Flexible working is gaining support from senior level managers.
In a new survey carried out by the world’s largest flexible workspace provider, Regus, 76% of Exeter professionals believe their senior management support the idea.
However, 71% of Exeter respondents say that managers require specific training in order manage their remote team members successfully. In particular, maintaining close contact is key. Over three quarters (79%) believe managers should speak to remote staff several times a week, and 89% think monthly face-to-face meetings are important.
The Government has announced plans to double free childcare for hard working families – which will benefit up to 50,000 parents in the South West to the tune of £5,000 per year.
The offer of 30 hours of free childcare per week during term time means parents will be able to get on while bringing up a family.
All three- and four-year-olds in working families will be eligible for 1,140 hours of free childcare per year - twice the current entitlement.
The £5,000 extra in savings is on top of the £2,500 they can already save from existing free childcare offers. The new...
Nearly a third of Exeter professionals (30%) identified traffic jams as a productivity killer to their working day, according to the latest report by the world’s largest flexible workspace provider Regus.
The survey asked 3,000 business people in the UK about interruptions and distractions at work.
In fact, travel-related grievances feature heavily in the results; transport delays (23%), and road works (26%) were also shown to be prohibitive to productivity.
Other prominent distractions include lengthy meetings and dealing with incoming cold calls, both of which...
Both companies and individuals can often benefit from the process of working remotely whether this be ‘on the go’ or from home. Being ‘out of the office’ is no longer a taboo subject, with the advantages clearly obvious to all parties involved.
We’ve all become accustomed to enabling our ‘out of office’ settings for annual leave and lengthy meetings, but consider the ever increasing number of people for whom this effective practice is the norm. See for yourself the benefits for all parties of remote working:
The South West TUC is calling on employers to do the sensible thing and temporarily relax workplace dress codes.
Now the sun is out and the temperature has soared, many workplaces have become unbearably hot with many employees visibly wilting at their desks, says the TUC.
The TUC would also like to see the Health and Safety Executive amend the approved code of practice – which covers workplace conditions – so that it introduces a new maximum legal temperature at work.
Although workplace temperatures cannot legally fall below (16°C), there is no upper limit. The TUC...
The value of the South West’s overall pay packet has fallen by 10% since 2007, according to a TUC analysis published today (Tuesday) to launch its new pay campaign: Britain Needs A Pay Rise. The TUC analysis of official figures shows that on the eve of the recession in 2007 workers across the South West were earning a total of £57bn (in 2012 prices). However despite rises in employment, a combination of falling real wages, reduced hours and changes in the kind of jobs people are doing has reduced the region’s total pay packet to £51bn over the last five years – a real terms annual cut of £...
Commuters in the South West spend the equivalent of five working weeks travelling to and from work every year, according to a TUC survey released today.
TUC analysis of figures from the Labour Force Survey, which compares pre-recession commute times (2006) with the most recent available figures (2012), shows men in the region spend an average of 53.4 minutes a day commuting (an increase of 1.6% over six years), while women spend an average of 41.2 minutes (an increase of 0.4%). This works out at 4.45 hours a week, or 195.8 hours a year – the equivalent of five working weeks....
Research by the Institute for Social and Economic Research and the University of Essex has found that mums-to-be who work through their pregnancy are increasing the chances of giving birth to smaller babies. Women who worked to the eighth month of pregnancy risked giving birth to babies half a pound lighter – an equivalent detriment to smoking in pregnancy.
The research opens important policy questions on the health implications for working pregnant mothers and their unborn children.
The researchers identified 1,339 children whose mothers were part of the British Household...
