In the early days of a startup, hiring feels like building the plane mid-flight. You need people, fast. But not just any people.

Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace Report 2025 reveals that employee engagement has fallen once again, for only the second time in the past 12 years. An engaged and thriving workforce starts at the top and, as a leader, your actions can set the tone for your entire team. In a startup environment, where teams may be more founder-led, the actions, habits and processes of this leader are even more important.

You need to bring in diverse talent from the outset, and not in the way that you might think.

Despite the ongoing return to office movement, hybrid and remote roles are still in high demand. In fact, our data at Flexa shows that demand for hybrid roles has increased by 50% since the start of the year. This means that startups offering these types of flexible working arrangements will have a competitive edge when it comes to attracting talent.

The 24th of July marked International Safe Places to Work Day, which promotes the importance of psychological safety in the workplace. This means employees feel wholly free to be themselves, expressing their ideas and opinions without fear of humiliation or retribution.

Have you got a ‘work wife or husband’? These amusing terms have appeared across platforms like TikTok alongside amusing videos about how we have replica ‘families’ at work. Here, mental health expert Noel McDermott looks at how they in fact point to a deep truth and may explain many of the dynamics at work that can baffle, frustrate, annoy us or in the case of these videos make us laugh in identification.

Slumps in business performance are increasingly destabilising work-life balances. In 2024 sales declined, with just over half (57%) of salespeople reaching their sales targets. This is the lowest figure in five years, marking a continuing trend of attrition: 4% lower than the previous year and 7% lower than in 2021.

AI continues to dominate headlines and social media. For good reason. It’s already helping many businesses work faster and smarter. The global AI market was worth more than $279 billion last year. It’s expected to grow to $1.8 trillion by 2030. That kind of growth tells you how quickly things are moving.

The classic “Summer Friday”, once the preferred seasonal reward for office workers, has evolved into something far more transformative for UK businesses. Research from Owl Labs reveals that the four-day work week is rapidly replacing temporary summer perks in the “Big Summer Flex”, with permanent, flexible ways of working that are reshaping workplace culture, for good.

One in five employees across the UK, equivalent to 6.8 million employees, are not receiving any coaching or awareness-building for gender specific issues, such as menopause, fertility, and screening programmes for gender-based cancers, according to research by Towergate Employee Benefits.

With the enforcement of the EU’s Pay Transparency Directive approaching, startups – and all businesses for that matter – must start preparing before it comes into force next June. Those with operations in member states will face new reporting responsibilities and the rules will put pressure onto others to follow suit to stay competitive – even if only operating locally.

A new survey has revealed that sexual harassment remains widespread and underreported in UK workplaces, prompting renewed pressure on employers to act as legal reforms advance.

New research from International Workplace Group has revealed that over half (58%) of UK parents are stressed about arranging childcare ahead of the upcoming school summer holidays. 72% of parents surveyed said they would utilise a local workspace or nearby office, closer to home, in order to reduce this stress.

If you are a manager or startup founder reading this – and you probably are, based on the title of the magazine – then you are probably already overloaded with ambiguous, random advice on how to build culture. Or you’re inundated by LinkedIn posts telling you how you’re a terrible person if you don’t let your staff work from Bali year-round on a four-day work week. Or you’ve read a couple of Walter Isaacson biographies and now you’re thinking the trick is to act like a dictator.

New research from Boostworks, a provider of employee reward, recognition, and benefits solutions, has revealed that Generation Z workers are facing significant financial strain, and they are increasingly turning to their employers for practical support.

The conversation around workplace mental health has evolved dramatically in the past few years. What was once considered a 'nice-to-have' employee benefit has become critical to business, and the numbers tell a compelling story that no organisation can afford to ignore.

As artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes the workplace at unprecedented speed, new insights from Instant Offices suggest that Gen Z employees are already embracing AI tools far more fluently than many of their employers, highlighting a critical knowledge and leadership gap that UK businesses must urgently address.

Entrepreneurs have more choice than ever before when it comes to where to set up their business. The UK’s business taxation regime means the country is becoming less attractive to startups and entrepreneurs and, as a result, more UK businesses – especially in the highly mobile services sector – are considering their options when it comes to where to locate their business.

New research shows a growing wave of anxiety amongst office workers. As more firms order workers back to the office, more than a third (36%) of European workers worry that being 'out of sight' means that they are 'out of mind' when it comes to career progression or advancement opportunities, a figure which is even more pronounced in the UK (40%).  

Six in ten (60%) UK business travellers believe their employer could do more to ensure their safety while travelling for work, according to a new Opinium survey of 500 business travellers, commissioned by World Travel Protection.