Search Results for: office environment

September 20, 2024

One in four people have turned down a job because they hated its office environment

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace design

Almost a quarter (23 percent) of people say that they have turned down a job because they didn’t like the office environment, according to a new poll. This rose to almost a third (32 percent) for 18 – 24-year-olds indicating the need for a high-quality office environment for the younger generation. Geographically, workers in the capital are most likely to pass on a job based on the office surroundings, with a third (32 percent) of London based workers admitting to declining a role for this reason. More →

May 25, 2018

Remote working preferred, with just one in ten workers happiest in an office environment

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Workplace

One in four workers (28 percent) would move jobs if they weren’t allowed to work from home, increasing to nearly half (45 percent) of millennial workers. Yet while two thirds of UK employees (65 percent) can work from home, 35 percent are still not given the option of working remotely. Totaljobs’ research revealed that remote working is in the top five most important benefits when looking for a new job, beating perks such as enhanced parental leave, travel allowances and learning and development. One in five workers would pick a job that offered remote working over one that did not when deciding on a new role. Given the choice, two fifths (38 percent) of the UK workforce prefer working from home, a figure that rises to 46 percent of 18-34-year olds as opposed to just 31 percent of over 55’s, clearly showing the popularity of remote working options to the millennial workforce. The flexibility that remote working offers is most appreciated by women, with a quarter (24 percent) preferring the option of working from home or in the office compared to 16 percent of men.

May 14, 2018

Artificial intelligence, robots and automation set to transform the office environment

by Neil Franklin • Features, Technology

In today’s highly digital landscape, tools like AI and machine learning were developed to significantly improve productivity in the workplace. But despite their existence, many companies still trail behind in terms of integrating AI in their office environments. In fact, an article on Workplace Insight previously noted that over a quarter of employers fail to provide staff with digital and flexible tools. Though it is predicted that the next couple of years will see businesses adapt to a human-and-machine environment, organisations still have a lot of catching up to do in terms of digital basics.

June 17, 2016

Homeworking loses appeal as workers prefer flexible office environment ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Flexible working, Furniture, News, Workplace design

Most workers now look for flexibility in where and how they work finds a new survey from the British Council for Offices. But this doesn’t mean homeworking; as less than a third (28 percent) of workers now say they would prefer to work from home, a figure that has dropped from 45 percent in 2013, when the research from the BCO and Savills was last conducted. Over three-quarters of respondents (77 percent) said that they currently work in a traditional office, with the majority (60 percent) choosing to work from a dedicated workstation compared to only four percent that are asked to share desks with colleagues. This desire for a dedicated desk has increased over the past three years, rising from a figure of 41 percent in 2013; but despite demand for a dedicated desk, most workplaces (70 percent) now also include a communal environment to work from, providing a space for more dynamic working.

February 12, 2016

Unpredictability and office environment are key causes of workplace stress ⁰

by Sara Bean • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

The two most common factors influencing work related stress levels are unpredictability (26 percent) and workplace environment (21 percent) according to a poll by US jobs site CareerCast.com. The results, based on 834 respondents found that most of the respondents (62 percent) rated their jobs as highly stressful, while just 11 percent felt the amount of stress on the job was low. Other key stressors were deadlines (20 percent) and safety of others (16 percent). Interestingly, few people felt that length of work day/week (7 percent), personal well-being in danger (5 percent), potential for promotion (3 percent) and travel (1 percent) were major job stressors. Any number of factors can contribute to an unpredictable workplace; either the flow of responsibility changes from day-to-day with new tasks added or changed at random intervals or expectations may change. Running a close second is the workplace environment and culture, which includes interactions with bosses, co-workers and clients/customers.

June 2, 2015

A relaxed office environment and rapid career progress are key for Millennials

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Workplace

The latest research on the aspirations of so-called Millennial workers (born 1980 – 1999) reveals a cohort that wants to rise up the career ladder as quickly as possible, but do so in a less traditional workplace than previous generations. According to a whitepaper – ‘Attracting and Retaining Millennial Professionals’ from recruitment firm Robert Walters, 91 percent of Millennials say the opportunity for rapid career progression is one of the most important things about their job, with 68 percent citing a clear path to grow in a role is the most important factor in keeping them engaged. While Millennials are not that different from their older colleagues – they favour a more relaxed working environment where technology is seamlessly integrated into their working practices. They also place a higher value on personality, communication skills and fit within a team than they do on hard technical skills.

January 30, 2015

British workers suffer in silence in noisy office environments

by Mark Eltringham • News, Workplace design

New research from Avanta Serviced Office Group claims that noise in the office environment is severely damaging the productivity of British businesses. The study of more than 1,000 UK office workers found that although over 80 percent of employees claim to being regularly distracted by noise in the workplace, fewer than half complain about it. Instead around a third admit they simply take themselves somewhere quieter such as their homes or a cafe or library. The study also identifies the distractions that bother people the most, most deriving directly from their colleagues including overheard conversations, ringtones, loud eating habits, whistling, music and even people talking to themselves. Compared to these human sources, the racket generated by inanimate objects features low down the list of irritants.

February 20, 2014

Could personality profiling help create a more productive office environment?

by Suzanne McMinn • Facilities management, News, Workplace, Workplace design

Creating the most productive working space to help get the best from your people is an ongoing battle. What suits some doesn’t suit others. So if there was some way of assessing up front how people like to work and the environment that would make them their most productive, engaged and committed – before you rearrange the furniture, fittings and layout – would you leap at the chance of finding out? One approach could be personality profiling. If you could climb inside the minds of your current and future employees and assess how they best like to work, their personality and how this then drives them to be more productive in certain working environments than others – who wouldn’t want to have a delve around? Or are we in danger of pandering to personality stereotypes? More →

September 3, 2013

Office environmentalists experiencing “green rage” over apathetic colleagues

by Sara Bean • Environment, Facilities management, News, Workplace

Facilities managers engaged in efforts to convince apathetic colleagues to adopt greener office working practices may relate to the news of a new workplace affliction – “green rage”. Dr Rebecca Whittle of Lancaster University told delegates at the recent annual conference of the Royal Geographical Society in London that there is a lot of silent conflict at work between people trying to do the right thing environmentally, and those who don’t care. She said that a light being left on in an unoccupied office or a recyclable item put in the wrong bin can provoke emotions as strong as guilt, rage or despair. More →

March 15, 2023

Office market continues to fail on environmental standards …. say landlords

by Neil Franklin • Environment, News, Property

A new survey that explores the state of sustainability within the UK office market, jointly commissioned by infinitSpace and The Instant Group, claims that the office market is falling behind on environmental policies. The poll of 250 landlords suggests that almost half (47 percent) of landlords believe the office market is lagging behind other areas of the property sector in implementing/adopting environmental policies. The same number say they can’t ‘go it alone’ with 47 percent of landlords agreeing they need help in shaping environmental policies. At the same time, 84 percent of landlords report a vacancy rate of 30 percent and above as average among their office building portfolio. More →

October 11, 2021

Office furniture makers are getting creative about the environment

by Leanne Stretton • Company news, Environment, Workplace design

I was reminded the other day of the instructions on a bottle of shampoo I once used which said, simply: “Wash, rinse and repeat.” Why? I’ve just washed my hair. Why do I need to repeat? It’s a bit like that old adage about how to sell more toothpaste, by widening the hole it comes out of, because we all still instinctively try to cover the whole of the brush head, however thick the line of paste. More →

October 2, 2020

Post-COVID environment will drive demand for flexible office space

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

Employees are proving keen to return to the office, reporting that they miss the human and social interaction that the office facilitates. At the same time, while employees show a strong affinity for the office, they also desire the ability to have the option to work from home 1-2 days per week on average according to a recent JLL global study of 3,000 workers. The trend towards workplace mobility was not created as a result of the pandemic, but it was certainly accelerated by it. As a result, agile work strategies are expected to increase in a post-pandemic world, reinvigorating demand for flexible space. More →