November 15, 2023

Firms make lots of noise about social mobility but don’t always act on it

A new report on social mobility, conducted by the charity Making The Leap, claims that only a third of employers (35 percent) took any action on the retention and inclusion of job candidates from less advantaged socio-economic backgrounds (LSEB) candidates this year. This is down from 53 percent in 2022, showing a significant decline in prioritising a key element of social mobility, and significantly lower than those that say they are focussed on recruiting candidates. More →

November 14, 2023

Republished: The brain-dead megaphone of work

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Working lives

There is nothing new about any of this. And yet it’s all new. I’ve spent months talking to people who really know their stuff about work and workplaces and underlying nearly all of those conversations is the following paradox. They know about flexible working, the under-utilisation of space, the twenty minute neighbourhood, the work ecosystem, universal basic income, the digital workspace, the office as club, all the rest of it. Heard it all before, often many times, over many years. Some of them have been living it too, and yet… More →

November 12, 2023

Want people to spend more time in the office? Give them a little piece of home

by Yaron Rosenblum • Comment, Workplace design

For many people, a large portion of the day is spent at the workplace. In fact, the average person will spend 90,000 hours at work over a lifetime. The Covid-19 pandemic saw the typical ‘workplace’ setting change for many people, after businesses around the globe were forced to adjust to a ‘work-from-home’ model. Now, three years later, we are starting to see more employees return to the office, with large corporations including JPMorgan, Chase, Apple and Google all announcing plans to bring their workers back to base. More →

November 10, 2023

The challenge for fit-out firms is to deliver best value despite supply chain challenges

by Kevin P'ng • Comment, Facilities management, Property, Workplace design

The past year has been a challenging one for London’s commercial fit-out market. Whilst industry supply and demand dynamics may have found a level of equilibrium since the pandemic, geopolitical tensions, economic disruptions, and an unstable domestic policy environment continue to have an impact. In tandem with this, the commercial fit-out market is adapting to changing needs; from accommodating hybrid working models to growing demands for sustainability and reuse, the workplaces of today are ever changing. More →

November 9, 2023

Squirrel! Distraction costing the UK economy nearly £20 billion a year

by Jayne Smith • Business, News

Scrolling on social media, checking messages, daydreaming and other forms of distraction are costing the UK economy £19.9 billion each year, new research from The QEII Centre claims. The report The Distracted Economy: We are losing focus – how to hold attention and keep delegates engaged during business meetings and events was commissioned by the London conference and events venue. It suggests that 83 percent of people admit to being distracted during in-person meetings while the number rises to 85 percent during online meetings. More →

November 9, 2023

Inadequate provision for menopause and menstrual health driving women away from jobs

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

The workforce could lose millions of female employees unless more is done by employers to support women with menopausal and menstrual health symptoms, according to a new poll from workplace health provider Simplyhealth.? The research suggests almost a quarter (23 percent) of women have considered quitting due to the impact of menopause or menstrual symptoms at work, and over one in ten (14 percent) are actively planning to quit. More →

November 7, 2023

Angry, stressed and worried. The utter state of the UK workforce in 2023

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing

Gallup has published its 2023 Gallup Global Emotions report [registration] – a study of employee sentiment in the UK workforce. According to the report’s Negative Experience Index, which tracks how many people experience daily sadness, anger, stress, worry, and physical pain, full-time UK employees are experiencing historically high levels of daily negative experiences. This latest Gallup data claims that full-time UK employees scored a 32 on Gallup’s Negative Experience Index. This is up substantially from 23 in 2020. Full-time employees in the UK are now some of the most emotionally distressed in Europe, second only to employees in Malta. More →

November 6, 2023

Government issues formal warning to council over four-day working week

by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News

A formal notice has been issued to South Cambridgeshire District Council over its four-day working week trial, because the UK government says it wants ‘to ensure taxpayers’ money is well spent’. A Best Value Notice, issued by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, formally sets out government concerns around the council and whether the trial offers value for money, including the removal of up to a fifth of the authority’s capacity. It requests evidence on the trial to consider whether the council is meeting its Best Value Duty, including on: staffing; costs; service delivery; resident feedback; overall performance since the start of the trial; should a four-day working week continue. More →

November 3, 2023

Workspace Design Show announces first names for speaker programme at 2024 London event

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Workplace design

Following on from successful shows in both the UK and the Netherlands this year, Workspace Design Show is pleased to announce the first names to be added to the speaker programme for its London 2024 show. Held from 27-28 February 2024 at the Business Design Centre, Islington, the event will feature an impressive mix of senior professionals from architects and designers to developers and end users, who will come together to discuss the most pressing issues facing the workplace design community now and into the future. More →

November 2, 2023

Working parents yearn for more flexibility in their jobs

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

Research commissioned by the Department for Education’s Teach in Further Education campaign claims to set out the top three factors working parents consider when looking for a job. Work life balance came out on top (70 percent), while flexible working hours (43 percent) and a job where they can use their existing skills (26 percent) also ranked highly. More →

November 1, 2023

It’s hard to keep dead tech down

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Technology

In 2022, Cormac McCarthy published two novels at the age of 89. An impressive feat, doubly so because he wrote them on the same old dead tech typewriter he’d bought from a pawn shop in 1963. Prior to his death, he no longer had the original, a light blue Olivetti Lettera 32, because that was sold at a charity auction for a quarter of million dollars in 2009. A friend replaced it with an identical model for just $11. But one that lacked the cultural imprint, clearly. More →

October 31, 2023

The brain builds its sense of self from the people around us

by Sam Ereira • Features, Wellbeing

We are highly sensitive to people around us. As infants, we observe our parents and teachers, and from them we learn how to walk, talk, read – and use smartphones. There seems to be no limit to the complexity of behaviour we can acquire from observational learning. More →