February 5, 2016

What the commercial property market tells us about trends in office design ⁰

by Paul Goodchild • Comment, Property, Workplace design

It’s become commonplace in recent years for certain people to foresee the death of the office. The problem with this argument is that, in spite of its drawbacks, office life maintains an attraction for both employers and employees and there will always be an upper limit on how long people want to spend away from other people. Things are changing but the death of the office is a myth. As we’ve known for at least a quarter of a century, there is no absolute need for us to go to work at all. Theoretically we could just do away with offices completely if we wanted to. But as we have seen, the fact we have evolved technology to the point where we could forget about bricks and mortar, doesn’t necessarily mean we will. Not only are there practical reasons for offices to continue to exist, there are emotive ones too. If you want evidence of this, look no further than the records currently being set by the UK’s commercial property markets.

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February 3, 2016

Government plans to cut size of estate by 75 percent by 2023 ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, News, Property, Public Sector, Workplace design

The UK Government has today published the latest edition of its annual State of the Estate report, which gives an update on plans to consolidate, divest and modernise the central government property portfolio. Minister for the Cabinet Office Matt Hancock claims that the current administration has reduced the size of the estate by 2.4 million sq. m. since 2010. (As is the way of these things, the minister claims this is equivalent to 336football pitches, 43 Shards or more than the entire principality of Monaco. Presumably individual departments measured their own successes in blue whales and double decker buses.) He claims that this means that the total central government estate has fallen below 5,000 holdings for the first time and could fit inside the area of West Finchley (which is a new measurement on us). The reduction has been achieved by selling property ranging from the historic Old War Office (top) to an old bakery and lighthouse.

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January 30, 2016

Coworking goes mainstream + Sit stand working + Future for tech offices ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Flexible working, Newsletter, Property, Wellbeing, Workplace, Workplace design

In this week’s Insight newsletter; Mark Eltringham analyses the impact of the sit-stand movement and suggests that the I-phone is a very isolating piece of equipment; Georgi Georgiev says remote work is no longer just a freelancer’s game; and Paul Goodchild explains why co-working is shaping office design more than you’d imagine. A new report outlines the key future property trends for TMT workplaces; parents are at greater risk of burn out as they strive for work life balance; fewer than one in ten (8 percent) of UK organisations currently have a standalone wellbeing strategy; the positive benefits of active work are revealed and the UK’s CEO’s worries about cyber-risks. Download the latest issue of Work&Place and access an Insight Briefing produced in partnership with Connection, which looks at agile working in the public sector. Visit our new events page, follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn Group to discuss these and other stories.

January 29, 2016

Delivering the low-down on the sit-stand workstation phenomenon ⁰

by Ashley Hayward • Comment, Furniture, Wellbeing, Workplace design

While the UK, US, Australia and other nations continue to treat them as something of a novelty, across Sweden, Norway and Finland, over 80 per cent of office workers use sit-stand desks. Offering employees a height adjustable work station is now mandatory in Denmark. However, sit-stand working is still in its infancy in the UK, with only 2 per cent of similar workers having access to variable-height workstations. Given the huge amount of news coverage devoted to the subject of sedentary lifestyles in the last couple of years, ‘sit-stand’ and ‘active working’ have become buzz terms in UK workplace design. The ‘On Your Feet Britain’* campaign has raised awareness of the health perils risked by the many Brits who spend an average of 8.5 hours a day sitting, whether at their desk or slumped in front of the telly. Inevitably, savvy employers will be asking themselves if they can afford to ignore the problem.

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January 28, 2016

The future of next generation TMT workplaces explored in new report ⁰

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

A new report from property adviser Cushman & Wakefield claims to outline the key future property trends for TMT workplaces based on the views of decision makers from global Fortune 500 organisations, architects, designers, founders of start-ups and high-growth businesses. The Future of the TMT Workplace report produced in association with Unwork, identifies the key forces ‘driving change and necessitating TMT players to fundamentally rethink their workplace strategies’. These include frictionless growth, engineered serendipity, the ‘gig’ economy, the pace of technological change, demand for top technological talent far outstripping supply and where to locate in order to succeed.At this week’s launch event for the report, a panel of expert speakers agreed that workplaces have a critical for TMT firms to respond to challenges such as the need to attract the most talented tech workers.

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January 26, 2016

Could a sexy office help you seduce clients back to your place? ⁰

by Darren Bilsborough • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace design

I am not suggesting that a cool or sexy office is all you need to drive business outcomes. Nor am I going to suggest that all you need to do to grow a successful business is to invest in a fully loaded, bells and whistles, technology laden, productivity enabling office environment. Not that all of those things won’t help, they very well could be the things that prove to be difference makers. What I will suggest however, is that in most instances a business’s success relies almost exclusively upon the satisfaction of their customer base. Any deliberations associated with office space should, therefore, in some way consider their needs and desires. No doubt these considerations will be highly dependent on the type of business you are in and whether the model it embraces is business-to-business or business-to-consumer, but when contemplating the needs of your clients, you should at least ask yourself the following 4 simple questions.

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January 25, 2016

Active building design may have positive health benefits, claims study ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Knowledge, News, Wellbeing, Workplace design

A study published this month in the journal Occupational Medicine suggests that buildings designed to promote active workstyles have a positive effect on the health of occupants. The research, led by Dr Lina Engelen of the University of Sydney, set out to explore whether an ‘active design’ office increased the physical activity, productivity and mindset of occupants. Although a small scale study with just 34 employees working in four locations at the University, the results suggested that people responded to the active design of the spaces by spending less time sitting and more standing and consequently reported lower levels of back pain. However, there was no improvement in productivity or physical activity. The research was based on 60 percent of people working in open plan areas, compared to just 16 percent before. Other studies have shown that sedentary work is linked to a wide range of ailments including heart disease.

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January 25, 2016

Fourth industrial revolution + UK’s best employers + Big data and design ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Flexible working, Newsletter, Property, Wellbeing, Workplace, Workplace design

In this week’s Insight newsletter; Mark Eltringham says work is still good for us; but five million jobs could disappear worldwide over the next four years in the fourth industrial revolution; and 40 percent of young workers believe their current job could be replaced by automated systems. More than half of US firms still allow smoking in the workplace; over a third of UK employers have introduced flexible working to reduce absenteeism and British firms lead the top UK employers list. Digitisation still has a largely positive effect on our working lives; and a huge surge in the availability of Big Data infrastructure in EMEA countries predicted over the next four years. And regional office take-up reaches 20 percent above the five year average. Download the latest issue of Work&Place and access an Insight Briefing produced in partnership with Connection, which looks at agile working in the public sector. Visit our new events page, follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn Group to discuss these and other stories.

January 18, 2016

Firms demanding more data about workplaces…and they’re about to get it ⁰

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

Companies are increasingly focussed on generating workplace data as they seek to make better decisions about the ways their real estate supports their key organisational objectives. That is one of the key findings of the latest European Occupier Survey from property consultants CBRE (login required). The good news (or bad news, depending on your point of view) is they’re about to get it in spades, according to another study from researchers International Data Corporation which found that there will be a huge surge in the availability of Big Data infrastructure in EMEA countries over the next four years. The acquisition of data about buildings and their inhabitants remains a troublesome issue, especially when executives do things like introduce sensors to monitor working patterns of employees without their knowledge, as bosses at The Telegraph found in a very public way recently.

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January 16, 2016

Prying employers + Workplace terminology + Smart workplaces ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Newsletter, Property, Workplace, Workplace design

In this week’s Insight newsletter; Simon Heath updates his continually expanding lexicon of regrettable workplace terminology; Mark Eltringham argues the facts on employee monitoring are somewhat different to the headlines; and Kati Barklund explains why the workplace should be used as a strategic tool to support work and cooperation. A significant minority of managers are impeding gender equality; more evidence on the role of workplace design in engagement; and warnings that senior staff are being pushed out of the workforce. European office take-up will rise by 10 percent in 2016; there’s been a fall in PC shipments and nearly one in four US worker freelances in some capacity. Download the latest issue of Work&Place and access an Insight Briefing produced in partnership with Connection, which looks at agile working in the public sector. Visit our new events page, follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn Group to discuss these and other stories.

January 15, 2016

New report links workplace design with greater employee engagement ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Products, Workplace design

A new analysis by real estate consultancy JLL links more intelligent and agile workplace design with the ongoing and often elusive quest to better engage employees. The report sets out to identify the impact that disengagement has on both organisations and the economy, identifies problem areas and sets out a number of suggested solution. The authors make the startling claim that active disengagement costs the US economy somewhere between $450 billion and $550 billion each year. Conversely, based on an analysis of 207 organisations over an 11 year period, other research suggests that companies who actively develop their culture and engage staff return 516 percent higher revenues and 755 percent higher profits. The report also claims that firms who get things right are better at attracting and retaining talent, standing out from their competitors and meeting their strategic objectives through employee engagement.

January 12, 2016

A cynic’s field guide to workplace terminology, part three ⁰

by Simon Heath • Comment, Facilities management, Technology, Workplace, Workplace design

A New Year and a new chance for some people to heap more fresh corporate bullshit onto the already steaming pile. No matter how often writers like the ever excellent Lucy Kellaway mock and deride the propensity of people in organisations to apply cliches and nonsense in lieu of thought and imagination, we have to face an annual fresh tide of drivel and lazy thinking. So predictable is this yearly onslaught, that it appears to now be a subject for trendspotters, as a recent feature in The Telegraph highlighted. Of course, this is just general corporate speak and does not even begin to scratch the surface of what we have to endure in the more parochial world of workplace design and management. Which is why I have produced the latest update to my continually expanding lexicon of regrettable workplace terminology. You can read parts one and two here and here.