June 25, 2019

Office furniture firms take their partners

by Colin Watson • Comment, Furniture, Workplace design

The development of products for the workplace follow many trends, generally aiming to provide that ideal setting for maximum effectiveness and fully tuned to the philosophies of the day. The processes involved can occupy a good proportion of time and energy for the workplace specialist and office furniture maker and feature heavily in the media. But, behind all the product cacophony, there are activities, often unseen, that make more difference to what will become available in furnishing the workplace. More →

June 25, 2019

Tech laggards face extinction unless they innovate

by Mark Eltringham • News, Technology

Many larger businesses are struggling to implement digital transformation in spite of the dangers to their long term survival, a new joint report from CBI and Oracle claims. According to Bigger, Faster, Stronger, the improved adoption of technology could unlock productivity and wage growth. Research shows that more adoption, coupled with better management practices, could add £100 billion to the UK economy and cut income inequality by 5 per cent. However, only 54 per cent of UK companies believe disruptive technologies play an important role in their organisation, much lower than in countries such as France, Germany, India and Russia. More →

June 25, 2019

Dublin EFMC conference brings together the facilities world

by Freddie Steele • Facilities management, News

The Aviva Stadium in Dublin hosted from 13th to 14th June the 27th Edition of EFMC, the European Facility Management Conference. The event, held for the first time in the Irish capital, has brought together international experts of the FM sector and has served as a platform of communication amongst facilities managers, suppliers, Universities and associations. The event culminated with tours of One Microsoft Place and the offices of Google in the Irish capital. In the closing ceremony it was announced that EFMC 2020 will be held in Barcelona. More →

June 24, 2019

US workers do not want to work from home all the time

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Workplace design

Most US workers prefer to spend some time in an office (83 percent) over fully working from home, according to a new survey of full-time employees from Clutch. Respondents claim that office based work helps them collaborate with coworkers and feel included in the company’s culture. However, more than half of employees (52 percent) say they prefer a private office to a workstation in an open floor plan or cubicle office at work. More →

June 24, 2019

Cultural issues hold back digital transformation

by Neil Franklin • News, Technology

New research from Oracle and the WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management claims that many organisations have invested in the right technologies to enjoy the benefits of digital transformation, but lack the culture, skills or behaviours necessary to reap them fully. According to the report (registration), business efficiency increases by two thirds when the right technology is implemented alongside seven key factors but only by a fifth when implemented without them.

June 10, 2019

Coworking disrupts office design ⁰

by Paul Goodchild • Comment, Coworking, Facilities management, Flexible working, Workplace design

In his book How Buildings Learn, the author Stewart Brand outlines the process whereby buildings evolve over time to meet the changing needs of their occupants. He describes each building as consisting of six layers, each of which functions on a different timescale. These range from the site itself which has a life cycle measured in centuries, through to the building (decades), interior fit out (years), technology (months), to stuff (days). The effectiveness of a design will depend on how well it resolves the tensions that exist between these layers of the building, and this is one of the benefits of coworking that isn’t discussed enough.

June 7, 2019

Flexible working held back by poor data

by Neil Franklin • News

Many managers still rely on gut feelings and inadequate or flawed data to make important but potentially poor decisions about real estate and flexible working. That is the main conclusion of a new piece of research by flexible workplace specialist Abintra. Published in a new report, the study highlights how corporations are struggling to manage office space efficiently as the trend towards agile and flexible working gathers momentum.

June 6, 2019

In defence of open plan office design

by Elizabeth Mixson • Features, Workplace design

Noisy, distracting, toxic and disastrous. These are just a few words that have been used to describe open plan office layouts. Though the open office layout model was originally conceived to promote collaboration, innovation and stronger workplace relationship, if recent press is to be believed, it’s had the opposite effect at many companies. More →

June 3, 2019

Come for the rent, stay for the experience of coworking

by Aki Stamatis • Comment, Coworking, Workplace design

When attending last year’s CoreNet Global Summit in Boston, there was a poll of the real estate executives gathered to discuss the key trends affecting the world of commercial property. During the event we were asked about our attitudes to coworking by the event organisers and Cushman & Wakefield. What emerged was a portrait of genuine revolution in real estate thinking. The number of employees from the respondents’ organisations using coworking space had doubled in the previous two years and now stood at around 11 percent of all employees. More →

June 3, 2019

The best workplace events to look forward to in June

by Mark Eltringham • Events, News

As the workplace sector raises its profile and that of the key topics that define it and the world sets out to address the wide range of challenges for the way we live and work, some of them even vital for our existence, this might prove to be something of a seminal year and so it’s important to be out and about sharing ideas. Fortunately, you can find a full list of relevant happenings around the world on our Events page, the most comprehensive calendar of workplace related events in the world, in partnership with Herman Miller.

This upcoming month, June 2019 see a range of key topics addressed including wellbeing, sustainability, office design, coworking and acoustics. Here are a few of the best:

BCO Annual Conference
05 June 2019 – 07 June 2019
Copenhagen

RICS Digital Built Environment Conference 2019
05 June 2019
London

Wellbeing at Work
06 June 2019
New York

The Association of Noise Consultants annual conference
06 June 2019
Manchester

The Smart Conversations Workplace Conference
06 June 2019
Barcelona

BRE Wellness and Biophilia Symposium
06 June 2019 – 07 June 2019
Watford

Condeco Workplace Innovation Forum
06 June 2019
London

Neocon
10 June 2019 – 12 June 2019
Chicago

CIPD Festival of Work
12 June 2019 – 13 June 2019
London

Future of Work Summit 2019 – Embrace Change to Manage the new Workplace Reality
13 June 2019
London

Personal preferences in the modern office – with Dr Nigel Oseland
18 June 2019
London

IWFM Annual General Meeting (AGM) June 2019
20 June 2019
London

Workplace Week – New York
24 June 2019 – 28 June 2019
New York

Coworking London Conference 2019
27 June 2019 – 28 June 2019
London

May 27, 2019

The workplace revolution is already here

by Tony Antoniou • Comment, Workplace design

We should all count ourselves privileged to witness first-hand the most dramatic changes in working practices in over two hundred years. This workplace revolution has been brought about mainly by technology which has allowed freedom of movement through Wi-Fi and cloud technology. This freedom has been embraced by the smart companies, allowing their people to thrive by creating workspaces that take advantage of this opportunity to unshackle themselves from fixed desk positions. They have given them great spaces in which to work, to go out and enjoy their environment and to have the ideal place in which to perform each task they are working on throughout their day. More →

May 23, 2019

From storage to stowage: what neuroscience teaches us about work

by Helen Owen • Comment, Workplace design

Insight into the way things work can often come from the strangest and most difficult places. For Jill Bolte Tayor, a neuroscientist well versed in the theory of how the brain works, her particular insight into the practical functioning of the brain came as a result of a stroke she suffered in 1996. What she learned during and after her experience became the subject of a famous Ted Talk in 2008. More →