July 19, 2021
More than two-thirds (68 percent) of employees in the UK have admitted they get so many distractions and message notifications during work that it’s affecting their productivity. This is according to new research from Advanced which also claims 22 percent have so many distractions that their working day is never spent fully on actual work. More →
July 14, 2021
The Mayor of London, in partnership with Nesta Challenges, has announced the winners of the Mayor’s Resilience Fund, a £1 million innovation programme set up to support London’s businesses and community groups to emerge stronger from COVID-19 and to ensure the capital is prepared for future disruptive challenges. More →
July 8, 2021
The new UK Cities Climate Investment Commission begins work to identify Green Investment opportunities across UK Cities. Cities, investment and innovation experts have launched a Commission which begins the process of identifying a transformational programme of Green Growth for the UK’s cities. More →
July 5, 2021
A new white paper from OakTree Power explains how an innovative technology called Green Demand Side Response (DSR) can help organisations transform their commercial buildings into a virtual power plant. Paradoxically, commercial buildings not only represent one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions, but also have the potential to utilise their own electricity as a resource to sell back into the Grid – a process familiar to many domestic homeowners with solar panels or Tesla Powerwalls. More →
June 18, 2021
The global pandemic has blurred the lines between home and work for millions of people around the world. Where once there was a clear distinction between being on and off duty, the demands of remote working and ever-presence of smartphones has created an ‘always on’ culture in many organisations. The trend has led to a number organisations in the UK to now call for a ban on out-of-hours emails in order to alleviate pressures on employees mental health. But is this really necessary, or even logistically possible, for the new world of work? We asked four leading experts for their thoughts. More →
June 18, 2021
Paradoxically, more in-person work environments and the concentration of jobs in cities could be a medium- to long-term impact of the pandemic’s shift to remote working, suggests Citi GPS Technology at Work: The Coming of the Post-Production Society, a report produced by Citi and the Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford. The report cites the automation of manufacturing and clerical tasks alongside the potential for professional services jobs that can be done remotely to be done cheaper overseas as the start of a foundational shift in developed economies. The future of work in these countries, it suggests, could be based largely on innovation, exploration and creative thinking which require face-to-face interaction and geographic proximity. More →
June 17, 2021
Research from The Instant Group claims that suburban commercial property markets are outperforming City Centres for the first time in over ten years. The increased demand is largely being driven by those who no longer want to work from home, but don’t want to be back in larger cities. More →
June 15, 2021
Gallup’s latest State of the Global Workplace report claims that the UK and Western Europe have the lowest employee engagement levels globally at just 11 percent, but the region’s employees assessed themselves as having high life evaluations (55 percent are thriving) and low negative emotions compared with employees in many other world regions. More →
June 8, 2021
Major UK employers plan to reduce their office space by up to nine million square feet, equivalent to 14 Walkie Talkie buildings – the 37 floor high rise on London’s Fenchurch Street – according to PwC’s Occupier Survey of 258 of the UK largest companies. The fresh figures show half of the organisations surveyed expect to reduce the size of their real estate portfolio and, of these, one third believe they will reduce their office footprint by more than 30 percent. More →
New research from beauty company 
More than half (52 percent) of global companies anticipate a return to the office in earnest by the end of Q3 2021, according to new research by
June 14, 2021
Never mind the agile workplace, here is something you already know
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Workplace design
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