May 11, 2023

Hybrid working is a potential deal breaker for two thirds of tech workers

A new report claims that 7 in 10 UK tech workers now consider hybrid working a key factor when considering a future employer. That is according to The Scaleup Culture Report [registration] from Techspace, based on a YouGov survey of 1,000 tech workers. The report claims that a flexible working policy is considered a high priority by 78 percent of tech employees and a hybrid working policy by 67 percent of tech employees. Other important factors include flexible working policies and opportunities for career development. These statistics have exposed a new factor that will determine startups’ competitiveness in the job market. More →

May 10, 2023

How to eliminate tech-shaming in the workplace

by Aaron Taylor • Comment, Technology, Workplace

Technology has impacted our everyday lives – from how we keep in touch with old friends all the way to how we do our weekly shop, as well as our work lives. The skills which are in demand are vastly differently to what they were just a decade ago. As a result, we have seen a rise in the incidence of tech-shaming and the current generation has needed to develop a different skillset to what their predecessors had to learn. Dell Technologies found that 56 percent of respondents between the ages 18 to 26 across 15 countries, said “they had very basic to no digital skills education.” A third of them said their education had not provided them “with the digital skill they need to propel their career” and what they know comes from the apps they use on their own time. More →

May 9, 2023

Employees care more about work culture than flexible working

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Workplace

New findings from Cpl’s Talent Evolution Group suggest employees care less about flexible working than generally thought. The survey, to 1,500 UK employees, reveals Brits are more than twice as likely to leave their job due to negative work culture or a toxic working environment than because of limitations with flexible working. Whilst organisations may be prioritising flexibility for working parents, over 80 percent of 25–44-year-olds would not actually consider limitations to flexible working a reason to leave their position. More →

May 5, 2023

Firms missing the chances to implement hybrid working and adopt new technologies

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Technology, Wellbeing

The new Slack State of Work Report [registration] claims that companies are missing opportunities to unlock new levels of employee productivity with new technology, hybrid working, and talent development. The report, based on a global survey of more than 18,000 desk workers – including 2,000 in the UK, found only 23 percent of companies are investing in technology to improve productivity and efficiency (21 percent in the UK), and just 27 percent of companies are using AI tools to help do so. More →

May 3, 2023

Poor management to blame for low performance and poor mental health of workers

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

A new report from the CIPD suggests that there is a direct link between poor management and negative mental health, job satisfaction and performance amongst workers. In response, the CIPD is highlighting the need for better people manager selection and development to ensure managers have the skills needed to effectively lead and support their teams. Its report, The importance of people management, draws on data from the CIPD’s annual Good Work Index, which asked employees to rate their managers on a range of people management behaviours. More →

May 3, 2023

Around a quarter of jobs will shift over the next five years, WEF report claims

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

Almost a quarter of jobs are expected to switch in the next five years according to a new report from the World Economic Forum. Its Future of Jobs Report for 2023 suggests that employers anticipate 69 million new jobs to be created and 83 million eliminated among the 673 million jobs corresponding to the dataset, a net decrease of 14 million jobs, or 2 percent of current employment. The data is an extrapolation of data from 803 employers employing around 11 million people. More →

April 25, 2023

People responding to artificial intelligence by focussing on their ‘human skills’

by Neil Franklin • News, Technology, Workplace

Globally, workers are focused on developing their human skills, even as they see a future dominated by technology-driven work, artificial intelligence and automation, according to a new study from Pearson. For the latest edition of the Pearson Skills Outlook series [registration], Pearson partnered with Google to examine how and why people in the US, UK, India, and Brazil are looking to upskill as they face a rapidly changing economy. More →

April 24, 2023

Reconnecting older workers with the office: have we retired what matters most?

by Julie Lecoq • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace design

Older workers now make up a larger percentage of the workforce than they did two decades ago. Data from Legal and General and the Centre for Economic Research (Cebr) suggests that the number of over 50s in employment has increased by 36 percent in the last 20 years, with 47 percent of this age group predicted to be in employment by 2030. A combination of the increase in retirement age and rising costs of living have made it a necessity for individuals to stay in work longer. From a corporate perspective, the growing skills shortages in a range of sectors has also meant that employers are consistently seeking to attract and retain those in the latter stage of their professional career. More →

April 21, 2023

Hybrid working is the new normal and is here to stay, report claimzzzz

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News

Mace has published a new report into workplace trends which claims that hybrid working with a collaborative central space is (brace yourselves) the new normal for a preferred post-pandemic working style. The Mace Operate Workplace Survey looked at the enduring role of a central office for businesses and considered what an office space needs to offer in an era of hybrid working. The majority of respondents (87 percent) said that interaction with people and workplace culture are the main benefits of going to the office with employees and employers seeing eye-to-eye on the need for collaboration for motivation, resilience and effective hybrid working. More →

April 4, 2023

Flexible working is the new “work-life currency”, claims new report

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Technology

A new report, Future of Work Life, from Ericsson Consumer & IndustryLab explores the ways in which employees and employers navigate the current work environment and their views on the future of work shaped by the pandemic, digitalisation and the fluctuating labour market. Almost half (48 percent) of the employees in the study say that they enjoy increased flexibility at work. 52 percent consider flexible work hours or locations as key requirements, and 25 percent say that flexibility is the top priority if they would start to look for a new job. Doing work rather than going to work is seen as central in this new way of thinking about work life. More →

March 30, 2023

Every workplace innovation contains the seeds of its opposite

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Technology

The announcement by Apple that it wanted its employees to work in an office for three days a week sparked the usual, tedious pile-on about how many days people should spend in a physical workplace each week. This included the columnist at Grazia who joins the tens of millions of people around the world who not only know where Apple is going wrong, but also how to run every other organisation in the world and what’s best for everybody who works for them. More →

March 23, 2023

American employees spend 200 hours a year watching adult sites on their work computer

by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Technology, Workplace

American employees are wasting hundreds of contracted work hours a year using their work equipment for personal tasks and activities, according to a new survey from ExpressVPN. The survey, conducted by the consumer privacy and security company, found that some people are spending only 33 percent of annual contracted hours on work tasks. With a steep rise in hybrid and home working in recent years, many companies have provided employees with work devices to use in the comfort of their own homes, including work laptops, desktops, phones, and microphones. More →