Search Results for: Gen Z

Seven essential workplace design trends to keep an eye on during 2016

Seven essential workplace design trends to keep an eye on during 2016 0

Workplace design trendsWhat has become increasingly apparent over recent years is that the office isn’t just a place to work, but also a driver of competitive advantage. We’ve always known this to a greater or lesser extent, but the dynamic and ever shifting nature of the modern world is presenting organisations with new and evolving challenges that they must address with all of the tools at their disposal. At the heart of this complexity is the physical workspace. Its design touches on every aspect of the changing workplace and the objectives organisations set for themselves and their employees. Although it has lots its primacy as the main place of work, you could also argue that the focus on the office’s key strengths makes it more important than ever within the context of overall working cultures. So, with that in mind, here are ten of the most important current trends in workplace design and management we foresee for 2016.

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Best Places to Work + Make the most of each day + Strategic role of offices

Best Places to Work + Make the most of each day + Strategic role of offices 0

Insight_twitter_logo_2In this week’s newsletter; Mark Eltringham on the prescience of philosopher Seneca on a time and a place to work; and a report by Sara Bean finds the boardroom increasingly views office space as a strategic asset. Glassdoor announces the best places to work for 2016; researchers reveal the phenomenon of ‘inattentional deafness’; a new Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction is announced; and Gartner says we’ll be using three technical devices by 2018. Over 100 councils to join an office-sharing scheme; Gen Z will blur the boundaries between home and work, and too much focus on standing in the sit-stand debate. Download the new issue of Work&Place and access an Insight Briefing, produced in partnership with Connection, which looks at agile working in the public sector. Visit our new events page, follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn Group to discuss these and other stories.

Survey reveals UK’s total obsession with technology

Square EyesGen Y may still be grabbing all the headlines but the full scale of the potential technological immersion of Gen Z is evident in the findings of a new report from Halifax Insurance. The Digital Home Index claims that the average child born in the UK today will spend around a quarter of their lives watching non-work related technology before the age of 80. The report also claims that three quarters of British people already claim they would struggle to get through a day without their technology. The full pervasiveness of smartphone, tablet, laptop and MP3 technology in modern British lives is apparent in some of the more jaw-dropping findings from the survey of 2,500 people.

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Hybrid working and the hidden cost of being “always on” at work

Hybrid working and the hidden cost of being “always on” at work

Hybrid working has delivered welcome flexibility, but it has also changed our relationship with work. The traditional boundary created by leaving the office at the end of the day is often less defined when work is accessible from our kitchen table, spare room or mobile phone. Yet this challenge is not limited to those working remotely. Even employees who spend most of their time in the office now carry work with them through smartphones and constant digital connectivity. (more…)

The workplace metric that creates false confidence

The workplace metric that creates false confidence

A learning dashboard showing 96 per cent completion feels reassuring. It is precise, comparable and easy to report. But it may be answering the least useful question: who reached the end of the material? Completion can confirm attendance or fulfil an administrative requirement. It cannot, on its own, show what people understood, what they still remember or what they can do differently at work. That distinction matters as organisations ask employees to adapt to new systems, regulation and AI-enabled work. (more…)

What people from successful workplace events think it takes to launch something new

What people from successful workplace events think it takes to launch something new

The challenge for workplace events isn’t just about the numbers involved. It's about engaging the audience by having something to sayHerb Kim has been running the Thinking Digital conference at the Glasshouse in Gateshead since 2008. Ask Terry McStea, who knows about most events in the North East, which ones are genuinely unmissable and Thinking Digital is one of the two he immediately names. “If for whatever reason Thinking Digital was cancelled, it would leave a huge hole.” But ask Kim about year one and his account is rather different. “The first year was probably on the knife edge between disaster and success,” he chuckles. “Year one… it was badly undersold.” His account of what the first year of their event was really aiming for gave episode two of Work in Motion its title. “Even if your event is free and you have catering and you have, I don’t know, some big name coming, they’ll often still struggle to not even get the place full, but to get the place not embarrassingly empty.” (more…)

AI use surges across property and construction but firms struggle beyond pilot studies

AI use surges across property and construction but firms struggle beyond pilot studies

AI adoption across construction and commercial property has accelerated significantly over the past year, but firms are struggling to turn pilot studies into routine practiceAI adoption across construction and commercial property has accelerated significantly over the past year, but firms are struggling to turn pilot studies into routine practice, according to new research from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). The RICS AI in Commercial Property and Construction Report 2026, based on more than 3,100 responses from industry professionals worldwide, found that about two-thirds of construction professionals are using AI in some form, up from just over half in 2025. In commercial property, more than three-quarters report some level of AI use. (more…)

The Workspace Design Show London to emphasise the design of human-centered workplaces

The Workspace Design Show London to emphasise the design of human-centered workplaces

The Workspace Design Show returns to the Business Design Centre, London on 24–25 February 2027, unveiling its new theme: “The Human Experience of Work”The Workspace Design Show returns to the Business Design Centre, London on 24–25 February 2027, unveiling its new theme: “The Human Experience of Work”, a direction placing wellbeing, inclusion, sensory comfort, belonging, neurodiversity and emotional experience at the centre of workplace design. As organisations continue to rethink what makes people want to come together in person, the 2027 edition will explore how workplaces can move beyond functionality to become environments that genuinely support people. Spaces designed around human connection, comfort, mood, acoustics, hospitality, inclusivity and how work environments make us feel. (more…)

Third of people think AI would do a better job than their human manager

Third of people think AI would do a better job than their human manager

More than a third of UK employees believe replacing their line manager with an artificial intelligence system would improve their productivityMore than a third of UK employees believe replacing their line manager with an artificial intelligence (AI) system would improve their productivity, although a large majority still want performance feedback delivered by a human manager. Polling commissioned by Careerminds UK found that 36.7 percent of employees thought an AI manager would make them more productive, compared with 25.5 percent who expected their productivity to decline. A further 37.8 percent said it would make no difference. (more…)

Is resilience a personality trait or a flaw in workplace design?

Is resilience a personality trait or a flaw in workplace design?

Resilience is often ascribed to the individual, but are there other ways we could look at the issue, asks Carl LyonsResilience must be one of the most misunderstood issues affecting businesses right now. It’s used whenever people are struggling, and almost always aimed at the individual – be tougher, manage your stress, build a bit more grit. During countless conversations with leaders and teams over the last few years it has been seen that those words do real damage to people who are trying hard to do their best. When tiredness is no longer fixed by a weekend, when feedback lands as a threat, and when change is met with a sigh, it gets recorded under ‘poor personal resilience’, effectively telling people the problem is with them. I don’t think it is. I think we’re looking in the wrong place. (more…)

Productivity gains from workplace AI mean little if they erase professional judgment

Productivity gains from workplace AI mean little if they erase professional judgment

Speed can become a dangerous proxy for the value of workplace AI when leaders stop asking what happened to the judgment behind the work.The strongest case for workplace AI rarely begins with a dramatic breakthrough. It begins with ordinary time savings: a report drafted faster, a plan assembled in minutes or a first pass produced without the usual blank-page delay. Those gains matter. Yet speed can become a dangerous proxy for value when leaders stop asking what happened to the judgment behind the work. (more…)

Work Beyond Walls is an event that promises to shift the way we talk about offices

Work Beyond Walls is an event that promises to shift the way we talk about offices

A new event in the North East of England promises to explore offices and the way we talk about them in a new wayOur sector produces an enormous amount of content about change, and almost all of it is published after the outcome is known. Case studies of offices appear once the move-in has gone well. Award entries are written once the risks have been mitigated. What gets shared among us is, overwhelmingly, a library of polished endings. Work in Motion is an attempt at the complete opposite. It’s a six-part documentary podcast series following the inside story of Work Beyond Walls – a brand new event at the Boiler Shop in Newcastle on 9 and 10 September – written and presented by me, Ian Ellison, as plans unfold, rather than once the event has happened. (more…)