Future Work:

The final details are now in place for the Future Work Conference on April 24th (see www.futureworkconference.com). It promises to be a great day reinforcing the key messages in the book.

The 'early bird' offer is now extended to the end of March so there is still time to get a place at £195 instead of the full price of £270. And you still get a free signed copy of the book on the day!!

I gave an online talk to over 80 executive education alumnae of Smith College, a leading US liberal arts college for women, and put five questions to them from our Future Work survey. These women are in mid to senior management in big US companies. An overwhelming 93% said new ways of working would benefit the business and 83% agreed, or strongly agreed, that they would like more control over where, when and how they do their job. Nearly two-thirds said their organization was not adapting fast enough to new ways of working.

Bookings are now being taken for the Future Work Conference on April 24th in Birmingham. Go to www.futureworkconference.com for more information and book before March 9th to get an 'early bird' discount. 

There's an impressive array of speakers lined up for the day including organisations featured in the book. There will also be a workshop based on the organisational culture model used in the book. It promises to be a great day so reserve your place in the next few days and take advantage of the discount.

We have been busy organising a one-day Future Work Conference, based on the book, scheduled for April 24th in Birmingham. Alison and I will be speaking, along with speakers from Microsoft, Vodafone and Word Association, all covered in the book. There will also be speakers from Sandwell Borough Council and Wolverhampton Homes. More information will appear on this site in the next week.

We've had lots of media interest in Future Work from countries including the US, UK, Germany and Italy. You can see the reviews, interviews and other articles by clicking here or going to the "Media coverage" link at the top of this page.

The UK government-backed Anywhere Working Consortium has launched a web portal "helping organisations to adopt more flexible working practices". The consortium includes Business in the Community, Microsoft, Nokia, Nuffield, Regus and Vodafone  and has the support of the Trades Union Congress. Its aim, like that of our book, is to reinvent the way we work to make businesses more productive and efficient, reduce damage to the environment and increase individual well-being.

Happy New Year! The Economist this week reports on the trend for “co-working” – an alternative to home or traditional office that provides mobile workers with facilities to work and collaborate remotely. It concludes that this does not signal “the end of the conventional office”. While we agree there’s life in the office yet, its role is undoubtedly changing.

A survey released recently by Microsoft in the USA asked questions about the impact of telework on people's jobs. The majority of respondents were from Government with only 20% representing the private sector.

An interesting report has just been issued by the Institute of Leadership and Management in the UK based on a survey of 1300 managers. It concluded that the majority of UK bosses are working longer hours, have higher workloads and are more stressed compared with ten years ago.

A report has just been published showing that almost half of under 24s say they wouldn’t work for a company where social media was banned. It is based on a survey of 1,000 people carried out by recruitment company Hyphen and concludes that employers are out of touch with ‘Generation Facebook’.