December 12, 2022

Self-confident bosses are most resistant to change, study claims

Chief Executive Officers with exaggerated self-confidence show a preference for steadiness within organisations, claims new research from the University of Mannheim Business School. Marc Kowalzick, Post-Doctoral researcher at the University of Mannheim Business School, and Moritz Appels, former University of Mannheim PhD student and now Assistant Professor at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, address a central dilemma in our understanding of CEO hubris: Are these CEOs particularly inclined to change their firms’ trajectories or not? (more…)

December 5, 2022

Digital transformation projects rarely meet aims and expectations

by Neil Franklin • News, Technology

New research published by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) claims that while 94 percent of companies have big aspirations to deliver substantial and rapid impact from digital transformation, and companies plan to increase investment in digital transformation in spite of global economic headwinds, the majority of these projects fail to achieve their objectives. (more…)

November 22, 2022

Inconsistent flexible working strategies drive people away from businesses

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

A new poll of 3,450 people in a dozen countries from Unit4 claims that around two in five organisations have lost employees over the last year because they believed they would enjoy better flexible working options elsewhere. While most firms now have a formalised approach to flexible working, the report claims that policies vary enormously, exacerbating the challenge of recruiting and retaining people for those firms with an inconsistent approach. (more…)

November 22, 2022

HR profession should rebrand and shift its focus, claims a new report

by Jayne Smith • News, Workplace

The time has come to re-brand the human resources profession and shift its focus from processes to people, a new report from Sage claims. The authors claim the study emphasises the scale of the challenge facing teams, with 92 percent of executives believing the perceived value of human resources is a challenge for the profession. The poll of more than 1,000 HR and C-suite leaders working in SMBs across six of the world’s largest economies also highlights that 81 percent of human resources professionals are feeling burnt out and 62 percent are considering leaving the industry. (more…)

November 14, 2022

Major new report offers snapshot of hybrid and remote work debate in the US

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

Owl Labs and Global Workplace Analytics have just released their sixth annual State of Remote Work report. Based on a survey of over 2,300 full-time workers across the United States, the report reveals the latest trends and perspectives on a range of issues from remote work and hybrid work, trust, intent to move, training offered, workplace redesign, intent and reasons for quitting, technology needs, employee surveillance, the 4-day workweek, and more.

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November 10, 2022

Summing up where the office now stands in the scheme of things

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working

The argument about what it takes to encourage people to come into the office more often seems to have boiled down to an equation. It’s now common to hear somebody argue that the office has to be worth the commute it takes to get to it. So, if you want people to spend more time in the building, you need to do the maths. O must be greater than or equal to C (more…)

October 17, 2022

Working habits are changing in response to cost of living increases

by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Workplace

The so-called cost of living crisis is having a fundamental impact on people’s working habits, according to Beamery’s latest Talent Index – Sixth Edition. Almost a third (29 percent) of workers polled for the report are now avoiding the office because of the increasing cost of travel whilst another third cited (31 percent) they were considering leaving their jobs completely due to lack of salary increases. (more…)

October 7, 2022

Third of firms expect the four-day week to become a reality ‘for most’ in the next ten years

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

A third of respondent organisations (34 percent) to a CIPD poll think the four-day week will become a reality in the UK for most workers within the next ten years. However, only a small minority of firms have moved towards the four-day week to date by reducing hours without reducing pay for their employees, or plan to do this over the next three years. One in ten (10 percent) organisations report they have reduced working hours without reducing pay for the whole or a significant part of their workforce over the last five years, although of these, under half of employers (42 percent) did so as a result of the furlough scheme. (more…)

October 5, 2022

Why should anyone care about your change?

by Jennifer Bryan • Business, Comment, JB, Workplace

Whenever I first meet a potential client or am brought onto a new change project, there are three questions I ask: why, why now and why should anyone care about your change? Now the first two have typically been thought through and there are answers for them – not necessarily crystal clear and concise answers, but answers, none the less. However, the third question, in my experience, is rarely even considered, much less discussed or thought through. If it has been thought through, then this is many times expressed starting with the words, “effective…efficient…,” which is what I would call the management spiel. These are not answers that will motivate or galvanise employees and teams to support and adopt a change. (more…)

August 26, 2022

Automation presents some legal risks you really need to address

by James Crayton and Luke Jackson • Comment, Technology

Many think that robots making deliveries, ‘waitering’ in restaurants or working at hospitals is a long way off. However, breakthroughs in robotics, machine learning and other technologies are making automation a reality in many industries. This will accelerate in upcoming years. Indeed, the smart technologies are forecast to add a whopping $15 trillion to the global economy by 2030. Among their many advantages for businesses are increased, faster output and slashed error rates. They also give employees the time to concentrate on people processes, such as sales and marketing or client relationships. (more…)

August 3, 2022

We can re-imagine the future of human resources

by Richa Gupta • Comment, Workplace

The world of work is changing rapidly. Businesses are having to make fundamental shifts to adjust to the emergence of new business models, technologies and the changing expectations of the workforce. This has left human resources teams all over the world needing to efficiently adapt the way they hire, develop and take care of their staff, with the most significant challenge being managing the needs of the current workforce, and addressing their future demands. (more…)

August 1, 2022

Nudge theory doesn’t work after all, but we shouldn’t discard the idea completely

by Magda Osman • Features

At the end of last year (2021), there was lots of excitement about the first comprehensive analysis of past research on techniques designed to change people’s behaviour (known as “nudging”), confidently showing that they work. This was great news for researchers, but also for governments across the world who have invested in “nudge units” that use such methods. Nudge theory aims to influence people to make better decisions. For example, authorities may set a “better” choice, such as donating your organs, as a default. Or they could make a healthy food option more attractive through labelling. (more…)