December 8, 2017

Design sector contributes £209 billion to the economy but problems remain, claims Design Council

by Mark Eltringham • News, Workplace design

The Design Council has published a new report which sets out the value of the design industry to the UK and identifies a number of issues that need to be addressed to enhance its value. According to the Designing a Future Economy: Developing design skills for productivity and innovation, the sector contributes £209bn to the UK economy, almost double that of what the creative industries were previously thought to contribute. The report also claims that people working in the sector are significantly more productive than the UK average worker. However it also cautions that a skills gap costs the UK economy nearly £6 billion annually. The report was compiled using UK and US-based data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and O*Net, a US-based research company offering definitions and data on different jobs.

December 8, 2017

Seven workplace stories that have caught our attention this week

by Mark Eltringham • Features, Flexible working, Technology, Workplace, Workplace design

Microsoft’s blueprint for its new headquarters

How work changed to make us all passionate quitters

Workplaces send subconscious signals to people

Ten workplace meta-trends for 2018

Why are we convinced robots will take our jobs despite the evidence?

One in seven employers won’t hire a woman who might have children

The real risk of automation is boredom

December 5, 2017

How do you really go about creating a great place to work?

by Jo Sutherland • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design

The topic of workplace wellbeing is becoming increasingly prevalent. And for good reason. In the UK, 45 million working days are lost due to stress, anxiety and depression and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) Absence Management survey reveals that over two fifths of organisations have seen an increase in reported mental health problems over the last year. What’s more, a recent government report found that up to 300,000 people leave their jobs each year due to mental health-related issues. Last month, Symposium hosted the “Workplace Wellness & Stress Forum 2017”, back for its twelfth year, to help employers step up and tackle the greatest inhibitor of growth, innovation and creativity – stress. Medical professionals have their definition of “stress”, health and safety execs have theirs, and the academic community promulgate another. Forum host Neil Shah, chief de-stressing officer of The Stress Management Society, offered a definition that resonated with the entire audience: “where demand placed on an individual exceeds their resources”.

December 4, 2017

There is no clash of the digital and analogue worlds

by Steve Brewer • Comment, Technology, Workplace design

Take no notice of the headline grabbing writers in the media. No battle lines are being drawn up between advocates of the analogue world of the 1960s/70s and those promoting the pioneering ideas for a bold digital 21st century. Despite the rhetoric written about driverless cars, being able to make phone calls by just thinking about who we want to call and the advance of artificial intelligence, we will almost certainly benefit from advances in technology.

December 1, 2017

Seven workplace stories that have made us stop and think this week

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

Why cities are full of uncomfortable benches

Regulating AI before we reach the tech singularity

What you need to know about Germany’s plans to scrap the 8 hour day

As tech firms mature, so do their headquarters

Managers aren’t doing enough to prepare staff for the future

How the sandwich consumed Britain

A robot has passed a medical licencing exam

November 30, 2017

Tech faults and slow Internet speeds negatively impact productivity

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Technology, Workplace design

Almost eleven working days are lost every year as a result of technology faults and failures a new report claims and complaints of slow Internet speeds compound the issue. A survey of 2,000 UK workers commissioned by IT provider Probrand.co.uk claims that 262 hours and 43 minutes are lost every year due to technology faults and failures, the equivalent to almost 11 working days each year. The majority of workers (76 percent) said that the technical faults they experienced directly impacted their productivity in work. More than half (54 percent) of workers said that most of the faults they endure are due to their computers crashing or running slowly. But the research also found that 48 percent of respondents blame poor internet speeds and connectivity problems for working hours lost. When faced with a technical issue, more than 1 in 3 (35 percent) workers would turn to a colleague first instead of an IT support provider, while 32 percent would search for solutions to technology related issues before contacting their technical support team.

November 27, 2017

OECD publishes major new work on measuring the quality of the working environment

by Mark Eltringham • News, Workplace design

The OECD has published a major new report which it claims set out an internationally agreed set of guidelines to measure the quality of the working environment. The document covers a wide range of factors related to working conditions based on existing data and a survey of workers in 20 OECD countries. These characteristics of the working environment include risk factors, work intensity, discretion, autonomy and the opportunity for self-realisation. The guidelines have been produced as part of the OECD Better Life Initiative, which was launched in 2011 with the objective of measuring wellbeing. The report then goes on to set out guidelines for analysis based on sets of questions based on 17 workplace factors.

November 27, 2017

New intellectual property protection initiative launched for workplace and interior design

by Mark Eltringham • Furniture, Legal news, News, Workplace design

The Society of British and International Design (SBID) has launched the SBID Intellectual Property (IPP) initiative to mark the new campaign to prevent IP theft in the interior design industry. Developed in association with TM – Eye, with the aim of assisting the industry to obtain objective evidence of design ownership, the venture updates the archaic discourse on intellectual property in design and will raise awareness of what designers need to do to properly protect their work. The issue is one of stolen ideas after a commercial presentation, without consent or a fee, a problem that has plagued the interior design industry and left owners/creators feeling like they had no legal support to refer to. This could typically be the theft of ideas created in an interior designed space or product. This has not only been an ongoing problem for business investors in all creative sectors of design and manufacture, but also a problem for consumers who are put at risk, completely unaware when they purchase a look-alike product, to find a poorly manufactured copy without tested safety marques that could cause untold damage to property.

November 24, 2017

White Paper: intuitive design and the changing face of workplace interactions

by Oliver Ronald • Briefing, Features, Premium Content, Workplace design

In his famous 1988 book The Design of Everyday Things, the cognitive scientist Donald Norman suggests that the way we interact with objects and our surroundings is determined almost entirely by their design. People cannot be the primary reason things succeed or fail, because they are constant, while the design of the object itself is the variable. People can expect to learn how to use things better, but without an underlying people-centric and intuitive approach to design, the design will fail to some degree or other. He concludes that the designer should focus their attention on the interaction between people and the design of objects and surroundings. This principle becomes more relevant with each passing day, as the number of interactions we have with designed objects increases. This is most obvious with regard to our interactions with technology, but it is also apparent across our entire lives.

November 24, 2017

Seven workplace stories that have focused our minds this week

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, Technology, Workplace, Workplace design

Innovation in real estate: it’s now or never

Is this the office that people really want?

We only have a ten percent chance of making AI safe

Good thinking might be your silver bullet

The once enlightened approach to staff wellbeing and engagement at Barclays

Drones will reshape how we build cities (registration)

Law firms average arrive and leave times

Image: Simon Heath

November 24, 2017

It’s just life now: Debra Ward in conversation with Mark Eltringham

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, Features, Podcasts, Property, Technology, Workplace design

There is currently a great deal of talk about the way people experience the workplace. It is a subject linked to the changing nature of work but also a growing awareness that the old demarcations of time and place are falling, and with them the demarcations between the workplace professions. This subject may be topical but it has been a long term preoccupation for today’s guest on the podcast Debra Ward. Earlier this year Debra joined JLL in the new role of Strategy & Growth Director and one of her first aims has been to focus on the firm’s approach to human experience. This is encapsulated in a major global report on the subject but it’s one that Debra has always championed in here previous roles with MITIE, Macro and Condeco. Debra is forthright, informed, bright and passionate. Everything you need in a podcast in fact.

November 21, 2017

The missing LINC between the office and the future of work

by Mark Eltringham • Features, Flexible working, Technology, Workplace design

There is a theory that if you want to know how the economy is doing, you ask a taxi driver. The basis for this idea is that they are the first to know when money is getting tight, because people make more use of buses and tubes. In a similar way, one of the best ways of gauging workplace trends is to ask an office furniture company. They’ve always functioned in a fiercely competitive market, but are also the first to notice an economic downturn or a shift in the structure of their markets.