October 9, 2020

As a workplace professional, how many hats do you wear to work?

by Karina Tissnes • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace

Throughout your time being with a company, have more responsibilities been added to your typical workday that were not expected originally? Did you offer to help with something outside of your job, then have it become part of your daily duties? If so, you’re not alone. Companies often look for ways to save money, and sometimes that means piling work on people who are already on the roster. Wearing many hats at work happens often, but how does it impact the employees that carry the extra burden? In a new study, ZenBusiness – a company that helps people start, run, and grow their own business – asked more than 1,000 current employees about the various functions they serve, what they think is fair, and how workloads have changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (more…)

October 8, 2020

The workplace has reached an inflection point as it adjusts to new realities

by Robin Davies • Comment, Facilities management, Technology, Workplace design

We can confidently say this is a new era for the workplace. Covid-19 has forced a radical rethink about the purpose of the office and its role in reaffirming company culture. Enlightened property directors are resisting knee-jerk responses to predictions that Covid spells the demise of the office including the wholesale migration to home-working. Instead, they are challenging plans to dramatically downsize the workplace and corporate real estate. They are also acutely aware that distancing, transmission and sanitisation are here for the long-haul. This will continue to have a profound impact on occupancy levels and the interactions that are necessary for business success. (more…)

October 8, 2020

Mental health support from employers is top priority for employees

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing

Out of the four key pillars of wellbeing (mental, financial, physical and social), mental health is the number one priority that employees believe their employer should be responsible for supporting, with half (49 percent) of employees choosing this over the other areas of wellbeing, claims research from GRiD, the group risk industry body. (more…)

October 7, 2020

An unexpected partnership: How tech and business leaders can learn from each other

by Alexia Pedersen • Comment, Technology

One of the biggest issues across technology industries over the last few years has been the failure of business teams, who design and manage processes, to partner effectively with their tech teams to deliver and understand the technology needed to support the business’ vision. (more…)

October 6, 2020

One in five consider a career change despite COVID

by Jayne Smith • News, Working lives

New research from financial advice and investment network Openwork, shows nearly one in five workers plan a career change underlining the growing trend of switching jobs.

Its nationwide study claims 19 percent of workers aim to move into a new industry or sector in the next years rising to nearly one in three among under-35s. The ambition to try something different doesn’t end with age – around 12 percent of over-55s plan a career change too. (more…)

October 6, 2020

Majority of office workers plan to split their week between the office and home

by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Working lives

New independent polling commissioned by the British Council for Offices (BCO), suggests that, once Government measures allow, Britain is set to move to a ‘mixed’ working style, with time in the office balanced with time at home. The survey, which polled over 2,000 office workers nationwide, took place prior to new Government measures and found an appetite to get back to the office. (more…)

October 5, 2020

Coronavirus will lead to a permanent change in the way we work

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

Coronavirus will have a lasting impact on office use and levels of remote and flexible working, new figures from the Institute of Directors suggest. That is the unsurprising findings of a survey of close to a thousand company directors conducted in September. The poll claims nearly three quarters (74 percent) of respondents said their firms would maintain increased levels of remote and flexible after the pandemic ends. (more…)

October 2, 2020

Time for businesses to establish more meaningful wellbeing initiatives

by Jolawn Victor • Comment, Wellbeing

Over the years, mental health has become a prominent feature of wellbeing initiatives in many businesses, but especially in the wake of the pandemic. However, our research has found that more than half of the UK workforce (54 percent) do not feel that mental health benefits are a priority in their organisation. This is despite half of workers believing that mental health benefits are essential post-COVID-19. (more…)

October 2, 2020

What (nearly) everybody gets wrong about work and the coronavirus

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace design

You’ve probably read and heard dozens, or even hundreds, of different viewpoints about the effect of the pandemic on the world of work. Most of them (until recently perhaps) have dished up one of the two binary options as part of a zero-sum game. Many are based on hackneyed ideas and expressed as clichés. (more…)

October 2, 2020

Post-COVID environment will drive demand for flexible office space

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

Employees are proving keen to return to the office, reporting that they miss the human and social interaction that the office facilitates. At the same time, while employees show a strong affinity for the office, they also desire the ability to have the option to work from home 1-2 days per week on average according to a recent JLL global study of 3,000 workers. The trend towards workplace mobility was not created as a result of the pandemic, but it was certainly accelerated by it. As a result, agile work strategies are expected to increase in a post-pandemic world, reinvigorating demand for flexible space. (more…)

October 1, 2020

EDGE adds building software to its portfolio of innovations

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Technology

Sustainable tech-led real estate pioneers EDGE have built upon their already impressive reputation as an innovator with the launch of a software platform that offers what the firm claims is a “seamless solution for optimising any office building’s performance”. It claims that EDGE Next allows “tenants and owners to transform their offices into smarter, healthier and more sustainable spaces in which people and companies can truly thrive”. The EDGE Next platform also sets out to ensure the wellbeing of employees by monitoring air quality and the numbers of people in a spaces, which it claims will make offices safer for work during the COVID-19 outbreak and beyond. (more…)

October 1, 2020

Global businesses commit to disability inclusion

by Jayne Smith • News, Working culture

The Valuable 500 – the global movement which is working to get 500 of the world’s largest businesses to commit to placing disability inclusion on their business leadership agendas – announces 326 global businesses have committed to putting disability inclusion on their board agenda. (more…)