September 30, 2020

Remote work is harming workplace friendships, survey claims

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing, Working lives

Friendships at work have long been a debated topic pre-COVID: arguments either side profess these to be both conducive or a hindrance to productivity and creativity. Yet, according to research into the state of employee wellbeing conducted by Perkbox, 45 percent of 1,296 respondents say that maintaining emotional wellbeing still remains one of the biggest remote work challenges facing businesses, with 65 percent believing that workplace friendships – now even more critical in the ‘new working world’ – are suffering. More →

September 23, 2020

Remote working set to triple in the post-COVID world

by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Working lives

A new survey from XpertHR, claims that the average percentage of employees remote working at least part of the time is projected to nearly triple from 12 percent before the COVID-19 pandemic to 30 percent after the pandemic. The survey Employer Response to COVID-19 was completed by 835 US employers. More →

September 17, 2020

Lockdown loneliness strikes remote workers

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing, Working lives

A new survey by UK job board Totaljobs, claims that despite increased appetite in the UK for remote working practices to continue into the future, the disconnection from the day-to-day social interactions of the workplace and the encroachment of work on our home lives has seen feelings of loneliness and isolation take hold, in a workforce already struggling to adapt to the challenge of the ‘new normal’. More →

September 11, 2020

The next chapter for office life, remote work and the stories we tell about it all

by Mark Eltringham • Comment

One of the few interesting things about the deluge of tedious work-related stories over the last few months has been watching the narratives about remote work, office life and all the rest of it develop. Of course, you’ll still get the odd piece like this, a rambling, lazy string of unexamined clichés that could have been written by a bot. And soon will be. More →

September 2, 2020

Remote work and the coming race to the bottom

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Wellbeing, Working lives

One of the most significant consequences of the 2008 economic crash was a remarkable shift in the nature of employment. The recession led to a surge in the number of people categorised as self-employed. The numbers have been increasing ever since, albeit at a more stable rate. By the end of 2019, the number of self-employed people in the UK exceeded five million people for the first time. That’s fifteen percent of the workforce. More →

July 29, 2020

Remote work and office life go hand in hand in a flexible future

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Property

The COVID-19 pandemic changed numerous aspects of how we live and work and led to a massive remote work experiment. A JLL survey of more than 3,000 employees working in multi-national companies across the globe claims that 71 percent of people have worked from home during the pandemic, and that 58 percent missed the office and 44 percent missed human interaction and socialising with colleagues. The largest cohort who missed the office was the under 35s, or millennials, with 65 percent citing poor home-office environments and missing support from their managers.

July 6, 2020

Remote working productivity will slump as firms burn up their social capital

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

Employers are walking into remote working productivity slump, as people lose their visibility in an organisation, a new report claims. The survey from workplace software business Names & Faces claims that three quarters (75 percent) of people who report being more productive since working from home already know at least half of their company but that two thirds of people who don’t feel visible within their organisation have experienced a productivity drop while working from home. More →

June 15, 2020

Wellbeing for remote workers should not be lost in translation

by Brendan Street • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to disrupt the world of work – seeing many businesses remote working – employers are learning more about the importance of effective communication. Diminished in-person contact can lead to feelings of isolation and loneliness among employees. And managers are also facing new challenges in providing the level of social interaction and support that is crucial in maintaining the mental health wellbeing of employees while away from the office. More →

June 5, 2020

Brits are among the most fervent remote workers during the coronavirus crisis

by George Eltringham • Flexible working, News

A new survey by CASS Business School, IESE Business School and HR Service Provider SD Worx claims that two thirds (65 percent) of British employees are working remotely during the lockdown. Almost half (47 percent) of the new batch of remote workers had never worked remotely before the COVID-19 crisis. The research focussed on salaried white-collar workers and covered six countries: Belgium, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK. More →

May 7, 2020

Remote working has a number of hidden risks

by Dave Cook • Features, Flexible working, Wellbeing

Many of us have had little choice but to resort to remote working in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. It is just days since Google, Apple and Twitter were making headlines by ordering their employees to work from home, but you could now say the same about lots of companies. More →

May 5, 2020

The six best ways to increase engagement in remote workers

by Marie Hillen • Company news

We exist in an era in which the ways in which we engage employees shift continuously in parallel with their working hours. Technology and innovative workforce policy allow businesses to include remote workers anywhere and at any time. While this opens up a number of opportunities for work-life integration, it may also pose a number of specific challenges. More →

March 25, 2020

Does remote working mean lack of belonging?

by Jayne Smith • News, Working culture

New research from Globalization Partners Inc., claims more than 90 percent of employees who work for a global organisation describe their companies as diverse. However, a lack of understanding by the organisations themselves around how to manage this growing disparate and diverse workforce means that three out of ten respondents don’t feel a sense of inclusion or belonging due to remote working. This negatively impacts employee engagement, trust, happiness, as well as staff turnover. More →