Columnists
January 4, 2019
Why new technology can still make employees happier, healthier and more efficient
by Elaine Rossall • AI, Comment, Flexible working, Lighting, Technology, Wellbeing
For many years, we became used to new technology being treated with excitement. Essentially, people thought technology made their lives better. More recently this consensus has been tested. On a very practical level, there is growing concern about the impact of everyday technology. ‘Screen-time’ has become a byword for anxiety and disengagement from the real […]
January 3, 2019
Anti-team legislation can make us slaves to individual rights
by Helen Jamieson • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace
Society is becoming more selfish. At least that’s what the most commonly held view on the issue suggests, and it’s only set to get worse. Whether or not you believe the headlines, my 20 plus years’ experience as an HR consultant has led me to believe the hype. Increasingly many (I stress, not all) employees no […]
December 17, 2018
Don’t be a turkey, get on the commercial property gravy train
by Jo Sutherland • Comment, Property
Last week, the RICS Commercial Property conference tackled the biggest issues impacting the built environment sector, arming delegates with fragments of the formula for future success. The morning CEO Question Time panel put a trio of CEOs in the spotlight. In addition to airing concerns about the current political climate, rapidly shifting societal attitudes, diversity […]
December 14, 2018
Getting a better handle on the psychology of office design
by Paul Goodchild • Architecture, Comment, Workplace design
It was the Finnish architect Juhani Pallasmaa who described the door handle as ‘the handshake of the building’ in his book The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses. Buildings greet us in other ways too and we respond to those greetings in very human ways. So much so, in fact, that when we […]
December 13, 2018
Flexible working should not mean employers ask people to work all the time
by Oliver Shaw • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing
Talking about the role of technology within the flexible working arena is hardly ground-breaking. For decades, technological advancements have been hailed as pivotal to developments within the employment landscape. But this year, conversation appears to have reached another level. In an article for Open Access Government in June 2018, for instance, Richard Morris, UK CEO […]
December 5, 2018
The war for talent is over and we need to face up to new opportunities and challenges
by David Corcoran • Comment, Workplace
The ‘War for Talent’ is a concept which has dominated the industry for the last twenty years and has shaped how many organisations view talent acquisition around the world. But perhaps this war is already over. As initially reported by McKinsey & Company in 1998, the war for talent explored the challenges businesses face when attracting, […]
December 4, 2018
I’m a designer and I job share with an AI
by Ceilidh Higgins • Comment, Technology, Workplace design
Thomas Edison is credited with the phrase “Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration” and I believe there is no field where this applies more than architecture and design. So often people assume that interior design is such a fun, creative job – that it’s all about drawing, colours and furniture, something like being […]
December 3, 2018
Ten UK employment law changes to look out for in 2019
by Alan Price • Comment, Legal news
From gender pay gap reporting to widespread claims of workplace sexual harassment, 2018 has been a busy year in employment law. Although employers may hope for a quieter 2019, it’s looking likely that there will be a number of issues that are prevalent throughout the year, amid the ongoing uncertainty of Brexit. Below are just […]
November 30, 2018
How the way we interact with technology is changing the way we think
by Charles Marks • Comment, Technology, Workplace design
We are all familiar with the emoticon, the little symbol we use to strengthen whatever it is we really mean or would like to convey in a text, chat, message or email. The symbols have become more important as these forms of communication have supplanted some forms of face to face contact. Researchers have now […]
November 28, 2018
Government treading carefully with proposed plans for gig workers
January 7, 2019
What Leonardo da Vinci can teach us about the six hour working day 0
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Wellbeing
The latest idea to grip the sometimes limited imagination of the world’s workplace chatterers is that of the six hour working day or the four day working week. This has its original roots in a Swedish experiment designed to limit the hours people work in an attempt to improve their work-life balance and possibly even […]