February 5, 2021
Microsoft has announced Microsoft Viva, which it claims is the first employee experience platform to bring tools for employee engagement, learning, wellbeing and knowledge discovery, directly into people’s workflow. Viva is designed to help employees ‘learn, grow and thrive’ in the new era of working life, and is designed to work alongside existing solutions such as Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams. More →
February 4, 2021
With working from home set to continue for millions of UK workers, research by the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) claims that there are key health and wellbeing disparities between different groups of people who made the move to home working as a result of Covid-19. More →
February 2, 2021
Lockdown meant that the choice to work from home was made for us. However, for many the decision to continue to do so post-lockdown will be a personal choice. The question we should all ask ourselves is, whether when we are outside of any lockdown restrictions, is working from home really a workplace revolution or simply an act of selfishness? For thousands of workers who’ve spent years of their lives commuting to offices that feel more like soul-less factories than inspiring and engaging workplaces, it’s no wonder that enforced work from home has proven popular. More →
January 28, 2021
The EU Parliament has announced that it would like to protect what it calls employees’ fundamental rights to disconnect from work which includes restricting the way employers might contact staff outside their contracted working hours. Although the right to disconnect is not defined by EU law, the Parliament has called upon the Commission to come up with a law allowing employees to disconnect from work during non-work hours without consequences and setting minimum standards for remote work. More →
January 28, 2021
A new 30-storey office tower with green walls and roof nestling next to London’s walkie talkie building has been approved by the City of London Corporation, CLC. Hong Kong-based developers Tenacity Group are behind the scheme which is the first tall building approved by CLC this year. More →
January 28, 2021
A new generation of long-term homeworkers created by COVID-19 is at risk physically and mentally through inadequate employer support, claims research by EIZO. Employees are already feeling the negative effects of a home environment, often ill-equipped for the working day and EIZO warns there may be a rise in ‘Homeworking LOSERS’, or ‘Laptops On Sofas and Employment Rights Shelved’. More →
January 27, 2021
Recently lighting control firm Prolojik assembled an expert panel to talk about learning and working during the time of the Covid-19 pandemic. The roundtable (online of course) involved participants from various fields related to the built environment including those involved in developing, designing and tech reflected on their own experiences over the last several months. While industry issues raised during the session included what productivity really means and how to measure it, what infrastructure needs to be in place to enable people to return to their place of work or education and why a joined-up approach to wellness is an indisputably necessary strand of building management. More →
January 26, 2021
Workplace design is – or should be – inextricably linked to both an organisation’s identity and its culture. The issue of workplace culture, and why it might succeed or fail, has become a matter of a great deal of study as the basis for work has moved on from the scientific management theories of the early to mid-20th Century. This aped the hierarchies, structures and forms of factories. It once prevailed but even now its vestiges remain, often in spite of the decades of research and a changing world of work that show us better ways of getting things done. More →
January 26, 2021
New research from Fellowes Brands claims to reveal the ‘alarming’ impact enforced remote work is having on the mental wellbeing and physical health of the nation. Over a third (35 percent) of UK workers admit feeling stressed or anxious, lonely and isolated (32 percent) and tired or lacking in energy (38 percent), while working from home during lockdown. The study is based on a survey of 1,000 UK office workers who had worked from home for at least four months. More →
January 25, 2021
Companies are searching for ways to reinvent the office and give employees reasons to return to their workplace and a new report by JLL says the focus must be on the workforce. The report, Reimagine: the new future of work to shape a better world predicts that the future of work will involve companies prioritising the health, wellness and mental well-being of employees. More →
January 22, 2021
New analysis by the Institute for Employment Studies has found that low paid workers are more than twice as likely to have lost their jobs during the pandemic and are at far greater risk of being temporarily laid off or having their hours cut. The research, funded by Standard Life Foundation, concludes that in this current lockdown it is likely that around two thirds of low paid workers – or four million people – are either temporarily laid off or working fewer hours than normal. This would be double the rate of work disruption for staff who are not classified as low paid. More →
February 3, 2021
COVID-19 is having an unequal impact on the mental health of workers
by Brendan Street • Comment, Wellbeing