January 10, 2020

Outdated technology continues to ruin people`s days

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Technology

New research by Currys PC World in collaboration with technology expert Theo Priestley claims that outdated technology and delays in finding fixes are eating into around 46 minutes of the average employee’s working day, which could cost a business approximately £2,752 a year. Time and money are not the only things lost to outdated technology, however, as half of Brits admit that it has a negative impact on their productivity in their jobs. What’s more, morale can be impacted when employees feel they have to work overtime to make up the time they have lost due to tech issues. More →

January 3, 2020

Burnout remains a risk for workers of all generations

by Brendan Street • Comment, Wellbeing

Flexible working has become an important part of the modern UK economy, with over half of employees taking up a flexible working arrangement. However, Nuffield Health’s latest whitepaper The effects of remote working on stress, wellbeing and productivity has found while remote working is associated with higher workplace wellbeing, it can also present many business challenges including the risk of burnout for an increasingly diverse workforce. More →

November 22, 2019

Office design can be a vehicle for equality and change

by Jeni Durksen • Comment, Workplace design

The way companies design physical environments is a direct reflection of their values and beliefs. Inequality is hardwired into the “standard” office layout, with perimeter offices and fixed desks offering limited settings for unstructured collaboration and recreation, further perpetuating the issue. Modern office design often favours extroversion and emphasises a hierarchy with values that benefit only a small portion of the overall workforce, contributing to organisation-wide imbalance. So how do we create more inclusive workplaces that can be leveraged as vehicles for change? More →

November 21, 2019

Nearly half of employers need help to implement flexible working

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

Eighty five percent of employers think demand for flexible working is likely to increase, with demand coming from across the board, but over four in 10 would like more support to implement it, according to a workingmums.co.uk survey. The results of the survey of around 200 employers are interesting in light of current policy discussions about flexible working which tend to focus on forcing employers to flex more by advertising jobs that are flexible from day one and enforcing employees’ flexible working rights. More →

September 3, 2019

Governments should respond to needs of older workers

by Mark Eltringham • News, Working lives, Workplace design

While firms are already being asked to do more to support their older workers by organisations like The Centre for Ageing Better, a new OECD report is arguing that it is an issue that Governments are not addressing as well as they might. It claims that the rapidly ageing population of countries around the world means that governments should promote more and better job opportunities for older workers to protect living standards and the sustainability of public finances.

July 29, 2019

The tipping point for flexible working arrives

by James Geekie • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace design

Although people have been talking about flexible working in one way or another for decades – the economist John Maynard Keynes declared in 1930 that technological advances would lead to a 15-hour working week – we may now be at the tipping point where work takes on an entirely different character. More →

July 11, 2019

Diversifying hiring practices to bridge the skills gap

by Jennifer Warawa • Comment, Workplace

Talent scarcity and the skills gap have become very real concerns in the UK. We are currently in a period of high employment, and at the same time, uncertainty surrounding Brexit has caused a reduction in immigrant labour, reducing the talent pool further. For accountancy, the skills gap issue is even more acute because it is already an industry with a very limited talent pool. When asked to describe an accountant, it is likely that many of us would describe a very similar person. For a variety of reasons, accountancy as a profession attracts a very specific group – often male, university educated, usually from a Russell Group university. Hiring from such a small pool means that the squeeze on talent is even tighter in this sector. More →

July 4, 2019

Poor office design continues to hamper productivity

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Research published by Dell claims to highlight the issues related to office design holding back workers’ productivity and the impact this has on UK businesses. While classic gripes like office temperature and loud colleagues take the top spots, poorly designed or implemented technology is having a negative impact on employees – with out of date technology (29 percent), poor Wi-Fi (22 percent) and poorly integrated technology (19 percent) featuring in the top ten factors UK workers feel impact their office lives. More →

June 19, 2019

Culture clash means one in ten non-native workers leave jobs

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

A new report from Jobsite claims that almost one in ten (8 percent) non-native workers in the UK have had to leave a job because of a culture clash or they felt they didn’t fit in, and a quarter (23 percent) of those working in multicultural teams feel their workplace has become less accepting towards their non-UK colleagues since the EU Referendum. The survey claims that over a third (35 percent) of non-native workers believe their career progression has been impacted whilst a further 13 percent think they have been overlooked for a promotion due to their cultural background. More →

May 2, 2019

Vast majority of accountants think there’s been a cultural shift in the profession

by George Eltringham • News, Workplace

Sage has released its annual Practice of Now research report, which claims that there is a shifting cultural landscape in the accounting sector driven by evolving client demands and the marketplace. Of the 3,000 accountants surveyed worldwide, 90 percent believe there has been a cultural shift in accountancy as it enters the next decade. This shift is driving significant changes in hiring practices, business services and attitudes toward emerging technologies across the globe. More →

March 13, 2019

We need to change the terms of the open plan office debate

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, News, Workplace design

New workplace data from the Gensler Research Institute claims to challenge the current narrative surrounding the open plan office ‘debate’ and uncovers the right way to invest in work-focused amenities, including coworking, that result in higher employee engagement, business performance and profit. The 2019 Gensler US Workplace Survey includes the input from more than 6,000 US office workers across a variety of industries and demographics to provide new insight into not only what makes an effective workplace, but the investments companies can make to improve employees’ workplace experience and performance. Reports for the UK, Germany, Latin America and Asia are also available here.

February 8, 2019

Half of HR departments plan to offer new employee benefits

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

According to Gallagher’s Benefits Strategy & Benchmarking Survey (registration required), 45 percent of HR practitioners are planning changes to current employee benefit offerings amid a highly competitive labour market. The survey shows an increasing number of organisations are fully aware of the measurable impact that benefits have on engagement and productivity. Among HR practitioners planning changes, 72 percent are seeking to enhance benefits, thereby improving their employer brand and becoming more competitive in recruitment. The second-most popular planned change is improving flexibility in benefits, with 47 percent attempting to bolster flexible options to extend individual choice. More →