February 24, 2021
In March 2020, the COVID-19 global pandemic forced countless employers around the globe to send their non-essential employees home. Few organisations had a contingency plan for such a scenario, meaning the overwhelming majority of employers had to rethink their operations and communication functions on the fly. More →
February 12, 2021
The impact of the nation’s deteriorating mental health from Covid-19 lockdowns and other restrictions cost UK businesses £14bn last year, according to a study by Westfield Health. The cost of absenteeism from work due to mental health reasons increased last year by £1.3bn from 2019’s totals as work from home, travel restrictions, furlough and pay cuts changed the workplace for millions of people across the UK. More →
February 5, 2021
How good your line manager is makes the difference between an employee coping or struggling in lockdown. But too often line managers’ heroic efforts are not noticed by their employers, claims new report, titled Working under Covid-19 Lockdown: Transitions and Tensions. More →
February 2, 2021
‘Stress by Sector’ data released by e-days claims concerning statistics that stress-related appointments are up generally in business by 64 percent over 2019. The data claims that the sectors struggling most with stress-related sickness are unsurprisingly healthcare (0.64 days of stress related absence on average per employee), followed by Government and International Affairs (0.57 days on average per employee) and Human Resources and staffing (0.39 days on average per employee). More →
December 10, 2020
When we think about inclusivity and diversity in the corporate world, we often think of racial and cultural diversity, gender, or LGBTQ+ inclusion—but one aspect that has been too long forgotten or ignored is the topic of disability inclusion. Caroline Casey, disability activist, CEO and founder of the Valuable 500 initiative, notes that though 90 percent of companies say they prioritize inclusivity in the workplace, just 4 percent of them include disability inclusion as a consideration. More →
November 23, 2020
The construction of new offices in central London has declined by half (50 percent) in six months as developers and occupiers shift their focus to refurbishment, according to Deloitte Real Estate’s latest London Office Crane Survey. The crane survey analysed office building data over the six months to 30 September, and included a poll of London’s biggest developers conducted at the end of September. The total office space under construction in central London is now 15.1 million sq ft. This is similar to the level recorded in the previous survey (15.3 million sq ft, the highest since 2002) as developments are now taking longer to complete. More →
November 20, 2020
It has now been more than eight months since the government first advised people to work from home if possible, due to COVID-19. The shift to remote working happened suddenly in March and quickly became part of everyday life; in April 2020 alone, 47 percent of people in employment did some work at home, compared to just 16 percent in the whole of 2019. IT teams were extremely successful in getting staff up-and-running with the right technology, but there was little time for organisations to fully train users before driving adoption, or personalise the approach based on individual need. This places a new onus on HR teams. More →
November 20, 2020
A survey issued by architecture, design, and planning firm Gensler suggests that rumours of the demise of the office may be greatly exaggerated. However, over two-thirds of UK workers don’t want to go back to their old working lives either, preferring a hybrid working model, spending between 1 and 4 days in the office each week. More →
November 17, 2020
Gartner, Inc.’s 2021 HR Priorities Survey of more than 750 HR leaders claims that 68 percent of respondents cited building critical skills and competencies as their number one priority in 2021. The survey, conducted from June through August 2020, claims the other top HR priorities for 2021 are: organisational design and change management (46 percent), current and future leadership bench (44 percent), the future of work (32 percent) and employee experience (28 percent). More →
October 28, 2020
We have come a long way since the government began encouraging home working in March, ahead of the national lockdown. It seems wildly naïve now to assume that we would all be back in the office two or three weeks later as if nothing had ever happened. After many months of mixed messages regarding ‘stay at home’ versus ‘go back to work’, many business owners and employees quite rightly feel that the whole process seems like one step forward, two steps back. And yet, one thing that has become clear for all office-based businesses is that working life has changed forever. More →
October 27, 2020
According to new data from people success platform Glint, employee burnout is reaching new highs — with no signs of abating. People worldwide have been coping with a range of hardships this year, including a pandemic, social isolation, enforced working from home, school disruptions and major layoffs. More →
February 3, 2021
COVID-19 is having an unequal impact on the mental health of workers
by Brendan Street • Comment, Wellbeing