Capacity in the Headlines
A different lens on the stories shaping work and life..
Each month, Capacity in the Headlines takes a current story and looks beneath the obvious headline.
What does it tell us about human capacity?
What conditions are shaping what we’re seeing?
And what becomes visible when we stop looking only at the outcome?
A monthly perspective on the stories that reveal how capacity is being shaped in the real world.
Looking beyond the headline
The stories making the news often focus on the outcome — burnout, absence, disengagement, performance, change, pressure.
Capacity in the Headlines looks underneath.
Each month, we take one story and explore what it reveals about the capacity people have available, the conditions shaping it and what we might see differently when we look beyond the obvious explanation.
Latest Article
AUGUST 2026 Poor workplace health is costing UK employers around £85 billion a year.
The figures are eye-opening.
Higher sickness absence.
Lost productivity.
Presenteeism.
Recruitment costs.
The financial impact is enormous.
? The Capacity Question
If we’re spending billions dealing with the consequences…
Are we investing enough time understanding what’s creating them?
> The Capacity Perspective
When costs are this high, it’s natural to ask:
“What else can we introduce?”
Another wellbeing initiative.
Another training programme.
Another support service.
Those things can all have real value.
But what if the bigger opportunity isn’t introducing something new…
What if it’s diagnosing the problem more accurately?
Because solving the wrong problem is expensive.
Not just financially.
In time.
In effort.
In frustration.
And in the people who are still struggling despite everyone’s best intentions.
Perhaps the question isn’t:
“What should we do next?”
Perhaps it’s:
“What problem are we actually trying to solve?”
That’s where meaningful change begins.
What do you think? Are organisations spending too much time choosing solutions and not enough time diagnosing the problem?
Original article: Keep Britain Working Review https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keep-britain-working-review-final-report/keep-britain-working-final-report