October 10, 2023

How digital platforms are revolutionising the outplacement experience

For the first time since the 2008/2009 financial crisis, redundancy rates have risen, and this trend looks set to continue throughout 2024. Just over 42 percent of employers (HR Director) are planning to make redundancies in a year that has already seen a string of high-profile companies announce job cuts. Businesses are reorganising, considering ideas such as outplacement, and the market landscape is changing in more ways than one. With a new wave of Gen Zs raising the bar for issues that matter to them, employers are now facing expectations that are different to that of Boomers. More →

October 10, 2023

Hybrid working should be supported by a licence

by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

A new report from workplace consultancy Advanced Workplace Associates (AWA) suggests that organisations could introduce a licensing system to ensure employees have the conditions to deliver high performance and work safely, in a hybrid working model. This follows AWA’s most recent Hybrid Index Report, a study of nearly 120 workplaces in 22 countries, representing 155,000 employees, which found that workers are still only coming into the office an average of 1.75 days a week. More →

October 10, 2023

Half of workers are either bored or knackered

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing

Almost half of employees are either bored or exhausted and many are both, according to new research from emlyon business school and published in the Journal of Vocational Behaviour [paywall]. The study, conducted by Lotta Harju, Professor of Work and Organisational Psychology at emlyon business school, investigated the prevalence and persistence of boredom and exhaustion manifest among Finnish and UK workers. Nowhere in the paper do the researchers use the term ‘knackered’. That’s down to us. More →

October 9, 2023

Organisations routinely undervalue and overlook talent of older workers

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

New data from Generation, an employment non-profit, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), claims that employers need to radically rethink how they approach midcareer and older workers. The Midcareer Opportunity: Meeting the challenges of an ageing workforce report outlines insights from OECD data and from an eight-country survey of thousands of employers, job seekers, and employees in Europe and the US. The research in Europe was funded by Google.org, and in the United States by Clayton, Dubilier & Rice. More →

October 9, 2023

Issue 17 of IN Magazine lands

by Mark Eltringham • IN Magazine, News, Premium Content

The new digital edition of IN Magazine is now available, free to read here. Print copies will be mailed out to subscribers soon. In this issue: we talk to incoming BCO President Despina Katsikakis about whippets and, less importantly, her history of pioneering workplace innovation; we visit a new space in London that proves biophilia is about a lot more than a plant wall; a special supplement produced in partnership with BVN explores the multi-faceted complexity of retrofit; Helen Parton explores how new developments are looking to increase their social value; we question the wisdom of predictions; and much more. More →

October 6, 2023

Are the days of landmark corporate headquarters over?

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Workplace design

There’s something in the idea that the creation of a bespoke, landmark corporate headquarters is a sign that something has gone wrong – or is about to – for the firm behind it. I’d first developed or come across this idea when visiting British Airway’s Waterside building in the late 1990s. At the time it was arguably the most talked about office building in the world, lauded for its inbuilt urban landscape, mix of settings and humane, biophilic design features. More →

October 6, 2023

Amsterdam gears up for Workspace Design Show next week

by Freddie Steele • Company news

The Workspace Design Show, an event dedicated to the future of workspaces, is taking place for the first time in less than a week from Wednesday 11 October to Thursday 12 October 2023, at the RAI Amsterdam. The event already has a successful London show. This two-day event promises to bring together industry leaders, experts, and innovators to explore the latest trends, insights, and strategies in workplace design and management. Here is a deep dive into the agenda that will be explored in detail at the conference stages next week. All of the panel discussions are free-to-attend; register here for a complimentary visitor pass. More →

October 5, 2023

From the archive: The way to create a successful workplace is simple, but never easy

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Workplace design

This was originally published in December 2020. All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. As is now the way of these things, the famous opening words of Anna Karenina have been used to name a principle that is applied across a wide range of fields. It describes how success can only happen in one way, but failure comes in many forms. More →

October 5, 2023

New study reveals deteriorating employee wellbeing and eroding trust in employer efforts

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing • Tags: Wellbeing, Workplace

A new study from Alight reveals that 64 percent of the UK workforce would rate their overall wellbeing as low. This comes at a time where economic headwinds, budget cuts and remote work has created a feeling of uncertainty in the UK workforce, heightening the urgency for employers to act fast or compromise employee wellbeing.

October 5, 2023

Eighty percent of hybrid workers feel anxious about attending day-to-day work meetings

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Technology

A new report based on a survey of 2,000 hybrid workers and remote employees reveals that 8 in 10 people often feel anxious or worried about attending day-to-day work meetings. The white paper titled Zoomed In, Zoned Out [registration] has been released by Craft Docs, and reports on hybrid and remote workers’ attitudes towards business meetings and other daily workplace processes in 2023. More →

October 4, 2023

Generative AI will outperform humans on traditional recruitment processes

by Jayne Smith • AI, News, Technology, Workplace

A new report from Arctic Shores, a psychometric assessment provider, claims that the use of Generative AI is already common among students, younger workers and job applicants, with around seven in ten of 2,000 respondents to a survey expecting to use ChatGPT while completing a job application or assessment over the next 12 months, and 17 percent already using it. With 72 percent of students and candidates using some form of Generative AI on a regular basis – a number that has increased by 50 percent in just four months – the implications for employers and talent acquisition leaders are profound, the report argues. More →

October 4, 2023

Over a quarter of women think menopause has had a negative impact on their career

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Over a quarter of women (27 percent) aged 40-60 in the UK, who are currently in employment and have experienced menopause symptoms – an estimated 1.2 million – say that menopause has had a negative impact on their career progression, according to new research from the CIPD. In addition, 36 percent of women with a disability or long-term health condition say their symptoms have had a negative impact on their career progression, compared with 24 percent who don’t have one. More →