February 21, 2013

UK employment rises but pay rates are squeezed

pay squeeze

The UK employment rate is now higher than in the United States and is well above that in the Eurozone. However, pay levels remain low, with basic pay inflation now at just 1.3 per cent. According to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics long-term unemployment fell by 15,000 this quarter to its lowest level for nearly a year. Nigel Meager, Director at the Institute for Employment Studies, commented: “The UK stands in contrast to developments in the Eurozone, where employment and unemployment figures are continuing to deteriorate.” More →

February 19, 2013

Room for improvement in public sector workplace management

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Facilities management, News, Public Sector, Workplace design

Last week technology company Citrix announced that the UK Government could cut its property costs by a third by adopting flexible working policies. It used a Freedom of Information request to discover how much space each public sector employee in the UK is allocated and how much it costs then applied a formula to work out how this would be affected by greater adoption of flexible working. What was interesting was not just the up-front argument you would expect from an ICT provider but also the discovery that the average employee is allocated 1.1 workstations with some enjoying 1.6. More →

February 14, 2013

Report shows global range of policy on BYOD

by Mark Eltringham • Knowledge, News, Technology, Workplace

A new report from Dell has indicated the differing approaches firms take to Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) strategies around the world. According to the survey of 1,500 senior IT managers in 10 countries including the US, UK, Spain, Germany, Singapore, India and China, companies in Singapore are the most proactive in using digital rights to manage the dissemination of potentially sensitive company information. Nearly two thirds of respondents in Singapore said their firms focus more on the management of users than devices, an approach seen as the best way of ensuring the benefits of BYOD. More →

February 12, 2013

Tech and media companies continue to reshape the world’s cities

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

Tech and media companies continue to shape the world’s cities and local property markets according to a recent report from BNP Paribas. While this is a global phenomenon, some of the most dramatic developments will take place in London, not least a shift of tech firms in the city away from their heartland towards Kings Cross following Google’s $1bn purchase of 2.4 acres of land within a major new development in the area. The new development may become a hothouse for technology companies in spite of the UK Government’s focus on promoting Tech City and surrounding areas in East London. More →

February 12, 2013

Whatever the office of the future is, it should be there to serve people

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Furniture, Technology, Workplace, Workplace design

Futurology is notoriously a mug’s game. Especially when it comes to making predictions about technology. Just ask Ken Olson, the founder of DEC who in 1977 pronounced that ‘there is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home’. Or Bill Gates himself who once claimed that Microsoft ‘will never make a 32 bit operating system’. But that shouldn’t make us blind to those predictions that we know will largely come true, not least those based on what we know is happening in the present. This is typified by research carried out by Cass Business School and Henley Business School and presented in a book called Future Work: How Businesses Can Adapt and Thrive in the New World of Work. It found that two-thirds of the 360 managers it surveyed believe that there would be a revolution in working practices over the coming decade. Ninety per cent said that staff were more productive when empowered to decide when and where and how to work.

February 6, 2013

Video: A new kind of job market, or the commoditisation of work?

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Workplace

At a TED talk delivered in London at the end of 2012, Wingham Rowan, project director of Slivers-of-Time, a ‘work marketplace’, says that websites such as his are thriving by bringing together what he terms ultra-flexible workers with employers to deliver short periods of work on specific tasks. The question is: whether this is a valuable tool in providing flexible work opportunities for appropriate people or the most advanced example we yet have of how labour is increasingly commoditised, casualised and disposable?

February 6, 2013

Work-life balance proposals could cause employers to wobble

by Sara Bean • Legal news, News, Workplace

flexible work

Employment experts have raised concerns on the impact on employers of the Children and Families Bill, announced by the government this week, which introduces shared parental leave and extends the right to request flexible working to all employees. The idea behind the reforms is to give parents greater flexibility about how they ‘mix and match’ care of their child but Jonathan Exten-Wright, Partner from DLA Piper said: “Employers would no doubt welcome further guidance on how the new shared leave should operate in practice.”

January 31, 2013

A Field Guide to Workplace Terminology

by Simon Heath • Comment, Facilities management, News, Property, Technology, Workplace design

As the ecosystem around the workplace industry grows ever more complex, so too does the language we use to describe it. In an attempt to bring order to chaos, guest writer Simon Heath presents here a glossary of terms, acronyms and abbreviations to help you navigate these linguistic waters. (For example Business Intelligence – A commonly used oxymoron.) For more of Simon’s worldly, wise and witty writing on all things work and workplace related, visit his blog at https://workmusing.wordpress.com.

January 29, 2013

Sodexo Workplace Trends report covers familiar ground

by Sara Bean • Environment, Facilities management, News, Technology, Workplace

The latest annual Workplace Trends Report from workplace services provider Sodexo claims to reveal the crucial role the built environment has in organisational performance. The report emphasises the growing strategic role of facilities management and the importance of sustainability as an element of corporate culture as well as a trend toward designing offices to attract and retain top talent by emphasising productivity and quality of life. The report also identifies the importance of social media in attracting prospective employees instead of traditional e-mail campaigns and other media.

January 23, 2013

Designing for productivity means creating space for us to be alone

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, Furniture, Knowledge, Workplace design

On the face of it, the case for working in open plan offices is clear cut. Not only are they more conducive to collaborative work and less bound by ideas of that great no-no that we used to call ‘status’, the economic case is seemingly open and shut. Open plan workstations not only take up around half the space of cellular offices, the fit-out costs are typically 25 per cent lower. And yet there are clear signs of a backlash, at least to the idea of them fostering collaborative work.

January 22, 2013

Reversal of usual state of affairs as offices turn into homes

by Mark Eltringham • News, Property

After years in which we have gradually seen technology and flexible working practices transform our homes into offices, the UK Government has reversed this apparently natural order of things by introducing legislative changes to the planning system that will allow developers to convert office buildings into blocks of flats without asking councils for planning permission. The intention is to address the UK’s housing shortage and stimulate the economy. It’s also a sign that many offices are empty as both a consequence of the downturn and changes in the way they are designed and used. More →

January 17, 2013

Great product designs reflect the changing workplace

by Mark Eltringham • Furniture, Workplace design

If art holds a mirror up to nature, shouldn’t good workplace design hold a mirror up to the way we work? Well yes, of course. No points for answering no. By definition, the things with which we surround ourselves in the workplace should tell us something that is essentially true about the way we see ourselves and what we do. If it doesn’t, it’s not good design. So when we see award winning products, it should be possible to infer from them what is happening and what is changing in the workplace. More →