Search Results for: business

The office sector needs to face up to its landfill issue

The office sector needs to face up to its landfill issue

office sector and landfillOver the past ten years, reuse of furniture and furnishings has been extremely limited. Most redundant assets have been discarded to landfill. It’s a brutal fact that it is the easy and less expensive option. Many products sent for recycling often end up in landfill or incineration and so still contributing to carbon emissions. As offices plan for new ways of working, will the surplus products go the same route? More →

Research claims ’emerging class divide’ in who gets flexible working

Research claims ’emerging class divide’ in who gets flexible working

class divideNew polling in a report published by the TUC claims an emerging class divide as some workers opt to keep working from home whereas those who can’t work from home have little access to any forms of flexible working. More →

Design Social North will reinvigorate the creative workplace sector in the North of England

Design Social North will reinvigorate the creative workplace sector in the North of England

Design Social North is the new event bringing the design community and creative businesses back together in the North of England. The organisers have created DesignFestivalNorth, a 3-day showcase of leading design brands and companies, presented in a series of events taking place this July in showrooms across Manchester, and a dedicated ‘design hub’ located at Impossible in the City Centre. It takes place from Tuesday 13th-Thursday 15th July 2021. More →

Is it time to ban out-of-hours emails?

Is it time to ban out-of-hours emails?

The global pandemic has blurred the lines between home and work for millions of people around the world. Where once there was a clear distinction between being on and off duty, the demands of remote working and ever-presence of smartphones has created an ‘always on’ culture in many organisations. The trend has led to a number organisations in the UK to now call for a ban on out-of-hours emails in order to alleviate pressures on employees mental health. But is this really necessary, or even logistically possible, for the new world of work? We asked four leading experts for their thoughts. More →

Cities could be more important post-pandemic, not less, suggests report

Cities could be more important post-pandemic, not less, suggests report

Manchester, one of the UK's great citiesParadoxically, more in-person work environments and the concentration of jobs in cities could be a medium- to long-term impact of the pandemic’s shift to remote working, suggests Citi GPS Technology at Work: The Coming of the Post-Production Society, a report produced by Citi and the Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford. The report cites the automation of manufacturing and clerical tasks alongside the potential for professional services jobs that can be done remotely to be done cheaper overseas as the start of a foundational shift in developed economies. The future of work in these countries, it suggests, could be based largely on innovation, exploration and creative thinking which require face-to-face interaction and geographic proximity. More →

HR professionals believe the war for talent has become more competitive

HR professionals believe the war for talent has become more competitive

talentAccording to its latest whitepaper ‘Recruitment, retention, and culture: assessing the pandemic’s impact’, Cendex claims that 81 percent of HR professionals believe the war for talent has become more competitive over the last 12 months – this is likely to be a result of businesses looking to bounce back post-pandemic, upping their recruitment thus giving employees the pick of the market. More →

Suburban commercial property markets outperform City Centres for first time in a decade

Suburban commercial property markets outperform City Centres for first time in a decade

suburbanResearch from The Instant Group claims that suburban commercial property markets are outperforming City Centres for the first time in over ten years. The increased demand is largely being driven by those who no longer want to work from home, but don’t want to be back in larger cities. More →

Women struggling with almost twice as much fatigue and anxiety as men

Women struggling with almost twice as much fatigue and anxiety as men

womenAs COVID-19 continues to limit our daily lives, forcing the Government to extend social restrictions into July, restrictions of a different kind are taking their toll on working women, and may be even longer-lasting, according to research from 87 percent. More →

We need to rethink the role of technology in corporate wellbeing

We need to rethink the role of technology in corporate wellbeing

Employers nationwide are taking steps to improve employee wellbeing, reduce stress and improve mental health. For many, they are well-meaning, for example, banning work emails during certain hours of the day, encouraging employees to ‘switch off’.  However, the risk with blanket policies like these is that they don’t work for everyone. A recent study from the University of Sussex even found banning out-of-hours emails can have a detrimental impact on employee wellbeing – restricting opportunities for truly flexible working and taking away a sense of control and autonomy. More →

People have picked up bad cybersecurity habits while working from home

People have picked up bad cybersecurity habits while working from home

cybersecurityA new report from Tessian claims that most IT leaders (56 percent) believe their employees have picked up bad cybersecurity behaviours since working from home. As organisations make plans for the post-pandemic hybrid workforce, Tessian’s Back to Work Security Behaviours report highlights how security behaviours have shifted during the past year. More →

Women’s working hours fall a third less than men’s

Women’s working hours fall a third less than men’s

working hoursWomen’s average working hours have taken a far smaller hit during the pandemic than men’s, with women who do not have children now working longer hours than ever before – in marked contrast to predictions of a ‘shecession’ at the start of the pandemic, according to new research by the Resolution Foundation. More →

Hybrid working will impact younger people in very specific ways

Hybrid working will impact younger people in very specific ways

When considering a hybrid working method for your organisation, it’s far too easy to try think of what will work for all employees as a whole, rather than breaking this down and thinking about the different needs from certain groups of people. One example of this is age and experience. Employees from different age groups and at different levels of experience within in an organisation may have very different needs when it comes to hybrid working. Those who have been with the business, or in a similar work environment, for some time may be perfectly comfortable to work from home the majority of the week, with little help or supervision. However, this probably isn’t going to work as well for younger employees with less experience. More →