March 30, 2023

Every workplace innovation contains the seeds of its opposite

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Technology

The announcement by Apple that it wanted its employees to work in an office for three days a week sparked the usual, tedious pile-on about how many days people should spend in a physical workplace each week. This included the columnist at Grazia who joins the tens of millions of people around the world who not only know where Apple is going wrong, but also how to run every other organisation in the world and what’s best for everybody who works for them. More →

March 29, 2023

Generative artificial intelligence set to boost GDP but could affect 300 million jobs

by Neil Franklin • News, Technology, Workplace

The latest developments in generative artificial intelligence could replace the equivalent of 300 million full-time jobs, a report by investment bank Goldman Sachs claims. The authors suggest that the technology could replace around a quarter of the work tasks carried out in the US and Europe but may also mean new jobs and a productivity boom. The report claims that the tech could increase total annual value of goods and services produced globally by 7 percent. More →

March 29, 2023

People have to create great leadership in the face of unrealistic expectations

by Karen Meager • Business, Comment

While modern business leaders are still expected to provide strategic thinking, leadership and make business decisions, their effectiveness is no longer just about profits. These days leaders are also being held responsible for employees’ mental health and wellbeing, psychological safety, as well as diversity and inclusion. They are expected to be decisive yet flexible, empathetic yet analytical, and clear yet nuanced. It can be exhausting. More →

March 29, 2023

Magenta Associates reinforces its commitment to responsible marketing by signing The Anti-Greenwash Charter

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Environment

Magenta Associates, the communications specialist for the built environment, has signed The Anti-Greenwash Charter, an agreement to promote responsible marketing within the industry. Magenta has a long-standing commitment to responsible and sustainable practices, and by signing The Anti-Greenwash Charter it enhances that commitment to honest, sustained messaging. More →

March 28, 2023

MIPIM 2023 confirms that green sells. But is commercial real estate buying?

by Anna King • Comment, Environment, Property

MIPIM may have returned last year, but 2023 was the year it felt back. That was despite widespread concerns over the rising costs of refinancing and a banking crisis that started with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in the US and quickly moved to Europe, with Swiss financial regulators beginning to put together during MIPIM week the deal that would see UBS buy Credit Suisse in an emergency rescue. More →

March 28, 2023

Sustainable Design Collective announces new forum and awards

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Environment

The Sustainable Design Collective, a ‘think tank’ group of leading workplace designers and specifiers, has announced a new Forum Day, together with industry awards, focussed on greater sustainability. Originally formed in January 2022, the Sustainable Design Collective hosts regular meetings to collaborate and discuss new opportunities to promote environmental and social responsibility within the office workplace. The group is now inviting conversations with fellow designers as well as suppliers and manufacturers. More →

March 27, 2023

The five ages of the office and the man who shaped the way we talk about them

by Rob Harris • Features, Flexible working, Workplace design

The office has passed through five ages. The ‘coffee houses’ of the 17th century, yielded to the ‘clerical factories’ of the 19th as machines revolutionised work. After the Second World War, the ‘corporate offices’ of global corporations and William Whyte’s Organization Man dominated the scene. Following the launch of IBM’s PC in the early-1980s, we saw the rise of ‘digital offices’ in the 1990s, complete with internet, email and social media. And for the past few years we have been moving inexorably towards the latest age: ‘network offices’. Each age was shorter than its predecessor: both the digital and network ages began less than a career span ago. More →

March 23, 2023

Canary Wharf Group shifts its focus to life sciences sector

by Neil Franklin • News, Property

The development of a major life science cluster at Canary Wharf continues to build momentum with a range of life sciences focused start-ups and scaleup businesses joining the growing community of technology businesses at its specialist co-working and office hub, Level39, according to a new statement from Canary Wharf Group. Launched by Canary Wharf Group ten years ago, Level 39 is now home to over 180 start-ups and scaleups innovating in FinTech, Cyber Security, CleanTech, Blockchain, Life Sciences and HealthTech. More →

March 22, 2023

Workspace Design Show goes from strength to strength this year with visitor numbers up by 76 percent

by Freddie Steele • Company news

The Workspace Design Show returned to the Business Design Centre from 27- 28 February 2023, with exhibitors and visitors alike hailing it as a must-attend addition to the trade show calendar and a place where the workplace community can come together to be inspired and network. The overarching theme for this year’s show was Destination Workplace: Places Where People Want To Be, exploring how to create environments where employees have a desirable experience at their workplaces. More →

March 21, 2023

Robots will improve your wellbeing – as long as they look cute

by Neil Franklin • News, Technology, Wellbeing

Robots can be useful as mental wellbeing coaches in the workplace – but perception of their effectiveness depends in large part on what the robot looks like. That is according to researchers from the University of Cambridge who conducted a study of a tech consultancy firm using two robot wellbeing coaches. In the study, 26 employees participated in weekly robot-led wellbeing sessions for four weeks. Although the robots had identical voices, facial expressions, and scripts for the sessions, the physical appearance of the robot affected how participants interacted with it. More →

March 17, 2023

Most hybrid workers worldwide don’t think they’ll return to old ways of work

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

A poll of 3,000 office workers by Insights Learning & Development claims that 70 percent of hybrid workers in the UK want to maintain the arrangement permanently. According to the report, UK employees are generally happy with their hybrid working arrangements – more so than employees in the US, Canada and France. Overall workers in the Netherlands are most satisfied with their hybrid working arrangements. More →

March 15, 2023

The UK workplace sector reacts to the Spring Budget 2023

by Jayne Smith • Environment, News, Property, Workplace

Today the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt presented his Spring Budget to the House of Commons. In it he announced what her referred to as his ‘four pillars’ of industrial and productivity strategy, namely: ‘Enterprise’, ‘Employment’, ‘Education’, and ‘Everywhere’. Perhaps the headline element of this announcement was the creation of twelve new investment zones across the UK as well as incentives for older workers to return to the country’s patchy workforce. This includes£63m for programmes to encourage retirees over 50 back to work, “returnerships” and ‘skills boot camps’. Another headline for the workplace sector was the offer of improved childcare arrangements, especially for the parents of very young children, who will see 30 hours of free childcare expanded to include one and two-year-olds. More →