June 26, 2023

Managers struggling with workload in new era of work

by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Workplace

More than three-quarters of employees report that it has become more important for them to receive support from their manager, according to Gartner. Simultaneously, managers are also facing increasing expectations and a greater workload from the organisation, including new responsibilities brought on by hybrid working. A December 2022 Gartner survey of more than 6,000 individual contributors and managers claimed that managers are twice as likely to report an increase in responsibilities versus individual contributors, compared to before the pandemic. For example, 35 percent of managers say they have more direct reports and 49 percent report that the complexity of their responsibilities has increased. More →

June 26, 2023

Four in ten workers do not feel secure in their jobs

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

Almost four in 10 workers (38 percent) do not feel secure in their jobs, as lay-offs across industries continue to bite, claimsthe ADP Research Institute’s People at Work 2023: A Global Workforce View. Feelings of job insecurity are highest among the young. According to the survey of over 32,000 workers in 17 countries, half (50 percent) of Gen Z (those in the 18–24-year-old age bracket) say they don’t feel secure in their job. This is double the proportion of over 55s who say the same (24 percent). More →

June 20, 2023

The digital edition of issue 6 of Works Magazine just dropped

by Mick Jordan • News, Premium Content, Works Magazine

I recently received a copy of the book Office Shock by ‘prominent futurists’ Bob Johansen, Joseph Press and Christine Bullen. Described as a guide to creating better futures for working and living, the book imagines the future of work and the workplace. While reading a passage aimed at leaders, I was suddenly aware that a number of the words were simultaneously being spoken aloud in the background. There was a break in the cricket I had been watching that morning (cricket has a few of these breaks!) and the England captain, Ben Stokes, was being interviewed about his own leadership style. More →

June 19, 2023

Throwing open the window to a new world of work

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Technology

While at work in a Viennese Obstetric Clinic in the mid 1840s, a Hungarian physician named Ignaz Semmelweis noticed that mothers were far less likely to succumb to a potentially fatal infection called puerperal fever when the medical staff treating them washed their hands. When he started collecting data to confirm his insight, he found that hand washing reduced mortality rates from around 10 percent to as little as 1 percent. Although, his findings predated the germ theory of disease, which left him without an explanation, in 1847 he published a book in which he proposed that the link was so evident that in future staff should always wash their hands in chlorinated lime before treating patients, to protect them from infection.

June 16, 2023

KI Work2.1 sit-stand desks create personal and collaborative workspace for Braze

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Furniture

Following a period of rapid growth, consumer engagement platform Braze has recently moved into the City of London’s Broadgate Exchange Square. Outgrowing their presence at a nearby shared co-working facility, the company wanted their new dedicated facilities to be an employee attraction tool, whilst also being as ‘future-ready’ as possible. Making the workspace desirable and enjoyable was an important consideration for the company, who exercise a fully agile, hybrid working policy. And sit-stand desks from KI have been specified to optimise the comfort of workers. policy. More →

June 15, 2023

Younger workers are the least likely to favour hybrid working

by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

New research has revealed the nuances in attitudes towards hybrid working and work-life balance in the UK and US. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the appeal of hybrid work is linked to the life and career stage of employees. The poll from United Culture suggests that work-life balance is the factor most valued by employees at work (58 percent), but is much more appealing to women than men (66 percent vs. 52 percent). Flexibility came in second place, chosen by 47 percent. More →

June 13, 2023

People now less engaged, less fulfilled and more stressed in their working lives

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

New research from the CIPD exploring the quality of UK working lives suggests there has been a negative shift in how people think about and value their work. The CIPD’s Good Work Index 2023 claims that most people like their work and find it satisfying. However, as many as 6-9 million workers, experience poor-quality work in some major respects. CIPD’s survey indicators show that there has been no significant improvement in job quality in the past four years and, in some respects, job quality has gone backwards. Compared to 2019, workers today are less enthused about work, less likely to perceive their work as useful and more likely to simply see work as purely transactional – simply for the money. More →

June 9, 2023

Getting back to the idea of a better future

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Technology

A recent edition of Jon Connell’s daily newsletter The Knowledge included this nugget: “Last month, I heard one of the world’s most successful fund managers admit that the charts and models he previously used “gave almost no clue” as to what to do with money now. (His one firm prediction, that the US dollar would weaken, has so far proved dead wrong.) Same with climate, with migration, with a business world about to be utterly transformed by AI. That, as much anything, will be one of the biggest questions of the coming years and decades: What do we do if we can’t predict the future?” More →

May 30, 2023

UK workers spend less time in the office than any other country, but still think it’s too much

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

Workers in the United Kingdom spend less time in the office than any other country, however they want to further reduce their days further. That is according to a new study from Unispace. The report, Returning for Good [registration], combines the results of a poll of 9,500 employees and 6,650 business leaders from 17 countries worldwide – found that just 34 percent of employees in the UK are in the office four or more days a week, less time than workers in any other country. More →

May 24, 2023

Hybrid working, work from anywhere and the evolution of the Third Place

by Chelsea Perino • Comment, Property, Workplace design

The restrictions brought about by COVID-19 altered where we work and thus also how, when and through which channels we do work related activities. These changes radically altered the way previously office-based workers thought about ‘work’ as an activity. This new era of hybrid working had a significant impact on traditional models of workplace provisioning. One could argue that pre-COVID-19 the ‘work mindset’ was almost an afterthought because there were distinguishing markers that indicated when you were expected to work and when you were not. If you were in the office, then you were expected to be doing work-related tasks. Then, at the literal end of the day, you switched off your computer and went home and mentally ‘turned-off’ until you returned to work the next morning. More →

May 24, 2023

FUTURE Designs launches NARO an adaptable, super-slim track light system

by Mark Eltringham • Company news, Lighting

FUTURE Designs, the international designer and manufacturer of luminaires and lighting solutions, has launched its latest ultra-thin lighting design, NARO. Subtle in design, the aesthetic makes NARO architecturally neat and understated. Being only 22mm wide, NARO caters for the ever increasing demand for thinner minimal profiles. The innovative product has the creative adaptability to form countless configurations in square or linear formations, offering flexibility for any brief.

The potential applications are extensive; NARO offers 7 different head options to covering all needs, from spot and linear profiles to stick pendants, making this system highly flexible and suited to all types of space from traditional offices to breakout spaces, and boardroom as well as hotels, bar and restaurants.

The FUTURE Designs lighting system offers variable brightness and colour temperatures options, from warm to cool white, providing perfect light levels to visually enhance any environment, whilst maintaining the highest levels of functionality.

May 18, 2023

Hybrid working averse businesses missing out on €113 billion opportunity

by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News

European businesses continue to miss out on the full potential of hybrid working, according to a new survey from Ricoh Europe. The research, conducted by Opinium and analysed by CEBR, polled 6,000 workers and 1,500 decision makers across Europe. Business leaders say that workers are, on average, 4 percent more productive in a hybrid culture, equivalent to an additional €113 billion to the European economy compared with pre-pandemic ways of working. More →