November 30, 2022

Always connected in the age of disconnection

by Mark Eltringham • Features, Flexible working, Wellbeing

All of humanity’s problems,” the French scientist and philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote in 1654, “stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” He may have been right, but then again, sitting in a room alone isn’t necessarily a great state of permanent being either. There was a time we used to talk with dismay about the Japanese phenomenon of intense social distancing known as hikikomori. We would consider with horror the isolation, lack of engagement with society, poor mental health and loneliness of the people who had almost completely withdrawn to their rooms. Those poor bastards locked up in enclosed spaces linked to the outside world only by screens. More →

November 28, 2022

Borderless working will erode company culture, bosses fear

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

A poll from Perkbox claims that almost half of businesses moving towards more borderless working (47 percent) are concerned how the shift will impact their company culture. These concerns stem from perceptions around managing a globally distributed workforce and the challenges this can bring. For example, a third of business leaders (33 percent) say different time zones make collaboration less effective. Meanwhile ,31 percent state inconsistency in different employee expectations around benefits or working styles causes friction between borderless managers and their teams. More →

November 24, 2022

EU approves major funding increase for new circular economy and clean energy projects

by Jayne Smith • Environment, News

The European Commission has approved more than €380 million of funding for 168 new projects across Europe as part of its LIFE Programme for the environment and climate action. As part of the European Green Deal, it believes that the projects funded can help the EU become climate-neutral by 2050 and reach climate, energy and environmental goals. They aim to support biodiversity, nature restoration and a circular economy while contributing to the clean energy transition across the continent. More →

November 23, 2022

The unspoken privilege of wellbeing

by Stephanie Fitzgerald • Comment, SF, Wellbeing

I sat in the main hall at a recent conference, listening to the keynote presentation. A Head of HR at a large manufacturing company described the implementation of their wellbeing strategy over the last year. So far, so important. There is no doubt that the conversation around wellbeing has been rightly amplified, as employees are seeking to gain and maintain more life in their work-life balance. However, as I sat there listening, I became uncomfortable. Seriously uncomfortable. Then I became cross. More →

November 23, 2022

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

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

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 →

November 22, 2022

Inconsistent flexible working strategies drive people away from businesses

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

A 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 →

November 17, 2022

The workplace circus continues to entertain, but back in the real world…

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Wellbeing

The Great Workplace Circus headlines its 322nd show of the year with everybody’s favourite distraction, Elon Musk, being driven into the ring by his own shoddily built clown car, declaring he needs everybody at Twitter to be ‘extremely hardcore’ before sacking a few people from his space programme, then setting fire to the tent himself. The swarm of stories spawned by this extraordinary behaviour include this tired and predictable rant in the Telegraph about ‘lazy Brits’. Ironically, there’s nothing lazier than a columnist on this rag with some space to fill. More →

November 11, 2022

Problems at Twitter, grease proof chairs, and the trouble with AI

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Workplace design

The level of layoffs at several Big Tech firms has been the main source of news and comment over the past week or two. Around 11,000 people at Facebook and another 7,500 at Twitter are to be made redundant. Elon Musk then ensured the conversation moved on by forbidding remote work completely. More →

November 10, 2022

Summing up where the office now stands in the scheme of things

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working

The argument about what it takes to encourage people to come into the office more often seems to have boiled down to an equation. It’s now common to hear somebody argue that the office has to be worth the commute it takes to get to it. So, if you want people to spend more time in the building, you need to do the maths. O must be greater than or equal to C More →

November 9, 2022

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

by Neil Franklin • News

Workers 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 →

November 8, 2022

Hybrid working driving demand for areas with easier commutes

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Property, Workplace design

A report from Unispace claims that employees’ new preference for hybrid working has created an immediate need for firms to re-think their real estate footprint. Today, with over 60 percent of office-based employees preferring to work remotely or in a more flexible way, rather than commute to city centres five days a week, employers are considering the greater use or addition of satellite offices to their portfolio. According to the study of 3,000 office workers across Europe, 79 percent of the workforce would be happier to return to the office if it was just five to 10 minutes away from their home, suggesting that satellite offices could be a solution to boost collaboration, socialisation, engagement and staff retention. More →

November 3, 2022

Are digital skills the key to a happier, more productive workforce?

by Katy Liddell • Comment, Technology, Workplace

The rising cost-of-living is impacting life and work in all four corners of the UK. Research from BCC has found that businesses feel compelled to increase their own prices. With costs rising, businesses are facing growing pressures. Not least the need to attract and retain the talent they can depend on to deliver. Research has shown that taking time to upskill current employees, especially in terms of their digital skills, benefits both productivity and engagement at all levels of an organisation. Our own Tech and Battle for Talent report recognises that 42 percent of employees in organisations across the UK would be more likely to stay in their current role if employers provided regular and intensive training, while 47 percent would be happier. More →