May 22, 2019

The new normal of flexible work transforming workplaces

by Marie Hillen • Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Technology, Workplace

Digital innovations, and in particular, cloud computing is enabling increasing numbers of employees to work remotely and flexibly. This means the central company workspace is rapidly becoming an administrative hub, rather than a traditional central focus where everyone gathers during set hours. This is according to Condeco’s new research paper, The Modern Workplace 2019: People, places & technology (registration) which claims that 41 per cent of employers already offer remote working, while 60 per cent now allow employees to set their own flexible hours. More →

April 24, 2019

Women are less likely to negotiate terms of a job offer than men

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

A survey commissioned by CV-Library claims that one of the most significant differences between men and women in the workplace is that men are generally less afraid to ask for what they want from an employer. The study of over 1,200 people claims that over half (55.1 percent) of men would negotiate on parts of a job offer, compared to just four in 10 (42.1 percent) women. The study also claims that the terms women are willing to negotiate on also varies widely. The survey suggests that they are more likely to debate working hours (56.4 percent) than men (40.9 percent), whilst men are more likely to negotiate salary (83.1 percent) than women (73.1 percent). More →

April 10, 2019

Employees sceptical about attitudes of employers to digital transformation

by Marie Hillen • AI, Facilities management, News, Technology

More than half of employees are confused about the true meaning of ‘digital transformation’ and have a high degree of scepticism about their employers’ appetite for digital innovation, a new poll suggests. The research into employees’ attitudes toward digital transformation, innovation and cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, conducted by YouGov amongst employees at 500 businesses with 50 or more employees, on behalf of Cherwell Software, found that 57 percent of employees don’t know the correct meaning of ‘digital transformation’: 20 percent of respondents couldn’t hazard a guess at its meaning and 12 percent thought it meant moving to a paperless office.

April 5, 2019

Remote working boosts self-employed flexibility and productivity

by George Eltringham • Flexible working, News

Remote working boosts flexibility and productivity among the self-employed, new research by IPSE (the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed) and People Per Hour claims. The report suggests that freelancers overwhelmingly viewed remote working positively, with nine out of ten (87 percent) working remotely at some point in the last year. More →

February 8, 2019

Finding the Goldilocks Point for collaborative workplace design

by Jonathan Hindle • Comment, Technology, Workplace design

One of the great paradoxes of modern life is the ever increasing likelihood of breakdowns in communication in a world in which we have more ways to talk to each other than ever before. This can play out in especially toxic ways in the wider world, but its effects in the workplace can also be problematic. Most importantly, what we often assume to be true about communication and collaboration may not be borne out by the facts and this in turn has implications for workplace design.

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.

December 4, 2018

I’m a designer and I job share with an AI

by Ceilidh Higgins • Comment, Technology, Workplace design

Thomas Edison is credited with the phrase “Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration” and I believe there is no field where this applies more than architecture and design. So often people assume that interior design is such a fun, creative job – that it’s all about drawing, colours and furniture, something like being paid to colour in and shop – when today being a designer is just as much about people management, psychology, project management, documentation, checking codes and standards and managing contracts. It’s also often about a culture that expects long hours and being always available to the job. “It’s not work when you are passionate about it?” is common. But what if instead we could all work less hours and job share with our computers?

November 13, 2018

A quarter of corporate global workforce could inhabit coworking space within five years

by Neil Franklin • Coworking, News, Property

Over the next five years, corporate real estate professionals are set to dramatically increase their use of coworking spaces to house employees, according to a survey conducted at the CoreNet Global Summit in Boston. According to the results, the percentage of employees at respondents’ companies utilising coworking spaces such as that offered by WeWork (pictured) has doubled over the past two years. The survey was conducted by Cushman & Wakefield and CoreNet Global during the course of the three-day summit and was completed by more than 220 corporate real estate executives and industry service providers.

November 9, 2018

Gen Z are technologically literate but not actually robots, Dell study confirms

by Freddie Steele • News, Technology

Generation Z is entering the workforce, bringing with it a tech-first mentality that will propel businesses further into the digital era while potentially deepening the divide among five generations in the workplace. According to global research commissioned by Dell Technologies, post-millennials – those born after 1996 and known as Gen Z – have a deep, universal understanding of technology and its potential to transform how we work and live.

October 31, 2018

Lack of skills investment means businesses miss out on benefits of automation

by Neil Franklin • AI, News, Workplace

A new report from the Capgemini Research Institute claims that, in the majority of companies (58 percent), automation is not yet meeting executives’ desired goals of increased productivity. The study, Upskilling your workforce for the age of the machine: Why a workforce upskilling strategy is key to unleashing automation’s productivity potential reveals that while automation does increase productivity to an extent, the key to reaching its full potential is by appropriate upskilling of the workforce.

October 31, 2018

Top global industries leading the way in remote work

by Neil Franklin • Features, Flexible working, Property

More business owners are swapping rigid 9-5 schedules and traditional office environments in favour of flexible space and remote work as an option for saving costs, retaining employees and encouraging a healthy work-life balance. With this in mind, Instant Offices has investigated what industries are leading the way for remote working and how to overcome the typical challenges of managing a remote team.

October 10, 2018

The Genesis of ideation and the places we go to have our best ideas ⁰

by Giuseppe Boscherini • Facilities management, Features, Technology, Work&Place, Workplace design

Because collaboration, creativity and innovation are increasingly perceived as key objectives and differentiators of performance, the genesis and mechanisms behind ideation and creativity are an an integral part of both business and personal development. As a consequence, there is growing interest in the way the physical attributes of work settings may influence or even trigger creative behaviour. The cliché of the shower as one of these favourite places comes to mind and yet experience does show that the idea of seeking a setting, a “zone” if you will, for a specific purpose is intuitively right. This needn’t be a retreat or cocoon, as is often assumed, but can also be a crowded, busy, noisy place, which might explain why so often the most animated work conversations move out of the office shop into the coffee shop. Equally, highlight events or special meetings tend to be held in a “venue’, often dressed for the occasion.