September 7, 2021
Search Results for: employee
September 6, 2021
Uncertainty remains, but many people looking forward to meeting colleagues again
by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing
As businesses in the UK prepare to open their office doors en masse in the first week of September, new research reveals that office workers have got that back-to-school excitement and are feeling largely positive about the transition. Recruitment firm Michael Page questioned over 2,000 UK office workers on their attitudes to returning to the office and found that after eighteen months at home, around half claim to be ‘excited’ or ‘happy’ to spend more time in the office with their colleagues. Reminiscent of the first day back at school, almost three in ten (28 percent) said that they had picked out their outfit and packed their bag ahead of their first day back in the office. (more…)
September 3, 2021
Business confidence back to pre-pandemic levels, with fewer plans to shrink offices
by Neil Franklin • News, Property
CEOs of the world’s largest businesses are increasingly optimistic about the outlook for their own business, according to the latest KPMG CEO Outlook Survey. Despite a slower ‘return to normal’ than expected, their confidence in the global economy has returned to levels not seen since the start of the pandemic. The number planning to reduce their office footprints has fallen dramatically since the height of the pandemic, and instead there is a growing focus on introducing flexible working cultures. (more…)
September 3, 2021
The focus on indoor air quality is a welcome outcome of the pandemic
by Petr Boruta • Company news, Wellbeing
How has COVID-19 affected your office management practices? And what adaptations are you expecting to keep, as other parts of the building experience go back to normal? One area of adaptation that is prime to be kept long-term is greater effort spent monitoring property health and wellness metrics. While occupancy and cleaning frequency are both important to keep track of, Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) is also critical for landlords to keep an eye on. (more…)
September 3, 2021
Security and productivity main challenges for hybrid working
by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News
With a large number of firms now prepared to embrace a ‘hybrid working’ model, business leaders remain uncertain about how this may play out in practice according to a new report from Entrust called Securing the New Hybrid Workplace (registration). Respondents suggest that the most important challenges relate to the ongoing uncertainty about new Covid variants and the effect of hybrid working on security and productivity. As a result, while many are committed to changing their work culture, they are prepared to adapt their plans in response to any changing needs. (more…)
September 1, 2021
Brits feel stressed eight days a month, study claims
by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing, Working lives
August 26, 2021
Working from home: how far we’ve come and where we might be headed
by Georgina Smith • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace design
We’ve all learnt a great deal about working from home over the past eighteen months. We’ve seen how for some, it can be incredibly beneficial to employees, enabling them to better balance their work and personal lives and can also benefit the company, enabling business as usual during the Covid-19 pandemic, even improving efficiency. It’s also prompted some important conversations about mental health that simply hadn’t been had, normalising the challenges that we all face, especially during lockdowns. (more…)
August 26, 2021
Over half of UK employers say their staff work additional unpaid hours every day
by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Working lives
In its latest whitepaper, Cendex, part of XpertHR, claims that staff at over half (53 percent) of UK organisations are working additional unpaid hours every day. A quarter (24 percent) of employers put this down to the pandemic and its resultant uptick in remote working, as they believe working from home blurs the line between work life and home life. (more…)
August 23, 2021
Executives think work should be split 70:30 between office and home
by Neil Franklin • Comment, Flexible working
A new survey from the Economist Intelligence Unit backs up the most commonly cited form of ‘hybrid working’ by claiming that business executives on average think work should be split 70 percent / 30 percent between the office and home respectively. In A changed workplace after covid-19, published by The Economist Intelligence Unit and sponsored by Kyocera Document Solutions, the authors argue that Covid-19 was a watershed moment in the way we work. (more…)
August 20, 2021
Gig economy could lead to a labour shortage…but better off workers
by John Colley • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace
The long-term impact of COVID-19 on the economy (and the gig economy) will not be clear for some time. But in the UK, the easing of pandemic related restrictions has coincided with significant labour shortages and the driving up of wages. Statistics show that wages have risen 7.4 percent in the past year, and the number of job vacancies has continued to rise (up to 953,000 in July 2021). Those vacancies have appeared amid continued travel restrictions from abroad, and the prolonged furlough scheme, which is keeping over 1 million people tied to employers that don’t have work available for them. (more…)
August 27, 2021
I’m a Luddite. You should be one too
by Jathan Sadowski • Comment, Technology