1. No more blind faith.
Just the facts.

2. Hello.
We’re the Future
Work Centre.
Our mission is to make work better
for everyone, now and in the future.
To do this, we’ll:
use innovative psychological research to shine a light on how
work affects people, organisations and society – and what
does and doesn’t make it better
make the results available to everyone, along with the tools
they need to take action
use our passion for psychology to inform, engage and inspire.
But we won’t stop at sharing the science.
We’ll use it to raise the standard of occupational psychology
in the UK, develop the psychologists who are starting their
careers and campaign for change.
To find out more, go to www.futureworkcentre.com.
Future Work Centre / 02

3. No more
blind faith.
Just the
facts.
Bringing
science to
the world
of work.
Future Work Centre / 03
How do you know if the money you’ve spent on
training is paying off?
Has your flexible-working scheme kept talented
people in your workforce?
Has making your open-plan office encouraged
people to collaborate more?
And do you make changes because you know
they work – or because you hope they will?
At the Future Work Centre, we see a lot of
organisations basing decisions on what they
believe or have heard is true, rather than on
hard evidence.
It might be that everyone else is doing it, or it’s
‘best practice’. Or it might be that there is evidence,
but it’s not good enough evidence.
Whatever the cause, the end result’s the same:
organisations are investing time and money in
initiatives they don’t know are going to work.
And often, they don’t measure whether those
initiatives have worked the way they’d hoped.
We’re here to help.
The Future Work Centre is an independent
research organisation with a mission to make
work better for everyone: people, organisations
and society.
We do this by carrying out innovative psychological
research into the world of work. Our research
identifies what works and what doesn’t, so you can
make the right decisions. And once you’ve made
your decision, it’ll help you to find out if you’re
getting the right results.
This means you can make decisions about how
to recruit and develop your people, manage change
and design jobs based on sound science, not
blind faith.
And it means that the next time someone asks
you an awkward question, you’ll be able to give
a confident answer.

4. Future Work Centre / 04
It’s the end of the financial
year and the CEO corners
you in the lift and asks:
‘How’s that £2 million training
programme going?
What impact has it had
on our productivity?’
Would you be able
to answer?

5. Future Work Centre / 05
4 ways we’re
different.
3.
We shine a light on the whole
spectrum of work, not just one
corner. Which means we can
help you with any organisational
issue.
4.
We’re completely independent
– no vested interests or hidden
agendas. So you’ll get the advice
that’s best for you, not for us.
1.
We’re driven by a desire to
make work better for everyone.
So we do our own research, as
well as what our clients pay for.
And we share all our findings
openly and for free.
2.
Our research will help you
make better decisions and
evaluate what you do. Nothing
else. But if you need more, we
can put you in touch with experts
who can help.

6. Future Work Centre / 06
Why our
research
raises the bar:
evidence.
Everyone’s different.
That’s why, when we do our research, we take into
account the fact that what works for one person
or organisation may not work for another. And
whatever the question we’re trying to answer for you,
we apply scientific techniques to do it.
We call this approach ‘evidence-based’ research.
But you could also describe it as ‘finding out what
works, in what way and for whom’.
We also draw upon the work other people have done.
And whether we’re assessing our work or someone
else’s, we’ll always be impartial and avoid bias.
But what does this really mean?
We’ll start by assessing where your people are with
the things you want the training to improve (technical
skills, for example, or job satisfaction). This will give us
a baseline before the training starts.
We might also pick a ‘control’ group of similar people
who won’t go through the training, so we can compare
the two groups afterwards. This will mean we can
measure the actual impact the training has had, not
just whether people have enjoyed it.
If you like, we’ll also look at what kind of person
benefited from the training the most, so you can
target it better next time. Or we’ll find a different
way of achieving the same goals.
All of which means you’ll know what works, in what
way and for whom.
Imagine you’re investing in training.
You want to know it’ll give you results – right?
But do you have any evidence?

7. Future Work Centre / 07
The world of work is changing fast.
Globalisation is increasing competition
at home and abroad.
Technology is disrupting old ways of working
and forcing organisations to innovate.
And talent shortages are making it even harder
to find and keep the best people.
This means it’s more important than ever to get the
science of occupational psychology right – and
across the whole of spectrum of work.
We’ve come up with four themes to help us do this.
These themes don’t stand alone: they overlap
and influence each other. But they help us to focus
our research and bring the spectrum to life.
1. The work environment
2. The employee journey
3. The healthy workplace
4. The evolving organisation
Making work
better for
everyone:
a story in
four parts.

8. Future Work Centre / 08
The
employee
journey
The employee journey is the path we all take
though our careers. But people are now moving
jobs much more often than before. What does
that mean for them and their employers?
This theme explores how organisations assess,
train and develop people, as well as identify future
stars. And it looks at how people join organisations
and how and why they leave.
We’ll help you to understand:
how to calculate the return you’re making on
the money you’re spending on training courses
and development programmes
how people can plan their careers and prepare
for the next step they want to take, and the
reasons they get dissatisfied and leave
how to work out how effective your processes
are for assessing and selecting people at
all levels.
The work
environment
The environment people work in every day – both
physical and psychological – has a big impact on
how they feel and perform. And flexible working
means it’s constantly in flux.
This theme looks at the environmental factors that
influence people’s experience of work, from the
content of their jobs to the systems, technology
and tools they use to organise and do their work.
We’ll help you to understand:
how new technology and processes affect
your people and their productivity – and the
best ways to adapt
the impact of job design on the things that
are critical to your success, such as productive
people, good communication and cohesive
teams
how flexible working arrangements and
supportive managers can help people to
achieve their potential.

9. The evolving
organisation
Change is no longer something organisations do
once every few years. It’s become a constant. But
those that do it badly can have unhappy employees
and become less productive and efficient.
This theme looks at how organisations adapt to
reflect the changing world and the impact this
has on their people.
We’ll help you to understand:
how to evaluate the effect of change initiatives
on your people, processes and performance
how to get a clearer picture of how ready your
people are for change and how you can manage
it better in your organisation
how employees can support change and make
valuable contributions.
Part of making work better is identifying the things
that make a workplace ‘healthy’ and contribute to
employee happiness.
This theme includes psychological and physical
health, initiatives to improve wellbeing, the impact
of stress, bullying and harassment, and how
employees balance work and their personal lives.
We’ll help you to understand:
how to know if your initiatives to improve
wellbeing are really working
how to work out the impact that jobs and the
work environment have on the health and
happiness of your people
why workplace harassment and bullying happen
and the impact they have.
The healthy
workplace
Future Work Centre / 09

10. Get in touch
We hope this introduction to the
Future Work Centre has caught
your interest.
For more about how we can make
work better for you and your people,
go to
www.futureworkcentre.com
or call us
020 7947 4273
or write to
info@futureworkcentre.com