June 17, 2016
Homeworking loses appeal as workers prefer flexible office environment 0
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.
June 14, 2016
What does Stephen Hawking have to do with office productivity? 0
by Darren Bilsborough • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace, Workplace design
Whether you are in the business of running a company or even running a country, the words efficiency and productivity are not only frequently used in policy and strategic rhetoric, they also appear to be largely interchangeable. This is frequently problematic. There is no denying the importance of both, but understanding their differences is vital to achieving real success when focusing on financial outcomes. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines efficiency and productivity in the following ways: Efficiency – the ability to do something or produce something without wasting materials, time, or energy. Productivity – the rate at which goods are produced or work is completed. Essentially, increasing efficiency means doing more with less, whereas increasing productivity means producing more with the same, for a business this typically means with the same amount of staff, space, time or materials.
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