Search Results for: flexible working

Four day week pilot results are very encouraging indeed, say researchers

Four day week pilot results are very encouraging indeed, say researchers

by • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

Businesses that adopted a four day week as part of a pilot programme say they are more profitable and their staff are fitter, happier and more productiveBusinesses that adopted a four day working week as part of a pilot programme say they are more profitable and their staff are fitter, happier and more productive, researchers have told MPs. A large majority of companies that took part in the pilot now plan to carry on. The programme, led in the UK by non-profit 4 Day Week Global, the UK’s 4 Day Week Campaign and think-tank Autonomy,  involved around 3,000 workers through a six-month trial of a four day week, with no loss of pay. This brings the global campaign’s total number of completed pilot participants to 91 companies and approximately 3,500 employees. More →

UK businesses are out of touch with the real sources of employee stress

UK businesses are out of touch with the real sources of employee stress

by • Comment, Wellbeing

96 percent of firms do not believe that employee salaries are a major stress factor for staff during the cost-of-living crisisThe cost-of-living crisis is driving a wedge between employers and their staff. In a recent research report, we surveyed 500 employers to discover what they believe causes their staff the most stress. Surprisingly, an overwhelming 96 percent did not believe that employee salaries are a major stress factor for staff during the cost-of-living crisis. Instead, they felt major contributors included heavy workloads, long hours, and tight deadlines. More →

Issue 13 of IN Magazine celebrates ten years of workplace insight

Issue 13 of IN Magazine celebrates ten years of workplace insight

by • Environment, Facilities management, News, Premium Content, Technology, Workplace, Workplace design

The new issue of In Magazine has now been published. It marks ten years of Workplace Insight with a few things we think we know about work, working culture and work places.The new issue of In Magazine has now been published. It marks ten years of Workplace Insight with a few things we think we know about work, working culture and work places. Elsewhere in this issue: Stephanie Fitzgerald talks about the unspoken privilege of wellbeing; we consider the sprawl of the world’s megacities; Jo Knight argues that the office sector needs to really up its game on the environment; Rene Stevens makes the case for a strategic approach to learning environments; we weigh up the pros and cons of retrofit and new builds; Neil Usher sets out to develop a universally acceptable definition of hybrid working; Andy Brown on what we really need data for; why dead tech hangs around; and we do the maths on what it means when people say the office should be worth the commute it takes to get to it. More →

How businesses can support employee wellbeing over a difficult festive period

How businesses can support employee wellbeing over a difficult festive period

by • Comment, Wellbeing

Wellbeing at ChristmasWhen we think about the festive period, the financial pressures that Christmas brings, amid rising energy bills and not having enough to eat shouldn’t be first and foremost on our minds. With thirty million people employed by businesses in the UK, that is a huge number of employees who could benefit if employers acted now to support them and their wellbeing. This winter has been extremely challenging for many people across the UK. And for the first time since 2009, the UK is in recession. More →

Never mind the workplace predictions, here’s some bollocks

Never mind the workplace predictions, here’s some bollocks

by • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Workplace design

A painting of Janus to depict the number of workplace predictions and retrospectives at the end of the yearTime of the year for looking backwards and forwards. For workplace predictions and retrospectives. The Economist announces that the word / term of the year is hybrid work. This is interesting because, although The Economist is using it as an interchangeable term for flexible working as many do, a great deal of energy is still expounded on defining exactly what it means. We may work out when the obsession with three days in the office, two at home thing started. But for now, determining where people are at any given time doesn’t seem very flexible to me. More →

The Great Relearning about the Great Office Problem

The Great Relearning about the Great Office Problem

by • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Workplace design

A person using computer in style of edward hopper in an office at nightOne of the latest people to invent activity-based working is sociologist Ana Andjelic, who combines it with the similarly familiar hub and spoke office model on her substack as a solution to the Great Office Problem. She’s not the first and is a less surprising pioneer of a decades old model than some other people who should really know better. That includes an architectural practice who came up with the idea earlier this year and whose name escapes me. More →

People in the West continue to express ambivalence about the metaverse

People in the West continue to express ambivalence about the metaverse

by • News, Technology

An illustration of a suited man using a headset to access the metaverseA new poll from law firm Gowling WLG claims to reveal a stark difference in attitudes in Western and Eastern nations when it comes to the metaverse. It claims that the technology is set to change how we work and socialise forever, and that early adopters like China and the United Arab Emirates are already reaping the economic benefits. The firm’s Immaterial World report compared attitudes towards the metaverse in six international markets. The research found that four-in-five (83 percent) Chinese consumers would consider taking part in virtual experiences, more than twice as many as in the UK (37 percent). More →

Always connected in the age of disconnection

Always connected in the age of disconnection

by • Features, Flexible working, Wellbeing

All of humanity’s problems,” the French scientist and philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote in 1654, “stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” He may have been right, but then again, sitting in a room alone isn’t necessarily a great state of permanent being either. There was a time we used to talk with dismay about the Japanese phenomenon of intense social distancing known as hikikomori. We would consider with horror the isolation, lack of engagement with society, poor mental health and loneliness of the people who had almost completely withdrawn to their rooms. Those poor bastards locked up in enclosed spaces linked to the outside world only by screens. More →

Cost of living will become biggest challenge for HR over the next year

Cost of living will become biggest challenge for HR over the next year

by • News, Workplace

A new poll from employment law and HR consultancy firm, WorkNest, claims that 70 percent of HR professionals believe that the cost of living will be their most significant challenge for 2023. This was closely followed by retention (69 percent) and recruitment (55 percent). A third of those questioned also see skills shortages (34 percent) as a significant HR challenge next year, and employee engagement (24 percent).   More →

Firms should focus on people in the drive for long term growth

Firms should focus on people in the drive for long term growth

by • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

A new report by Economist Impact, sponsored by Kyocera Document Solutions, claims that human-centric strategies are needed for businesses to drive sustainable business growth, focusing on three pillars: productivity and infrastructure, employee engagement and culture. The Magnetic Workplace Barometer claims to gauge confidence both today and in five years’ time across  what the report terms the three main pillars of productivity and infrastructure; employee engagement; and culture. The barometer scores are scaled from 1 to 7, 7 being the most confident. More →

The four day week and a case of less is more

The four day week and a case of less is more

by • Features, Flexible working, Premium Content

four day weekWhen a pilot programme for a four day week was announced in the UK early in the New Year, #4dayweek trended for days on twitter, with jokey comments on how employees taking part in the trial should do everything not to ‘f*** it up for the rest of us.’ But behind the humour there’s a real issue with productivity in the UK. Recent Office for National Statistics reveals that while productivity grew across all G7 countries during the pandemic, the UK experienced the largest falls in GDP growth and an increase in the number of hours worked. More →

Major new report offers snapshot of hybrid and remote work debate in the US

Major new report offers snapshot of hybrid and remote work debate in the US

by • Flexible working, News

Two colleagues in a coworking space to illustrate how hybrid and remote work is changingOwl Labs and Global Workplace Analytics have just released their sixth annual State of Remote Work report. Based on a survey of over 2,300 full-time workers across the United States, the report reveals the latest trends and perspectives on a range of issues from remote work and hybrid work, trust, intent to move, training offered, workplace redesign, intent and reasons for quitting, technology needs, employee surveillance, the 4-day workweek, and more.

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