September 4, 2018

Don’t stand so close to me: why personal space matters in the workplace ⁰

by Paul Goodchild • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design

As successive BCO Specification Guides and the research of organisations like CoreNet Global have proved, the spatial dynamics of offices have changed dramatically in recent years. Put simply, the modern office serves significantly more people per square foot than ever before. Originally this tightening was largely down to the growing ubiquity of flat screen and the mobile devices, but more recently the major driver of change appears to be the gradual disappearance of personal workstations in favour of more shared space.

September 4, 2018

Quality coffee tops the list as the most important office feature

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

The quality of the coffee is the most important feature for office occupants, with two thirds of workers saying a decent flat white or cappuccino is an essential for a productive and engaged workforce. Research by coworking developer Areaworks also found that being closer to the outdoors, and the ability to work from a balcony or roof terrace was an important factor for 64 percent. Hanging chairs, bean bags and flexible spaces are a must for most, as half of office workers want to ditch fixed desks in favour of casual seating and hot desking, making it a top five most favoured feature. the office gimmicks failed to feature on most people’s workplace bucket list. The installation of office gimmicks such as fireman’s poles and ball pits all failed to feature on most people’s workplace list, but slides did make the list, while the majority (66 percent) included a fridge complete with beer and prosecco among their choice items.

September 3, 2018

A round up of some of the best recent workplace content from around the web

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, Features, Flexible working, Property, Workplace, Workplace design

All the workstyles we have ever loved

Open plan v private offices déjà vu

Britain’s productivity crisis in eight charts

Investors discount office buildings with high WeWork occupancies

Perceptions of pay fairness

Agile humans, and therefore organisations. Just a dream?

Excessive hours and intense work is (sic) bad for your career

August 22, 2018

People working in fully open plan spaces are generally fitter and less stressed

by Mark Eltringham • News, Wellbeing, Workplace design

The open plan debate grinds on, and the latest grist to its mill is a study from researchers led by Esther Sternberg of the University of Arizona which suggests that it is those people who work in open plan spaces that are fitter and happier than their associate employee contemporaries in cubicles and private offices. The study, published in the journal Occupational & Environmental Medicine, used wearable sensors to study 231 US workers in four government office buildings. It’s worth noting that this is five times as many workers and twice as many offices as the much publicised recent study that we were told by various media outlets and commentators was the ‘final word’ on the subject.

August 16, 2018

The office will always live on because nothing propinks like propinquity

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Property, Workplace design

Perhaps the most pervasive and enduring myth about the office is that it is somehow dying off. It’s a blast of guff originally farted out at the dawn of the technological revolution in the early 1990s, which has somehow lingered and been stinking the place out ever since. The essential premise behind the idea of the death of the office is that mobile technology makes it possible for us to work from ‘anywhere’ and so that must mean ‘somewhere’ is no longer needed. More →

August 15, 2018

Facilities managers are smarter and more data driven than ever

by Neil Franklin • Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Technology, Workplace design

Facilities managers are responding to a range of macro influences such as changing demographics, the uptake of flexible working, new technology and social change by adopting a new way of looking at the workplace, claims a new report from CBRE. The report claims to identify the major trends in facilities management, most important that people increasingly want to choose where and when they work and the effect this has on the physical workplace and its features, services and technology.

August 13, 2018

Nine workplace stories that have challenged and informed us in the last week

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

How blue light from screens literally blinds us

Physical closeness makes people and things more desirable

Non-monetary incentives and the implications of work as a source of meaning

How clean is your desk? The unwelcome reality of office hygiene

The utter uselessness of the Cat A habit

UK can thrive post-Brexit, but only with design

New Zealand firm’s four-day week an unmitigated success

Real Estate and technological denial

Biophilic design for the workplace is so much more than plants

Image: Hunt of the Unicorn (tapestry circa 1500) housed at Stirling Castle

August 1, 2018

Flexibility, daylight and a well-designed office are amongst most desirable workplace features

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Capital One has published the results of its latest survey of US full-time professionals for their thoughts on workplace design and the working environment as it relates to their productivity, innovation and collaboration with colleagues. According to the resulting 2018 Work Environment Survey of 3,500 office based respondents in urban centres across the US, many value flexibility and workplace design, particularly when evaluating whether to stay at their current job or consider a new employment opportunity. Employees also place a great deal of focus on technology, design elements such as lighting and agile workspaces, and personal wellbeing.

August 1, 2018

Treating employees as workplace consumers could help improve productivity

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

Treat employees as workplace consumers to help improve productivity says report Employers need to recognise the workplace as integral to delivering a business’ commercial strategy, and treat employees as ‘workplace consumers’ – creating ‘frictionless’ experiences and environments that help them perform to their best ability. This is according to a report: ‘Optimising performance: defining, designing, maintaining and evolving workplace experiences’ from Interserve, undertaken in partnership with Advanced Workplace Associates (AWA). The two-year study into the science behind effective working environments argues there is a need to radically re-envisage workplaces to optimise team productivity and maximise the value of physical working environments. It sets out a series of critical steps for knowledge-based businesses to revolutionise the workplace – and thereby aid employee performance. The report argues that traditional silos, from IT and HR to facilities, need to be broken down to integrate the management of the workplace as part of a ‘one-team’ approach; doing so will ensure companies can deliver a streamlined workplace experience which supports employee productivity.

July 31, 2018

How Charles Eames came to have mixed feelings for his most famous chair

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Furniture, Workplace design

As any honest smartphone user would attest, the things we own sometimes end up owning us. Equally, the things we create can end up owning us. The most famous item designed by Charles Eames is a moulded plywood, leather upholstered lounge chair and matching ottoman that are timelessly iconic, have spawned thousands of rip-off versions, invariably feature in any anthology of classic Twentieth Century design and are now part of a permanent exhibit at the New York Museum of Modern Art. Yet Eames himself never intended it to go into production in the first place and didn’t even view it as his best product. In an interview in Time magazine he revealed that it was originally designed as a gift for a friend. ‘I made it as a present for Billy Wilder,’ he said. ‘Billy had made a picture in East Germany and found a Marcel Breuer chair and brought it back to me and this was a return present.’

July 31, 2018

Google should be an example to all when it come to interactive workplace design

by Alice Porter • Comment, Workplace design

Google is known to be a wonderland for tech professionals everywhere. It is a sought after and coveted workplace, which is designed to cater to the individual. Comparably has recently named Google as the “tech company with the best corporate culture”, but how does this culture work beyond the realms of the Google institute? The question that many employers are asking is, does the Google culture really work? And is it sustainable for a normal business? Company culture has become a focus for recruiters and hiring managers, but if we break this down what does it actually mean? Company culture is shaped by the employees for the employees and should work in collusion with the services a business is providing. Google’s company culture model is based around flexibility and the freedom to be creative in a fun environment.

July 23, 2018

WeWork launches new brokering service aimed at small and medium sized businesses

by Mark Eltringham • News, Property, Workplace design

WeWork’s announcement of a meat ban last week has attracted a great deal of attention in the media but a quiet announcement put out on the firm’s website on Friday will have more profound implications for the facilities management, workplace and commercial property worlds. In September the firm will launch WeWork Space Services which is targeted at small and medium sized businesses including those that are not current members. It claims that the service will be a ‘holistic, one-stop’ that will meet the real estate needs of its target audience, including finding them the most appropriate office space and resources as well as free membership of WeWork spaces around the world.