8 01732 759725 ...continued NEWS integration challenges that prevent AI orchestration across workflows. www.txp.co.uk … Fathers at greatest risk of home‑working bias Working from home may give you a better work:life balance. It might save you money and perhaps even boost your productivity. But what does it mean for your career prospects? That probably depends on your gender, suggests new a study led by King’s Business School. Researchers analysed 13,000 assessments of hypothetical candidates made by 5,300 people employed in the UK and Germany who were asked to rate candidates as they would when deciding on a promotion or appointment. Candidates described as spending most of the week at home received lower promotion or appointment ratings than office-based colleagues and those who spend only one to two days a week at home, suggesting a clear bias against homeworking in both the UK and Germany. Fathers and workers without children generally experienced larger declines in ratings, while mothers were penalised least. The researchers caution that this should not be interpreted as a straightforward advantage for mothers, pointing out that because office-based mothers in the UK already receive relatively low ratings, particularly compared with childless women, homeworking causes less additional damage. Because men start off from a higher position, they have more to lose when working from home. Professor Heejung Chung, Professor of Work and Employment at King’s Business School, said: “Flexible working has often been seen as a mothers issue, but this study shows that fathers also need protection from career penalties when they use it. Making flexibility safe and normal for fathers can support mothers’ employment while improving outcomes for fathers and children.” The study’s authors – Professor Heejung Chung (King’s Business School), Assistant Professor Senhu Wang (National University of Singapore) and Dr Yvonne Lott (Institute of Economic and Social Research at the Hans-Böckler Foundation) – advise organisations to review how employees are assessed; train managers to recognise proximity bias; place greater emphasis on results rather than time spent in the office; and present flexible working as a normal way of working for all employees, not just for mothers and carers. The paper, Flexibility stigma in the UK and Germany post-pandemic: intersectionality of stigma across gender and parental lines, is published in Community, Work & Family. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/ 10.1080/13668803.2026.2727053 … Costly AV/IT design flaws damaging worker productivity Fragmented decision-making, delayed technology integration and disrupted meetings are taking a heavy toll on staff productivity warns Logitech in a new Workplace Experience (WX) study based on a survey of 1,700 WX decision-makers in 11 countries. This shows that technical issues in meetings, such as failed audio or dropped connections, cause a median productivity loss of 12.2 minutes per person, per disruption, with 30% of IT leaders reporting a loss of 16 minutes or more. Only 31% of the 200 UK decisionmakers surveyed say their IT/AV teams are involved before space planning begins. In most organisations, technology is brought in after room designs have been finalised, rather than designing the space to get most from technology investments. UK leaders link strong workplace experience directly to improved productivity (86%) and collaboration (90%), but still only 56% feel confident they have the right ROI data to justify WX and technology investments. Just 29% treat WX as a core business strategy. Logitech is advising businesses to address these shortcomings by: involving cross-functional teams with shared metrics before space planning begins; treating tech downtime as a WX indicator and measuring ticket volumes, device performance and meeting start delays alongside standard employee experience metrics; aligning physical spaces to performance outcomes, such as deep focus and dynamic collaboration, rather than simple attendance tracking; combining sensor and sentiment data to prove ROI; and continuously adapting as business and employee demands shift. UK organisations turn to MSPs for CISO services With both cyberattacks and the use of AI growing, MSPs are increasingly being called upon to provide the cybersecurity leadership, governance and risk guidance that organisations do not have the resources or capabilities to manage in-house. According to the MSP Perspectives 2026 report from cybersecurity specialist Sophos, MSPs are already acting as defacto Chief Information Security Officers for almost half (46%) of their customers. More than four out of five MSPs (84%) expect demand for CISO services to increase over the next 12 months. Scott Barlow, Vice President and Chief Evangelist at Sophos, said: “Organisations require more than technology management to stay secure. They need trusted cybersecurity leaders who can help them understand their risk, navigate compliance requirements and translate security investments into meaningful business outcomes. MSPs are already stepping into this role for nearly half of their customers. The challenge now is delivering that leadership consistently and efficiently across a growing customer base.” Of the 800 MSPs surveyed, 99% provide at least one cybersecurity compliance service. However, just 6% offer the full range of compliance services evaluated in the research and only 33% are ‘completely confident’ in their ability to continuously monitor, manage and document compliance across multiple customers. To help MSPs turn the CISO role many already provide into a structured, scalable and billable cyber management service, Sophos has launched Sophos CISO Advantage. Delivered through Sophos Fusion, the company’s AI-native Cybersecurity Defense System, Sophos CISO Advantage uses agentic AIaccelerated assessment, reporting and roadmap workflows to support boardready insights and action plans across an MSP’s customer base. www.sophos.com
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