Category: <span>Flexible working</span>

The distractions come thick and fast when you’re working from home – daytime TV, housework, knocks at the door, and cold callers on the phone all do their best to break your concentration.

And then the cat seems to need feeding every five minutes – while there’s no doubting having a pet around the place can help alleviate the loneliness that can come with working from home, they’re not always great for productivity, but they’re nothing compared to having a baby around the house while you’re trying to work – so, if you’re a work from home parent, is it time you considered taking on a nanny?

Flexible working Inspiration Work from home

We’re all well aware of the impact that Covid-19  has had on people’s physical health, but what effect has the pandemic had on people’s mental health? A new study has found that a quarter of adults have developed mental health issues over the last 18 months.

Flexible working News

With just a couple of days to go until Christmas Eve, there’s a good chance many of your staff are beginning to wind down – unless, of course, Christmas is your busiest time of the year. If things do slow down over the festive period, you might be taking things easy yourself, or even on holiday already.

But what if you need people to stay switched on over the holidays? Especially in that ‘dead zone’ between Christmas and New Year? Here are some tips to help keep things ticking over.

Flexible working Guides & How-Tos Inspiration Uncategorized Work from home

The pandemic has really messed with the nine-to-five. More people working from meant that priorities shifted during the day. Early risers could shun the commute and get straight to work on their laptops, night owls could work well past the 5pm cut off, and everyone could take some time back during other parts of the day.

But now we’re slowly starting to get back to ‘normal’ and being encouraged to get back to the office, does the commute now become part of your working day?

If you check your emails as soon as you wake up, the working day essentially kicks off before you’ve even stepped out of bed. But, if you regularly check your work emails before you clock on, whether at home or on the way to work, should this count towards your working day?

Flexible working Technology

As we’re all being encouraged to get back to the office, so the state of the space we’re going back to has become all the more important. Although we may have been cramped into a spare room or even the corner of the living while working from home during the pandemic, we were still working from home and able to reap the benefits of that.

But if we’re going back to the office, who wants to be cooped-up in a partitioned workspace? If you’re not interacting with colleagues, you may as well be sat in that cramped corner of the room at home.

So could an open plan office layout be the answer?

Flexible working Inspiration

Video calling has become very popular in the last year or so – the technology and available broadband speeds have improved immeasurably in recent years and remote conferencing became the only way to keep in touch with clients and colleagues during lockdown.

Video calling isn’t without its flaws though – as anyone who has had connection issues will attest to (not to mention Microsoft’s insistence on moving everything around when it updates Teams). Sometimes, simply picking up the phone is the best option.

So, which is best – a conference call or a video call?

Conference calling Flexible working Guides & How-Tos Small business Technology

It’s Monday morning and, if you’re anything like me, you’ll have struggled to even get out of bed this morning, never mind get showered, dressed, fed, and into work – it almost makes you wonder whether Monday  mornings are actually worth going into work for.

Of course, there will be those of you out there who spring out of bed on a Monday morning, relishing what the working week has in store, and while job satisfaction has a lot to do with it, your natural body clock and work cycle can’t be underestimated.

So if you’re looking for a good reason to request flexible working so you can stay at home on a Monday morning, read on…

Flexible working Guides & How-Tos Work from home

Flexible working Small business Work from home

It’s no secret that many in government and and at the top of some of the world’s biggest companies want us to stop working from home and return to the office.  It was only a matter of weeks ago that a government minister floated the idea that civil servants who work from home should be paid less than those that work from the office.

Meanwhile, Google has stated that it will be handing out pay cuts to US staff who opt to work from home full time.

We think it’s a terrible idea, and employees need to be treated like grown ups – just because you can’t see your staff, it doesn’t mean they’re not working. And what’s the point in adhering to a strict nine-to-five workday?

On the other hand, there is definitely a disconnect when working from home, and we do lose those moments of serendipity when a casual conversation turns into a winning idea for your business.

But it’s all about balance.

Flexible working Work from home

The last 18 months have seen more people than ever thrust into a situation where they’ve had to work from home. And as we emerge out the other side, many businesses are considering a ‘remote first’ policy or ‘hybrid’ working (part time home and part time office).

If your business is going to offer remote working, you’ll have to make sure your equipment is up to scratch and employees can work just as well from home as they can from the office.

The trouble is, technology is advancing at a breakneck speed so it can be difficult to work out exactly what equipment will be needed – keeping employees in touch via teleconference is easy enough, but will you need additional hardware and software to enable employees to do their job while on the move?

To help answer this question, here are a few essential tools for businesses on the move…

Flexible working Work from home