June 23, 2023
It should go without saying that looking after employee mental health and wellbeing is important. If employers do not prioritise employee wellbeing, the whole team can feel the impact of this. There is compelling evidence that suggests strong employee wellbeing is a precursor to a more resilient workforce, which enjoys better staff retention, engagement and productivity, as well as reduced absenteeism. More →
June 22, 2023
For the last decade, if not longer, we’ve heard businesses saying they are focused on reducing their environmental impact. It’s been written in annual reports and immortalised in pledges shared with stakeholders, but the question still remains – what action is actually being taken, including in the creation of a sustainable workplace? More →
June 21, 2023
What is the purpose of the office? That was the central question at this year’s British Council for Offices (BCO) conference which took place in Dublin. A big ask.
Nonetheless, the speakers and delegates that arrived in Dublin were up for the task. In the opening address, BCO senior VP & conference chair Despina Katsikakis promised delegates the conference would explore and untangle the intricate elements of the ecosystem that must seamlessly merge tech-led work, play and… well, survival. The focus of the two-day event (or three for those who like golf) was to devise strategies to design, build and manage vibrant and inspiring workplaces that foster the wellbeing and advancement of the individuals and communities they serve, all while promoting social, economic, and environmental sustainability.
As one would perhaps expect from a BCO conference, several speakers made a case for the office, including Davina Saint, director of the Irish National Assets Management Agency. Nobody relates naturally with screens or virtual protocols, she said, so we need to embrace the idea of social capital: “It makes organisations go around,” she said. “It’s the electricity in the machine. The shift to remote working has dented social capital. There’s less connection and more isolation. Productivity and innovation have also taken a dive.”
“I believe strongly in the office,” said Niall Gaffney, CEO of Ireland’s largest office landlord IPUT, during the developer’s panel. Fellow panellist Kevin Nowlan, senior advisor to Hibernia Real Estate Group, agreed: “Culture and life comes from people being and working together.” The workplace will play a key role in reinventing cities, they chimed in unison. Why? “Because the office is where the magic and inspiration happen,” Saint said. “It’s where the social heart of an organisation can beat.”
[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]As the audience were reminded throughout the conference, many people meet their partners at work[/perfectpullquote]
But it goes beyond business. As the audience were reminded throughout the conference, many people meet their partners at work. If marriages are born out of proximity rather than heaven, perhaps that means there will be fewer weddings, fewer children. That musing may well prompt a shrug in response but it’s worth noting there’s already a dwindling workforce. Yes, borders are clamping shut, but it may also be because people aren’t having children as often as they used to. Last year, the Financial Times, citing Office for National Statistics data, revealed that the “natural population of the UK will begin to decline by the middle of the decade, leaving the country dependent on migration to increase the working-age population”. But freedom of movement is not so free anymore. Dublin, we have a problem.
Stupid cupid
While it might not be up to workplace professionals to channel their inner cupids, you can bet your bottom dollar the population crisis will be on future BCO conference agendas. Until then, however, there’s a more relatable challenge in play. The industry needs to focus on the role of the office in a rapidly changing world. Bill Hughes, global head of real assets at Legal & General Investment Management, looked at the old and new definitions of an office. The traditional definition is “a room or set of rooms in which business, professional duties, clerical work are carried out”. Today, it’s where important face-to-face interactions and teamwork happens. It’s where culture is built. “It’s where knowledge transfer and learning through osmosis occurs,” Hughes said. “It’s about energy and having fun.”
[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]The future of the world of work is an obsession for bosses[/perfectpullquote]
“The future of the world of work is an obsession for my bosses,” the BBC journalist Simon Jack said, during the ‘business of politics’ discussion. “Because it “affects the lives and livelihoods of our audience.” And that’s perhaps why there’s so much focus on the employee experience. Billions have been spent on the customer experience. Many of the speakers stressed that it’s time we do the same with the employee experience.
In a session on the purpose of place, Andy McBain, head of future of workspace & design at NatWest, shared that the bank’s workplace strategy focuses on experience, events and an element of experimentation. But experience can’t be a fluffy add-on, he suggested. It must be measured and tracked if it’s to evolve and deliver ultimate impact. To that end, McBain’s team uses Audiem, an advanced employee feedback analytics tool, that allows heads of real estate not only to get the flagship quantitative scores that they need to track and manage performance but also dive deep into the qualitative data, helping them understand the drivers behind satisfaction at a granular level. “It’s allowing us to develop specific approaches we know directly addresses employee concerns because we can see what they’ve said about it and how it’s affecting them,” said McBain.
Vernon Blunt, head of global workplace operations at Ericsson, and Paul Casey, global real estate EMEA director at IBM, agreed that hybrid is here to stay, though the jury’s out when it comes to the effectiveness of mandates. While employee experience remains the focus, cost-cutting is coming to the fore because for the CFO must be kept as happy as the CPO. It’s a cost and experience juggling exercise. There also seems to be less focus on how to get people back to the office, but more energy going into how to self-organise around the busy days.
These occupiers want and demand more flexibility and shorter leases. Rob Harris of Ramidus Consulting urged that contract and service level agreements need to change to become more flexible, especially for SMEs who he called the “growth engine of the economy”. There’s also a recognition that there might be too much space. Avison Young’s Nick Axford highlighted that one third of office space could be re-used for community initiatives, but the infrastructure isn’t yet there to make this happen. Also calling for a systemic transition was Indy Johar, co-founder of Architecture 00. “Forget about building new workplaces, we need to build a new UK,” he said.
The conference delved into workplace design, management and communication principles that foster culture, health and wellness, and collaboration. During various sessions, speakers and attendees examined the strategies employed by occupiers in their quest to navigate the challenges of the present and forge a path towards a better future. We have a long way to go on that front, but the will is there.
Jo Sutherland is Managing Director of Magenta Associates.
June 19, 2023
Company culture is one of the most fundamentally important facets of the modern workplace. In the last year, it has been identified as an important factor for 46 percent of job seekers, while 88 percent found it at least relatively important, and 15 percent of job seekers have declined a job because of the company’s culture. Due to the wide breadth of employees in large global companies, everything from time zones and language barriers to country culture and local business norms can create sticking points. For professionals at corporate headquarters responsible. More →
June 19, 2023
While at work in a Viennese Obstetric Clinic in the mid 1840s, a Hungarian physician named Ignaz Semmelweis noticed that mothers were far less likely to succumb to a potentially fatal infection called puerperal fever when the medical staff treating them washed their hands. When he started collecting data to confirm his insight, he found that hand washing reduced mortality rates from around 10 percent to as little as 1 percent. Although, his findings predated the germ theory of disease, which left him without an explanation, in 1847 he published a book in which he proposed that the link was so evident that in future staff should always wash their hands in chlorinated lime before treating patients, to protect them from infection.
June 13, 2023
On the doorstep of the British Library, you will find Edouardo Paolozzi’s imposing statue of Sir Isaac Newton. At first glance, this position seems to make perfect sense. Where better for a monument to the Enlightenment’s poster boy than raised on a plinth at the entrance to the world’s second largest library? And yet, there’s more going on here than is evident at first glance.
June 9, 2023
A recent edition of Jon Connell’s daily newsletter The Knowledge included this nugget: “Last month, I heard one of the world’s most successful fund managers admit that the charts and models he previously used “gave almost no clue” as to what to do with money now. (His one firm prediction, that the US dollar would weaken, has so far proved dead wrong.) Same with climate, with migration, with a business world about to be utterly transformed by AI. That, as much anything, will be one of the biggest questions of the coming years and decades: What do we do if we can’t predict the future?” More →
June 8, 2023
Many times we talk about resistance – the resistance to change – how we manage it, the reluctance of having to deal with it, the disruption it causes either positively or negatively. But rarely do we talk about why people are resisting – what is driving the resistance. More →
June 5, 2023
In his 1998 book A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking relates the following anecdote: “A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the centre of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: “What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.” The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, “What is the tortoise standing on?” “You’re very clever, young man, very clever,” said the old lady. “But it’s turtles all the way down!”
June 1, 2023
You measure absenteeism. You are aware of presenteeism. But what are you doing about the new kid on the block – resenteeism? This occurs when employees stay in a job despite being fundamentally unhappy. They don’t want to be at work and when they are there, they actively resent it. Increasingly employees are fed up, across varying sectors, and showing some common threads or ‘symptoms’ of resenteeism. One of the most noticeable, and frustrating for employers, is employees resenting being asked to do their job. More →
June 1, 2023
The circular economy, carbon measurement, product material content, rental, ‘take back’, reuse and recycling – all actions for a more environmentally responsible workplace sector. But what are the priorities? Manufacturers and suppliers are arguably challenged by lack of clarity, requirements for significant investment, combined with cost pressures in a heavily subscribed market. More →
June 26, 2023
A balanced approach: making hybrid working work, and accepting it isn’t optional
by Mavis Boniface • Comment, Flexible working