Search Results for: Gen Z

September 25, 2023

Innovative ideas and artistic expression converge at the Workspace Design Show Amsterdam

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Events

Discover a unique event experience that transcends the boundaries of artistic inspiration at the upcoming Workspace Design Show, taking place from 11 – 12 October at RAI, Amsterdam. This event will bring together the Benelux workplace interiors community in a dynamic exploration of the future of experiential workspaces. The Workspace Design Talks will host 13 panel discussions and over 50 leading speakers. Renowned firms such as UNStudio, D/DOCK, Booking.com, EDGE, MVRDV, Turner & Townsend, KAAN Architecten, CBRE Design Collective, Miro, Cushman & Wakefield, and many others will be there to share their insights. (more…)

September 25, 2023

Women continue to struggle with the return to work after maternity leave

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

A new poll suggests that while 98 percent of women want to return to work after maternity leave, only 13 percent say it’s actually viable for them. The survey of 848 mothers commissioned by Careers After Babies looked at what happened to their careers after having children. The survey looked into four areas – maternity leave, returning to work, career progression and what women actually want. (more…)

September 25, 2023

Workspace Design Show returns for third UK edition next February

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Events

Workspace Design Show, the leading trade show bringing together the UK workplace design community, returns to London’s Business Design Centre for its eagerly awaited third UK edition from 27-28 February 2024. At the 2023 event, visitor number increased by an impressive 75 percent year on year with exhibitors from over 20 countries showcasing innovative and transformational workplace interiors products over the two days. Building on this success, over three quarters of stand space is already booked for 2024. (more…)

September 20, 2023

Knowledge workers have a particularly unhealthy relationship with work

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing

Three quarters of UK knowledge workers say they have an unhealthy relationship with work and two thirds of those say that work has had a negative effect on their health and wellbeing. That is one of the headline findings from a new report into the working lives of 15,600 people worldwide from HP. The report also suggests that three quarters of respondents would take a pay cut to be happier at work or to work wherever they want. (more…)

September 18, 2023

Smart technology needs to start with people if it wants to get smarter

by David Sharp • Features, Technology, Wellbeing

“My engineering students had come to class with technology on their minds.” So says artist and design researcher Sara Hendren, author of What a Body Can Do: How we Meet the Built World. It’s a fascinating book in which she consciously pushes back against the prevailing narrative that so-called smart technology has a fix for every problem. As a professor teaching design for disability at Olin College of Engineering, Massachusetts, Hendren draws attention to the assumptions that drive normative behaviours to define what is a ‘problem’ in the first place. (more…)

September 14, 2023

Is the Flexible Working Bill a game changer or paper tiger?

by Sam Ross • Comment, Flexible working

As LinkedIn data has shown, demand for work flexible working is high. And it outpaces the current availability of remote work offers. In the UK alone, listings for remote jobs have increased by 277 percent. Job postings for hybrid or remote positions received an increase in applications (189 percent) over in-office roles. People want to work remotely for various reasons. So they can live in their chosen home rather than in a tiny flat in London without sacrificing their career. So they can care for family – children, parents, grandparents. The demand for flexible work is driven by a desire for balance. The need has been clearly voiced – and the workforce is hungry for new modes of work. Looking at this background – the cheerful response to the passing of the bill is understandable. (more…)

September 14, 2023

Boasting about ESG credentials can really put people off a business

by Neil Franklin • Environment, News

Efforts by some businesses to promote their environmental and social impact on society are pushing some customers away and risk damaging their reputations, according to a poll conducted by public relations agency, Clearly PR. Of the 2,072 business leaders, entrepreneurs, and marketing professionals polled, 31 percent said they were “put off” a business that talks a lot about their ESG initiatives in the media and on social media. (more…)

September 13, 2023

Half of firms won’t meet 2030 decarbonisation target, report claims

by Jayne Smith • Environment, Facilities management, News, Property

A new report from Siemens Infrastructure claims that there is limited agreement amongst businesses on how best to progress towards a decarbonised and resource-efficient world and under half expect to meet their net zero targets based on current thinking. According to the Transition Monitor 2023: The Great Divide on The Path to Net Zero report, whilst more than half of those surveyed believe the infrastructure transition is accelerating in their region, a quarter of senior executives said that progress on decarbonisation is “too slow”, while 29 percent believe progress is “coordinated”, and 31 percent describe it as “on target”. (more…)

September 11, 2023

Is the workplace experience shaped more by maintenance or by design?

by Andrew Brown • Facilities management, Features, Workplace design

What has resilience got to do with the workplace experience? It is a word that has been used a lot recently as the great British public has demonstrated massive amounts of resilience in coping with Covid-19, fuel shortages, worries about food availability and a massive shift in how we work. So what is it? The dictionary gives two meanings: firstly the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties, i.e. toughness. And then secondly, the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity – like nylon for example. (more…)

September 8, 2023

The Works Place

by Mark Eltringham •

Can we talk about sustainable design?

“There are no solutions, there are only trade-offs; and you try to get the best trade-off you can get, that’s all you can hope for.”

Does Thomas Sowell’s (in)famous dictum about the harsh reality of economics and existence describe a permanent condition for sustainable design? Are the materials, supply chains and processes we use merely less worse than their alternatives or can we hope to achieve something that is genuinely better?

That is one of the many complex questions we’ll be addressing at a new interactive event we are hosting at the London Design Festival this year. And we’d love you to come talk to us about it as we look for some answers to the most pressing issues of our time. You can book tickets here.

We have created a space and conversation forum that will showcase the latest and most innovative thinking on sustainable design, circularity, new materials and innovation. Known as The Works Place, products and ideas will be presented in a range of working settings. And most importantly it’s a chance to talk and share your views about what is possible and what we might dream to do better.

Partners include Flokk, Area, Mater, Humanscale, The Collective Agency, Material Matters, Woven Image, Crafting Plastics, Obo, Future Designs, Women in Office Design and The Sustainable Design Collective.

The Works Place is at the iconic five-storey Bargehouse building from 20-23 September as part of Material Matters.

September 7, 2023

AI is giving business leaders the heebie-jeebies, new poll suggests

by Jayne Smith • News

An overwhelming majority of business leaders (94 percent) admit to some form of ‘tech anxiety’ when it comes to AI and other technology, according to a new survey from Kin + Carta. This anxiety is on the rise as the pace of digital and technological change accelerates, and is prompting top executives to invest more in digital transformation, according to the survey. The report defines tech anxiety as the feeling senior leaders have as a result of the rapid pace of advancements in technology that are causing concern when it comes to how their business operates. While the top source of that anxiety is cyber security (cited by 24 percent of respondents), close behind, and rounding out the top three, are concerns over AI and machine learning (19 percent), and anxieties about sustainability strategy and tracking (17 percent). (more…)

September 7, 2023

How to rebuild social connection for high-performance hybrid work: a deep-dive for workplace innovators

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Events

Social connection is often cited as a justification for return-to-office mandates, many of which are not well received by employees. This suggests that merely spending time in the office isn’t enough to spark the connection that gets ideas flowing, ramps up performance and creates a cohesive culture. So, if physical presence alone isn’t enough to rebuild connection, what is? Workplace innovators exploring the issues around hybrid work now have the opportunity to dig deep and find out.

Tune into HubStar’s upcoming webinar on Thursday September 19th at 4 PM BST for an exploration of the approaches, strategies and tools necessary to rebuild social connection in complex hybrid workplaces.

Workplace innovators are facing the greatest opportunity of our generation to positively disrupt the way we work, but as Einstein said, we can’t solve problems with the same kind of thinking we used to create them.

So what kind of thinking is required to ignite the magic of meaningful connection at work? How do we stop hybrid work strategies from stalling? And, which tools and approaches can help us manage the complexity inherent in new ways of working?

In this 30 minute webinar, you’ll discover:

Key trends impacting people, hybrid workplaces and organisational performance in 2023 and beyond
A step-by-step framework for overcoming remote working inertia and rebuilding social connection in the office
Dynamic Workplace Management: a new framework for positive change across 3 dimensions: people, profit and planet

The webinar will include a live Q&A with the speaker, Jane Young and the VP Product at HubStar, Chris L’Hommedieu.

HubStar is a global company with operations in the US, UK, Europe and APAC. The company provides a next-generation dynamic workplace management platform to drive productivity, collaboration and workplace experience while reducing real estate costs. HubStar helps thousands of teams in over 60 countries create dynamic workplaces. For more information visit hubstar.com