September 20, 2022

Teknion Routes wins Gold at the 2022 International Design Excellence Awards

by Freddie Steele • Workplace design, Works Magazine

Teknion has announced that Routes, designed by Pearson Lloyd, has received the Gold award in the Office & Accessories category at the 2022 International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA). Teknion Routes is unlike any other contract furniture system, as it eschews conventional thinking to offer an alternative, flexible solution that evolves with the workplace. It is designed to allow teams to create flexible, practical, and engaging workspaces quickly and efficiently. Utilising the collection, teams can easily define their ideal ‘route’ to completion for any given task, increasing the office’s overall efficiency. More →

September 20, 2022

Lack of training in communication is setting up line managers to fail

by Neil Franklin • News

A new report from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations’ (CIPR) Inside Group claims that while the successful running of any organisation relies on effective line manager communication, and this is a high HR priority, designated line managers are ultimately being “set up to fail” through a lack of specific communications training. The report – ‘Effective line manager communications’ – surveyed line managers, HR professionals, and internal communicators, and it showed a clear mismatch between the expectations of line managers and the support provided. More →

September 19, 2022

BDG architecture + design and FUTURE Designs, showcase AERO313 at London Design Festival

by Freddie Steele • Works Magazine

BDG architecture + design and FUTURE Designs will display the only AERO313 luminaire in the country, at Borough Yards, London Bridge, as part of this year’s London Design Festival which runs from 17-25 September 2022. FUTURE Designs was appointed by BDG architecture + design in 2020 to create this innovative custom light fixture that is a centrepiece of the latest WPP campus project in Detroit, USA. Faced with transatlantic logistics and regulations, the sheer scale of the product, as well as a global pandemic, the team involved tackled unprecedented challenges in order to deliver this ground-breaking luminaire to practical completion for a client on time and to budget. More →

September 15, 2022

Surface Design Show announces its 2023 theme of ‘Shaping Communities’

by Freddie Steele • Company news

The Surface Design Show has announced the theme of its 2023 edition as ‘Shaping Communities’; with an ambition to improve the surroundings for all, through collaboration and meaningful design solutions. The Show once again takes place at London’s Business Design Centre from 7-9 February 2023 allowing architects, designers and specifiers to discover the best in material design for the built environment. More →

September 14, 2022

How to add colour to your office when working from home

by Freddie Steele • Company news

Working from home (WFH) is no mean feat. For maximum productivity, the number one rule is to create an environment that works for you day in, day out. While a well-designed desk and chair will get you off to a good start, practical storage should also be a top priority; whether they be functional multi-drawer cabinets to keep clutter at bay, or simple desktop tidies to make daily tasks a little easier. More →

September 12, 2022

The wellbeing of parents should be a greater concern for employers

by Gosia Bowling • Comment, Wellbeing

A recent Oxford University study revealed that levels of stress, anxiety and depression unsurprisingly rose in parents and carers during the pandemic lockdowns. Although social restrictions have now lifted, the recovery from the significant mental impact will continue to take parents some time. Now, more than ever, organisations have a key role in remedying stress and burnout and supporting working parents’ wellbeing. More →

September 12, 2022

Workspace Design Show sets out plans for 2023 event

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Workplace design

After a hugely successful debut edition, Workspace Design Show returns to London’s Business Design Centre on 27-28 February and will once again be the venue where creatives from the UK’s workplace industry gather to discover the latest design innovations in work space design. With the theme of this year’s show being ‘Destination Workplace’ there will be over 3,000 workplace professionals looking to source the latest furniture, lighting, acoustics, surfaces, storage, materials, tech and biophilic products and solutions to transform their office interiors. More →

September 9, 2022

Calling time on the quiet quitting hysteria

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working

In a 2002 speech, the author Michael Crichton coined the term Gell-Mann Amnesia effect, after the physicist Murray Gell-Mann. He used it to describe a particular phenomenon in which experts in a given field will believe news and opinions in the media, even though they know the same media can be spectacularly unreliable on matters related to their own area of expertise. More →

September 9, 2022

Right to disconnect laws are a turn-off for a third of employers

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

Over a third of business leaders admit they don’t agree with the introduction of a law in the UK that would protect an employee’s right to disconnect, similar to the law in place in France, a new poll from iCompario claims. One in seven remain unsure (14 percent). The legislation, which was introduced in France in 2017, forbids employers from expecting their employees to engage in communications, such as emails outside of working hours. The data suggests that substantial two thirds (66 percent) of UK workers would support a similar law being introduced in the UK. More →

September 9, 2022

Hybrid work may be ‘here to stay’, but the office remains essential for many businesses

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Property, Workplace design

As businesses continue to evolve their workplaces to best meet the needs of their employees, JLL’s global Future of Work Survey claims that 72 percent of decision makers believe the office is critical to doing business. The research shows that over the next several years companies anticipate hybrid work to become the dominant model and will be looking across their real estate portfolios to re-think their office spaces, invest in new technology, including virtual offices, and prioritise sustainability. More →

September 8, 2022

Nearly half of people feel disconnected from colleagues

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing

Around 42 percent of UK employees don’t feel a sense of connection to co-workers and a quarter say they don’t think they have one friend at work, according to a new poll from BetterUp [registration]. UK employees with a lower sense of belonging have an 80 per cent stronger intention to quit their jobs than those who feel comfortable at work, according to the survey. It also claims that the findings come as UK workplaces are struggling with new trends such as ‘quiet quitting’, whereby employees are setting boundaries when it comes to working late and working on projects that aren’t in their job description, as well as issues around recruitment and talent retention. More →

September 7, 2022

Remote work and the things we have learned about it

by Sara Whitman and Isabel Conrad • Comment, Flexible working

Two plus years after the onset of the pandemic and many employees are continuing to work remotely, either full or part-time. We know that the ability to work remotely increases employee happiness by as much as 20 percent, but employees will tend to work longer hours and are more likely to experience burnout. The debate over whether remote work is “better” than being in an office is reductive and misses critical nuances around hybrid work models. More →