Search Results for: working from home

July 6, 2016

Overworked UK staff are losing touch with their home lives ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Over half of all UK workers’ home lives are negatively affected by work, with one in five admitting they’ve missed important milestones in their children’s lives. According to a survey of 2,000 people in the UK, commissioned by Coople, 51 percent admit that their current workloads are affecting their lives at home. They are missing kids’ birthdays and other important milestones like school plays, parents’ evenings and award ceremonies because of work. The research claims that poor work-life balance has been detrimental to parents’ relationships with their children, with 11 percent saying working late and not ‘switching off’ has distanced them from their young ones. Most worryingly, 28 percent of those that admitted to missing important events have done so more than five times during their working life, 10 percent say they have missed their child’s event once, 26 percent say they have done so twice, 29 percent three times, and 7 percent admit they’ve done so four times.

July 5, 2016

Sea and space: the final frontiers for remote working and connectivity ⁰

by Neil Franklin • Case studies, Comment, Knowledge, Legal news, Technology

Tim Peake’s recent return home from space at the end of a six month stay in the International Space Station highlighted just how essential it is for people to stay in contact with their friends, family and the rest of the world, literally from wherever they may be. Of course, back on Earth we now take it for granted that we are in a state of constant connectedness to the rest of the world. So the idea of someone being out of contact, even for brief periods of time, strikes us as odd. Perhaps that partly explains our fascination with the experiences of astronauts and other people who cannot take connectivity for granted. But it’s not just astronauts who have to consider how to enjoy the connectedness that we normally assume to be ours by right. People who work at sea face the same challenge and you could argue that it is more important for such truly remote workers to be in contact with other people and the Internet. So who fares better when it comes to achieving connectivity?

June 27, 2016

The key to boosting productivity may be the offer of flexible working ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, Wellbeing

Over 82 percent of people say they feel more productive when working from home according to a survey of 2,000 employers and employees conducted by remote conferencing provider Powwownow. The report also claims that over 60 percent of employers say that flexible working is the key to staying competitive and 77 percent saying it leads to better work-life balance. Conversely, 44 percent of workers said that being able to get work done with no distractions was the biggest appeal of flexible working, however, less traffic was a close second with over 40 percent citing that as a benefit. Over 50 percent of workers In the UK said that they would work the same hours (9-5) if they were able to work from home. However they also admit that they would take fewer breaks. Women tend to ask for flexible working more than men, as they would like to spend more time with their families. Interestingly, the report also claims that women bosses tend to be less trusting when an employee asks for flexible working.

June 17, 2016

Home or away. What should employers be doing about the game? ⁰

by Anita Rai • Comment, Flexible working, Legal news, Workplace

The Euros 2016 are underway. It’s an exciting time for the nation, but not so much for businesses that are potentially facing a largely absent workforce, be it physically or simply because they will spend at least 90 minutes of their afternoon glued to their mobile phones watching the match. Some employees might have been organised enough to book annual leave for the afternoon, but for many, they will be devising a cunning plan as to how they can get away to watch the match. Employers can expect to be faced with a hike in “sickies” and last minute requests to work from home as suddenly there’s a delivery due or a poorly child to look after. Some employees will just decide to chance it and not come back to the office after their lunch breaks, with no pre-authorisation at all. So what should you be doing as an employer?

June 14, 2016

Home workers happier, able to balance responsibilities despite long hours ⁰

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

New research claims that home-based employees are choosing to work more hours than those who work in traditional offices. According to the study carried out by homeworking agency Sensée, despite opting to work more hours daily, home workers are generally happier because they’re empowered to choose the hours they work so they can still attend to family responsibilities. Three quarters of home workers (77 percent) stated that working from home enables them to achieve more, including caring for family members or friends and exercising more. Time and money saved on commuting – along with more control over their day – were cited among the top three benefits of working from home. The research also claims there is a desire to work from home among office-based employees. Three-fifths (81 percent) of office-based employees said they would take the opportunity to work from home either full time or part time to care for a family member or friend.

June 1, 2016

Coworking continuing to drive workplace change around the world ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Knowledge, News, Property, Workplace design

Coworking continues to be one of the main drivers of workplace change globally and is now becoming mainstream, according to new research from serviced office provider The Instant Group. According to the firm’s Flexible Workspace Review – US 2016 report, coworking grew more than 10 percent across the US over the last year and ‘combination centres’ which offer both executive suites and coworking spaces expanded by 12.9 percent as existing operators sought to take advantage of the growing demand for collaborative and agile workspace. The study claims that the occupation of flexible workspace by corporations has significantly expanded the US flexible office market over the past year, largely driven by the rise of the contingent workforce and changing workplace demands of Millennials. The total market grew by 4.3 percent and now includes 3,596 centres, the largest markets of its kind in the world with the UK following at 3,290 centres.

May 24, 2016

A fifth of staff experience more stress at home than in the workplace ⁰

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

Home may not be the haven we might assume, meaning that employers who encourage staff to work from home may actually be adding to their stress levels. Around a fifth of employees find their domestic lives more stressful than their working lives and many either don’t want to discuss it with managers or feel unable to, claims a new report from MetLife Employee Benefits. According to Building Resilience in the Workplace, 19 percent of employees overall are more stressed at home than at work, with slightly more female respondents to the study claiming to be stressed more by their home lives than the workplace. Around 21 percent of women say their home life is more stressful compared to 15 percent of men. The research claims that 67 percent of employees say domestic issues – including childcare, looking after elderly parents and financial pressures – are having an impact on their work performance.

May 16, 2016

Women (and men) don’t enjoy the full wellbeing benefits of flexible working ⁰

by Dr Daniel Wheatley • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing

There has been significant expansion of flexible working arrangements (FWAs) in the last two decades, driven to some degree by the work-life balance agenda. However, in practice work-life balance and flexible working continue to be viewed as a ‘women’s issue’, as women more often reduce hours or work part-time. But recent research conducted by my own department suggests that women working flexibly are not experiencing the potential wellbeing benefits when compared to men. Flexible working arrangements include part-time, flexi-time, job share and homeworking. Part-time accounts for approximately 40 percent of female employment and is the most common FWA used by women. Term-time working is also used predominantly by women, reflecting the typical gender roles regarding caring for school-aged children. Meanwhile, flexi-time remains the most common arrangement used by men, at around 19 percent.

May 12, 2016

Making sense of the relentless babble about flexible working

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Flexible working, Workplace design

Not a day goes by when some organisation or other isn’t found extolling the virtues of flexible working or urging everybody to adopt the practice. While it’s easy to be cynical about the results of surveys from technology companies which are a staple part of this media onslaught, they are actually on to something. And that is why governments, employers and their associations and employees are all attracted to the idea of flexible working as a way of achieving whatever it is they want. The result is the stew of motivations, ideas and terminology that can lead commentators to make grand and daft pronouncements about flexible working; pronouncing it dead, most famously in the case of Yahoo but more subtly in the case of the grand new Xanadus being created in Silicon Valley by the area’s Charles Foster Kanes, or as the harbinger of death for the office based on the notion that somehow we’ll all be working in exactly the same way at some point in the future.

May 9, 2016

Women not reaping full wellbeing benefits of flexible working ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Working flexible hours is associated with lower job satisfaction among women, but greater satisfaction among men, a new study claims. The research explores the impact of flexible working on job, leisure and life satisfaction and suggests that women are not experiencing the full benefits. According to Dr Daniel Wheatley, lecturer in Economics at Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University; the research suggests that while flexible working generates a number of benefits, working part-time or reduced hours has significant negative impacts on job satisfaction. He explains: “While some women are able to use reduced hours optimally, such as those working part-time following maternity leave, those using reduced hours for lengthier periods because of commitments such as childcare may feel trapped in ‘restrictive’ flexible employment. They may only be able to gain low skilled employment and may experience limitations in career progression.”

May 3, 2016

Remote working may be the answer to the housing crisis, claims report ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Cities, Flexible working, News, Technology

A new report from techUK and Citrix claims that the UK’s housing crisis is exacerbated by the majority of workers (59 percent) working on the basis that there is greater potential for securing employment by living and working in large cities. The Housing Crisis: a Digital Solution (download) is based on data from YouGov research into the expectations of 1,243 UK knowledge workers with the potential to enjoy remote working. The report claims that the burden that location-dependent work places on large cities could be significantly reduced by allowing workers to work remotely, as over half of British workers (54 per cent) stated they would be likely to relocate to a rural area if they could still perform their role to the same level. However, while many workers would relocate if they could, connectivity, transport and corporate culture were all cited as challenges to achieving this especially when 48 per cent of rural premises don’t have access to high-speed broadband internet.

April 28, 2016

UK, Germany, Switzerland and Poland lag Europe in flexible working ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Workplace

A new report has verified the value of flexible working by showing a positive correlation between employee happiness and the adoption of flexible working practices. Yet, the research conducted by IDC and sponsored by Cornerstone OnDemand also reveals that flexible working practices have been taken up at different speeds across Europe, where the lowest flexible working maturity appears to be clustered in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the UK. Business managers and HR respondents stated a low level of flexible working adoption in Poland, the UK, Switzerland and Germany – surprising, given the competitive labour market in these regions. The Nordics, Spain, Benelux and Austria were perceived to be the most mature when it came to flexible working options. Among the respondents from Poland, less than 50 percent of those surveyed were allowed to work from home, while the figure for the Nordic countries was 87 percent.