May 23, 2023

Office giant Sedus announces partnership with Watson Furniture Group

Sedus Stoll AG, the Germany based office furniture giant, and US based Watson Furniture Group have announced a new global partnership. The deal was signed at last year’s Orgatec office furniture exhibition. For both companies, the global partnership is seen a logical next step in the development of their businesses, the firms claim. Shared values and similar market strategies and expertise in the areas of technology and manufacturing are an excellent stepping stone to strategic cooperation. More →

May 10, 2023

How to eliminate tech-shaming in the workplace

by Aaron Taylor • Comment, Technology, Workplace

Technology has impacted our everyday lives – from how we keep in touch with old friends all the way to how we do our weekly shop, as well as our work lives. The skills which are in demand are vastly differently to what they were just a decade ago. As a result, we have seen a rise in the incidence of tech-shaming and the current generation has needed to develop a different skillset to what their predecessors had to learn. Dell Technologies found that 56 percent of respondents between the ages 18 to 26 across 15 countries, said “they had very basic to no digital skills education.” A third of them said their education had not provided them “with the digital skill they need to propel their career” and what they know comes from the apps they use on their own time. More →

May 9, 2023

Jiecang and Logicdata pioneer dynamic office furniture with new technological solutions

by Freddie Steele • Company news

Jiecang, one of the world’s leading supplier of linear actuators, in conjunction with the Austrian brand Logicdata, a European company that has been part of the Jiecang Group since 2021, is offering a wide range of technological solutions to make office furniture more dynamic, smart, and interactive. More →

May 2, 2023

BCO Awards winners for North of England again focus on sustainable office design

by Neil Franklin • Environment, News, Property, Workplace design

Following last week’s announcement of the annual BCO Awards winners for London, the British Council for Offices has announced the winners of its annual Awards for the North of England. In fact all but one of the winners are located in Greater Manchester and the one that isn’t lies within twenty miles of it. The organisers suggest that the theme of sustainable office design runs through the submissions of the winning entries. More →

April 24, 2023

Reconnecting older workers with the office: have we retired what matters most?

by Julie Lecoq • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace design

Older workers now make up a larger percentage of the workforce than they did two decades ago. Data from Legal and General and the Centre for Economic Research (Cebr) suggests that the number of over 50s in employment has increased by 36 percent in the last 20 years, with 47 percent of this age group predicted to be in employment by 2030. A combination of the increase in retirement age and rising costs of living have made it a necessity for individuals to stay in work longer. From a corporate perspective, the growing skills shortages in a range of sectors has also meant that employers are consistently seeking to attract and retain those in the latter stage of their professional career. More →

April 10, 2023

IF AI can replace what you do without anybody noticing, the problem isn’t with the technology

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Technology, Wellbeing

Perhaps the least surprising news from the current AI media frenzy is that Buzzfeed has already been using the tech to publish a lot of its stories. There’s an obvious response to this and it’s not about how amazing the AI is. If an artificial intelligence can write vast quantities of formulaic clickbait stories on your website without anybody noticing, then the problem is with your original approach to ‘content’ and how it’s consumed. More →

April 10, 2023

The allure of workplace bullshit

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Although the legend of Faust is one of the Germanic world’s foundational narratives, its archetypes and themes were already established by the time Goethe codified them in his 1808 play. They have since become universal. The idea that somebody would sell their soul to the Devil to gain something or rid themselves of unhappiness is as resonant now as it was in Renaissance Europe. It has inspired books films and artists to such an extent that its derivatives now have their own Wikipedia page.

March 31, 2023

Are we asking the right questions about the workplace?

by George Muir • Comment, Everything Omni, Facilities management, Property

In 1989, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, performed a TV sketch called Information. You can watch it below. It featured Stephen Fry sitting at a desk with a placard displaying the word “INFORMATION”. He asks, “Can I help you?” to which Hugh Laurie replies, “Oh, I would like some information, please”. Though, in the discussion, Hugh Laurie expects to get information without asking any questions, Stephen Fry explains that he has lots of information, such as “the average weight of a rabbit”. In response comes the statement, “Well, I didn’t know that, that there was an average weight of a rabbit!” More →

February 22, 2023

Most US employees don’t believe remote working colleagues are really working

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

Only 24 percent of people trust their remote working colleagues to get work done from home, according to a new poll from Envoy. However, the latest edition of its Return to the Workplace survey also suggests that 94 percent of workers believe their managers trust them to do their work from anywhere, home or the office. And the older the worker, the greater the confidence they have in expressing such a belief. Only 57 percent of ‘Gen Z’ feel strongly that they have their manager’s trust compared with 71 percent of ‘Millennials’ and 77 percent of ‘Boomers’. (Wot? No Gen X? – Ed) More →

February 9, 2023

Working mums feel forced to limit careers due to inflexible working practices

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Workplace

A new report claims that many working mums have felt forced to limit their careers as a result of their employer’s inflexible and outdated working policies and cultures. The Shift from Worker to Working Parent sponsored by WOMBA (Work, Me and the Baby) and carried out by Hult International Business School (Ashridge) interviewed working mums and dads who had recently taken extended parental leave about the experiences they faced as they transitioned to parenthood in an organisational context. More →

February 8, 2023

Sector leaders implore EU to be ambitious when setting carbon targets for buildings

by Neil Franklin • Environment, News

With a crucial vote fast approaching on the EU’s key piece of building legislation, a coalition representing 35 organisations is calling on politicians to seize a once-in-a-generation opportunity to eliminate carbon emissions from Europe’s building stock. Europe’s buildings account for around 40 percent of energy consumption and 36 percent of CO2 emissions. Currently, EU policy only addresses the operational emissions of buildings but to support total decarbonisation of the EU building stock, policy must evolve to cover both operational and embodied emissions, known as Whole Life Carbon. Without addressing both sources of emissions it is inconceivable that the EU will be able to achieve its climate targets. More →

February 6, 2023

KI 800 Series storage defines spaces at award-winning Sunderland City Hall

by Freddie Steele • Company news

As part of an ongoing £500m regeneration project for Sunderland City Centre, a new City Hall has been developed on the former Vaux brewery site on the River Wear. The brief from Sunderland City Council was to create a space that could incorporate various council departments while creating somewhere that provides opportunities to engage with the local community. This includes a multifunctional council chamber, customer service centre, and café, all of which are on the ground floor. Since its completion, the City Hall won a BCO Award and was also named ‘Best of the Best’ National & Regional winner – both in the ‘Corporate Workplace’ category. More →