July 13, 2022

Confetti launches new collection of team building experiences as demand for DE&I in business increases

With McKinsey & Company reporting that businesses with more diverse teams —whether that’s racially, socio economically or educationally— are 35 percent more profitable than organisations that are not, tech start-up Confetti, a website for booking virtual corporate development and team building events, has launched a new Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DE&I) collection of 27 distinctive team building experiences, aiming to release five new experiences every month. More →

July 12, 2022

Downing Street is no longer fit for purpose as an office

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace design

The next Prime Minister needs to move his or her office out of 10 Downing Street and into a modern, efficient office for Government to be effective, says consultancy Advanced Workplace Associates (AWA). Presently up to 400 people work in a suit of cramped buildings across 10, 11 and 12 Downing Street, a complex first built in the 17th century as residences and not significantly updated since the 1980s. Floorplans show over 100 different rooms, including flats occupied by the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer and their families. The layout of the buildings has been described by Whitehall insiders as a “rabbit warren”. More →

July 12, 2022

Younger workers drive higher workplace expectations

by Jayne Smith • News, Workplace

According to a poll from Benefex, three quarters (77 percent) of workers admit they expect more of their employer now than since the start of the pandemic, and eight in 10 state that their employee experience at work is more important than a year ago. However, expectations have risen significantly more among employees under the age of 40, compared with those aged 40 and above. Eight in ten of the under 40s said both their expectations of their employer and their employee experience at work had increased since the coronavirus compared to 67 percent and 70 percent of the over 40s respectively. More →

July 8, 2022

Four day week should be about people, not productivity

by Mick Jordan • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing

You may well have seen the announcement that more than 3,300 workers at 70 UK companies, ranging from a chippy and a distillery to leading financial institutions, have started working a four day week, with no loss of pay, in what is described as ‘the world’s biggest trial of the new working pattern’. The pilot – which will run for six months – is being organised by 4 Day Week Global in partnership with the think tank, Autonomy, and researchers at Cambridge University, Oxford University and Boston College. More →

July 8, 2022

Calls for tax measures to speed up decarbonisation of commercial property

by Neil Franklin • Environment, News, Property

In its response to a consultation on the reform of capital allowances, the British Property Federation urges the Government to increase tax relief for capital expenditure on building projects that support the Government’s net zero and levelling-up ambitions and introduce a new tax credit system similar to that which applies to Research & Development spending. Buildings are responsible for around 30 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions in the UK and reaching net zero by 2050 will require significant capital investment in new types of building, building techniques and new technologies to improve the energy efficiency of domestic and commercial property. More →

July 4, 2022

Milliken publishes annual sustainability report

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Works Magazine

Milliken & Company has published its fourth annual Sustainability Report, as part of the company’s progress toward its 2025 Sustainability Goals. In 2019 Milliken laid out 12 sustainability goals, focused on its people, its products and the planet, as a roadmap to achieving a healthier tomorrow. Guided by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, these 12 goals signal the company’s commitment to sustainability in all forms. More →

July 1, 2022

UK rated world number one as Europe sets the standard on real estate transparency

by Jayne Smith • News, Property

Europe is leading the way on real estate transparency as a raft of new sustainability legislation raises industry standards, according to the latest Global Real Estate Transparency Index [registration] published by JLL, in partnership with LaSalle. Six of the 12 countries classed as ‘Highly Transparent’ in the report are in Europe with France, the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium among the most improved, joining Ireland and Sweden. More →

June 30, 2022

Supply chain disruption sees costs and complexity ramp up

by Freddie Steele • News, Works Magazine

Two-thirds (66 percent) of large enterprises globally say they are keeping more stock on hand now compared to the pre-pandemic period, with nearly one in five in total (18 percent) retaining ‘significantly more’ stock. This growing focus on taking innovative measures to address supply chain disruption is highlighted in new research commissioned by IFS, polling over 1,450 senior decision-makers at large enterprises across France, Germany, Nordics, USA, the UK and the UAE. More →

June 30, 2022

The fifteen minute city will transform the way we think about workplaces

by Wybo Wijnbergen • Cities, Features, Flexible working, Property

For most of history, there have been a small number of immovable truisms that formed the nature of what work is, and how communities form around it. While individuals have long held some agency around the structure and pattern of their work, being present in a communal workplace has been a non-negotiable reality. This need to work from an office comes wed with parallel requirements to help facilitate it. Employees have been willing to strike a compromise between where they wish to live and where they want to work through commutes, with the financial and time cost and associated stress that comes along with it. More →

June 29, 2022

The perfect storm shouldn’t force us to jump aboard the wrong ship

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Workplace design

For all the millions of words written and gabbed about work and its future over the past couple of years, one of the few things we can say with any certainty is that we still don’t know which parts of it all are short-term responses to events, and which are permanent long-term shifts.

June 28, 2022

Is change your friend or your enemy?

by Jennifer Bryan • Comment, JB, Workplace

Is change your friend or your enemy? If you are a young person leaving home for the first time and are excited about the prospects of striking out on your own – change is most likely your friend. But if you are the parent, watching your child leave the nest, and your close protection, then change could very possibly be your enemy. The same is true when it comes to introducing new ways of working in an organisation. Some people will like the ‘old ways’ because they are familiar and comfortable – they are like second nature and hence don’t take any real thinking. Whereas for others, the ‘new way’ may be quite faster, easier or simply exciting because it is different. More →

June 22, 2022

Did you hear the one about offices and creativity?

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Workplace design

There is a famous episode of Seinfeld in which the character George is insulted in a business meeting and only thinks of a perfect retort while driving away from the office. This being George, he decides that he doesn’t want to waste his ‘killer line’ so engineers a second meeting so he can use it with the person who had insulted him, only for it to blow up in his face yet again. It’s an example of what the French refer to as l’esprit de l’escalier and the Germans as Treppenwitz, in both languages the wit you develop on a staircase.