September 22, 2020

Millions of working days lost each year through poor mental health

More than 11 million UK working adults have taken time off work for poor mental wellbeing, costing businesses an estimated 40 million working days each year, claims new research from healthcare provider, Benenden Health. As many as a third (35 percent) of UK employees took time off work due to poor mental health in 2019, with workers absent for between two and five days on average, costing UK businesses an estimated 4o million individual days of work. (more…)

September 21, 2020

Time to get on board with the psychological effects of working from home

by Jörg Bakschas • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing

It almost goes without saying that this year has seen a rapid shift towards remote working, with many companies now moving to a flexible working model. From a business perspective, many employees are proving that they can still get their work done working from home. But what is the psychological impact of this? And are companies doing enough to research and prevent any negative psychological effects of remote working? (more…)

September 21, 2020

Commercial property market in Oxford-Cambridge Arc proving resilient

by Neil Franklin • News, Property

Take-up of office and laboratory space in the Oxford-Cambridge Arc has remained resilient during the first half of 2020, according to a new report from property consultants Bidwells. The firm claims that 117,600 sq ft was taken in Oxford between January and July, reaching 85 per cent of the city’s ten-year average despite the Covid-19 pandemic. (more…)

September 18, 2020

When it comes to describing the new world of work, the Scandis have a name for it

by Fredrik Bergsten • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing, Workplace design

We have very clearly arrived at a point of inflection in the world of work right now, with more time than ever spent pondering some of its bigger questions. Like what will individuals expect from their place of work? What will employers be willing to offer them? How will the culture – the very fabric – of our offices change as a result of the pandemic? In the midst of all the head scratching and soul searching over what this brave new world of work might look like, there is an increasingly vocal minority arguing that a new, better path has already been paved. Where? In Scandinavia, of course. (more…)

September 18, 2020

Is there a confidence gap between businesses and their people?

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing, Working lives

Cornerstone OnDemand have published a new workforce trends report from the Cornerstone People Research Lab (CPRL) titled A License to Skill: Embracing the Reskilling Revolution. The research report claims that while organisational leaders and employees have rallied around the importance of skills, there remains a confidence gap in the efficacy of skills-based learning programmes that advance careers and innovation in the business. (more…)

September 17, 2020

No jab, no job? Can employers demand that workers take COVID-19 tests?

by Emily Hocken and Lloyd Davey • Features, Flexible working

As workers’ begin to populate office floors once more, employers must navigate a number of potential risks to ensure they are ‘COVID-19 secure’. As a result, the subject of ‘employee testing’ has made headlines, with the decision over whether employers can, or should, test their employees becoming an area of contention. (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 16, 2020

Get used to the idea of work as an experience rather than a place

by Tim Oldman • Comment, Flexible working, Property, Workplace design

Suck it up. The role of property in supporting organisational performance has changed forever. The obsession with bricks and mortar has to shift to the employee-as-consumer experience. If we understand that user experience, then organisations can make the right decisions. The problem is, experience is now scattered across millions of homes worldwide. (more…)

September 16, 2020

Mental health support is lacking, despite a rise in anxiety

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing

A survey carried out by mental health organisation, TalkOut, claims that 56 percent of UK workers haven’t received any mental health support or advice from their employer since the pandemic hit in March. (more…)

September 15, 2020

We are still overlooking the importance of air quality

by John Swift • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design

The impact of the Covid-19 lockdown on commercial buildings was immediate – offices emptied overnight as people made the sudden shift to home working. Several months later, and although restrictions are being lifted, an unease about the possibility of localised lockdowns and an uncertainty about the potential health implications of being indoors with larger groups, means fewer people than expected are choosing to go back to office-based working. Something that might help reassure them that the office is a safe place is knowing that the air they’ll be breathing is clean. (more…)

September 14, 2020

Redundancies set to double the peak reached in the 2008 recession

by Jayne Smith • News, Working lives

New analysis of official data released to the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) claims that between May and July 2020, employers notified government of nearly 380,000 potential redundancies. This is more than double the peak reached in the Great Recession, when 180,000 staff were notified as being at risk between January and March 2009. (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…)