June 4, 2020

Right, said Fred. Here I am again

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Technology, Wellbeing

If there has been an underlying driver of workplace thinking over the past several decades, it has been a rejection of the principles of scientific management. These begat the idea of the office as a factory, subject to the same rigid times and places of work and the same culture of process, efficiency and productivity. This made a pantomime villain of its key figure Frederick Taylor. The worst adjective you could use to describe a working culture was Taylorist. More →

June 3, 2020

Data is changing the role of the workplace and HR

by Shaun Guyver • Comment, Property, Workplace

Business leaders have been heavily dependent on HR, real estate, and technology functions working together to help their organisation adapts to this new world of work during the pandemic. Ensuring personal safety, promoting wellbeing, encouraging collaboration, and maintaining efficient service delivery will never be more important than in the coming months. The challenge facing CRE leaders is how to advise on the appropriate range of workspaces and hygiene standards to allow organisations and their people to thrive, and how to cut through the complexity of accessing and interpreting data to achieve this. More →

June 2, 2020

Working life set to become more precarious and unequal

by Neil Franklin • News, Working culture, Working lives

The future of work is likely to be even more precarious and unequal, according to a new research review from academics at Durham University Business School, Kings College Business School and University Paris-Dauphine. Dr. Jeremy Aroles, Assistant Professor in Organisation Studies at Durham University Business School, alongside colleagues, Dr. Nathalie Mitev (King’s College) and Professor François?Xavier de Vaujany (University Paris-Dauphine), reviewed a wide range of research related to working life new work practices and summarised this into a number of predictions for the future of work. This research review paper was published in the journal ‘New Technology, Work and Employment’, which is open access throughout June. More →

May 29, 2020

Organisations still adjusting to reality of `gig economy`

by Neil Franklin • News

A new report from Aon claims that the so-called gig economy will continue to flourish but many employers are still adjusting to its realities. Using research from HR and gig workers across Europe, the report, Gig Economy: Financial Security or Greater Control, claims that 26 percent of European HR directors believe their workforces will have 51-75 percent of gig workers in five years’ time, while 18 percent of UK HRDs believe 75 percent or more of their workforce will be made up of contractors in 5 years’ time. Nearly all HRDs believe providing health and benefits packages would improve gig worker recruitment (94 percent), engagement (93 percent), productivity (88 percent) and retention (95 percent). More →

May 27, 2020

Majority of HR professionals aware of value they add to their organisation

by Jayne Smith • News, Workplace

Four in five (80 percent) of those who work in the domain of human resources in the UK and Ireland say that a role in HR and other parts of the ‘people profession’ offers them a meaningful career and almost three quarters (73 percent) believe they have the opportunity to add value to their organisation, the latest People Profession Survey from the CIPD and Workday claims. More →

May 27, 2020

Demand for London office space plummets, but will bounce back (to an extent)

by Neil Franklin • News, Property

The impact of the measures taken to curtail the spread of COVID-19 have dramatically changed the working landscape, not least of all for the commercial property market, claims a new report from property consultancy DeVono Cresa. Commercial occupier demand for London office space fell by 30 percent across Q1 of 2020, according to the report. However, it also suggests that the market fundamentals at the end of March remain relevant and will dictate heavily on future real estate decisions. More →

May 27, 2020

Corporate wellbeing is too focused on sick workers

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing

Corporate wellbeing initiatives are often too focused on sick individuals, and firms should be addressing the root causes of physical and mental health by building healthy organisations instead. That is the main claim of a new report from the Corporate Research Forum (CRF) report, supported by Lane 4 and Mercer. The report is based on interviews with 150 HR leaders from FTSE 100 and similar sized businesses. More →

May 26, 2020

The experience of working from home is not the same for everyone

by Anna Hern • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing

So we’ve demonstrated that we can work from home. But is it a permanent solution? We hear senior managers counting the numbers and working out just how much money will be saved if organisations no longer need their office space. It’s a seductive argument. So before we all settle down in our spare bedrooms with a sigh of relief, let’s just have a think about what that model would mean in the long term. More →

May 22, 2020

Doing the homework on home-work

by Tim Oldman • Comment, Flexible working

COVID-19 will change the world in innumerable ways. It is already affecting how we think about disease transmission, consumption, labour, travel, and even space and distance. And it will change how we think about work. Almost immediately, however, designers, architects and everyone else with a stake in the future of workplace have spotted an opportunity to get creative and solve a problem that we don’t yet understand. More →

May 21, 2020

Firms need to embed lessons from pandemic in a new work culture

by Neil Franklin • News, Technology, Wellbeing

Organisations should build on the lessons they have learned about themselves and their employees during the pandemic and embed them into their work culture. That is the main claim of the tenth annual Global Human Capital Trends report from Deloitte. More →

May 18, 2020

CIPD Festival of Work goes digital for 2020

by Freddie Steele • Events, News, Workplace

There’s just one month to go until CIPD hosts its Festival of Work, which has moved online for the first time. Extended to three days, it will provide even more access to expert masterclasses, discussions and skills sessions, and a taste of large-scale events of this kind for the future. It is following a well trodden path in the current climate as a number of other events have moved online. (For an up to date list of workplace events and their status visit our Events page). More →

May 14, 2020

Life-Based Value launch digital training program harnessing new skills

by Freddie Steele • Company news

Life Based Value has announced the launch of ‘Crisis’, a brand new digital training program available for British businesses that harness unique skills learned during the current lockdown for the world of work. The announcement took place at EdTechX’s Global online summit, from company founder Riccarda Zezza, as the UK is facing one of its most intense and challenging ever transitions – the disruption of normal working life due Covid-19, and the eventual return to work after lockdown measures eventually ease. More →