September 21, 2020

Singapore, Helsinki and Zurich are top of the world`s smart cities

by Neil Franklin • Cities, News, Technology

Singapore, Helsinki and Zurich have taken the top three places positions in the 2020 IMD-SUTD Smart City Index Report, a collaboration between IMD and Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). The 2020 Index ranked 109 cities, 7 more than in last year’s inaugural edition, by using both economic and technological data, taken together with citizens’ perceptions of how “smart” their cities were. It is published under the aegis of the IMD Smart City Observatory (SCO). (more…)

September 18, 2020

Supporting hybrid teams, both in and out of the office

by Jayne Smith • News, Working lives

As the UK is in the midst of the traditional ‘back to school’ period, many workplaces are debating over when to return to the office, and how. The sudden move to remote working during lockdown has proven that a new hybrid way of working is in fact possible for numerous organisations, but this has come at the expense of face to face communication and in person collaboration. (more…)

September 17, 2020

No jab, no job? Can employers demand that workers take COVID-19 tests?

by Emily Hocken and Lloyd Davey • Features, Flexible working

As workers’ begin to populate office floors once more, employers must navigate a number of potential risks to ensure they are ‘COVID-19 secure’. As a result, the subject of ‘employee testing’ has made headlines, with the decision over whether employers can, or should, test their employees becoming an area of contention. (more…)

September 15, 2020

Testing times for offices mean new regimes at work

by Helen Farr • Comment, Wellbeing

Businesses are now encouraging employees back to working in the office. Should employers be using regular Covid-19 testing as part of their processes to reassure staff that doing so is safe? The government is advocating more regular testing and the use of mobile testing as a way to ensure that businesses stay open even if there is a local lockdown in the area where the business trades. (more…)

September 14, 2020

Redundancies set to double the peak reached in the 2008 recession

by Jayne Smith • News, Working lives

New analysis of official data released to the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) claims that between May and July 2020, employers notified government of nearly 380,000 potential redundancies. This is more than double the peak reached in the Great Recession, when 180,000 staff were notified as being at risk between January and March 2009. (more…)

September 9, 2020

Resilience is missing for many employees

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing Matters, Working lives

A new report from Aon,examined the views of employers and employees across five major countries in Europe and claim that just 30 percent of employees are resilient while also suggesting that resilience can triple when employers adopt a well-rounded programme of support. Employees with poor resilience have 55 percent lower engagement at work and are 42 percent less likely to want to stay with their employer. In the UK, 29 percent of employees are resilient, and those with poor resilience have 59 percent lower engagement and are 43 percent less likely to want to stay with their employer. (more…)

September 8, 2020

Frontline and front of mind; communicating with employees away from HQ

by Julien Lesaicherre • Comment, Flexible working, Technology

It has been a rough year for business. Many organisations have had to evolve their operating models overnight, go to great lengths to keep their people safe and build entirely new ways of working to ensure they can stay afloat. A lot have had to fast forward five years into the future in a few months – and that’s no mean feat. (more…)

September 4, 2020

Employers facing surge of workplace health problems

by Neil Franklin • Features, Wellbeing

Doctors are becoming increasingly concerned about a cascade of work-related health problems during the fallout from COVID-19, with some predicting dire consequences for employers and the economy. Whilst many have become used to working at home or have returned to work with social distancing in place, many employers are not aware that the responsibility for managing health issues amongst their employee’s rests firmly on their shoulders. (more…)

September 4, 2020

Workers feel unsafe returning to the workplace after COVID-19

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing

Insurance provider Protectivity has asked office workers around the UK how they’re feeling about going back to work as COVID-19 lockdown restrictions ease, what changes they have made during the lockdown period, their thoughts about attending workplace events over the next few months and how they’re feeling about their pets post-lockdown. (more…)

September 3, 2020

UK firms optimistic about COVID-19 recovery prospects

by Jayne Smith • Business, News

What impact is COVID-19 having on business confidence? And what recovery strategies are companies prioritising in response to the pandemic? Recruitment company Robert Half recently surveyed more than 1,500 executives to understand how they are responding to this ongoing period of unprecedented economic change. (more…)

September 2, 2020

Remote work and the coming race to the bottom

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Wellbeing, Working lives

One of the most significant consequences of the 2008 economic crash was a remarkable shift in the nature of employment. The recession led to a surge in the number of people categorised as self-employed. The numbers have been increasing ever since, albeit at a more stable rate. By the end of 2019, the number of self-employed people in the UK exceeded five million people for the first time. That’s fifteen percent of the workforce. (more…)

September 2, 2020

Stress and burnout threaten the benefits of working from home

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing

A new study by Adaptavist, suggests the threats to long-term productivity and employee wellbeing posed by improvised solutions during the transition to remote work. Overall, 82 percent of people report they are equally (47 percent) if not more productive (35 percent) working from home, and company-wide communications have improved during the pandemic. However, the lack of a shared understanding of which tool to use and how to communicate with it, combined with the ‘always on’ nature of working from home, brings added stress and motivational challenges for remote workers. (more…)