July 16, 2020

We need to include disabled people in our conversations about diversity

This sounds really obvious but when organisations talk about diversity and inclusion they often forget to include disability. They talk about the importance of women in leadership and the gender pay gap, the need to include people from an ethnic minority background especially following the Black Lives Matter movement. And June just gone was dedicated to LGBT+ Pride month. More →

July 15, 2020

Some brutal realities about the future of work

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing

No author uses the built environment like J G Ballard. In his 1975 novel High-Rise, the eponymous structure is both a way of isolating the group of people who live and compete inside it and a metaphor for their personal isolation and inner struggles. Over the course of three months, the building’s services begin to fail. The 2,000 people within, detached from external realities in the 40-storey building, confronted with their true selves and those of their neighbours, descend into selfishness and – ultimately – savagery. More →

July 15, 2020

Business leaders remain confident about post lockdown growth

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

CEOs and the self-employed are cautiously optimistic about post-lockdown growth, claims a new report. As the country begins to emerge from lockdown, new research from The Institute of Leadership & Management ‘Life after lockdown: future of work’, explores the predicted changes to the workplace following the Covid-19 pandemic. More →

July 14, 2020

SMEs say that lockdown has made them braver about the environment

by Neil Franklin • Environment, News

Two thirds of Britain’s SME business leaders say they are now more environmentally conscious in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new survey, jointly commissioned by Opus Energy and Haven Power. The report claims that small and medium business bosses are having to make bolder decisions as they prepare for a brave new business world. 66 percent say that their own leadership requires a greater degree of bravery in decision making since the pandemic. More →

July 13, 2020

The economic challenges of the post lockdown world become clearer

by Jayne Smith • Briefing, Features, Premium Content, Property

There are so many unknowns about the ways in which the Covid-19 pandemic will shape our world in the coming months and years but what it has highlighted are the strengths and weaknesses in the global and UK economy and their implications for the commercial property sector. In its latest white paper, property consultancy and chartered surveyors Bruceshaw examines the macro and micro economic challenges that will shape the property sector for many years to come. More →

July 8, 2020

Mental health of finance workers seriously harmed by lockdown

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

More than eight-in-ten London-based banking and finance professionals (86 percent) say Covid-19 lockdown has affected their mental health, according to a new survey of white-collar employees by Helix Resilience. According to the survey of 352 banking and finance professionals, over half (52 percent) of respondents claim to be less productive, and nearly four-in-ten (39 percent) say they find it difficult to concentrate outside the office. While most working in the sector (53 percent) feel their employer is doing enough to support their wellbeing during lockdown, a third (33 percent) do not feel supported. More →

July 3, 2020

Watch where you sit: new workplace setups could hit productivity

by Geoffroy de Lestrange • Comment, Wellbeing

Slowly, it seems we are seeing a gradual return to some sort of normality. Shops are opening up as well as restaurants and pubs and many of us are now also heading back into the office. But these aren’t the offices as we once knew them. Workspace layouts and seating plans are being completely overhauled to bring in new social distancing and safety measures. Beyond just the physical changes this incurs, this could also have a wider impact on how we work – and businesses need to be prepared and ready for that too. More →

July 2, 2020

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

by Chris Parke • Comment, Wellbeing, Working lives

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 →

July 2, 2020

Wellbeing of overwhelming majority affected by events of 2020

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing

A 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 →

July 1, 2020

The loneliness of the long term flexible worker

by Dr Rachel Lewis • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing

Flexible working arrangements are those which ‘allow 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 →

July 1, 2020

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

by Freddie Steele • Flexible working, News, Workplace design

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 →

June 25, 2020

Research suggests men are more likely to struggle with lockdown isolation

by George Eltringham • News, Wellbeing

New 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 →