Search Results for: remote working

March 2, 2023

One in four people will work from abroad this year, and many won’t tell their employer

One in four (23 percent) UK office workers plan to take advantage of remote working to log on from abroad in 2023, with a third (32 percent) doing so against company rules, according to new research by the risk management and insurance broker, Gallagher. The survey of more than 2,000 UK office workers claims that the dramatic increase in hybrid working post pandemic now extends to a “work from anywhere” culture. But employees choosing to locate themselves overseas brings risk implications for their employer, as well as themselves. (more…)

February 20, 2023

Unlocking the digital frontier: hiring the next generation of tech talent

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Workplace

Any business that is looking to grow its consumer base or expand into new markets is likely to be relying on digital technology to a greater extent than ever before both in their operations and management. This also means that the world of employment, both for workers and enterprises, is necessarily evolving too. An inevitable consequence of this evolution has been that those for whom technology has been an essential part of their life and education — so-called digital natives — are in growing demand. (more…)

January 30, 2023

New study will explore the impact of economic turmoil on workplace experience

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

People’s workplace experience in the wake of recent economic upheavals is to be investigated as part of a major new survey led by Cardiff University and funded mainly by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). The Skills and Employment Survey 2023 (SES2023), which also involves researchers at UCL, the Universities of Oxford and Surrey and the National Centre for Social Research, will help academics assess the impact of an extraordinary period of turbulence for workers which includes the economic downturn, Cost-of-Living Crisis, Covid-19 and Brexit. (more…)

November 30, 2022

Always connected in the age of disconnection

by Mark Eltringham • 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…)

November 10, 2022

Summing up where the office now stands in the scheme of things

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working

The argument about what it takes to encourage people to come into the office more often seems to have boiled down to an equation. It’s now common to hear somebody argue that the office has to be worth the commute it takes to get to it. So, if you want people to spend more time in the building, you need to do the maths. O must be greater than or equal to C (more…)

October 18, 2022

Three tips for battling noise in the workplace

by Judith Hogan • Company news

Offices have been reopening and trying to entice employees back for a while now. And while many people have thrived while working from home, the return to office has been a welcome change, with staff missing in-person interactions with their clients and colleagues. However, as people have become accustomed to the relative quiet at home (kids excluded, of course), being thrust back into an office setting could take some getting used to. Research shows 56 percent of office workers are concerned that noise levels in the office will make them less productive. Between colleagues chatting over each other, desk-phones ringing, and impromptu virtual calls, there are a range of distractions staff must contend with. (more…)

October 5, 2022

Will employees return to the office to save on energy bills this winter?

by Nick Gold • Comment, Flexible working

This winter will be tough for many UK households. Rising energy bills are driving a huge upswing in inflation, causing real incomes to fall as the cost of living goes up. And despite the UK Government’s announcement that energy prices will be ‘capped’ at an average of £2,500 per year, the Bank of England believes inflation will remain high for at least the next two years. According to government estimates, a £2,500 energy bill is almost double the average household’s energy bill in 2021. And as employees continue to work from their home office regularly, energy consumption is likely to rise. (more…)

September 27, 2022

Skills shortages won’t be solved by offering people more money

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

As businesses across the country face rising costs, new research from the CIPD and Omni warns that using pay to attract talent simply isn’t enough to tackle on-going skills shortages. While an increasing number of organisations (54 percent) are inflating pay to retain talent, this approach is not sustainable for most employers in the face of rising costs. To tackle the skills shortage, organisations need to highlight other components of good working practices when recruiting, such as offering flexible working and promoting career development opportunities. For instance, the latest Resourcing and Talent Planning survey shows that 68 percent of employers that offer hybrid/ remote working say it has allowed their organisation to attract and retain more talent. (more…)

September 9, 2022

Hybrid work may be ‘here to stay’, but the office remains essential for many businesses

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Property, Workplace design

As businesses continue to evolve their workplaces to best meet the needs of their employees, JLL’s global Future of Work Survey claims that 72 percent of decision makers believe the office is critical to doing business. The research shows that over the next several years companies anticipate hybrid work to become the dominant model and will be looking across their real estate portfolios to re-think their office spaces, invest in new technology, including virtual offices, and prioritise sustainability. (more…)

September 1, 2022

Skills gap is the most prominent hiring challenge facing HR leaders

by Jayne Smith • News, Workplace

New research from ECI Partners, a private equity firm, suggests that HR leaders believe the most prominent hiring challenge they currently face is a lack of technical skills and knowledge. Nearly a fifth (18.3 percent) of managers said this was their single biggest obstacle, highlighting the growing concern over the UK’s skills gap. The current labour shortages prompted by a range of factors including Brexit and Covid-19, appear to have further widened the skills gap for recruiters. (more…)

August 25, 2022

Friendly colleagues make an organisation a good place to work, poll claims

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

A new poll by HR and payroll software provider Ciphr suggests that most people (85 percent) can name at least three positive aspects that make the company that employs them a good place to work. ‘Good people / friendly employees’ was the top pick for two-fifths (40 percent) of the 1,006 British workers polled, with a further third citing good pay and job security (35 percent and 34 percent respectively). Having a supportive manager is the fourth most important consideration for around a quarter of respondents, followed by a good employee benefits package (27 percent and 24 percent respectively). (more…)

August 5, 2022

The four day week might be the wellbeing solution workers need

by Mark Hall • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing

It’s been a couple of months now since 70 companies in Britain began their four day week pilot program, where thousands of employees went from celebrating the Queen’s 70th Jubilee to celebrating shorter work weeks without reduction in pay for the remainder of 2022. The pilot had been highly anticipated by workers and employers alike – and has already seen tremendous results — but it’s also created a heated debate on whether it’s actually workable across industries, demographics, and different sized companies. (more…)