October 9, 2020

As a workplace professional, how many hats do you wear to work?

by Karina Tissnes • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace

Throughout your time being with a company, have more responsibilities been added to your typical workday that were not expected originally? Did you offer to help with something outside of your job, then have it become part of your daily duties? If so, you’re not alone. Companies often look for ways to save money, and sometimes that means piling work on people who are already on the roster. Wearing many hats at work happens often, but how does it impact the employees that carry the extra burden? In a new study, ZenBusiness – a company that helps people start, run, and grow their own business – asked more than 1,000 current employees about the various functions they serve, what they think is fair, and how workloads have changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (more…)

October 8, 2020

The workplace has reached an inflection point as it adjusts to new realities

by Robin Davies • Comment, Facilities management, Technology, Workplace design

We can confidently say this is a new era for the workplace. Covid-19 has forced a radical rethink about the purpose of the office and its role in reaffirming company culture. Enlightened property directors are resisting knee-jerk responses to predictions that Covid spells the demise of the office including the wholesale migration to home-working. Instead, they are challenging plans to dramatically downsize the workplace and corporate real estate. They are also acutely aware that distancing, transmission and sanitisation are here for the long-haul. This will continue to have a profound impact on occupancy levels and the interactions that are necessary for business success. (more…)

October 8, 2020

Most people with mental health issues would prefer a robot therapist to a human

by Jayne Smith • News, Technology, Wellbeing

2020 has been the most stressful year in history for the global workforce and people want robots to help, according to a new study by Oracle and Workplace Intelligence, an HR research and advisory firm. The study of more than 12,000 employees, managers, HR leaders, and C-level executives across 11 countries claims that the COVID-19 pandemic has increased workplace stress, anxiety, burnout and other mental health issues for people all around the world, and would prefer a robot instead of other people to help. (more…)

October 7, 2020

Mental health widely seen as a barrier to career progression

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing

New research from recruitment agency Hays claims that nearly a quarter (24 percent) of those who have or have experienced a mental health condition feel they do not have equal access to the same career progression opportunities as other colleagues. Similarly, 12 percent of those who have had or experienced mental ill health said they felt this had led to their chances of being selected for a job being lowered. (more…)

October 6, 2020

One in five consider a career change despite COVID

by Jayne Smith • News, Working lives

New research from financial advice and investment network Openwork, shows nearly one in five workers plan a career change underlining the growing trend of switching jobs.

Its nationwide study claims 19 percent of workers aim to move into a new industry or sector in the next years rising to nearly one in three among under-35s. The ambition to try something different doesn’t end with age – around 12 percent of over-55s plan a career change too. (more…)

October 2, 2020

Time for businesses to establish more meaningful wellbeing initiatives

by Jolawn Victor • Comment, Wellbeing

Over the years, mental health has become a prominent feature of wellbeing initiatives in many businesses, but especially in the wake of the pandemic. However, our research has found that more than half of the UK workforce (54 percent) do not feel that mental health benefits are a priority in their organisation. This is despite half of workers believing that mental health benefits are essential post-COVID-19. (more…)

October 2, 2020

What (nearly) everybody gets wrong about work and the coronavirus

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace design

You’ve probably read and heard dozens, or even hundreds, of different viewpoints about the effect of the pandemic on the world of work. Most of them (until recently perhaps) have dished up one of the two binary options as part of a zero-sum game. Many are based on hackneyed ideas and expressed as clichés. (more…)

October 2, 2020

Two thirds of people believe their work travel patterns have changed permanently

by Jayne Smith • Environment, News, Technology

Alphabet (GB) has published a new report examining how the pandemic has accelerated changes to travel and transport, altering consumer and business travel habits in UK cities. With mass migration to working from home, in March, road traffic travel dropped to levels not seen since 1955 and journeys on the London Underground fell by 95 percent. The report suggests that only six percent of those travelling to work by train feel comfortable, dropping to just four percent for tube users. (more…)

October 2, 2020

Post-COVID environment will drive demand for flexible office space

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

Employees are proving keen to return to the office, reporting that they miss the human and social interaction that the office facilitates. At the same time, while employees show a strong affinity for the office, they also desire the ability to have the option to work from home 1-2 days per week on average according to a recent JLL global study of 3,000 workers. The trend towards workplace mobility was not created as a result of the pandemic, but it was certainly accelerated by it. As a result, agile work strategies are expected to increase in a post-pandemic world, reinvigorating demand for flexible space. (more…)

October 1, 2020

EDGE adds building software to its portfolio of innovations

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Technology

Sustainable tech-led real estate pioneers EDGE have built upon their already impressive reputation as an innovator with the launch of a software platform that offers what the firm claims is a “seamless solution for optimising any office building’s performance”. It claims that EDGE Next allows “tenants and owners to transform their offices into smarter, healthier and more sustainable spaces in which people and companies can truly thrive”. The EDGE Next platform also sets out to ensure the wellbeing of employees by monitoring air quality and the numbers of people in a spaces, which it claims will make offices safer for work during the COVID-19 outbreak and beyond. (more…)

October 1, 2020

Businesses favour the commercial brain over the creative one, study claims

by Jayne Smith • Business, News

Businesses in the UK are disproportionately made up of logical and rational thinkers, over intuitive and expressive ones, claims a new study. The study from Genius You, involved more than 2000 individuals across 10 different sectors and highlights a trend that could be impacting creativity and innovation in the UK. (more…)

September 30, 2020

People still prefer permanent jobs despite rise in number of freelance roles

by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Working lives

Workers (82 percent) would rather have permanent jobs than “be their own boss” in a freelance or contract role, even as the self-employed and gig economy has grown rapidly in recent years, claims new research from the ADP Research Institute. Many workers believe that permanent work is preferable for a host of reasons including regular hours, better pay, timely payments, and the ability to get credit. (more…)