Toyota Yaris Cross Hybrid review: bang on the zeitgeist June 29, 2021 The new Toyota Yaris Cross takes an award-winning small car and makes it larger. Tim Pitt is among the first to drive it.
Irish govt throws weight behind home working June 28, 2021 Ireland must avoid a “drift back to the office” following the pandemic, according to the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. His comments came as he launched #MakingRemoteWork, the Irish government’s new campaign for home working, in Dublin on Monday. Varadkar’s Department for Enterprise, Trade and Employment has encouraged employers in Ireland to examine their policies for remote [...]
UBS becomes latest bank to offer staff hybrid working forever June 28, 2021 UBS Group will allow most staff to mix remote working with time spent in the office, Switzerland’s biggest bank revealed today. “We are committed to offering our employees the flexibility for hybrid working where role, tasks and location allow,” UBS said. “Hybrid work options will be introduced on a country-by-country basis, with timing dependent on the local pandemic [...]
Weekend Read: Fostering a company culture in a hybrid world June 26, 2021 After three lockdowns, more than a year of home working and an unprecedented vaccine rollout, firms of all sizes are slowly, cautiously, reopening and welcoming staff back to the office. But this mass return to the traditional workplace will be tough for managers and leaders on a number of levels. Motivation levels may be low, [...]
Half of employed adults in the UK commuting to work again June 25, 2021 Brits are making a gradual return to the office, as around half of all UK working adults travelled to their place of work in the last two weeks, new data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) showed today. The proportion of working adults who commuted to the office last week reached 49 per cent, [...]
Exclusive: Business chiefs call for long-term TfL funding to support return to work June 25, 2021 The government must agree a sustainable long-term funding deal for Transport for London (TfL) to help support the capital’s post-pandemic recovery, business chiefs have urged. In a new report seen by City A.M., lobby group London First said maintaining public transport services in the capital was “vital” in rebuilding confidence and supporting the shift to [...]
Older workers planning to work from home permanently are selfishly risking the development of young people June 23, 2021 My Twitter timeline has been overrun with people arguing about whether they are for or against a return to the office. The ones shouting the loudest is normally to be the anti-office group. They are typically older, more well-established in their careers and keen to share how pleased they are to have finally ditched the [...]
Government should ‘rip up the rule’ book on rail fares June 23, 2021 The government needs to go further when it comes to rail ticketing reform and “rip up the rulebook”, or else businesses will suffer, a trade body has warned today. Jane Gratton, head of people policy at the British Chambers of Commerce, welcomed the newly announced flexible season tickets, but said the whole fares system needed [...]
Exclusive: UK employees work £4.2bn in unpaid overtime every week as free labour soars during pandemic June 23, 2021 The amount of unpaid overtime that each UK worker is doing has jumped to an average of eight hours per week during the pandemic, according to a new study. The ADP Research Institute’s People at Work 2021 study, seen by City A.M., found that UK employees are working two hours more unpaid overtime per week [...]
Cloud-based phone system Aircall raises $120m as home working endures June 23, 2021 Cloud-based phone system Aircall has raised $120m in Series D funding led by Goldman Sachs, as demand for the firm’s technology surged during the remote-working boom. The round was led by Goldman Sachs with participation from current investors DTCP, eFounders, Draper Esprit, Adams Street Partners, NextWorld and Gaia Capital Partners. Aircall’s total valuation is more [...]