November 19, 2020

Rising job insecurity during pandemic linked to mental distress

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing, Working lives

Employees facing increased job and financial insecurity at the onset of the pandemic suffered a wave of mental distress, according to research published by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen). Rates of mental distress among employees were 60 percent higher in April than before the pandemic, and 50 percent higher in May, with significant increases both for employees who were furloughed and those who continued at work. More →

November 18, 2020

The new era of elemental change for the workplace

by Neil Franklin • News

In the latest issue of IN Magazine, Chris Kane talks about his new book Where is My Office? and how this is possibly the best time to publish a book about workplace transformation, in spite of the upheavals of the last year. Another author and world-famous workplace expert to publish on a related theme is Neil Usher. His new book, Elemental Change, is also timely as many organisations look to a post-pandemic era in which they must challenge many of their previous assumptions about their structure and how, where and when they work. More →

November 18, 2020

Generation BETA is the latest demographic grouping you need to acknowledge, claims report

by Jayne Smith • News, Technology, Working culture

GlobalWebIndex (GWI), together with LinkedIn’s B2B Institute, has launched “Work in BETA: The Rising B2B Decision Maker”. The new report sets out to examine the ‘changing behaviours and attitudes of “the BETAs” – the first cohort of digital natives (21 to 40 year-olds) to assume positions of seniority in business, at a time of dislocation’. More →

November 18, 2020

Employers should take bullying and harassment at work more seriously

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing, Working culture

A recent report from Culture Shift, claims that almost all (91 percent) of employees across the UK say that knowing their employer takes bullying and harassment complaints seriously is an important factor to their overall happiness at work. One-quarter (25 percent) say their employer could improve its culture and be more inclusive by providing a platform to speak out about bullying and harassment. More →

November 17, 2020

Top priority for HR leaders in 2021: building critical skills

by Jayne Smith • Business, News, Working culture

Gartner, Inc.’s 2021 HR Priorities Survey of more than 750 HR leaders claims that 68 percent of respondents cited building critical skills and competencies as their number one priority in 2021. The survey, conducted from June through August 2020, claims the other top HR priorities for 2021 are: organisational design and change management (46 percent), current and future leadership bench (44 percent), the future of work (32 percent) and employee experience (28 percent). More →

November 17, 2020

Unused office space could cost London businesses almost £13 billion

by Jayne Smith • Business, Facilities management, News, Property

Unused office space after coronavirus could cost London-based businesses almost £13 billion according to a new report by Space Three Two, a new office timeshare marketplace born out of lockdown. According to a survey of London office workers, employees want to spend an average of 2.7 days back in the office once all Covid-19 restrictions have been lifted. 1 in 10 workers said didn’t want to go back to the office at all. More →

November 16, 2020

Millions will struggle to access the Government’s new Lifetime Skills Guarantee

by Jayne Smith • Business, News, Working lives

New analysis published by the Work Foundation and Totaljobs claims that millions of low paid workers will struggle to access the Government’s new Lifetime Skills Guarantee (LSG) when it is launched next year amidst a growing jobs challenge. More →

November 13, 2020

Productivity and wellbeing highest in companies with a connected culture

by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Working culture

RingCentral UK Ltd, has released the findings of its Connected Culture Report claiming that employees working for companies that foster a “connected culture” are twice as likely (34 percent vs. 15 percent) to be productive when working from anywhere, than those that don’t. More →

November 9, 2020

Working from home could energise some of our overlooked cities

by Michel Serafinelli • Cities, Comment, Flexible working

For years, we have been promised a work-from-home revolution, and it seems that the pandemic has finally brought it to pass. In April this year, at the height of the first wave of coronavirus, 47 percent of people in the UK were working from home, the vast majority of them doing so because of the pandemic. In a sense this is overdue: the work-from-home potential for UK employees is 32 percent; in France, Germany and Italy between 24 percent and 28 percent. More →

November 9, 2020

More stability in sight for employment but three in ten employers still planning redundancies

by Jayne Smith • Business, News, Working lives

The pace of deterioration in UK job prospects is starting to slow this autumn due to very modest improvements in planned recruitment activity and a slight decrease in employers’ intentions to make redundancies. This is according to the latest quarterly CIPD/the Adecco Group Labour Market Outlook (LMO) survey – involving more than 1000 employers and covering all sectors of the economy. More →

November 9, 2020

Now is the time for employers to think differently about who they hire

by Jayne Smith • News, Working culture

As COVID-19 has forced businesses to change where and how they work this year, the learning disability charity Mencap is now calling on employers to think differently about WHO they employ. The pandemic has highlighted the invaluable contribution people with a learning disability and/ or autism can make as hardworking and valued employees. More →

November 6, 2020

Furlough schemes are leaving isolated staff down in the dumps

by Steven Buck • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace

Since March, Glint has been creating a dataset which now consists of 7 million survey responses from employees around the world and across a broad range of industries. Our aim is to take the pulse of the global workforce to see how it’s faring with our ongoing global health crisis and to understand its effects on work. The recent August report shows that pandemic-related layoffs and furloughs have hit employees hard. 56 percent of respondents report feeling less happy at work after seeing co-workers furloughed or laid off. Half of respondents say their organisation’s layoffs or furlough plans have had a negative impact on their workload (50 percent) and their sense of belonging or community at work (47 percent). More →