January 13, 2022
Search Results for: flexible working
December 20, 2021
Startups fuelling growth in demand for flexible offices
by Neil Franklin • Cities, News, Property
According to data from The Instant Group 584,097 companies have been registered in the UK since the start of 2021 – this equates to 1,781 per day. The most companies registered in 2021 so far have been in London, Birmingham, and Manchester. The growth in start-ups has fuelled an increase in demand for flexible offices across the UK’s cities, with large proportional increases outside London. Requirements for coworking and serviced offices has grown significantly in cities such as Bristol (41 percent), Manchester (28 percent), and Reading (27 percent) over the past year. (more…)
December 8, 2021
Working from home can increase work-family conflict for women in traditional gender roles
by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Working lives
New research by the University of Kent claims that working from home can increase feelings that family responsibilities hinder work responsibilities, but only for women in traditional gender roles. Despite its advantages, such as less commuting and more flexibility, the study published in the journal Community, Work and Family discovered that working from home can increase rather than decrease feelings that work and family demands conflict with one another. (more…)
November 12, 2021
Hybrid working could save the NHS more than £4 billion per year
by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Working lives
Hybrid working could save the NHS more than £4 billion per year by giving workers more time to look after themselves and their families, according to a new study by Virgin Media O2 Business and the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr). (more…)
November 10, 2021
Working culture should align and balance with commercial objectives
by Siobhan Byrnes • Comment, Flexible working, Property, Wellbeing
Throughout the pandemic, we have had to constantly adapt to new models of work and a new working culture. And what makes this process even more challenging is that we’re having to work against a backdrop of uncertainty at every turn. Business leaders that are emerging from the pandemic successfully have been clear on priorities throughout and know how to balance them. This is certainly easier said than done but is integral to leadership as we enter the next chapter of workplace transformation. (more…)
October 27, 2021
Hybrid working: too few companies are making the workplace changes they need
by Tony Antoniou • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace design
At a recent Women in Office Design event on the subject of hybrid working and workplace change, the founder of WOD Harsha Kotak posed a question which I thought was extremely important but often goes unasked. “Whilst I have a great understanding of how the workplace landscape will change”, she said, “are companies making these changes?” This is a brilliantly relevant question because in my opinion based on my research and experience of the past year and a half, not enough companies are. (more…)
October 25, 2021
Impact of flexible work demonstrates a fragile post-pandemic business world
by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News
Lucid and Vitreous World, have launched the results of new research that surveyed individuals across the UK to analyse employee sentiment and the impact of flexible work as a direct result of the pandemic. (more…)
October 15, 2021
Hybrid working will define the future of work, but firms are unprepared
by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Technology
While the move to flexible and hybrid working is widely accepted by businesses, their preparedness to implement such a strategy is not yet fully realised. That is the key finding of a new report from Siemens subsidiaries Comfy and Enlighted. Commissioned by Siemens from analyst firm Verdantix, the study polled 75 corporate real estate (CRE) executives from global companies with annual revenues of over $1 billion on the strategic considerations of redefining workforce models due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (more…)
October 13, 2021
Shift to hybrid working highlights the value of weak ties
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace design
Something we can expect to hear a lot about in the near future is the power of weak ties. It’s a well-established idea in sociology, anthropology, and social network analysis theory. But it’s about to be invigorated as a way of thinking about workplaces in the wake of two major peer-reviewed studies into the effects of remote work and hybrid working on people and the way they work with each other. According to the most widely cited paper on the subject of relationships, Mark Granovetter’s The Power of Weak Ties, The relationships between people can be categorised as strong, weak or absent. The latter is self-explanatory. Strong ties exist between people who are related, friend or who interact on a day to day basis. (more…)
October 12, 2021
Brits shun traditional working hours, favouring flexibility and family life
by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Working lives
New research released by Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, claims that Brits are feeling much more relaxed about the new world of work and redefining what is now ‘acceptable’ when it comes to working norms – including sending work emails from the school run, using short form and emojis in emails to the boss, or working in pyjamas from the bedroom. (more…)
November 11, 2021
Hybrid working is both a challenge and opportunity for comms firms
by Andrew Walker • Comment, Flexible working, Technology