Osmond Ergonomics

This article was originally emailed as issue 165 of our monthly eBulletin at 11:30 on 09/08/2023. You can register here to receive them monthly.

ARE EMPLOYERS GIVING UP ON HYBRID WORKING?

Google has just offered employees ‘a special deal’ at their campus hotel to ‘make it easier for Googlers to transition to the hybrid workplace’, President Biden is urging federal workers to return to the office and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has just reported that homeworkers work, on average, 2.5 hours less per day than office workers. In the USA, at least, it seems that the productivity claims for homeworking are now being challenged.

Of course, this could just be a case of what’s making the headlines this month and the reverse will be highlighted in the next few weeks! In the UK, it’s not long since we were laughing at Jacob Rees-Mogg and his ‘sorry I missed you’ notes to civil servants when many of us knew that government departments had been running very successful smart working programmes since long before Covid. Equally, does it really matter how many hours you work if you get all your work done? Maybe homeworkers work less hours because they just get through things more efficiently.

In the UK, it seems that many SMEs have returned to the office fully, but the view of larger European employers is still strongly supportive of the hybrid working model, even if they are still working at getting it right! There is no doubt in my mind that all-in or all-out is not the ideal solution for the vast majority of organisations and a balance can be found. It just needs care – and probably time. Neil Usher’s recent article provides a good insight into key considerations in workplace design.

THE DEEP WORK HYPOTHESIS

Do you remember when the only distractions from the work we were doing were phone calls or a colleague stopping by our desk? Now we are constantly bombarded by digital communications – like this one! We have been doing further research into the lead topic from last month’s eBulletin and thinking about ways to address the issue. Set aside some time to read our latest blog which explores the background and possible solutions, as well as providing access to Cal Newport’s book – Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World.

WEBINARS & PODCASTS

Our regular monthly webinars continue. The latest upcoming topics can always be found on this page and you can find previous webinar recordings here. We are also continuing our internal discussions about the future of these two communication styles and exploring formats for possible podcasts in the future. In the meantime, our Webinars & Podcasts survey is still open (for a few more days) so please take a couple of minutes to give us your views on the two formats and you could win a £100 Amazon gift voucher.

ISO 9001/14001 AUDIT

It’s an irony that our previous quality auditor gave us poor and inconsistent service! However, that’s now history and we are very pleased to have moved to NQA. Our first audit with the new assessor took place at the end of July and I am delighted to confirm that feedback was all positive. Our commitment to these standards is central to how we operate and they provide a structure for continuous improvement processes.