July 22, 2020

Older people are happiest at work

The latest edition of the annual Age Research by Engaging Works claims that the happiest people in the workplace are those beyond middle age. By comparison, young employees don’t feel rewarded or recognised and feel that their views are not heard at work. They are also more likely to suffer anxiety in the workplace. However, it’s middle aged employees who are struggling the most at work, admitting that they feel the least developed. They also feel that they have a poor feeling of wellbeing at work and that they don’t have enough information to do their job. More →

July 17, 2020

Self-employment is great for wellbeing, not so great for the bank balance

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing

In the week the ONS announced that the number of self-employed people in the UK had dropped by 178,000 over the last quarter, a new report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Institute for Fiscal Study suggests that the growing number of people who turn to self-employment do so despite a drop in their incomes. On average, they earn nearly £500 (30 percent) less a month than they did before falling out of traditional employment. More →

July 16, 2020

Prioritising nature in development could create 395 million new jobs by 2030

by Neil Franklin • Environment, News

The global COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented job losses and economic uncertainty. As governments and businesses look to stimulate growth, a new study from the World Economic Forum claims that ‘nature-positive’ solutions can create 395 million jobs by 2030. The Future of Nature and Business Report says this is a $10.1 trillion business opportunity. More →

July 15, 2020

Some brutal realities about the future of work

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing

No author uses the built environment like J G Ballard. In his 1975 novel High-Rise, the eponymous structure is both a way of isolating the group of people who live and compete inside it and a metaphor for their personal isolation and inner struggles. Over the course of three months, the building’s services begin to fail. The 2,000 people within, detached from external realities in the 40-storey building, confronted with their true selves and those of their neighbours, descend into selfishness and – ultimately – savagery. More →

July 7, 2020

London tops rank of smartest cities in the world

by Neil Franklin • Cities, News

London has once again been declared the smartest city in the world, according to the seventh edition of the IESE Cities in Motion Index 2020. New York takes the second spot, followed by Paris. The top 10 list is rounded out by Tokyo, Reykjavik, Copenhagen, Berlin, Amsterdam, Singapore and Hong Kong. More →

June 24, 2020

The links between coffee, shared ideas and the office go back a long way

by Mark Barrell • Briefing, Premium Content, Wellbeing, Workplace design

The BBC recently published a piece on its website to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of Ridley Scott’s movie Alien and what it could tell us about office design and the workplace (of whatever sort). One of the interesting points raised in the piece was how the depiction of the conditions on board the spaceship Nostromo did away with the gloss and swish of previous visions of the future, replaced by grime, exposed services and strictly utilitarian interiors. The environment was one of the characters, a trick Ridley Scott later repeated in Bladerunner. More →

June 23, 2020

BBP and BSRIA publish new soft landings report for property owners

by Neil Franklin • Architecture, Facilities management, News, Property

Better Buildings Partnership, together with BSRIA (Building Services Research and Information Association), has today published the joint report: Soft Landings: The Benefits to Commercial Property Owners. The commercial property sector is waking up to the fact that it needs to take responsibility on climate change and there is a broad recognition that a significant gap exists between the design expectations and operational performance of buildings. Part of taking climate action involves minimising this gap, the report’s authors claim. More →

June 11, 2020

Safety and fear the biggest challenges to overcome in return to work

by George Eltringham • News, Wellbeing

Over a third (36 percent) of UK businesses believe that implementing new health and safety measures in accordance with the Government’s recently published guidelines are the biggest challenge they face as lockdown eases and they attempt to return to the workplace, according to new research conducted by the UK law firm, Winckworth Sherwood. More →

May 17, 2020

About

by Mark Eltringham •

Insight Publishing is one of the world’s leading platforms for workplace news, commentary and features. It publishes podcasts, reports, daily updates and now IN and Works magazines.

Workplace Insight is the UK’s most widely read publication dedicated to the design and management of workplaces, offering a definitive source of daily ideas, comment, news and information. Launched in 2013, it publishes a weekly newsletter and has a readership of up to 8,000 unique users a day including workplace professionals, suppliers, purchasing, HR, IT and facilities managers and specifiers including fit-out firms, architects and designers.

IN Magazine was launched in 2020 to offer a new way of talking about the physical office and the digital and cultural aspects of work. Aimed at occupiers and managers, it is published every two months and has around 90,000 readers per issue. In the Spring of 2022, Works Magazine was launched aimed at Europe’s workplace interiors sector. It has quickly established itself as one of the continent’s essential reads for everybody interested in office design.

Insight Publishing is led by Mark Eltringham, a professional with over thirty years’ specialist experience working as an editor, writer and commentator. Mark is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts and is the European Director of Work&Place Journal. Works magazine is edited and published by Mick Jordan, who has been a mainstay of the European office design scene for over twenty years. Insight Publishing employs an experienced and knowledgeable team of industry experts, journalists and professionals to offer you the most independent reporting of issues relating to workplace design, culture and management, property, cities and technology.

Philosophy

From day one, we have worked on the premise that modern ways of working are no longer about just physical offices, but about cultural and digital work spaces too. This is the driving force behind a new discipline that embraces existing professions like general management, facilities management, HR, IT, real estate, design and architecture. The end result is a coherent way of looking at a wide range of workplace issues centred on the needs of people that occupy the three domains of 21st Century work. We offer a platform for all those with new, insightful and meaningful things to say about related issues. We prefer not to follow received wisdom but produce thought-provoking, informative and occasionally challenging content.

Contact

Insight Publishing Ltd

Brampton House

10 Queen Street

Newcastle

Staffs ST5 0PS

England

E. enquiries@workplaceinsight.net

May 13, 2020

Pandemic threatens the transition to clean energy

by Jayne Smith • Environment, News

The coronavirus pandemic risks cancelling out recent progress in transitioning to clean energy, with unprecedented falls in demand, price volatility and pressure to quickly mitigate socioeconomic costs placing the near-term trajectory of the transition in doubt. Policies, roadmaps and governance frameworks for energy transition at national, regional, and global levels need to be more robust and resilient against external shocks, according to the latest edition of World Economic Forum’s Fos tering Effective Energy Transition 2020 report published today. More →

May 12, 2020

Business needs to do more to address lockdown mental health issues

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing

Employers must do more to support the mental health of their staff during the Covid-19 pandemic, as new research suggests up to 23 million people in the UK could be struggling with poor mental wellbeing as a result of the current situation. The research, carried out by not-for-profit healthcare provider Benenden Health, claims that 35 percent of people are thought to be struggling with their mental wellbeing as a result of the pandemic, with many saying support from employers could help ease the stress they’re experiencing day-to-day. More →

May 11, 2020

Hygiene remains main concern of people returning to work

by Neil Franklin • News

As lockdown measures begin to ease, many UK office workers are concerned about going back to the office – with worries rife over being able to maintain social distancing (59 percent) and appropriate hygiene and cleaning standards (44 percent), according to new research. The YouGov poll, for the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management (IWFM) surveyed office workers across the country to reveal that over a third (34 percent) are concerned about getting used to a corporate office culture again after the lockdown. More →