The Future of Time: How ‘re-working’ time can help you boost productivity, diversity and wellbeing

The way we value and manage time at work is broken. Businesses are squandering time when making decisions, delivering work and managing people. Employees are rewarded for 24/7 availability, speed of response and hours worked. The results are clear: low productivity; high stress and burnout; falling retention; and stalling diversity. The Future of Time reveals how 're-working' time - transforming organizations by adopting positive time practices - can help you build a more diverse, engaged and productive workforce. Diagnostics to quickly assess the 'time defects' damaging your business Compelling evidence, case studies and strategies to 're-work' time successfully Timelines and tools to bring about fast, effective change. Helen Beedham, MA Cantab, speaks, consults and leads research on how to create more inclusive, productive workplaces where everyone can flourish. For the past 25 years, as management consultant then chair of a City-wide professional network, she has led change programmes for FTSE 100 businesses and regularly brought together Heads of HR, Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing to exchange market-leading practices.

Table of Contents:
Table of Contents Foreword Introduction A story about time The path to here and now ‘The Future of Time’s central premise How ‘The Future of Time’ will help you and your organization Part 1: The ticking timebomb How we’re collectively failing to manage time. Chapter 1: Time today How we value and treat time in business today What knowledge-based businesses value now How businesses typically value time How we typically think about time at work What we mean by collective time management How we factor time into our decision-making What our typical collective ‘time habits’ are Chapter 2: Time blindness Why we have developed time ‘blindspots’ in the workplace What ‘time blindness’ is and why we aren’t talking about this How time is ‘baked into’ our structures and processes We mainly talk about time in terms of the working week & working patterns Accepted, non-verbalised norms relating to time How technology is helping/hindering How time blindness manifests itself Chapter 3: Time defects How to recognise the signs of ‘broken’ time in your organization Some verbal and visual indicators How time defects affect employees generally How they affect individuals How we are valuing and measuring time wrongly How we are being wasteful with time Time defects: steady drip or major time fails? What we are rewarding in the way we value and measure time Chapter 4: Changing times What’s influencing our wider relationship with time o Big pressures impacting businesses that relate to time o Major demographic factors affecting our approach to time o How climate change is affecting our relationship with time o Other factors influencing the way we run businesses today o Social justice movements that are relevant here o So what? What employers need to be paying attention to Chapter 5: Out of time How ‘broken’ time is hurting your business and why you need to act now o The impact of ‘broken time’ on businesses o How it is hurting productivity o How it is impacting diversity and inclusion efforts o The impact on employee engagement, motivation and retention o The link to employee wellbeing o Why this is urgent Key points summarised Part 2: Time re-worked Better ways of valuing & managing time. Chapter 6: Time reimagined What the future of time looks like at work o What the future could look like in broad terms o How leaders could run businesses differently o How commercials/financials could be managed o How people could be managed o What future working practices could look like o What a more time-aware organization culture looks like o Outcomes we would see Chapter 7: Time solutions The positive time practices that enable organizations to flourish Ways we can be more ‘time aware’ Implications for leaders in their day-to-day choices and action How teams can implement more time-aware practices Time solutions for different kinds of work Interpersonal relationships Time-aware commercial practices Time solutions that enable better employee wellbeing and more sustainable careers Chapter 8: Time and talent Implications for recruiting, managing and developing people How we bring people into the organization The jobs they do Reflecting time-awareness in individual and team goals HR, D&I and other workplace policies How to build better time-awareness into people management Pay and benefits Time-aware careers Chapter 9: Ahead of time Organizations that are leading the way in managing time Proof it’s possible to achieve this What other organizations are successfully focusing on 4 case studies Impact of their efforts so far What they are learning that will help the reader Key points summarised Part 3: Time to act How to re-work time in your organization Chapter 10: Taking stock of time How to diagnose your time defects and get time on the agenda How to find out what your time defects are How to gather evidence and create a burning platform How to tell if it’s an emergency/how bad it is How to get senior buy-in and support for addressing this Chapter 11: Time strategies How to tailor and implement your time solutions successfully How to tackle it and how long it will take? Some principles What you’ll need and how much it’ll cost Where to start, how to prioritise, what order to adopt What will help make/accelerate progress 3 implementation tools to help avoid reinventing the wheel Pitfalls and setbacks to watch out for How to assess progress Chapter 12: Anchoring time How to embed new time practices in your work culture Why embedding matters What embedding means - some examples Who needs to do what to embed time practices Specific embedding actions for productivity Specific embedding actions for diversity Specific embedding actions for wellbeing After that, are we done? (no) Chapter 13: Time toolkit (this may move into the Appendix) Further resources to help you deal with challenges and stay on track Agendas and/or checklist for business leaders, HR, D& I leaders, team managers, individuals ‘What can I do as …?’ Ongoing time check-ins Ways to share and celebrate your time successes Time solutions mini-library (e.g. ‘100 time solutions’) Key points summarised Conclusion A closing story about time Hopes for the future ‘Book on a page’ (1 page book summary) Acknowledgements Notes Index About the author Join the ‘Future of Time’ community

About the Author :
Helen Beedham, MA Cantab, speaks, consults and leads research on how to create more inclusive, productive workplaces where everyone can flourish. For the past 25 years, as management consultant then chair of a City-wide professional network, she has led change programmes for FTSE 100 businesses and regularly brought together Heads of HR, Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing to exchange market-leading practices. www.helenbeedham.com

Review :
The author tackles a complex subject in an engaging and pragmatic way and shares various positive examples from a range of companies and industries. I’ve seen the book featured in a number of business and HR publications and podcasts since it launched, so it’s clearly tapping into a hot topic in today’s world of work Helen Beedham’s wonderful book offers a fresh and much-needed look at a long-standing problem that we’ve historically failed to address. Situating time management as a clear business issue, Beedham offers a cornucopia of practical tools that you can use today, whatever your role and industry. She advocates persuasively for a better way of working that will enable happier, healthier work lives. Beedham combines rigour and curiosity, creating a book that is well-researched, clearly structured and accessible. This is an excellent read. I would see this as a self help book to examine and tackle our actions with time, particularly our schedules and how we can better hack them for efficiency. I believe this book would do well as a companion piece with any book that addresses habit formation. A must read for CEOs, leadership teams, People teams and anyone interested in organisational culture, productivity and inclusion. Insightful, thought provoking and well-written and I’ve not even got to the section with all the practical tools you can use within your organisation. There is a ridiculous amount of value in this book. With the rapid growth of working from home over the last two years, both employers and employees are coming to realise that work/life balance and productivity are intricately linked, and "The Future of Time" offers useful ways of looking at time within your business to see how it could be used better, allowing employees to be both more productive and happier at the same time, and allowing employers to reap the benefit of a more engaged, and more content, workforce. I feel that there is something within its pages for everyone, at all levels of organisations big and small. '..provides helpful guides to rework our management of our own time as well as for the people who work under us. This is a good read for people in management to set the culture of good time usage.' ‘This is not just a book on time management. It explores ways of working, productivity, diversity and wellbeing. It is practical and inspirational....[it] looks at time management holistically, along with a range of tools and techniques.’