Search Results for: working from home

September 22, 2015

Top employers for working families praised for flexible approach ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, Legal news, News, Workplace

The financial sector is well represented in this year’s annual list of Top Employers for Working Families as announced by charity Working Families. American Express, Barclays Bank, Citibank, Deloitte and Lloyds all made the list, while just two public sector organisations Ministry of Justice and Southdown Housing Association were in the top ten. Employers with up to 250 employees that reached the Small Employer’s Benchmark – ranged from law firm Sacker & Partners LLP to Bristol Students’ Union. To enter the awards, which are sponsored by Computershare, organisations must complete a benchmark survey which examines in detail their flexible and family friendly working policies and practices. As flexible working becomes embedded in more organisations, Working Families is calling on employers to ‘adopt a ‘flexible by default’ approach, to continue the rise in flexible working and help everyone to achieve a work life balance that works for them.’

September 8, 2015

Over a fifth of working mothers denied flexible hours are forced to quit ⁰

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

Discussions about the gender pay gap and increasing the number of women on Boards need to acknowledge that the greatest obstacle to female empowerment in the UK is balancing home and family. Just last week the TUC revealed that many women felt compelled to take time out of work to care for young children while another survey found over half of working women believe they would need to alter their career in order to have a child. Now the latest figures fromthe workingmums.co.uk 2015 Annual Survey show that over a fifth of working mums have been forced to leave their jobs because a flexible working request was turned down. Although the right to request flexible working was extended to all employees last year, this new policy has a less rigid timetable for employers and no statutory right to appeal if a request is turned down.

September 4, 2015

Flexible working plea to support parents of younger school age children ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Workplace

Although workers with school age children may find things easier now that the summer holidays are drawing to a close, according to the TUC, there are new challenges ahead for the work-life balance of the estimated 400,000 working mothers whose children start primary school across England and Wales this September. Most primary schools in the UK operate a staggered start for children entering reception classes, with youngsters required to attend just for morning or afternoon sessions for the first few weeks and the union is calling on employers to be supportive of working parents and allow them to work flexibly to help manage their childcare over this period. Over half of the working mothers who took part in a joint poll by the Guardian and Netmums earlier this year had decided to take time out from work or go part time when their children started school.

September 2, 2015

Flexible working key to counteracting female workers’ ‘baby shame’ ⁰

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

Whether the gender pay gap is more of a motherhood gap is an ongoing debate, but now a new survey has found that when even planning to have children, one in five (18 percent) working women hide their family plans from their employers. In an interview with the BBC yesterday, Labour Party leader candidate Yvette Cooper revealed that when she took maternity leave from her ministerial job in 2001, there was no procedure in place and when she sought maternity leave a couple of years later, things were made very difficult for her. If that’s how a high powered government minister is treated then it is no wonder over half (58 percent) of women feel they would have to alter their career in order to have a child, and why three quarters feel flexible working which doesn’t leave women feeling ‘baby shame’ for working child friendly hours is essential.

August 31, 2015

Lack of flexible working cost firms £1.5 million during tube strikes ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Technology

The strikes by London Underground workers over the past two months have cost UK businesses some 1.5 million working hours because they did not have the flexible working policies and systems in place to allow them to adapt. According to a study of 1,000 employees from comms provider MeetingZone, just nine percent of firms offered staff the chance to work from home. Nearly three quarters (72 percent) of respondents said they felt let down by their employers’ policies and response to the strikes. The lost working time cited by the report has been calculated on the basis of people arriving late for work. Almost half of respondents claimed they were up to an hour late arriving at work on the days of the strikes with two-thirds (66 percent) claiming they were an average of 38 minutes late. A further two strikes are planned for 8 and 10 September.

August 19, 2015

Home-workers are happier, healthier and more productive than ever ⁰

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

Home-workers are more productive, happier and more capable of attaining a healthy work/life balance than those who work in an office, claims a new survey. Around 84 percent of home-workers believe they are equally or more productive then their office-based colleagues; and over three quarters (77 percent) of the UK’s working population agree that working from home has a positive impact on productivity. The survey of 1,800 professionals from CV library found that 18 percent work from home, with a further 15 percent splitting their time between home and the office, and the data shows that flexible working hours contributes to increased productivity (28 percent and 26 percent respectively). Although well over half (66 percent) of home-workers believe they work longer hours, more than three quarters (83.2 percent) find it easier to manage a good work/life balance.

August 15, 2015

Sit-stand desks, co-working revolution, FM self-image and more ⁰

by Sara Bean • Events, Facilities management, Newsletter, Technology, Workplace

In this week’s issue; why UK employers need to step-up the adoption of sit-stand desks; a worldwide upsurge reported for flexible working environments and left-handed staff experience practical problems at work. Sara Bean says efforts to increase the number of women in senior executive positions shouldn’t overlook the discrimination faced by older female job applicants; and Mark Eltringham applauds Stud Terkel’s insights on the working lives of ordinary Americans and argues FM is not alone in thinking that it doesn’t shout loudly enough to make itself heard. Research shows the key to restoring productivity growth is to shift job-creation towards higher-productivity sectors and a new study finds only one in ten workers attempt to keep their devices and data secure. Check out our new events page, subscribe for free quarterly issues of Work&Place and weekly news here, You can follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn Group to discuss these and other stories.

July 29, 2015

City firms adopt more flexible working, but it starts from the top

by Mark Eltringham • Cities, Flexible working, News

Employers in the City of London are increasingly open to the idea of flexible working, claims a study of 1,000 workers by recruitment firm Astbury Marsden. According to the study, a third of men working in the City (34 percent) say they now have some flexibility over the hours they work, whether through flexi-time, working a certain number of hours annually or compressed hours. This is up from 28 percent last year. Meanwhile a smaller proportion of female City workers (30 percent) claim they now have the option of flexible working, up from 23 percent in 2014. The research indicates that although women in the City are more likely than men to work part-time or term-time hours or job-share, with over a quarter being able to do so (26 percent), almost one in five men (18 percent) say they also have this option available to them.

July 26, 2015

Insight Weekly on robots at work, agile working, workplace trends and more

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, Newsletter, Workplace, Workplace design

In this week’s issue; how the majority of managers are more than happy to welcome robots into the workplace; a survey reveals how much extra work autonomous workers put in each week; Mark Eltringham argues we need to keep a sense of perspective about how important our work is; a groundbreaking UK public sector estate scheme is rolled out nationwide; a recent series of events draws out the key workplace trends from this year’s NeoCon exhibition; a new OECD report calls for more action on the emerging digital workplace; Sara Bean reports on the calls for the Government not to abandon its pledges on zero carbon buildings; and a survey reveals that the vast majority of women don’t feel they are discriminated against at work. Subscribe for free quarterly issues of Work&Place and weekly news here, follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn Group to discuss these and other stories.

July 19, 2015

Weekly Insight on gender pay, green buildings, agile working and more

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Facilities management, Newsletter, Workplace, Workplace design

In this week’s issue; Mark Eltringham argues that the focus on a mythical gender pay gap, as repeated by the Prime Minister, obscures the real issues women (and a growing number of men) face; more evidence emerges to crush another myth, this time the one that equates the health impacts of sitting with smoking; the UK’s ‘greenest Government ever’ abandons its zero carbon buildings plans; Simon Heath questions the reported impact of robots on workplaces; Sara Bean on how firms are leaving remote working employees to fund their own kit; the under-reported and ongoing allure for employees of filthy lucre over flexible working opportunities; and the enduring suspicion of wearable technology in the British workplace. Subscribe for free quarterly issues of Work&Place and weekly news here, follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn Group to discuss these and other stories.

July 14, 2015

Homeworkers left to fund their own technology by stingy bosses

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

Last week we learnt that for some employers, homeworking is only to be encouraged when it’s out of hours. Now new research from Regus suggests that only around a third of people encouraged by their employers to work from home (35 percent) receive any contributions from their firm to fund the fit-out. The survey of over 4,000 senior business people found that the majority (82 percent) of employers refuse to cover all the costs incurred for creating and maintaining a work space for homeworkers. This proves costly for staff, as a quarter (25 percent) of respondents said that it would take a whole monthly salary for them to fit-out their home, while the average cost of running a home office in the UK is almost £2,000 a year. Nearly half (43 percent) of workers think that most companies encouraging their employees to work from home are simply trying to transfer the workspace cost onto the employee.

July 4, 2015

Beyond agile working + Is the environment a non-issue? + Neocon review

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, Newsletter, Workplace, Workplace design

In this week’s issue; Paul Goodchild reviews Chicago-based office design event Neocon; Andrew Mawson describes a major new research project on knowledge workers and Dan Callegari argues the business case for green building design is changing. Mark Eltringham finds we are often best able to understand the way people function by using symbols of mechanisation; asks whether the environment could now be something of a non-issue for building managers and suggests employers like open plan offices because they allow them to keep an eye on what people are doing. We reveal that working while on holiday is fast becoming the norm for many workers and that new evidence is published on the positive influence of good ergonomics on performance. Subscribe for free quarterly issues of Work&Place and via the subscription form in the right hand sidebar for weekly news, follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn Group to discuss these and other stories.