Search Results for: office design

August 18, 2017

Board buy-in is key to closing employment gap for disabled people in workplace

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

There continues to be a significant gap between the employment rate of disabled people and the rest of the population; according to the Office for National Statistics, just 49 percent of disabled people of working age are in employment. This is why getting genuine buy-in from the top is key to improving levels of disability disclosure and helping to facilitate requests for workplace adjustments. That was the conclusion of a recent round table hosted by the Recruitment Industry Disability Initiative (RIDI) which also found that while some HR and diversity specialists are sceptical about the level of support available from senior leadership teams, once the topic is brought to the attention of the board, the response is often overwhelmingly positive. Practical ways in which leaders can bolster disability initiatives shared at the event include; identifying disability champions within the business who can communicate their own stories, implementing unconscious bias training, instigating & reverse-mentoring initiatives where senior managers are partnered with disabled colleagues and leading by example by being open about their own disabilities.

August 15, 2017

London Mayor launches strategy to make the city “one of the greenest on the planet”

by Mark Eltringham • Cities, Environment, News

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan has launched a new environmental strategy which he claims will help make the capital the world’s first ‘National Park City and one of the greenest cities on Earth’. The strategy includes plans for a new £9million Greener City Fund to boost trees and green infrastructure; improved planning policy proposals to encourage more green roofs, green walls and rain gardens; the creation of a ‘Challenge Map’ to prioritise areas in need of green infrastructure; and a series of measures to tackle pollution, promote cleaner energy & make more than 50 per cent of London green by 2050. As part of the strategy, the Mayor will use planning regulations to protect the Green Belt and incorporate into new developments more ‘green roofs’ (roofs covered with grass and plants which are excellent for soaking up rainwater), green walls (which can be added to the outside walls of buildings by busy polluted roads and are covered in plants to help boost air quality), ‘rain gardens’ (small green spaces which help prevent flooding), and habitats for wildlife.

August 7, 2017

Workplace menopause study claims women need more support from employers

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, Wellbeing, Workplace

A new report from the UK Government and University of Leicester has called for menopause-friendly workplaces and culture change programmes. In what the authors claims is the most comprehensive study of its kind, the report claims that ‘many women tend to feel that they need to cope alone’ – because of ‘a reluctance to speak up at work’. The report ‘The effects of menopause transition on women’s economic participation in the UK’ was funded by the Government’s Equalities Office. The research, published by the Department for Education, was carried out by Joanna Brewis, Andrea Davies and Jesse Matheson of the University of Leicester School of Business and Vanessa Beck of the University of Bristol School of Economics, Finance and Management.

July 24, 2017

Flexible working increasingly seen as top option, claims major new study

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, Workplace

A new report from ManpowerGroup Solutions claims that 40 percent of job candidates cite flexible working as one of their three most important career considerations. The firm polled 14,000 people in 19 countries. Among the countries surveyed, the US had the highest percentage of job candidates who want work flexibility (45 percent). A majority (63 percent) of workers said they believe they can work outside the office, and the number of men who want flexibility has significantly increased according to the study. The report, Work, for Me: Understanding Candidate Preferences for Flexibility, Manpower Group Solutions claims to offer ‘both the immediate steps and the long-term actions that companies can take to better meet their prospective employees’ preferences around flexibility’.

July 11, 2017

Creativity is the new productivity in the modern era of work and workplaces ⁰

by Serena Borghero • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace design

Creativity is often thought of as a quality unique to artistic geniuses. When in reality, it is present in all of us, and something that can be enhanced and nurtured, given the right tools and environment. Creativity is the innate human ability to generate ideas, solve difficult problems and exploit new opportunities — it is the fuel for innovation. Many of today’s most pressing business problems require creative thinking to solve them, and creativity is an essential ingredient for business growth. However, 77 percent of CEOs name creativity as their company’s number one skill shortage (20th CEO survey, PWC, 2017). Being agile is critical in a world that is changing rapidly, with disruptive technology, globalisation and an increasingly complex landscape all playing a part. More than ever, supporting creativity at work is an essential part of driving value for both businesses and society. In days gone by, instead of focusing on their organisation’s creative output, most business leaders were obsessed with near-term goals such as productivity, efficiency, cost-cutting and reducing waste. But the landscape has shifted and creativity is emerging as an important dimension of productivity.

July 4, 2017

Fourfront Group announces merger of commercial interior businesses ⁰

by Neil Franklin • Company news, Workplace design

Fourfront Group has merged design and fit-out company Area Sq with contractor Cube to create Area, one of the largest workplace design and fit-out firms in the UK. The move comes off-the-back of an 80 percent increase in Group turnover over the last three years. Fourfront Group now consists of three businesses: Area, Sketch Studios which specialises in office furniture and logistics, and 360 Workplace which provides workplace consultancy services. Area’s CEO Gary Chandler, said the merger was agreed to ensure that Fourfront Group “can deliver a single, focused offering to the market, allowing professional teams to engage with one business irrespective of procurement criteria, for the first time. The commercial design and fit-out market is evolving at rapid pace, as professional teams become more prevalent in the procurement of projects, acting on behalf of end-user clients. This bold move of merging two well-recognised brands will enable us to be more agile and aligned to our clients and their diverse requirements. With the creation of Area, we are bringing together expertise, market knowledge and skills to create a platform for delivering excellence.”

July 2, 2017

Insight weekly: Putting the brakes on the robots + The problem with recycling + The workplace in art ⁰

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

In this week’s Newsletter; eminent scientists from the Royal Society and British Academy call for a new approach to deal with the challenges of automation; Michael Tyerman on why it’s no longer enough to use recycled materials; Mark Eltringham considers how artists have depicted the workplace over the centuries; Neil Usher describes the thinking behind the groundbreaking new offices for Sky; Ian Ellison in conversation with Ben Waber in the Workplace Matters podcast; the stellar growth of telecommuting in the US; how smartphones distract us even when they’re not even on; and much more. Download our Briefing, produced in partnership with Boss Design on the link between culture and workplace strategy and design; visit our new events page, follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn Group to discuss these and other stories.

June 23, 2017

Neuroscience: the next great source of competitive advantage ⁰

by Beatriz Arantes • Facilities management, Features, Knowledge, Premium Content, Work&Place, Workplace design

The average worker is interrupted or distracted every three minutes and it takes them fully twenty-three minutes to return to a task after being interrupted. Office workers are overwhelmed by distractions, due mainly to a lack of understanding of how to manage attention. Distractions and the inability to focus negatively affects productivity, engagement, wellbeing and overall performance in organisations. We long to be more effective, but the harder we try, the more tired our brains become. Attention meltdowns are epidemic because workers do not understand what attention is, how to manage it or have access to the best places to support their tasks. In workplaces throughout the world scenarios of near constant distraction have become the norm, to such an extent that often people do not even feel compelled to comment on them and their consequences.

June 22, 2017

KI helps to create agile, flexible workspace at Paramount Pictures’ UK HQ ⁰

by Neil Franklin • Company news, Furniture, Insight promotion

KI has helped film production giant Paramount Pictures create an agile, flexible new workspace at their stunning new UK headquarters. Drenched in natural light, the offices offer staff and visitors views over the adjacent green space and lake, as well as sweeping views across London. Spread across two floors at Chiswick Park, the offices also accommodate the team of Paramount subsidiary United International Pictures. Working alongside office furniture supplier Rapid Office, Paramount Pictures selected KI’s UK designed and manufactured workstations, tables, storage, workwalls and breakout screening, enhanced by a palette of 12 colours from Camira’s Lucia fabric range. The vibrant combination of blues, purples, greens and beige have been used to differentiate departments.

June 14, 2017

Workplace wellbeing is now embedded in the very bricks and mortar of the building ⁰

by Sion Davies • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design

For some time now, the debate about how the workplace adds to the bottom line of an organisation has focused increasingly on the subject of wellbeing. There are plenty of good reasons for this, with the issue subject to both the push of employers as well as the pull of employees. Everybody thinks it’s a good idea and it’s easy to see why. Wellbeing is about business ethics, recruitment and retention, productivity, physical and mental health, work-life balance, absenteeism and the management of a flexible workforce, and all the other things that underpin the success and health of an organisation and each individual. It suggests a more positive approach to the workplace than either health & safety or occupational health, both of which remain disciplines more focused on reducing risk and harm than promoting positive outcomes, as is the case with wellbeing. Neither is it about something as raw and nebulous as productivity, which remains difficult and even impossible to measure for knowledge and creative workers and only offers a single dimension on a key workplace issue anyway.

June 7, 2017

Coworking and the current French revolution in the workplace ⁰

by Baptiste Broughton • Case studies, Cities, Features, Flexible working, Workplace design

In France, we might have been the first to behead a King and hold a revolution, or to stand on barricades and die for ideals of justice and equality, but when it comes to change – especially in large organisations– we always seem to lag behind. You could blame it on a number of factors: a cultural bias towards tradition, the legacy of an interventionist and ever-present state, spawning bureaucratic models of large state-owned corporations, the everlasting grasp of the elites stifling innovation and the ability to “think outside the box”… Whatever this may be, the debate around remote working – a type of work organisation which allows employees to work regularly away from the office – in France has always been articulated around the preconception that France was behind. And that while its Anglo-Saxon or Nordic European neighbours displayed a boastful 30 percent of the working population as remote workers, France struggled to reach a meagre 9 to 10 percent in 2010.

June 2, 2017

Google submits revised plans for vast new campus in London ⁰

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

Google has submitted a revised application for planning permission to Camden Council for its proposed £600 million King’s Cross Campus in London. This building will be the first, wholly owned and designed Google building outside the United States. Construction on the purpose-built 11-storey building, comprising of more than 1 million square feet, of which Google will occupy 650,000 sqft, will commence in 2018. The building, designed by Heatherwick Studio and Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) will feature a natural theme, with all materials sourced through Google’s healthy materials programme. This new building, combined with the current building at 6 Pancras Square and an additional third building, will create a Google campus with the potential to house 7,000 Google employees. The new building is being developed from the ground up and will contribute to the Knowledge Quarter and King’s Cross’s growing knowledge-based economy. The original plans for the building from 2013 by AHMM had been put on hold, although some features such as a running track remain.