May 15, 2018

Guest blog: How to improve productivity - let your staff work from home - By Andrew Boswell, who is a Programme Director with more than 40 years experience in IT and Telecoms.

May 15, 2018/ Andrew Boswell

Is your business delivering productivity of €50/hour? Are your people are wasting their time and energy by commuting to work? This article gives you the key numbers to assess your business and see how working from home could turn your business into a beacon of productivity.

Measures of productivity

The UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) has been studying international comparisons of productivity - as output per hour. In UK industry productivity was €43 per hour. Construction productivity was €24/hour. The highest-productivity industry was Finance and Insurance at €48/hour, and the lowest-productivity was the wholesale & retail trade at €23/hour.

The ONS has been studying the amount of time taken by people across the country to get to work . They found that back in 2007 it took us on average between 23 and 41 minutes to get to work. By 2017 this had fallen a little, to between 19 and 47 minutes.

May 14, 2018

Guest blog: Why Working from Home isn't for everyone, but Relationships are - By Steve Byrne, CEO, Travel Counsellors.

May 14, 2018/ Steve Byrne

The number of UK homeworkers has increased by 45% over the past 15 years, and those that are self-employed by 30%. This covers over 3m people in the UK and accounts for 15% of the adult working population.

Surveys consistently find that homeworkers are able to work more flexibly, and have higher levels engagement and productivity. The flexibility that this type of working provides is supported by the fact that 80% report a better work life balance; they are more engaged with 82% of employees stating they would be more loyal to their employer if they had flexible working arrangements; and they are more productive with 91% saying they get more work done when working remotely. In a recent survey of our 1,800 home-based travel counsellors, 94% said they agreed with the statement “I love my job”. And 92% would not return to their previous job, which is a powerful statement given that the vast majority have left a salary to work on a self-employed basis.

This growing trend isn’t just isolated to the UK, with American Society of Travel Agents stating that “the fastest growing segment of the US travel industry is homeworking agents who are professional and making use of the latest technology”.

May 13, 2018

Work Wise Week 2018 Launch Blog: Pay, Productivity & Performance - By David Lennan, Chairman, Work Wise UK

May 13, 2018/ David Lennan

Work Wise Week is a very significant period in the Work Wise UK calendar when we highlight and discuss the key issues affecting workplace performance. During 2017 Work Wise UK focused attention on the Productivity conundrum and the missing £Billions and whilst during last year more was written about Productivity than at any time in our Industrial history, attention has now swiftly turned to Equal Pay and the gender pay gap.

Work Wise UK believe that our low productivity is a symptom of poor work place management, combined with a mix of other related factors such as the age and composition of our workforce, working hours, poor vocational education, housing, travel to work congestion, workplace health, investment in skills and technology, supply chain management and innumerable other issues that can influence and change the workplace environment and impact on organisational performance.

May 20, 2017

Guest blog: Smarter working and Work Wise Week: a topic worthy of a proper conversation - and Bristol Business School is in!

May 20, 2017/ Harriet Shortt

By Dr Harriet Shortt, Senior Lecturer in Organisation Studies, Bristol Business School, University of the South West of England.

David Lennan kicked off Work Wise Week by encouraging us all to have a proper discussion about how we work and what we achieve. His call to action advises that now is the time to really think about our working practices and to consider how and where people work.

And I say ‘hear, hear!’. Smarter working should be a topic of conversation in every organisation – whatever the size or industry – and this particularly interests me, given my research in organisation studies and work space.

Where we work is changing – in fact, as I write this blog I am sat at Bristol airport in the UK waiting for my flight to Crete – I’m off to present at the 12th Organization Studies Summer Workshop. As I work, I am surrounded by other people on their laptops, phones and other devices. We are mobile and we are connected, and more and more of us are working at home, in the car, on the train, and at the airport. Increasingly the notion of a ‘9am to 5pm’ in the office is being questioned and alternative ways of working are being adopted.

May 20, 2017

Guest blog: The gig-economy: What needs to change? - By Steve Mosser, CEO of Sensee→

May 20, 2017/ Steve Mosser

Hardly a day goes by without an article on the gig-economy appearing in the media. And from high-profile court cases brought by workers that object to the lack of employment rights and benefits, to stories of individuals who are living happier, more fulfilling lives because of it, the gig economy is sure to provoke strong – often polarised – points of view.

According to the CIPD, 4% of working adults aged between 18 and 70 are working in the gig economy, with approximately 1.3 million people now working two jobs or more. Often referred to as “slashies” – think waiter/delivery driver, make-up artist/blogger and gardener/Uber driver - many choose to work this way, enjoying the freedom, variety and flexibility that this way of working brings. But others do it out of necessity when, for instance, they cannot secure a full-time job with a sufficient income (and benefits) to support a family.

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