Search Results for: media

February 6, 2019

A robot can do amazing things, but could it hold down a desk job?

by Amy LaViers • AI, Features, Technology

A colleague of mine, a roboticist, recently proclaimed that if one could teleoperate the robot he developed in his lab, it could hold down a desk job. It’s a common sentiment among roboticists that existing mechanical hardware is sufficient to replace humans in many of the tasks by which we earn a living. Rather than the hardware, the last, golden step to having human-like machine counterparts is in the development of appropriate algorithms. But this is wrong. There is in fact little evidence that robots have the mechanical features necessary to hold down a desk job, regardless of the algorithms.

February 5, 2019

A morning adrenaline rush improves workplace productivity

by Sara Bean • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

A new academic study has found the benefits of taking part in adrenaline boosting activities before work. Researchers from the University of Essex School of Sport, Rehabilitation and Exercise Science, tested workers from the International Quarter London (IQL), the gateway to Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and discovered that taking a 40 second ride down the world’s tallest and longest tunnel slide at the ArcelorMittal Orbit improved levels of happiness, productivity, creativity, energy and focus in workers. The impacts of exercise on wellbeing have been well-documented; however, this is the first time that research has shown that similar affects can be achieved from a quick adrenaline boosting activity.

February 4, 2019

Getting back to environmental basics in the Anthropocene era ⁰

by Alison Kitchingman • Comment, Environment, Facilities management, Workplace design

A new word has recently entered the public discourse on the environment. It describes the current epoch of geological time as the period in which humans have had an impact on the world’s climate, geology and ecosystems. Although yet to be formally recognised by the mainstream scientific community, it has been in existence for a short time and last year the Working Group on the Anthropocene (WGA) voted to formally designate the current epoch the Anthropocene. The principle was presented for recommendation to the International Geological Congress on 29 August 2016. Its general usage has grown but it seems only a matter of time before it becomes the norm to describe an era in which the Earth’s most important environmental characteristic is the activity of people. More →

February 4, 2019

Largest ever speculative office development in Bristol gets green light

by Neil Franklin • Cities, News, Property

AXA Investment Managers – Real Assets (AXA IM – Real Assets), along with development manager Bell Hammer, is to commence construction of the initial phase of its 300,000 sq ft mixed-use Assembly Bristol regeneration project, having appointed Galliford Try as the main contractor. The construction contract and initial work has commenced for Building A which comprises 200,000 sq ft across 11 storeys with practical completion due in 2020. The building is claimed to a offer new archetype for Bristol office space; comprising multiple uses, and a range of flexible office spaces designed for both local and global businesses in the services, creative, consultancy, financial, media and technology sectors.

February 1, 2019

Millennial headlines, eternal workplace truths, the pathologisation of sitting and some other stuff

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, Features, Technology, Wellbeing, Workplace design

The New York Times asked an interesting question this week. “Why Are Young People Pretending to Love Work?” it demanded, begging the immediate response ‘for the same reason everybody else does’. If only that pat, facetious response were enough to satisfy the actual questions concealed by the typically misleading headline. What the article actually wants to know is why some members of one particular tribe of young people have a toxic relationship with work. And that tribe (of course) is made up of the diverse, attractive, urbanite, coffee-fixated, stock image Millennials working for the world’s tech giants. Interesting in so far as it goes, but this tribe is not homogeneous to begin with and does not represent the world’s ‘young people’. It’s beyond time we stopped working on the basis that it does. Change the headlines.

February 1, 2019

Are these the 2019 Top Employers to work for in the UK

by Neil Franklin • Company news, Wellbeing, Workplace

The Top Employers Institute, a certifier recognising employers that provide world-class employee conditions, has released its list of Certified UK Top Employers for 2019. Over 600 HR professionals gathered at London’s Hilton on Park Lane, on the 31st January 2019, to recognise the best employers in the UK. More →

January 28, 2019

Majority of large UK firms to address climate change in annual reporting

by Mark Eltringham • Environment, News

Two-thirds (67 percent) of UK corporations will be disclosing climate change related risks and opportunities in their 2019 annual reporting, according to new figures released by the Carbon Trust. However, fewer than a quarter (23 percent) of companies are expecting to fully report in line with the recommendations of the G20 Financial Stability Board’s Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), released in June 2017. More →

January 25, 2019

The state of the workplace right now? Everywhere and nowhere, baby ⁰

by Paul Carder • Comment, Facilities management, Features, Premium Content, Property, Workplace design

My trade is to ask questions about the workplace then make sense of the answers. That has been a particular challenge with the question, ‘what are offices today?’ What seems clear is that the various actors in the workplace ecosystem look at offices through very different eyes. Urban planning and development professionals still view offices as a distinct category of real estate and most real estate professionals view offices in terms of the delivery of floor space. Some things have changed,however. For some time, the hybrid economy of serviced offices has turned the product into a service. But, in many cases this has simply made the leasing of space simpler and more flexible.

January 25, 2019

People who experience early redundancy have poor health in later life

by Mark Eltringham • News, Wellbeing

People who involuntarily lose their job early in their career have poorer health in later life, according to new findings from the University of Kent in the UK and the University of Bamberg in Germany. Researchers, including Dr Olena Nizalova from the Centre for Health Service Studies (CHSS) within the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research (SSPSSR) at Kent, set out to establish what the long-term implications of enforced unemployment are on individuals over the course of their life, particularly in later life.

January 22, 2019

Business leaders lack ethical insight needed to get the best out of AI

by Neil Franklin • News, Technology

Although executives have high expectations for the impact that AI will have on their businesses according to Cognizant’s new report, ‘Making AI Responsible – and Effective, only half of companies have policies and procedures in place to identify and address the ethical considerations of its applications and implementations. The study analyses the responses of almost 1,000 executives across the financial services, technology, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, insurance and media & entertainment industries in Europe and the US. The research suggests that business leaders are positive about the importance and potential benefits of AI. Roughly two- thirds (63 percent) say that AI is extremely or very important to their companies today, and 84 percent expect this will be the case three years from now. Lower costs, increased revenues and the ability to introduce new products or services, or to diversify were cited as the key advantages for the future.

January 20, 2019

Shortlist for Business Book Awards features more on workplace and wellbeing than ever before

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

This year’s shortlist for the Business Booko Awards features more books than ever on wellbeing and happiness in the workplace as well as career self-development, company culture and business ethics. A record number of women authors have also made the shortlist. More →

January 15, 2019

Workplace productivity plummets during January

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

Around a quarter (26 percent) of British workers believe that January is their least productive month with the nation still recovering from the Christmas period, according to a new report from Hitachi Capital Invoice Finance. The report also claims that December is the second least productive month (14 percent) whist 32 percent surveyed suggested that they’re equally unproductive across the entire year. Residents of the Welsh capital Cardiff were found to be the least productive in January (34 percent) closely followed by Southampton (31 percent) and Sheffield (30 percent).