The last few years have seen the trend for remote working really take off – ONS figures show that from September 2022 to January 2023, almost half (44%) of employees worked from home or did hybrid work.
But if you do spend some of your working week at home, are there any implications as far as insurance claims are concerned? And are we now all more at risk from insurers not paying out on home insurance claims?
If you’ve had to return to the office lately, you may have enjoyed the face-to-face interaction with work colleagues and the chance to leave the house after a couple of years of working from home. Those little things we took for granted before the pandemic.
But one thing you probably haven’t missed is the commute. Whether you walk, cycle, drive, or take public transport – here’s how to have a happier commute.
It’s been a glorious week across most of the UK, and temperatures in London are due to hit the 30s today – far from ideal conditions for spending your day in the office.
And if you work from home, the temptation to down tools can be even greater.
So to make sure you stay at your most productive as the temperature rises, here’s how to keep your cool whether you’re working from home or the office…
Every one of us has a winning business idea in us, but it takes a big leap of faith to make that move to turn that winning idea into a viable startup business.
Although thousands of businesses start up in the UK every year, data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that more than half of all businesses (57.6%) don’t make it past the five-year mark – a good innings, but that’s a lot of work to eventually wind things up.
And while there’s loads of advice out there on why and how you should go all in for your own startup, there’s not much out there that offers up reasons why you shouldn’t.
But we’ve found some. First though, let’s take a look at how many businesses start up each year.
Phishing is a type of online fraud in which cyber criminals send emails or instant messages pretending to be from a reputable company or person, in an attempt to access sensitive information, such as login credentials or account details.
Things have evolved since the days of emails promising jackpot payouts on the Nigerian lottery, and phishing emails generally come in the form of an official-looking correspondence from your bank or an organisation like PayPal.
And this increased level of sophistication brings with it an increased level of threat – even just clicking a link within an email can send a bug into your system that can access any sensitive data you have stored on your hard drive.
Could you manage a remote team? The coronavirus crisis has seen an increasing number of businesses offering employees the chance to work from home, as much out of necessity to help stop the spread of the virus as anything.
But now that these employees have been given the chance to work from home, it’s a perk that many will want to keep in place long after we’ve all returned to our offices and workplaces in one capacity or another – especially if it’s proven to be a success.
Would your business be able to handle a remote workforce in the long term?
Before the Covid-19, there were around 4.2 million of us enjoying the benefits of remote working – that’s 13.9% of the entire UK workforce, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
But the coronavirus lockdown has seen more employees than ever working remotely, with some businesses setting up entire remote workforces and call centres almost overnight.
And while we regular readers will know we’re right behind remote working, it’s not always as easy as it should be, especially if you have to work from a coffee shop, or don’t quite have the right set up at home.
This infographic from Turnstone, designers of inspiring office furniture, highlights the problems faced by anyone working away from the office.
The frequency and severity of cyber attacks rose again in 2019 as hackers successfully attacked major cities, governments, businesses, hospitals, and schools across the globe – in October alone 421,103,896, data records were confirmed to have been breached, with 111 incidents in which sensitive and financial information was compromised.
It’s been a few years since the Wannacry cyber hack hit thousands of organisations worldwide, including the NHS, and brought the reliance on the internet and technology into sharp focus. While the events were more about hackers holding large organisations to ransom, many individuals could be concerned about whether their personal data might be at risk as a result of the hack. And the hackers are showing no signs of slowing down.
But how well do you know the web?
How much do you trust your smartphone? It might sound like a daft question, but just take a minute or two to think about the sheer volume of sensitive information your phone holds – from banking app logins to business messages and emails – and think how much damage could be done if this information fell into the wrong hands.
So, to help make sure your data doesn’t fall into the wrong hands, here’s how to keep your smartphone secure.