February 8, 2022

New business climate demands agility from managers, report claims

A new report, The Big Reset Playbook: Change Agility (registration) from work trends analyst The Josh Bersin Company, claims that traditional approaches to change management have often fallen short of expectations, and that new workplace practices based on agility are now needed to manage change in a new business climate. According to the report ‘businesses are looking to tackle the challenge of managing change in a new reality that includes the shift to hybrid working, globalization and The Great Resignation’. The research claims that in companies that successfully manage change, leaders and high performers reinforce the company’s mission and purpose, explain how their reinvented business models work, create cross-functional teams to design and implement change, and maintain forward momentum. (more…)

January 12, 2022

Are we witnessing the demise of the knowledge worker?

by Anthony Brown • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Workplace

While the debate about working from home versus working in the office continues, should the real conversation focus on the implications for a typical knowledge worker? ‘Knowledge work’ is a term that dates back over sixty years. It’s said to be first coined by Peter Drucker in his 1958 book The Landmarks of Tomorrow. The business guru went on to talk about knowledge workers in a later book, The Effective Executive, in 1966. He defined them as ‘high-level workers who apply theoretical and analytical knowledge acquired through formal training, to develop products and services’. (more…)

January 5, 2022

‘Great Resignation’ offers a one off opportunity to rethink our relationship with work

by Pip White • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Wellbeing

After nearly two turbulent years, which for many knowledge workers have been dominated by a ground-hog day like existence, people are looking for change. This is only natural as workers around the world are re-evaluating their priorities, reigniting their passions, or simply looking for something new. This has led to a mini-exodus from businesses, which is now being dubbed the ‘Great Resignation’. (more…)

December 16, 2021

Pandemic highlights the need for smarter, more adaptable offices and cities

by Cedrik Neike • Features, Technology

The coronavirus pandemic is a new experience for every one of us. It has changed life as we know it – at work, at home and for public interactions. As some countries start to ease restrictions on public life, how can we go back to ‘normal’ while still maintaining social distancing and feeling safe? How do we manage crowded public spaces like shopping malls, cinemas and restaurants? How do we optimize safety in our offices and factories? More importantly, how do we avoid shutting down entire cities and countries when the next pandemic hits? (more…)

December 10, 2021

Full time remote working doesn’t allow employees to connect with company culture

by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Working culture

The majority of U.K workers (83 percent) believe that those who work remotely full time cannot meaningfully connect with workplace culture. Just 17 percent feel that time in the office is unnecessary for fostering company culture. These are the findings from O.C. Tanner’s 2022 Global Culture Report which analysed the perspectives of over 38,000 employees, leaders, HR practitioners and executives from 21 countries around the world, including over 2,500 from the U.K. (more…)

December 8, 2021

Nearly half of UK employees are ready for a workplace metaverse

by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Technology

Research released by Owl Labs suggests that nearly half (47 percent) of the UK population want companies to adopt the metaverse – a highly immersive virtual world that recreates opportunities for work, socialising, entertainment, and education – in the workplace. (more…)

November 24, 2021

The great office door handle problem

by Mark Eltringham • Features, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Architects and designers have always a had a thing for door handles. It’s the kind of detail they like and one of the most genuinely tactile features of a building. Architects from Frank Gehry to Zaha Hadid have worked on the designs of door handles for manufacturers. It was the Finnish architect Juhani Pallasmaa who described the door handle as ‘the handshake of the building’ in his architectural theory book?The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses in 2005. This was cute before last March but now looks slightly menacing. (more…)

November 22, 2021

Staff wellbeing programmes help social relationships and reduce bullying

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing, Working lives

Programmes aimed at supporting employees’ health and wellbeing can also benefit their social relationships and reduce bullying, according to a new study by researchers from the University of East Anglia (UEA), working in collaboration with Vitality. (more…)

November 11, 2021

Majority of employees lack confidence in their company’s return-to-work strategy

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing, Working lives

Humanyze has released the second installment of the 2021 Future of Work Report, a holistic analysis of the evolution of work throughout the pandemic and employee sentiments about the post-pandemic future of the workplace. Nearly 2,300 survey responses were collected from individual employees and people managers, and compared to responses from the spring 2021 report, to identify key changes over the last 6 months. (more…)

November 10, 2021

2021 Digital Etiquette study highlights the rise of the invisible workforce

by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Working lives

The 2021 Digital Etiquette Study by Adaptavist, highlights that 43 percent of workers in the UK want to come back to the workplace/office full-time, while the exact same figure (43 percent) favour a flexible/hybrid model and 14 percent want to be remote only. However, as hybrid work increasingly becomes the long-term future for knowledge workers, Adaptavist suggests a growing despair among employees with the tools and technologies they are using to navigate working remotely with many left feeling invisible. (more…)

November 9, 2021

Wearing face masks could be affecting the way we interact with others

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing, Working lives

Hiding the bottom half of the face with a mask could have a detrimental effect on our ability to socially interact and share other people’s emotions, new research suggests. A Cardiff University-led study claims people with facial paralysis, people seeing others who wear face masks, or even children sucking on dummies, could struggle to show empathy or detect positive social cues. While face masks are essential for protecting against harmful airborne particles, they can also pose challenges for individuals with allergies. Finding the right face mask can significantly improve comfort and reduce allergy symptoms. For those seeking the best face mask for allergies, consider factors such as filtration efficiency, breathability, and hypoallergenic materials. (more…)

November 3, 2021

The office of the future will be a leader-free, social-space

by Dawn Sharifan • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Workplace design

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to work. Every business will need to test, iterate, and refine approaches depending on their team’s needs. However, after the once in a generation changes in the last year, and all of the talk about the office of the future, setting a digital-first baseline is a key first step. This means embracing a mindset shift to thinking of the physical office not as the HQ, but as just one tool at your organisation’s disposal. The HQ, meanwhile, becomes digital. (more…)