Organisation culture

Let’s ban the word ‘absence’

This is the first week in the “A to Z” series explaining WiseWork. It’s all laid out in the “Why WiseWork” guide available on this site. Each week we will be taking a letter of the alphabet and looking at the word it represents.  This week it’s A for Absence. When I chose ‘absence’ as the topic I was aware that introducing remote and flexible working schemes are known to reduce absenteeism. So it seemed obvious that one of the…

Read More

Is productivity related to job quality?

It’s a general assumption that people who are engaged in their work and have meaningful jobs are likely to be the most productive. But there is very little research that proves this. There is no common measure of productivity between employers so comparison is difficult. At national level there is an economic measure of output per employee hour worked and this is often used to show that the UK is well down the league table. But the UK economy seems…

Read More

Flexible workers are happier and more effective

Yet another survey has shown that flexible workers are more effective than those working normal office hours. Research commissioned by the AAT (Association of Accounting Technicians) looked at the productivity of a group of workers who set their own hours or working location against a group of those who are not doing so. Flexible workers said they felt they worked effectively for more of a typical working day than those working a traditional ‘nine-to-five’. A quarter said they work longer…

Read More

Prejudice against flexible working still widespread

According to research by Dr Heejung Chung from the University of Kent, a third of all UK workers believe those who work flexibly create more work for others. A similar proportion believe their career will suffer if they use flexible working arrangements.  The research also found that the majority of respondents that held negative views against flexible workers were male, while women and especially mothers were the ones who were most likely to suffer from such stereotypes. Based on data…

Read More

Why are we all stressed out?

Stress has been described as the ‘Health Epidemic of the 21st Century’ by the World Health Organization and its effect on our emotional and physical health can be devastating. In a recent USA study, over 50% of individuals felt that stress negatively impacted work productivity. According to a CIPD survey in the UK, 38% of employees are under excessive pressure at least once a week and almost a third say they come home exhausted either often or always. Increased levels of…

Read More

Where are we more productive – Office or Home?

Almost every day we hear of yet another survey that ‘proves’ people are more productive when they are working from home, only to see other surveys that favour the office. It’s worth looking a bit closer at who is sponsoring or running the ‘research’ and how objective it really is. Recently, a survey of 5,500 ‘respondents’ concluded that 66% of professionals think they would be more productive working remotely rather than in a traditional office. Just 7% chose ‘The office…

Read More

What happened to the life of leisure?

Today we see yet another report threatening that AI will replace our jobs. PWC estimate that around 30% of existing UK jobs could face automation over the next 15 years. The estimates may vary slightly by percentage and timescale, but they are all pointing in the same direction. This report is more positive than others, claiming that new AI-related technologies will boost productivity and generate additional jobs elsewhere in the economy. Along with this they warn that income inequality may rise.…

Read More

The ‘fatherhood penalty’

Following straight after the news about men working part time comes a report showing fathers are seeking more flexible employment. The “Modern Families Index 2017” report has just been published by Working Families. In this they point to a ‘flexibility gap’. Almost half of parents are not comfortable raising the issue of workload and hours with their employer. They identified  flexible working as a key way of getting a better balance, but many felt that they could not make use of…

Read More

More men working part time

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has just issued a report stating that men on low pay are four times more likely to be working part-time than in the 1990s.  It shows that 1 in 5 men aged from 25 to 55 in low paid jobs are now working part-time.  Twenty years ago it was 1 in 20. This has been portrayed in the media as bad news, implying that these people would prefer to have full-time jobs. But this may…

Read More

Long hours mean low productivity

The UK remains consistently near the top of the working hours league and well down the productivity table.  Maybe there is a connection? A recent survey from Morgan McKinley showed that 84% of respondents work beyond their contracted hours. And it’s not just the odd extra hour. 27% work between 6 and 9 hours more per week and a further 31% work 10 hours or more over their official working time. The survey disproves the theory that these are all…

Read More