Search Results for: technology

January 5, 2015

Smartphone use is rewiring our brains, claims new research

by Mark Eltringham • News, Technology, Wellbeing

We may be finding out a lot more about the way smartphones shape our behaviour, but a new study from Swiss researchers at the University of Zürich and Fribourg claims that any changes may go a little deeper than the obsessive need to peer at them. It suggests that while repeated and regular use of smartphones improves how quickly and dextrously we use screens and keystrokes, the cortex of our brains is also adapting to cope with the new demands we place on it. Touchscreen usage appears to actually change the way our fingers, thumbs and brains work, according to the report published in the journal Current Biology. The study appears to show that the increased use of touchscreens in the recent past has resulted in an instinctive increase in brain activity when our fingertips are touched.

January 2, 2015

CIPD claims 2015 should be a ‘rollover year’ for workplace productivity

by Mark Eltringham • News

The UK labour market will continue to expand at a strong rate in 2015 but there are unresolved issues relating to levels of pay and how best to increase workplace productivity to drive further growth, according to Mark Beatson, chief economist for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) in a new report. While the report argues that the ongoing economic recovery and improvements in the labour market are good news for jobseekers and good news for businesses, it also considers it unlikely that we’ll see any real increase in wage growth until 2016. The author also warns that the UK’s steady growth remains vulnerable to developments in Europe and that the UK’s ‘workplace productivity puzzle’ is an urgent issue for policy makers and businesses to address in order to sustain growth.

January 1, 2015

Report finds that tech increases productivity, but also the hours we work

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Technology

A report published at the end of December by the non-profit Pew Research Center claims that while nearly half of US workers believe that new technology helps them to be more productive, it also means they are working significantly longer hours. The study of 535 people claims that 46 per cent of US workers believe that the internet, email, and mobile phones have upped their productivity, while only 7 per cent think they have led to a fall in their productivity. Over a third (39 percent) of those surveyed say that they now have more flexible working hours, and a similar number (35 percent) believe that new technology has increased the number of hours they work. For office based workers the changes are even more pronounced with nearly half (47 percent) seeing an increase in their working hours.

December 30, 2014

BBC Wales exchanges contracts on new Cardiff headquarters

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, News, Property

BBC Wales has exchanged contracts with the developer of its new 150,000 sq. ft headquarters in the centre of Cardiff. Although still subject to final planning consent and the approval of BBC executives, the building is an anchor site in the Foster + Partners masterplanned Central Square regeneration project and work is confidently expected to begin in the middle of 2015 for completion in 2017 with full occupancy expected the following year. The new building will be home to some 1,000 staff and has been targeted to achieve a BREEAM excellent rating. Developers Rightacres expect the Central Square mixed use project to provide around 1 million sq. ft of office, residential and retail space, creating one of Wales’ largest property developments and regeneration schemes in the heart of Cardiff on the site of the current bus station.

December 23, 2014

Latest addition to flexible working locations should be the local library

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

The latest venue to be co-opted as a potential flexible working space is the public library. According to a new report published last week by William Sieghart, based on research into over 150 locations and hundreds of written submissions, the key to saving Britain’s imperilled public libraries is for them to introduce more seating, Wi-Fi connectivity and hot drinks and food. The provision of fast and reliable Wi-Fi access was named as one of the key actions to draw more people away from coffee shops, which often prove popular venues for flexible working, and into libraries. The report, published by the Department for Culture Media and Sport found that a third of libraries currently do not offer visitors Wi-Fi, which is a “shocking” statistic, according to report author, William Sieghart. “So they’re slated for closure while everyone’s in the Costa opposite, where there’s a loo, hot drinks and internet access.”

December 18, 2014

Majority of firms lack a coherent approach to employee engagement

by Mark Eltringham • News, Technology, Workplace

In spite of the fact that the overwhelming majority of employees worldwide are disengaged at work, most organisations still don’t think they take a strategic approach to the issue. A new study by technology consultancy Altimeter claims that just 41 percent of organisations believe they take a strategic approach to employee engagement, while only 43 percent believe they have an organisational culture of trust and empowerment with many unable to use technology as part of the solution. The authors of the report cite another study published by Gallup in 2013 which found that 87 percent of employees globally are engaged, rising to 70 percent in the US. The report is based on a study of 114 organisations but mirrors the findings of Deloitte in their report from earlier this year which studied 2,500 organisations and found the same mismatch.

December 17, 2014

Flexible working is best built on the foundations of a great office

by Charles Marks • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace design

It’s getting on for two years since Yahoo’s much talked about decision in 2013 to ban its staff from homeworking but, in many ways, the fallout has continued ever since. Certainly a lot of commentary on the subject refers back to CEO Marissa Mayer’s trend bucking decision. This can only be because it was a defining event in what is an enduring debate about where we work and what that means for a range of factors including our productivity, wellbeing, sense of belonging, access to information, the way we structure our time and our ability to communicate with and develop relationships with our fellow human beings. If those things were the same regardless of how and where we worked, there would be no discussion in the first place. But they do make a difference and there is a discussion.

December 15, 2014

Wearable tech will change the workplace in unexpected ways

by Mark Eltringham • Comment

The idea that we are all about to be supplanted by a new generation of artificially intelligent robot overlords has been in the news a great deal recently, partly as a result of Stephen Hawking’s recent pessimistic intervention on the subject. Whatever the truth of this apocalyptic musing, a more imminent generation of tech products means we are already testing the law of unintended consequences with regard to the stuff we create to help us. As technology firms clamber over each other in their attempts to be the first to open up the lucrative frontiers of wearable tech, a range of understandable concerns have been raised about some of the more obvious potential problems of security and privacy. But if we have learned one thing about our relationship with technology over many years, it is that whatever we expect from it will usually be wrong, sometimes spectacularly so.

December 12, 2014

Can the workplace environment change an organisation’s culture?

by Adam Burtt-Jones • Comment, Workplace design

It is rare that organisations are totally satisfied with their current culture. They will often see what can be improved and at the same time recognise that these improvements will inevitably stem from a change in behaviour or the attitude of their employees. What is important to remember is that a change in the design of the physical environment will not, by itself, change the culture of an organisation. But workplace design can reflect the desired culture of the organisation, and help to promote certain behaviours and attitudes. It can also help to reinforce the unique attributes of your organisation in a powerful, subliminal way. Culture results from the values and behaviours of employees and is best understood by the relationships internally between individuals, teams and departments. Culture can also be seen through relationships externally with customers, suppliers and stakeholders

December 11, 2014

Tech firms’ grip on best place to work lists may be starting to slip

by Mark Eltringham • News, Workplace, Workplace design

Technology firms now routinely dominate lists of the best place to work, but there are signs at least that their dominance may be waning slightly. According to a new survey of the best places to work in the US and UK compiled by jobs website Glassdoor, Google tops a list of the 50 best places to work in the US. The survey is restricted to firms with 1,000 or more employees who have received at least 50 reviews based on a 1 to 5 scale over the last 12 months. This methodology inevitably presents a skewed picture. Nevertheless, there may be something to conclude from Apple only making 22^nd place, Facebook’s fall from 5^th to 13^th, LinkedIn’s slip from 3^rd to 23^rd and Twitter’s fall from 2^nd to nowhere. Meanwhile in the UK, John Lewis’s longstanding focus on employees saw it grab one of the top five spots alongside the likes of Microsoft and Google.

December 10, 2014

Barclays converts underutilised offices into free co-working spaces

by Mark Eltringham • News, Property, Workplace design

Social enterprises, business start-ups and community groups will be offered free co-working space by Barclays as part of an initiative called Hatch, developed in partnership with charity 3Space. The programme aims to transform underutilised Barclays’ properties into office space for social entrepreneurs, early stage local businesses and community groups, charities and other qualifying organisations. The first Hatch project has opened its doors in Oxford (above), with a further three set to open in 2015. 3Space claim that Hatch will provide for a unique combination of creative, social and community needs, helping more people get their business ideas off the ground, experiment and share ideas as well as access advice on business and technology. The spaces should also provide a central hub for communities, hosting local events and meetings.

December 10, 2014

We should bring the soft landings idea back to Earth with a bump

by Andrew Brown • Comment, Facilities management, Property

Soft landings, hit the ground running, smooth handover, transition phase: whatever words you choose to describe the process the principle is the same. Managers and occupiers of a building – any building, want it to function properly. But why is this apparently so hard for anybody to achieve? Soft landings feels more like tainted love right now. So, think back a few steps and imagine you’re buying a brand new, shiny new-build house. It doesn’t come with an instruction manual, but it is a house – what’s not to know about it. But even new homes have issues. Maybe cracking in plaster, gaps around architraves, doors not closing smoothly and heating systems that is noisy and untested. In the trade it’s called snagging. You call the builder up, you make a list he comes round your new house and checks the list and then argues about the repairs.