manager’s trust compared with 71 percent of ‘Millennials’ and 77 percent of ‘Boomers’. (Wot? No Gen X? – Ed) More →

January 23, 2023

Half of people never thought they’d be back working in an office last year

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Property

More than half of UK employees did not believe they would return to office based work full time in 2022, according to a survey by GlobalData. The poll from the analytics company which focuses its research on the insurance sector suggests that increasing consumer demand for flexible working models presents both challenges and opportunities. GlobalData’s survey, conducted as part of research for its Insurance Intelligence Center, indicates that only 40 percent of those surveyed anticipated a return to the office in 2022. More →

January 12, 2023

Wellbeing and organisational agility will dominate workplace conversations in 2023

by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

Mental health and wellbeing will dominate conversations about the role of work in people’s lives this year, due in part to the effects of the global pandemic, as well as social and economic instability around the world, according to the latest megatrends report from UKG. The report claims that many people are feeling overwhelmed in the face of negative news cycles headlining economic uncertainty, climate change, violence, and political unrest have contributed to a spike in mental wellbeing issues. More →