If you run or manage a small business, chances are you didn’t get into it for the admin.

While the UK's skills shortages have persisted during the last few years, recent data has revealed a promising improvement. Skills shortage vacancies fell from 36% in 2022, to 27% in 2024, according to the Department for Education's latest Employer Skills Survey.

The CIPD reports competition for well-qualified talent increased over the past year, with over half (56%) of organisations experienced retention challenges. With the battle for talent heating up, small and medium businesses (SMBs) find themselves competing for the same talent as big enterprises – turning to their playbooks to give themselves an edge.

Entry-level jobs are slowly whittling away, as recent grads struggle to get hired in a decreasing number of corporate positions. AI has begun its workforce domination, and young professionals are going to have to adapt to a new way of working – and thinking – in order to stand out. 

Today’s world of work has evolved well beyond the days when permanent, full-time employment was the archetype of workforce planning. The focus has shifted from maintaining fixed employment structures to building flexible systems that can readily absorb skills and talent on demand, unbound by geographical boundaries.

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.