September 24, 2020

Employees grow increasingly concerned about prospect of burnout

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing, Working lives

In a survey of employees and business leaders across 11 nations, The Workforce Institute at UKG (Ultimate Kronos Group) claims only a fraction of employees (20 percent) felt their organisation met their needs during the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic. But there is a silver lining: a third of employees globally (33 percent) say they trust their employer more now than before the pandemic began because of how organisations reacted. More →

September 23, 2020

Remote working set to triple in the post-COVID world

by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Working lives

A new survey from XpertHR, claims that the average percentage of employees remote working at least part of the time is projected to nearly triple from 12 percent before the COVID-19 pandemic to 30 percent after the pandemic. The survey Employer Response to COVID-19 was completed by 835 US employers. More →

September 21, 2020

Commercial property market in Oxford-Cambridge Arc proving resilient

by Neil Franklin • News, Property

Take-up of office and laboratory space in the Oxford-Cambridge Arc has remained resilient during the first half of 2020, according to a new report from property consultants Bidwells. The firm claims that 117,600 sq ft was taken in Oxford between January and July, reaching 85 per cent of the city’s ten-year average despite the Covid-19 pandemic. More →

September 18, 2020

Is there a confidence gap between businesses and their people?

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing, Working lives

Cornerstone OnDemand have published a new workforce trends report from the Cornerstone People Research Lab (CPRL) titled A License to Skill: Embracing the Reskilling Revolution. The research report claims that while organisational leaders and employees have rallied around the importance of skills, there remains a confidence gap in the efficacy of skills-based learning programmes that advance careers and innovation in the business. More →

September 8, 2020

Artificial Intelligence is critical to organisations, but many unprepared

by Jayne Smith • News, Technology

A new report from information technology company Wipro Limited claims that enterprises of the future will be built on a foundation of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Analytics, Machine Learning, Deep Learning and Automation. According to the ‘State of Intelligent Enterprises’ report, these technologies are central to solving business problems and driving innovation. Most businesses consider AI to be critical to improve operational efficiency, reduce employee time on manual tasks, and enhance the employee and customer experience. More →

September 2, 2020

Stress and burnout threaten the benefits of working from home

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing

A new study by Adaptavist, suggests the threats to long-term productivity and employee wellbeing posed by improvised solutions during the transition to remote work. Overall, 82 percent of people report they are equally (47 percent) if not more productive (35 percent) working from home, and company-wide communications have improved during the pandemic. However, the lack of a shared understanding of which tool to use and how to communicate with it, combined with the ‘always on’ nature of working from home, brings added stress and motivational challenges for remote workers. More →

August 20, 2020

Workers only apply newly learned skills half of the time

by Jayne Smith • News, Workplace

Employees are applying only 54 percent of the new skills they learn, despite the number of skills required for a single job increasing by 10 percent year on year, according to Gartner, Inc. Gartner TalentNeuron data also claims that 33 percent of the skills needed three years ago are no longer relevant. More →

August 11, 2020

UK faces urgent AI skills gap, Microsoft report claims

by Neil Franklin • AI, News, Technology

The UK is facing an AI skills gap that could leave companies struggling to compete with rivals from across the world, a new Microsoft report claims. The research, entitled AI Skills in the UK, also found that businesses in this country use less AI than firms overseas, and when they do it tends to be less advanced. UK organisations are also less likely to be classed as “AI pros” compared to the global average (15 percent versus 23 percent), and the UK has a higher failure rate of AI than the global average (measured by the number of projects generating no commercial value – 29 percent versus 19 percent). More →

August 11, 2020

UK businesses lead the way on lockdown wellbeing

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing

Business leaders around the world have focused on protecting their employees in their immediate COVID-19 response, with UK CEOs leading the pack on mental wellbeing support. Some 93 percent of UK CEOs (92 percent globally) prioritised protecting employee health and safety over everything else. However, UK CEOs were found to have been significantly more focused on their employees’ mental wellbeing than their global counterparts, with 90 percent providing wellbeing support and initiatives, compared with 61 percent of CEOs globally. More →

August 7, 2020

Wrong approach to leadership makes a fifth of CEOs a bad fit for their firm

by Neil Franklin • Business, News

Nearly a fifth (17 percent) of CEOs are largely unsuited to the companies they lead, according to new research from academics at Imperial College Business School, Harvard Business School, Columbia University and the London School of Economics. The paper, CEO Behavior and Firm Performance, is based on an analysis of the leadership behaviour of 1,100 CEOs based on their daily schedules. More →

August 7, 2020

A dog`s life in the future of work

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working

Once upon a time. Not so long ago. We used to get ideas for stories on lots of different topics. These included those I often dismissed at the time as quaint, such as somebody’s thoughts on why you should bring your dog to work. Now I often hanker for such whimsy, faced with day 127 of an inbox stuffed with nothing much more than ‘how to return to the office after lockdown’. More →

August 4, 2020

Boardroom heroes needed to transform working cultures

by Alex Fleming • Comment, Flexible working

Even as the UK starts to open back up following the COVID-19 enforced lockdown, there are still many unanswered questions about how almost every aspect of our lives will be impacted. What is certain though, is that we will continue to see a paradigm shift take place across all areas of the workplace. Employers must ensure they have the right measures and policies in place to deal with the transformations that have taken place across the UK’s labour market throughout the lockdown period. This is crucial, as only those who have a strong workplace culture will succeed in the post-pandemic world. More →