July 25, 2023

Putting a new approach to office design in the frame

by Kyrylo Komarov • Comment, Workplace design

It is now a truism to suggest that the traditional ways we think about office design need to be rethought in response to the new and emerging challenges businesses now face. Most people accept this but are still trying to work out the implications for the way we design and manage the physical workplace. The office needs to tell a new story. And one way to structure this narrative this is to borrow ideas from the movie screenwriting process. More →

July 25, 2023

Office lease lengths may be decreasing but majority of firms will increase their footprint

by Neil Franklin • News, Property, Workplace design

Responding to reports from property management platform, Re-Leased, that UK office lease lengths has fallen to the lowest on record and that vacancies rates had soared, office designers Unispace are suggesting firms should be wary of making ‘rash decisions’ regarding their office footprint over the long term. A study published by the firm – Returning for Good – which surveyed 9,500 employees and 6,650 employers from 17 countries worldwide – claims that while employees in the UK spend the least amount of time in the office compared to any other country, there is an expectation that this will increase as workers face limited access to career progression opportunities while working remotely. More →

July 25, 2023

The office no longer provides ‘separation between life and work’, remote work survey claims

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

A new poll from IE University, the WorkAnywhere campaign and Remote claims that office workers are experiencing the highest levels of burnout and lowest levels of happiness and job satisfaction when compared to remote and hybrid workers. The team behind the survey say this indicates that the office environment isn’t the effective separator between life and work that many believe it to be. According to findings from The Global Life-Work Survey, in the past month alone, 41 percent of full-time office workers experienced signs of burnout compared to 26 percent of fully remote workers and 34 percent of hybrid workers. More →

July 21, 2023

Cost of living crisis incentivises people to work from home

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

A new report claims that rising numbers of the people in the UK are choosing to shop and work from home to make every penny count as the cost-of-living crisis continues. These insights mark the launch of the second Virgin Media O2 Business Movers Index – a quarterly barometer that combines anonymised and aggregated UK movement data from O2 Motion, with national polling findings to reveal key trends relating to the behaviour of 2,000 British businesses and 1,000 UK consumers. Together, the data paints a picture of movement patterns and the trends behind them. The second quarter of this year reveals a more cash-conscious image of Britain as more of the UK public change their behaviours to cope with a tough economic backdrop. More →

July 21, 2023

‘People insight deficit’ puts firms’ reputations at risk

by Jayne Smith • News, Workplace

The CIPD is urging business leaders to have board-level HR representation or input to ensure there is the necessary expertise and ‘people insight’ to develop positive corporate cultures and manage workforce risks such as sexual harassment. This is the unsurprising message in a new report from the CIPD ‘The value of people expertise on corporate boards’. It claims just a quarter (25 percent) of FTSE 350 firms have a board member (both executive and non-executive) with an HR background, while only 2 percent have an HR director as an executive board member. More →

July 20, 2023

UK government plans to parachute AI experts into departments to ‘turbocharge’ productivity

by Jayne Smith • News, Property, Technology

So-called ‘digital gurus’ from the private sector will be ‘parachuted’ into government departments as part of radical plans to ‘turbocharge’ the technological skills of civil servants, Cabinet Office Minister Jeremy Quin has announced. Delivering a speech at the think tank Policy Exchange, Minister Quin set out a number of measures which he claims will drive forward the government’s plans to harness innovation and technology including AI to make Whitehall run more efficiently.

July 20, 2023

Help over-50s and other groups into self-employment to boost economy, say MPs

by Jayne Smith • News, Workplace

The UK Government’s Work and Pensions Committee has called for more employment support to address economic inactivity. The support for helping people into work should be widened to those not on benefits, with a new scheme developed to encourage people to set up their own businesses and move into self-employment. The Committee has also called for more focus to be given to measures to help young people, the over 50s and people with disabilities and long-term health conditions find and stay in work. More →

July 20, 2023

Are you ready for the latest family friendly employment laws?

by Adrian Lewis • Comment, Workplace

It’s increasingly important for employers to have family-friendly employee benefits and policies to support recruitment and retention. These need to recognise the diverse needs and responsibilities of employees today and enable them to effectively balance their work and family life. Now to support employees and give them more protection in law three new ground-breaking employment laws will transform the employee benefit landscape. More →

July 18, 2023

CIPD says HR professionals should ‘lean in’ to artificial intelligence

by Jayne Smith • News, Technology, Workplace

The swift rise of generative artificial intelligence and its potential impact in the workplace puts people professionals at the heart of understanding how this fast-evolving technology can be responsibly used, and the business impact it may have, according to the CIPD. To support this change, the trade body has launched a new guide, Preparing your Organisation for AI Use, which stresses the importance of people professionals creating clear policies on the use of easily accessible, web-based generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and Google Bard. More →

July 18, 2023

We need better evidence to help protect people at work

by Sarah Cumbers • Comment, Workplace

We make decisions at work every day and for those in complex roles or in fast-changing situations, it can feel like a continuous process. In business, of course, the choices we make can have a significant impact on the bottom line and, more importantly, our people, the environment and the communities we’re operating in. With so much riding on what we choose to do, our decision-making processes must be designed to maximise our chances of successful outcomes. This is especially so when our decisions involve how to protect people at work so can be literally a matter of life or death. More →

July 14, 2023

To boost productivity in the UK, we need to think big and different

by Peter McAteer • Comment, Technology

The decline in UK productivity since the Great Recession of 2008/2009 has been a matter of concern for business leaders, policymakers, and economists alike. Despite hopes that the pandemic would act as a catalyst for transformation and boost productivity, recent figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that the UK still lags behind several other G7 economies. More →

July 14, 2023

Bolder strategy needed to boost productivity and economic growth

by Jayne Smith • News, Workplace

The Government’s plan to transform the UK into a science and technology superpower will fail to boost living standards unless it’s linked to a broader industrial strategy aimed at raising productivity across all sectors of the economy. This is the central conclusion of a new CIPD discussion paper, An industrial strategy for the everyday economy, which says a bolder vision for economic growth, looking across all sectors and areas of the economy, is needed considering the multiple challenges facing the UK. More →