insight_new_logo
17 April 2020

Half of workers think the new normal will be the old normal

Research commissioned by people analytics provider Visier claims that the vast majority of UK workers (77 percent) forced to work remotely due to Covid-19 feel their employers have done a good job of handling the urgent transition to remote working, but fear a return to the status quo. The poll analysed the remote working experiences of more than 1,000 people who are either not normally allowed to work from home or who do so no more than once per week on average.
Read more
Half of workers think the new normal will be the old normal

Isolation and stress from pandemic have profound mental health impact

Isolation and stress from pandemic have profound mental health impact
The effects of isolation and stress from the coronavirus pandemic could be having an extremely profound effect on people's physical mental health - now and in the future, say a group of prominent psychiatrists and psychologists writing in the The Lancet Psychiatry journal.
Read more

Toxic workplace culture costs firms and the economy dear

A new report from HR software provider Breathe, suggests that the cost of toxic workplace culture is around £15.7 billion per year in the UK. The report, The Culture Economy 2020 (registration), claims that 1 in 5 (21 percent) of SME employees alone quit their job due to poor workplace culture last year.
Read more
Toxic workplace culture costs firms and the economy dear

Three quarters of people believe online meetings are a waste of time

Three quarters of people believe online meetings are a waste of time
A new study from CV-Library claims that three quarters (76 percent) of British workers think online meetings are a waste of their time with one in three admitting that they excuse themselves from online meetings that they get bored of.
Read more
Boss_Saint_WorkplaceInsight600x120_Ad

Half of people working from home say their mental health has declined

Half of UK workers (49 percent) say that their mental health has declined since working from home, according to a new survey from Qualtrics. The study also claims that actions taken by companies are having a significant effect on the wellbeing of their employees, with one in five (18 percent) claiming that their organisation’s actions have had a negative impact on their mental health.
Read more
Half of people working from home say their mental health has declined

Sleeping habits improve under lockdown, but conspiracy theories abound

Sleeping habits improve under lockdown, but conspiracy theories abound
One of the surprising consequences of the current lockdown for many people is that they are sleeping more soundly. A new study claims that nearly two thirds of people are getting the same amount or more sleep than they were before the UK went into lockdown on March 23rd. However the report also uncovered some troubling attitudes amongst groups of people, even though the majority are informed and behaving as advised.
Read more

Take part in global working from home experience survey

A global survey to gather data about the impact of Covid-19 on how and where people are working has been launched by the Workplace Evolutionaries (WE), a Community of Practice within the International Facility Management Association (IFMA).
Read more
Take part in global working from home experience survey

Finnish consortium creates new global smart buildings standard

Finnish consortium creates new global smart buildings standard
A consortium of Finnish companies backed by government funding have launched a smart buildings platform that they hope will will enable the collection, analysis and automatic application of data in building maintenance and design worldwide.
Read more
Top1

The links between coffee, shared ideas and the office go back a long way

The BBC recently published a piece on its website to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of Ridley Scott’s movie Alien and what it could tell us about office design and the workplace (of whatever sort). One of the interesting points raised in the piece was how the depiction of the conditions on board the spaceship Nostromo did away with the gloss and swish of previous visions of the future, replaced by grime, exposed services and strictly utilitarian interiors. The environment was one of the characters, a trick Ridley Scott later repeated in Bladerunner.
Read more
The links between coffee, shared ideas and the office go back a long way

Picking through the workplace chatter

Picking through the workplace chatter
The Universe is a noisy place. Countless bodies chatter to each other against the backdrop of distant echoes from the Big Bang. Because we are curious, we have developed the technology to listen in and record the din and convert it from the electromagnetic vibration it really is into something we can sense with our ears. NASA has even produced a playlist of the noises from our own solar system and some of the objects we have propelled into it, which you can listen to here.  
Read more

Is salutogenic design the next big issue for the workplace?

A number of progressive workplace issues have crossed into mainstream thinking over the past few years, and perhaps none more so than biophilia. It is now a principle that has become an issue talked about in the mass media, as shown by a recent CNN interview with one of Europe’s leading proponents of biophilic office design, Oliver Heath. The interview explores how biophilia taps into our embedded love of nature to evoke certain behaviours and emotions.

Read more
Is salutogenic design the next big issue for the workplace?
KI banner
workplace insight_Bridge2
_Insight_podcast_logo_Wellworking

Wellbeing is one of the most talked about workplace issues. But it is also one subject to a number of misunderstandings and over-simplifications. In this series of podcasts produced in association with Wellworking I talk to some of the world’s most respected and best informed experts on the issue. Each episode looks primarily at one facet of wellbeing with the aim of building a more complete picture of a nuanced, complex and evolving issue.
All of the Workplace Insight podcasts are available on Soundcloud, Spotify and iTunes, or simply listen online here.

Issue 1 of IN Magazine is now online

It's been six years since Workplace Insight first appeared as a blog. I'd been in the office design and management sector for twenty years already, but I created Insight to explore both a new medium and a new conversation about work and workplaces. Since that time we have published over 6,000 stories with contributions from over 400 people. And - get this - we have been read by over 2.5 million people both in the UK and around the world. Clearly, we have been on to something, chronicling the development of what is essentially a new discipline.
Read more
Issue 1 of IN Magazine is now online
Calendar HM