January 16, 2024
Introducing the OE1 Sit-Stand Table and other essential pieces for agile workspaces. The OE1 Workspace Collection from Herman Miller, designed by Sam Hecht and Kim Colin of London-based Industrial Facility is being updated to include new productivity-enhancing solutions. More →
January 16, 2024
Henley Business School’s World of Work Institute has published a new report on what it calls The Omniployment Era The report claims to identify which what a post-Covid, post-Great Resignation workforce looks like. The study identifies six distinct worker ‘segments’* in the UK workforce and quantifies what attracts and retains them in jobs, and provides advice to businesses on how to build a strong workforce. More →
January 15, 2024
AI-focused roles now make up 27 percent of all tech jobs being advertised in the UK, according to a new report from Thomson Reuters. An analysis of 6,073 live tech roles advertised online in January 2024 found that 1,652 roles fundamentally required AI skills. Demand for talent with relevant skills has boomed in the last year with the rise of generative AI tools offering significant boosts to productivity and efficiency in the workplace. More →
January 12, 2024
We are living through a revolution in automation in landscaping. It is amazing to see how robots equipped with advanced sensors and imaging technologies are now redefining precision in landscaping design and implementation. Drones, for instance, provide an aerial perspective, enabling designers to visualise and plan landscapes with unprecedented accuracy. These tools help optimise the placement of plants, pathways, and other elements, ensuring that every inch of the landscape is utilised efficiently. More →
January 11, 2024
The speaker programme at Workspace Design Show (27-28 February 2024, Business Design Centre, London) has been an integral part since the event’s inception in 2021 and this year is no exception with over 120 speakers featuring across four key elements of discourse. The Workspace Design Talks programme, which will take place in a dedicated space, the Design Talks Lounge (bottom), designed by global design and architecture firm Gensler, will feature inspiring sessions from leading industry professionals over the event’s two days. More →
January 8, 2024
A set of business actions aimed at reducing the intensity of energy demand could unlock annual savings of at least $2 trillion for the global economy if measures are taken by the end of this decade. This would boost growth, save companies cash and deliver competitive advantage while also reducing emissions. These are the findings of the World Economic Forum’s Transforming Energy Demand initiative – and a new report – launched in collaboration with PwC and supported by over 120 global CEOs who are members of the International Business Council (IBC), a group representing 3 percent of global energy use. More →
January 4, 2024
Tens of thousands more over 50s are now running their own businesses despite an overall decline in self-employment since 2020, new analysis of workforce statistics shows. The analysis, published by IPSE (the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed), found that the number of self-employed business owners aged 50 and over surged to 1.1 million in 2023 – 89,000 more than in 2020 – despite the total solo self-employed population falling by 154,000 in the same period. More →
December 18, 2023
As COP28 drew to a close, it gave those attending or observing from around the world the chance to reflect on the global commitments towards building a greener future. The UAE played host to two weeks of debate over climate change as COP28 recently rolled into town. While some questioned this region’s suitability – it being a centre of the fossil fuel industry – perhaps there is an argument to be made that this is exactly where you should hold it – to bring the issues into sharp relief. More →
December 18, 2023
I’ve sometimes highlighted how our perceptions of the workplace are subject to an apex fallacy. The daily consumption of narratives about campuses, tech palaces and ‘cool’ design can obscure the fact that most people don’t experience this stuff in their daily lives. They work in adequate or possibly nice offices. Some in shabby offices or horrible offices. Many travel into work at the same time each day and sit with roughly the same people and do roughly the same things. They may work from home more frequently now, but they have a routine there too. Most will work in a mundane or nice home that mirrors the mundane office that awaits at the other end of the commute. More →
December 17, 2023
A new survey from Acas claims that over two-thirds of employees (70 percent) are not aware of new flexible working rights that mean they will have a right to request flexible working from their employer from day one of their job next year. All employees who have worked for their employer for 26 weeks or more currently have the right to ask if they can work flexibly. A new change in the law will make this a right that applies from the first day of employment. More →
December 16, 2023
Hybrid working changes everything it seems. To make it work successfully we need changes in the way people need to be managed, trained and inducted. It changes the needs for communication and social connectivity, goal setting and connection to vision. It requires greater clarity on what is acceptable and what isn’t. Employees must take on new grown-up obligations and organisations are required to ‘trust’ and employees to be ‘trustworthy’. More →
January 8, 2024
Time to put down the devices if you really want things to look up
by Anoushka Pacquette • Comment, Technology, Wellbeing, Workplace design