May 14, 2020

Life-Based Value launch digital training program harnessing new skills

Life Based Value has announced the launch of ‘Crisis’, a brand new digital training program available for British businesses that harness unique skills learned during the current lockdown for the world of work. The announcement took place at EdTechX’s Global online summit, from company founder Riccarda Zezza, as the UK is facing one of its most intense and challenging ever transitions – the disruption of normal working life due Covid-19, and the eventual return to work after lockdown measures eventually ease. More →

May 12, 2020

How will delivery processes change as workers return to the workplace?

by Senel Sowerby • Company news

As workplaces around the country prepare to adapt to the various social distancing and personal safety measures they will have to put in place, many will be wondering what the typical working day will start to look like. Some of the activities we take completely for granted like commuting, meal breaks and even talking to colleagues, will have to be carefully considered from now on as routines change to avoid any unnecessary human contact. 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 →

May 7, 2020

Remote working has a number of hidden risks

by Dave Cook • Features, Flexible working, Wellbeing

Many of us have had little choice but to resort to remote working in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. It is just days since Google, Apple and Twitter were making headlines by ordering their employees to work from home, but you could now say the same about lots of companies. More →

May 6, 2020

Employees reluctant to give up flexible working after lockdown

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

New working patterns prompted by COVID-19 could cause employees to permanently reduce time spent in the office, as nearly half (45 percent) of Brits predict a permanent change to their employers’ approach to flexible working when lockdown lifts. O2 Business’ new report – entitled The Flexible Future of Work, conducted in partnership with ICM and YouGov – claims that employees will be reluctant to give up their new way of working after lockdown. Nearly half the workforce think flexible working will increase, with a third (33 percent) of this group expecting to increase the amount they work from home by at least three days a week after lockdown, and 81 percent expecting to work at least one day a week from home. More →

April 22, 2020

EDGE London Bridge will be most sustainable tower in capital

by Jayne Smith • Cities, Environment, News, Property

EDGE, the developer of a number of groundbreaking, energy-efficient office buildings has reveals its designs for its new London project. The name of the new sustainable development at St Thomas Street on London’s South Bank is EDGE London Bridge. The development aims to make the 255,000 sq ft nia (23,500 sq m) tower featuring 26 floors of commercial office space into London’s most sustainable office tower. More →

April 22, 2020

TWR Conference this Autumn will address thorniest workplace issues

by Freddie Steele • Company news

The Transdisciplinary Workplace Research (TWR) Network will gather September 16-20 2020 in Weimar, Germany to develop solutions for the thorniest strategic and tactical issues in office design, planning, and ways of working. TWR2020 is an important opportunity for both practitioners and researchers to move their professional work forward in meaningful ways. The conference will take place with all attendees present in Weimar (pictured). If required the conference will be electronic, with appropriate adjustments in registration fees and reimbursements made. More →

April 21, 2020

The square and the tower: why meetings and meeting spaces are more important than ever before

by Mark Barrell • Briefing, Premium Content, Workplace design

In his 2018 book The Square and the Tower, the historian Niall Ferguson argues that over a period of hundreds of years the world has been shaped primarily by two distinct organisational forces: networks and hierarchies. These are the square and the tower of the book’s title. Their interplay has been at the heart of major world events and the lessons that arise apply to what we now mistakenly assume to be a uniquely networked era. More →

April 14, 2020

Picking through the workplace chatter

by Mark Eltringham • Comment

The Universe is a noisy place. Countless bodies chatter to each other against the backdrop of distant echoes from the Big Bang. Because we are curious, we have developed the technology to listen in and record the din and convert it from the electromagnetic vibration it really is into something we can sense with our ears. NASA has even produced a playlist of the noises from our own solar system and some of the objects we have propelled into it, which you can listen to here. More →

April 8, 2020

Finance leaders gear up for life after lockdown

by Stephen Norris • Comment, Property

As the impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic becomes apparent, and the vast majority of workers are now remote working, CFOs are working closely with their real estate teams to re-assess workspace costs both now and in the future. More →

April 6, 2020

So what sort of homeworker are you?

by Sarah Booth • Comment, Flexible working

With a plethora of social media posts advising us how to work at home, vlogs of employees making the best of their dining room set up and webinars about the new world of work, It’s about time to introduce a little light-hearted non-science into the mix. More →

March 31, 2020

Most workers not productive while working from home, report claims

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

No more than 15 percent of healthy workers confined to their homes will work productively, argues new research from right leaning think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs. Government restrictions on social interaction designed to slow the spread of coronavirus have led to a rapid increase in the number of people working from home. But a new briefing paper from the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) suggests this is unlikely to be maintained in the long term. More →