Whitepapers

The world of work has undergone a sea-change in the past few years. Businesses want more flexibility and productivity to suit them. At the same time, some people want predictability and others want to decide when and where they work for themselves.

There was a time when people went to school, some went on to university, and when they managed to find employment they remained with their employer for many years. Some got promotions and stayed until receiving their gold watch and pension. This concept of a job for life now seems an anachronism. It is questionable whether in the future, if things continue in the same direction, whether jobs as we know them will exist at all. Zero-hours contracts, part-time work, agency work, home working and the so-called ‘gig economy’ are blurring the definition.

The purpose of this illustrated guide is to ‘declutter’ the concept of annualised hours as a framework for flexible working, breaking it into constituent parts.

It’s virtually impossible today not to come across the word ‘digital’ in consultancy reports, newspaper articles or government policies. Often associated with the success of firms such as Google, Facebook and AirBnB, ‘digital’ is now conveyed as a necessity and a wide variety of job titles are being created, from Head of Digital Projects and Digital Change Manager, to Digital Strategist and so on.

Digitisation is necessary to standardise business processes and pursue operational excellence, but it is also required for digital innovation and digital transformation.

The hopes and dreams of a nation will be pinned on Team GB as they step into the arena for the Commonwealth Games (4-15 April) but what does it take to create and maintain a high-performing team?

That is the question put by HR expert Jane Rawlins in the latest downloadable guide from Crown Workforce Management – Going for Gold. How to develop a high-performing team.

Most people believe that we now live in a new age of flexible working.

Indeed, with recent technological developments enabling the gig economy to flourish in businesses such as Uber and Deliveroo there are many new opportunities, even if some may be seen as morally questionable.

Could annualised hours help lift us out of the UK’s productivity plateau? That’s the question posed by flexible working expert Neville Henderson of Pasfield Curran, consultants to Crown Workforce Management.

Historically, UK labour productivity has grown by around two per cent annually but in recent years something has gone wrong… despite ambitious government strategy and £23 billion investment.

Since the 2007 crash, this ‘productivity puzzle’ has baffled economists with low investment, reducing in the quality of equipment and a lack of lending being cited as possible causes.

We may not be able to predict the future but the ability to review our past and present, and use that information to help shape our future can be attained without the use of sorcery.

That is the message within this new illustrated guide to ‘Demystifying Business Analytics’ published by Crown Workforce Management and authored by Dr Pietro Micheli, Professor of Business Performance and Innovation at Warwick Business School.

Crown Workforce Management Systems has produced a free downloadable white paper on key milestones to assist change management.

The paper, authored by Dr Pietro Micheli, Associate Professor of Organisational Performance, at Warwick Business School, highlights the journey leaders should take when initiating a step change to their organisations.

Dr Micheli highlights four areas which are essential to a change management programme: assessing resources and processes, understanding the perspective of staff, engaging people and taking them on the journey and awareness that change is not a linear process.

We are now able to access and process ever larger quantities of data, coming from various sources – organisations, consumers, social media, and automated systems – ever more quickly.

Dr Micheli highlights how the business world has undergone transformation in recent years due to the amount of digital information available.

We are frequently told that the UK has a productivity problem. Indeed, only at the end of 2015 has the country gone back to its pre-crisis level, and it still lags behind all other G7 countries.

Productivity data are often in the spotlight, not only because they are used as a measure of national competitiveness, but also because productivity growth drives improvements in standards of living.

Dr Micheli discusses why Productivity matters and what we can do about it.

This white paper will be of interest and value to people in any organisation who have responsibility for administering, managing or implementing flexible working practices.

It explains current flexible working legislation in the United Kingdom and the rights and responsibilities that recent updates to flexible working laws confer on both employees and employers.

The paper also outlines what British companies need to know in relation to the right to request to work flexibly, discussing scenarios in which various methodologies or solutions could help businesses address shortfalls.