April 10, 2019

The growing urbanisation of work and workplaces ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Cities, Features, Workplace design

The question of what makes a city great is an old one but has never been asked more than it is right now. It is usually couched in terms of the urbanisation of large parts of the world but it is important for other reasons too, not least because the urban environment is an increasingly important part of the virtual workplace many of us now inhabit and offices themselves increasingly resemble the agglomeration of spaces we have typically associated with our towns and cities. Recently, McKinsey published a report into urbanisation, based largely on the usual premise of the proportion of the world’s people involved, but it is an issue that touches all of our lives and in unexpected ways.

April 8, 2019

Overhaul of shared parental leave is already overdue, claims TUC

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

The TUC is calling for an overhaul of shared parental leave legislation just four years after its introduction. Last year only 9,200 new parents took shared parental leave – just 1 percent of those eligible to do so. The TUC believes take-up is low because the scheme is so low-paid (£145.18 per week) making it unaffordable for most fathers. It claims that large numbers of dads in insecure work, such as agency workers and those on zero-hours contracts, are not eligible for it. And currently men and women who are self-employed don’t get any shared leave rights at all. More →

April 7, 2019

Businesses urged to pay suppliers on time or risk losing out on government contracts

by Mark Eltringham • News

More than 10,000 businesses have been warned by the government that they must pay their suppliers on time or face being prevented from winning further government contracts. Officials from the Cabinet Office have written to the businesses – which include all the government’s current strategic suppliers – to remind them of the new rules on prompt payment, which come into force this autumn. More →

April 5, 2019

The ladder of life, the death of work, the cane toad of property and some other stuff

by Mark Eltringham • Features

We start with a question. Why hasn’t the gig economy killed traditional work?, asks Greg Rosalsky and goes on to explain what many people have now realised. The answer, as Greg points out, is that the gig economy doesn’t replace traditional work, never has, and the rise of casual work of this kind has primarily been a way for people to deal with a volatile labour market and shrinking real incomes. Offer them the choice of a decent monthly income, benefits and a contract and most of them will take you up on it.

April 4, 2019

A twenty minute connection with natural surroundings reduces stress

by Mark Eltringham • News, Wellbeing, Workplace design

A twenty to thirty minute stroll in a park is one of the best ways to reduce stress levels for people in cities and as a way of dealing with workplace related anxiety, claims a new study from researchers at the University of Michigan. The study Urban Nature Experiences Reduce Stress in the Context of Daily Life published today in the Journal Frontiers in Psychology suggests that any half hour connection with surroundings that make people feel connected to the natural world can reduce the key stress hormone by around 10 percent and so improve a person’s sense of wellbeing. Longer period of time increase the beneficial effects but at lower levels. More →

April 2, 2019

The flat white economy is now the most important sector in the UK

by Mark Eltringham • News

According to a new study from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) think tank, the so-called ‘flat white sector’ is now the most important driver of the UK economy. Consisting of the digital and creative businesses that cluster around areas like Silicon Roundabout in north-east London, the term has been coined by Douglas McWilliams, deputy chairman at the CEBR to reflect the way startups can apparently save on property costs by working out of coffee shops. McWilliams claims that the flat white economy contributed 14.4 per cent of gross value added (GVA) to the UK in 2018, making it more important than traditional sectors such as manufacturing, mining and utilities on that measure. More →

April 1, 2019

A chance to have a say on your experience of open plan office design

by Mark Eltringham • News, Wellbeing, Workplace design

The debate on open plan versus enclosed offices rages on, but it’s not binary, it’s not black or white, it’s not a dichotomy. Furthermore, office occupants appear to have different preferences from the wide range of workplace design solutions that are available. To inform workplace design, we need to understand what drives these individual preferences. Is it factors such as personality, personalisation, flexibility, sense of belonging and familiarity that affect where people prefer to work?

March 29, 2019

Smartphone addiction is driven by need to connect, but means we make bad choices

by Mark Eltringham • News, Technology, Wellbeing

Two new studies published in the Journal Frontiers in Psychology explore our complex relationships with smartphones. The first study from Canadian researchers, concludes that our addiction to smartphones is a real phenomenon but one that is rooted in a primal desire to connect with other people, suggesting that smartphone addiction is best described as hyper-social, rather than anti-social. However, the second study led by academics in Brazil claims that a pronounced preoccupation with smartphones can lead to poorer decision making.

March 27, 2019

The pursuit of happiness, lumpy tech, space science and some other stuff

by Mark Eltringham • Features, Technology, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Underlying most of the stuff you read about the workplace is the quest for happiness. Indeed happiness has become something of a preoccupation for those pondering the issue at the apex of social and economic thinking, as epitomised by Gallup with its latest World Happiness report. As always, the Gallup report stumbles over definitions of happiness, often using the word interchangeably with wellbeing and stuffs it with other ideas without explaining how or even whether they contribute to happiness.

March 26, 2019

Over one in ten deaths linked to sedentary office life

by Mark Eltringham • News, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Sedentary office life which involves sitting down for at least six hours a day contributes to tens of thousands of people dying every year and costs the NHS £700 million each year, according to a new study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. Researchers used previous analyses of the increased risks of heart disease, diabetes and cancer that have been associated with extended periods of inactivity. According to this meta-analysis, about a third of British adults spend more than six hours sedentary each day and almost 70,000 deaths a year in Britain – over one in ten of total deaths – could be attributed in some degree to the behaviour. More →

March 22, 2019

The future of work will be defined by four models, claims RSA

by Mark Eltringham • News, Technology

The RSA’s Future Work Centre has released research that models four ‘futures of work’ by 2035 – and claims to show how out of touch politicians are with changes in the workplace. The report, published in partnership with Arup, claims to avoid the usual sensationalism around topics such as automation, the Internet of Things, surveillance, gig work and AI to establish what workers can expect in the workplace in the near future. The report applies morphological analysis to generate its four models of work.

March 20, 2019

RNIB launches new focus for Disability Confident scheme

by Mark Eltringham • News, Workplace

The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) has launched a new suite of resources that will help employers support blind and partially sighted people in the workplace. The resources have been created as part of the DWP’s Disability Confident scheme, the nationally-recognised Government accreditation that supports businesses to attract, recruit and retain disabled employees.