Search Results for: working from home

Leaders need to develop a high care quotient for the new challenges they face

Leaders need to develop a high care quotient for the new challenges they face

Everything has taken a hit in 2020. Nothing has gone unscathed or unchanged – and the same goes for leadership. From boardrooms to living rooms, meeting rooms to spare rooms, leadership has moved away from face-to-face interactions to digital communications. Meanwhile, forward-thinking initiatives, spurred on by continuing diversity imbalances and widening gender pay gaps, have been put on hold. Following government guidance, only half of businesses published their 2018-19 gender pay gap report – which could reportedly push gender equality back a whole generation. We are risking losing sight of what’s important to us – and unless we’re intentional about how we make systemic, much-needed organisational changes, they’re not going to happen if we only focus on more ‘critical’ things, or keeping the lights on. More →

Wellbeing of overwhelming majority affected by events of 2020

Wellbeing of overwhelming majority affected by events of 2020

wellbeingA new study commissioned by Perkbox of 13,271 employees claims that 93 percent of employees have faced new wellbeing challenges in 2020. The most common being feeling less connected to the company/colleagues, increased loneliness/feelings of isolation and increased financial concerns.  The study looks at the wellbeing impacts of the events of 2020. Nearly 73 percent state that coronavirus has negatively impacted their mental health, followed by Brexit (29 percent) and Black Lives Matter (27 percent). More →

The loneliness of the long term flexible worker

The loneliness of the long term flexible worker

Flexible working arrangements are those whichallow employees to vary the amount, timing or location of their work and may include part-time working, mobile/home working, compressed hours or job-sharing – among others. Before the lockdown, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD), more than half of all employees in the UK used at least one form of flexible working, while a study by Gallup in the US suggests as many as 43 percent of employees already worked flexibly. The practice has been found to have positive effects on job satisfaction, employee commitment, reducing work-family conflict – and for many is now an essential component of modern working life. More →

Majority of people looking forward to office return, but on their own terms

Majority of people looking forward to office return, but on their own terms

A new survey from Office Space in Town (OSiT) claims that the overwhelming majority of workers are looking forward to a return to the office. However, most also want to avoid the commute, have more control over their times and places of work and want new working environments that help them work better. They also have concerns that the return should be managed with their health and safety the priority. More →

Research suggests men are more likely to struggle with lockdown isolation

Research suggests men are more likely to struggle with lockdown isolation

mental healthNew research claims that more than three quarters of men who live alone feel isolated while they’re working from home and two fifths of 18-30 year olds feel their mental health has deteriorated. This latest research from The Institute of Leadership & Management ‘Homeworking trials and triumphs during Covid-19: mental health and wellbeing’, explores the impact of working from home on mental health, suggesting  hat a significant number of men who live alone (79 per cent) are struggling with feelings of isolation during lockdown. More →

The key features of the post COVID-19 office you should consider

The key features of the post COVID-19 office you should consider

With millions of people now working from home or furloughed, they may be wondering when they will be asked to return to the office, perhaps imagining what their office will look like on their return and feeling a little anxious about going back to their work space. A TUC survey issued 27 April 2020 confirmed that 39 percent of workers returning to the office are concerned about safe distancing from their colleagues. More →

Time to apply the lessons we learned during lockdown

Time to apply the lessons we learned during lockdown

Return to work after lockdownSo far, 2020 has not gone to plan. For businesses, and the people they employ, the next few months may be just as bumpy, as each country, state and city takes its own approach to a phased return to work after lockdown. Today, in Houston, offices are limited to 25 percent capacity, in London, the underground is capped at 13-15 percent capacity, while in New Zealand and other countries hospitality and retail are returning with heightened hygiene measures and social distancing in place. More →

Offices in the post lockdown era will focus on what they are good at

Offices in the post lockdown era will focus on what they are good at

Office spaces will become a hive of activity in the future as more businesses embrace office designs which promote innovation, creativity and team collaboration, predicts commercial real estate advisors Colliers International. The EMEA Workplace Advisory team has published its latest report, Exploring the post-COVID-19 Workplace, which evaluates feedback from its global Work from Home survey to discuss future workplace trends. More →

Study suggests need for UK employers to offer employee mental wellbeing support

Study suggests need for UK employers to offer employee mental wellbeing support

mental healthA survey of 2,000 UK consumers by digital health company BioBeats suggests that nearly a quarter (21 percent) of UK employees say that their mental health will be negatively impacted by extending remote working measures post-lockdown. Only 5 percent of respondents state that their mental health will improve as a result of extended remote working but alarmingly only 3 percent say they would ask for help in coping with this new way of working, which presents a striking gap between employees’ needs and their ability to seek support from their employer. More →

Wellbeing for remote workers should not be lost in translation

Wellbeing for remote workers should not be lost in translation

flexible workingAs 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 →

The here and now, no BS guide to the workplace

The here and now, no BS guide to the workplace

For years, forward-thinking employers have offered a choice of work spaces to match the varying levels of concentration and collaboration different tasks demand. And those spaces included employee’s homes. In March, all organisations were suddenly bounced by the COVID-19 restrictions into supporting homeworking for their office employees. It’s too early to say what lasting impact this will have on work patterns, though it’s a fair guess that the effective mass trial of remote working could trigger a cultural shift as more employers and employees see the benefits of using the home as an extension of the workplace, when it suits both parties. Research commissioned by BDG in April found that of 200 CEOs surveyed, almost one in four believes the long-term impact of COVID-19 will be “continued remote working”. More →

Building a culture of trust has never been more important

Building a culture of trust has never been more important

building a culture of trustTrust is a concept we often find hard to describe. It’s sticky, intangible and difficult to pinpoint but we know when trust is absent. When it’s missing from a workforce, a culture can unravel. According to the Culture Economy Report 2020, 43 percent of employees in UK SME’s don’t trust their employer to do the right thing – a 16 point decline since 2018. This is alarming. Working remotely over the last few months has highlighted just how important workplace trust is, between employees and management, and vice versa. More →