Search Results for: office

April 12, 2016

Friendly workplaces are less innovative, claims new report ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Knowledge, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Work friendships can contribute to a lack of creative diversity in the office, according to new research from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University.‘Relational capital and individual exploration: Unravelling the influence of goal alignment and knowledge acquisition’, a paper that examines the double-edged sword of friendships between colleagues, has revealed that friendly workplaces discourage employees from challenging ‘group think’. The researchers examined 150 respondents within large R&D departments of three Fortune Global 500 firms, gauging whether their accounts of personal friendships affected individual creativity, in information obtained from their colleagues. Tom Mom, along with co-authors Pepijn van Neerijnen, Patrick Reinmoeller and Ernst Verwaal, demonstrate that by aligning themselves, employees become less likely to innovate away from the established and accepted ‘norm’.

April 12, 2016

Women who feel valued at work will help close the gender pay gap ⁰

by Mark Bull • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing, Workplace

There has been much debate around the gender pay gap but aside from any instances of obvious gender discrimination is the controversial fact that women appear to be more afraid of asking for a pay rise than men. According to a recent survey by Randstad 72 per cent of women are afraid even to ask for a raise for fear of jeopardising their existing position. This clearly shows there is work still to be done to encourage women to ‘lean in’. When people start questioning the value they bring to a company they are less likely to put themselves in the spotlight, or under scrutiny, by asking for a raise or a promotion, and the key to increasing confidence is by getting genuine feedback on work performance. If you know that your work is getting recognised by colleagues and you are being praised for it, then you are more likely to understand the value of the work you are doing, regardless of what industry you are in.

April 9, 2016

TMT & workplace design + Real-estate decision making + Dutch productivity ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Flexible working, Newsletter, Property, Workplace

In this week’s Newsletter Andrew Brown explains why the Dutch are regarded as leaders in ideas on productivity; Mark Eltringham says the TMT sector may push the office design boundaries, but much of what they’re doing isn’t unique to them; and Sara Bean reveals just 1 percent of men have so far taken up the opportunity of Shared Parental Leave (SPL). In news; the global economy, workforce strategies and rising costs all influence real estate decision-making; Londoners are unsure and often un-consulted on the proliferation of high rise buildings; HR best practice proved to improve business performance and disturbing evidence that mobile phone users movements are being monitored. Download our Insight Briefing, produced in partnership with Connection, on how the boundless office can be freed from the shackles of time and place and access the latest issue of Work&Place. Visit our new events page, follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn Group to discuss these and other stories.

April 8, 2016

93 percent of UK mobile phone users have their location tracked daily ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Cities, Flexible working, News, Technology

You may recall a couple of news stories from January that sparked a fleeting debate about the way technology allows firms to pry into where we are and what we are doing. The first concerned the installation of under-desk sensors at the offices of The Daily Telegraph, the second a ruling from the European Court of Human Rights concerning the rights of employers to monitor the social media activities of staff. Our take on these stories was that neither was quite as it was reported, but maybe there’s more to concern us in a claim from an advocacy group called Krowdthink that Wi-Fi and mobile networks in the UK routinely track our location and sell data to marketing firms and other third parties. The organisation has initiated a new campaign called Opt me out of Location to highlight what it considers the privacy implications of a situation in which 93 percent of mobile phone users in the UK have their location monitored, usually without their knowledge.

April 1, 2016

HS2 & Fourth Industrial Revolution + Digital natives + FM outsourcing rise ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Flexible working, Newsletter, Technology, Workplace

In the latest Insight Newsletter; Richard Morris questions why the UK still persists with the 9-5 mantra; Sara Bean argues HR must treat people like humans, not resources; Mark Eltringham says the construction of the HS2 high speed rail line ignores the fact that technology is fast negating its very existence and wonders why the woefully anachronistic and dated Display Screen Equipment regulations are still in use. News that the outsourcing of real estate and facilities management has hit record levels; flexible working is the key to Hong Kong’s record number of startups; firms are betting on millennials to plug their digital knowledge gaps and worklife balance is a major draw for US workers. Download our Insight Briefing, produced in partnership with Connection, on how the boundless office can be freed from the shackles of time and place and access the latest issue of Work&Place. Visit our new events page, follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn Group to discuss these and other stories.

April 1, 2016

Rise in European outsourcing of real estate and facilities management ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Property

Companies outsourcing their real estate and facilities management needs have hit record levels across Europe, finds new data. According to CBRE, its EMEA Global Workplace Solutions (GWS) business received a record number of Requests for Information (RFI) or Requests for Proposals (RFP) from organisations wishing to outsource all, or part, of their real estate activities in 2015. This marks a 190 percent increase over 2012, with the data showing the most popular function to outsource is facilities management, with 64 percent of briefs including this service. The trend for outsourcing is also reflected in CBRE’s European Occupier Survey, which spans 120 organisations. Fifty-four percent of respondents noted that that they outsourced some or part of their property requirements. This figure marks an uplift from 30 percent the year before and demonstrates that more corporates are seeking, and using, specialist property advisors for outsourcing advice.

March 31, 2016

Flexible workspace underpins Hong Kong’s status as Asia’s hub ⁰

by Sean Lynch • Cities, Comment, Flexible working, Property

Despite the challenging cost of real estate and general commercial life in Hong Kong, startup activity in the city has seen exponential growth in the last few years, fuelled in part by new and innovative approaches to occupying workspace. The conventional Hong Kong office market is, famously, the most expensive of its kind – making it challenging for small and medium sized businesses to enter the market via this form of space. Despite this, the region’s startup scene is booming. According to an InvestHK survey, over 1500 startups bloomed in Hong Kong in 2015, which is a 46 percent increase compared to the previous year. And those numbers are likely to keep growing. So the question is, how do cash-strapped entrepreneurs, startups and other businesses manage to establish a base in this thriving city, despite these challenges, and what lessons does Hong Kong’s experience have for the rest of the world?

March 30, 2016

Isn’t it time that UK businesses thought more like the Scandinavians? ⁰

by Richard Morris • Comment, Facilities management, Flexible working, Wellbeing, Workplace

The clocks went forward on 27^th March meaning darker mornings and lighter evenings – at least for a time. But the standard working day doesn’t reflect such changes, with commuters setting out in darkness to make a fixed 9am start. The changing of the clocks raises interesting questions about the UK work model. Why does UK business persist with the 9-5? We know that commuting in and out can be stressful and detrimental to productivity – not to mention expensive. So why do we continue to do it? Why is the UK’s workforce all boarding the same trains to arrive at the office at the same time? Today, the very notion of the 9am start to the working day should seem archaic. Sweden – often a forerunner of best practice when it comes to wellbeing – recently introduced a 6-hour working day in a bid to reduce sick leave and make staff happier. To date, there has been no hard analysis of results, but anecdotal evidence suggests a healthier, more engaged workforce.

March 30, 2016

Career satisfaction and work-life balance are top employee draws ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Although a competitive salary, company perks and an exceptional office culture may seem enticing to the American workforce, a new study shows there are more important motivational factors. A survey conducted by Kelton Global for Cornerstone OnDemand reveals that career satisfaction and work-life balance are the top reasons American stay at their current jobs (38 percent combined), while nearly three in ten (29 percent) resign due to work overload and lack of healthy work-life balance. Employees said they’d make life-altering decisions and considerable sacrifices in order to find a sense of satisfaction, fulfillment and purpose in their careers. In fact, 89 percent of employees would consider making a lateral career move with no financial incentive for multiple reasons, including to start an entirely new career (41 percent) or take on a professional challenge (40 percent). Additionally, relocating to a different city, state or country is a desirable career move for 77 percent of employees. More →

March 29, 2016

Workers spend large parts of each day doing nothing or wasting their time ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • News, Technology, Wellbeing

If it ever seems that you spend a large chunk of your average working day either doing nothing or wasting it on pointless nonsense, then don’t worry about it because that is all perfectly normal. You may already know that just by looking around you, but two new surveys highlight just how much time people consider unproductive each day. The Global Attitudes to Work survey from Qualtrics polled 6,250 employees in 14 countries and found that UK workers believe that 36 percent of the time they spend at work is unproductive. This puts the UK towards the bottom of the international pile when it comes to perceptions of their productivity, a fact perhaps explained by another survey from Workfront which suggest that many Brits are unnecessarily disorganised and spend inordinate amounts of time dealing with non work related emails, looking for lost files and then simply replicating them after fruitless searches.

March 24, 2016

Coworking spaces not just suited to start-ups with Millennial occupants ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Property, Workplace design

The rise in popularity of coworking spaces has been largely attributed to growing demand from creative and tech start-ups for shared workplaces that are cost-effective alternatives to traditional office leases. But there’s new evidence from the US that coworking spaces could also be eminently suitable even for larger occupiers, and especially in costly metro areas such as New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Boston. According to a new report from CBRE Group a number of misconceptions that have perhaps kept larger occupiers away from extensive use of coworking facilities do remain, including that this type of space is priced at a premium compared with traditional leases; that it is only utilized by entrepreneurs and small businesses; and that the users are exclusively post-college millennials. Yet CBRE’s report found that these assumptions are not accurate.

March 23, 2016

The choice of a clear or messy workplace is an expression of personality ⁰

by Michael Page • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace design

When it comes to each individual’s working space and workstation area, a question that is always worth asking (and often is) is whether it is best to back off and let people customise their immediate surroundings to fit with their own tastes and needs or whether a company-wide tidy desk policy and uniformity of approach be imposed to protect a specific look and standard. One factor that is relevant is that there seems to be a pendulum swing between aesthetics and wellbeing going on at the moment, with many companies going back and forth in pursuit of the best approach. A study, conducted a few years ago by psychological scientist Professor Kathleen Vohs, along with a number of other researchers from the University of Minnesota, considered the behaviour of people working on both messy and clean desks and found that the individuals working in messier spaces came up with more creative and interesting results in their work overall.