Search Results for: collaboration

L`Oréal moves London HQ to White City Place

L`Oréal moves London HQ to White City Place

L'Oreal White CityL’Oréal UK and Ireland has announced that it will be moving from its current office site in Hammersmith to a brand new bespoke building in White City Place, West London, W12. L’Oréal will occupy six floors of the eleven storey building, which is part of the new creative business district White City Place, developed and owned by Stanhope, Mitsui Fudosan and AIMCo. Other occupiers at White City Place include the fashion designers Ralph & Russo, online luxury fashion retailer Yoox-Net-a-Porter, the BBC and ITV Studios. The workforce of 1,000 employees at L’Oréal’s London-based headquarters are due to move in Autumn 2023 to the new building, which is when the company will reach the end of its current lease. Stanhope claims that the space will reflect L’Oréal’s culture, focused on collaboration, creativity and agility. More →

Anthropology might hold answers to the most difficult workplace challenges

Anthropology might hold answers to the most difficult workplace challenges

anthropology and the workplaceMany recent discussions have centered on the drawbacks of the open-plan office, a major format in the UK, and possible pathways to the communal workplace of the future. As part of this, it has been acknowledged that the factors responsible for determining the open-plan office’s performance are complex, and a number of the present-day workplace’s characteristics are messy and hard to quantify. In this brief article, I present anthropological methods as means for practitioners to further unpack the symbolic aspects of communication in open-plan offices and spark workplace solidarity.

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Self-driving cars will be most transformative future tech, bosses say. Techies disagree

Self-driving cars will be most transformative future tech, bosses say. Techies disagree

Self-driving cars are set to have a significant impact on society and change our future the most over the next 20 years, according to research from CWJobs. Working in collaboration with “futurologist” Melissa Sterry, the report (registration) surveyed over 2,000 UK business decision makers and IT workers to determine the technological inventions with the greatest impact on society since 2000 and what’s to come in the next 20 years. More →

RICS report calls on organisations to adopt more responsible policies

RICS report calls on organisations to adopt more responsible policies

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has launched a new ‘Responsible Business Report with recommendations for real estate firms to develop and implement responsible business practices, to improve their business culture, reduce their environmental impact and attract and retain the brightest talent. Best practice case studies from leading companies such as CBRE, Sodexo, John Lewis and Vinci Facilities are included in the report. More →

Climate change emergency demands more and better action

Climate change emergency demands more and better action

Davos and climate changeFour years after the Paris Climate Agreement, tangible action from governments is falling well short of what is needed to restrict global warming to 1.5° Celsius. Meanwhile, the actions of the majority of businesses that do support emissions reductions also currently fall far short of where they need to be to address climate change. A new impetus for 2020 to raise company ambitions to net zero emissions by 2050 at the latest, is required. These are the findings of a new report, The Net Zero Challenge published by the World Economic Forum. More →

The four day week will make management support more important than ever

The four day week will make management support more important than ever

four day weekWith work collaboration tools like Facebook Workplace growing more common and constant out of hours access to work emails, it is increasingly difficult to distinguish between work and leisure. This lack of separation between the office and home risks creating a situation where we have less time to unwind. So it’s not surprising that the World Health Organisation officially classified burnout as an occupational phenomenon. Rising workloads, limited staff and resources, and consistently long hours are all contributing to half a million people in the UK suffering from work related stress, with 15.4 million working days lost as a result. Business and politics are hoping to buck this negative trend by finding ways of improving people’s work-life balance – most recently by experimenting with a four day week.  More →

Businesses fear that a failure to embrace automation will make them irrelevant

Businesses fear that a failure to embrace automation will make them irrelevant

Automation The majority of UK businesses fear becoming ‘irrelevant’ within the next five years through failing to make a successful transition to an automated workplace. To avoid this risk, organisations need to collaborate with their workforces to embrace automation and artificial intelligence, a new report from Capita warns. The report Robot wars or automation alliances? People, technology and the future of work calls for an honest dialogue between business leaders and employees – and urgent, multi-stakeholder action to support employees in the transition to a more automated world. More →

Humanscale Summa sets new standard in ergonomic seating for executive offices and boardrooms

Humanscale Summa sets new standard in ergonomic seating for executive offices and boardrooms

Summa, an executive chair by Humanscale made for today’s dynamic leaders, is now ready to order. An effortless blend of luxury and simplicity, Summa’s defined aesthetic and sophisticated palette is well-suited to high-end executive spaces within the workplace. The executive chair has a single, discrete height-adjustment lever seamlessly designed into the seat, unlike most chairs which have multiple exposed adjustment levers. Complementing its enveloping shape and sculpted materials, Summa features Humanscale’s signature weight-compensating recline mechanism and integrated armrests for exceptional ergonomic comfort and support. More →

Contribution of “digital workers” to grow by 50 percent over next two years

Contribution of “digital workers” to grow by 50 percent over next two years

digital workersA new survey from research firm IDC claims to reveal the true extent of software robots supporting humans in the workplace. The IDC whitepaper, Content Intelligence for the Future of Work (registration), sponsored by ABBYY, indicates that the contribution of software robots, or what the report calls digital workers, to the global workforce will increase by over 50 percent in the next two years. These results, from a survey of 500 senior decision-makers in large enterprises, illustrate a fundamental shift to a future of work dependent on human-machine collaboration. More →

Office design can be a vehicle for equality and change

Office design can be a vehicle for equality and change

workplace design for inclusionThe way companies design physical environments is a direct reflection of their values and beliefs. Inequality is hardwired into the “standard” office layout, with perimeter offices and fixed desks offering limited settings for unstructured collaboration and recreation, further perpetuating the issue. Modern office design often favours extroversion and emphasises a hierarchy with values that benefit only a small portion of the overall workforce, contributing to organisation-wide imbalance. So how do we create more inclusive workplaces that can be leveraged as vehicles for change? More →

Workplaces still do not support collaborative work as well as they should

Workplaces still do not support collaborative work as well as they should

collaborative workA near universal 91 percent of UK workers believe collaborative work with colleagues is essential for their productivity and creativity, yet nearly three-quarters of them work in traditional, enclosed spaces non-conducive to active participation and spontaneity according to new research from Steelcase. The report claims that team-based work is fundamental to modern businesses with 55 percent of the UK spending their time working with others but workspaces are actually unable to support collaborative work. More →

Performance management systems still a major drag for HR leaders

Performance management systems still a major drag for HR leaders

performance managementFewer than one-fifth of HR leaders believe that performance management is effective at achieving its primary objective, according to a report from Gartner (registration). Though companies have been prioritising performance management improvements for years, 81 percent of HR leaders are still making changes and experimenting with their organisation’s efforts, according to the report. Most efforts to fix the issues are centred on reducing effort with the survey claiming that two-thirds of HR leaders focused on making processes either easier or less time consuming. However, reducing the effort managers and employees must put into the systems has significant negative effects. More →