November 28, 2023

Massive investment programme needed to facilitate carbon neutral future, WEF report claims

To facilitate the transition to a more sustainable and carbon-neutral future, $13.5 trillion in investments will be needed by 2050, particularly in the production, energy and transport sectors, according to a new World Economic Forum report. The Net-Zero Industry Tracker 2023, published in collaboration with Accenture, takes stock of progress towards net-zero emissions for eight industries – steel, cement, aluminium, ammonia, excluding other chemicals, oil and gas, aviation, shipping and trucking – which depend on fossil fuels for 90 percent of their energy demand and pose some of the most technological and capital-intensive decarbonization challenges. (more…)

November 28, 2023

Unpicking the retrofit enigma

by Mark Eltringham • Briefing, News, Property, Workplace design

Earlier this year, a report from building consultancy Mace advocated for a retrofit first principle for buildings. The report highlighted how non-domestic buildings in the UK make up about an eighth of the country’s building stock but account for around a quarter of the country’s carbon emissions. The solution argued for in the report was to look at how best to retrofit around 3.5 million such buildings over the next ten years. We explore many of the issues around this crucial subject in this supplement produced in partnership with BVN. It represents both a snapshot of the current conversations about retrofit while pointing a way ahead. This one will run and run, but we need to get it right. (more…)

November 27, 2023

If you want people to feel fulfilled at work, you’d better cough up

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

According to a new poll from United Culture, salary is what makes most people feel fulfilled at work. More than half of employees (55 percent) ranked it as their key consideration, ahead of ‘softer’ factors such as doing something worthwhile (41 percent), or working with people they like (39 percent). It also ranks significantly higher than opportunities that will play out over the longer term, such as having a clear sense of career progression (37 percent). (more…)

November 27, 2023

From the archive: The role of workplace design in employee engagement ⁰

by Serena Borghero • Features, Wellbeing, Work&Place, Workplace design

Originally published six years ago, this feature is currently the most read story ever on the website with around 50,000 readers. A global study by my own firm Steelcase has found that one-third of workers across 17 of the world’s most important economies are actually disengaged. The findings make worrying reading for employers around the world, as engagement is so demonstrably linked to business critical outcomes such as employee retention, productivity and even profits. It certainly raises the question of what more can be done, including in terms of workplace design, to boost engagement levels amongst these employees. (more…)

November 27, 2023

To agility and beyond: what NASA can teach us about strategic change

by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News

A new research project from ESMT Berlin and Warwick Business School sets out to find what the history of NASA history can teach organisations about strategic agility, and how organisations can adapt their business models effectively to cater to external challenges. To shed light on how strategic agility is achieved, the study follows NASA’s successful shifts to three different strategic alignments over the past 60 years. (more…)

November 27, 2023

Appetite for hybrid working shows no sign of letting up at large firms

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

The ongoing advancements in technology have made remote collaboration more feasible and seamless than ever before. Collaboration tools have become essential in ensuring the coexistence of the digital and physical workplace, both internally with employees and externally with clients. And in 2023, companies have been posting hybrid working related roles in record numbers, according to a new report from GlobalData. (more…)

November 24, 2023

The final word on… workplace trends

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace design

You would not believe the number of firms that ask us to publish a list of workplace trends each week. Or maybe you would, given the number that have appeared – and are appearing -elsewhere. Each firm perhaps convinced they are saying something original, unique or interesting, or maybe simply convinced they stand out in some way, while pushing the same timid, stale narratives about the workplace. They will proliferate over the next month or so at the turn of another year. (more…)

November 22, 2023

Business leaders who screw up struggle to own up and learn from their mistakes

by Neil Franklin • Business, News

Leaders making mistakes can be costly not only to the organisation, but also to their own job security, which makes it difficult for them to admit when there’s been an error. However, new research from emlyon business school shows that there are some techniques CEOs can use to frame these mistakes, in order to ensure they keep their jobs, but also make changes in their organisation. When there is this clear trade-off between admitting a mistake and potentially losing power and control in the organisation, it is important that CEOs use their language effectively to create a safe space for themselves in the organisation – but how can they do so? (more…)

November 20, 2023

Manchester is now a major draw for office design firms

by Mark Eltringham • Cities, Features, Workplace design

Way before the lockdown rewired the whole events scene in cities around the world, I was given a task by an old, now departed, friend. He wanted to explore the possibility of creating something like Clerkenwell Design Week in Manchester. The obvious problem was that, for some of its historic parallels, Manchester isn’t Clerkenwell and it certainly isn’t London. What it particularly lacked for this type of event was a hothouse of office design showrooms sharing space with a youthful community of architects and designers. The ecosystem for such an event didn’t really exist in the same way. (more…)

November 17, 2023

The Workplace Cocktail Hour with Jo Sutherland and Esme Banks-Marr

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, Podcasts, Premium Content, Wellbeing, Workplace Cocktail Hour

Mark Eltringham is joined for a glass of red wine (or two) by Esme Banks-Marr of BVN architects and Jo Sutherland of Magenta. They discuss the joys of shared space, when people should tell AI to FO, the limits of workplace design, how to create a great culture wherever people work and much more. (more…)

November 14, 2023

Republished: The brain-dead megaphone of work

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Working lives

There is nothing new about any of this. And yet it’s all new. I’ve spent months talking to people who really know their stuff about work and workplaces and underlying nearly all of those conversations is the following paradox. They know about flexible working, the under-utilisation of space, the twenty minute neighbourhood, the work ecosystem, universal basic income, the digital workspace, the office as club, all the rest of it. Heard it all before, often many times, over many years. Some of them have been living it too, and yet… (more…)

November 14, 2023

No one shouted stop, although we all should have seen it coming

by Chris Kane • Comment, Everything Omni, Facilities management, Property, Workplace design

And No One Shouted Stop! seems to me to be an apt phrase to capture these post- pandemic times as we grapple with work and workplace dilemmas. It comes from the little-known but widely acclaimed book of the same name by John Healy. It is set over 50 years ago and it chronicles the decline of an Irish town. The book’s underlying narrative is a train crash happening in slow motion, people see it coming but nobody feels able to stop it. I sincerely hope that this will not prove to be the case for the world of commercial real estate as it grapples with hordes of tenants asking not just ‘where is my office?’ But ‘why do I need an office?’ (more…)