Search Results for: business

Permanent working from home would reduce UK economy by £480 billion

Permanent working from home would reduce UK economy by £480 billion

by • Flexible working, News

A new study claims that if British workers do not return to their offices at all, the UK economy could contract by £480 billion. The study from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), and led by Douglas McWilliams, a former chief economic adviser to the Confederation of British Industry, suggests that in a worst case scenario, the British economy would not return to its size before the coronavirus pandemic until 2025 if people continue working from home as they have over the past few months. More →

A new social contract can improve the everyday experience of work

A new social contract can improve the everyday experience of work

by • Comment, Workplace

It’s not happening quickly enough for some and too slowly for others, but most companies are in the midst of managing a return to work and grappling with a very different post COVID-19 world and what it means for employees. HR professionals are paying close attention to how well employees are faring and are looking to build new forms of employee care into company cultures and values. But maybe there is something more they can do to foster employee trust and safety? More →

Using nature based solutions in buildings will help address climate change

Using nature based solutions in buildings will help address climate change

by • Architecture, Environment, Facilities management, News

The IGNITION project from the UK Green Building Council has published its first report for businesses, titled ‘Nature-based solutions to the climate emergency: The benefits to business and society’  The report claims to provide organisations with the data they need to make informed decisions about the types of urban nature-based solutions (NBS) available to them and how these can help meet sustainability objectives to benefit business, society and the environment. It sets out to highlight the benefits of using NBS across the built environment and aims to inspire confidence in business leaders and investors to increase the use of NBS. More →

Workers routinely conceal mental health issues from employer

Workers routinely conceal mental health issues from employer

by • News, Wellbeing

Three-in-ten (30 percent) office employees have claimed to be physically ill when calling in sick despite in fact suffering from a mental health problem, according to a new survey of 2,000 white-collar employees in London by Helix Resilience. The responses suggest that 18-24-year olds are the most likely to conceal a mental health problem when calling in sick – with 37 percent of this age group reporting to have done this at least once. More →

There is more to lighting a space than meets the eye

There is more to lighting a space than meets the eye

by • Environment, Features, Wellbeing, Workplace design

The best lighting design is the one you don’t notice. Coco Chanel once said: “dress shabbily and they remember the dress; dress impeccably and they remember the woman.” It’s the same with lighting. If you notice the light sources, and you can feel annoyed by them, then the design just doesn’t work. Essentially, there’s more to lighting than first meets the eye. More →

Office furniture giant Steelcase achieves carbon neutral status

Office furniture giant Steelcase achieves carbon neutral status

by • Company news, Environment

office furniture and technologyUS based office furniture giant Steelcase has announced it has achieved carbon neutrality for its own operations. The company also announced new 2030 goals that have been validated by the Science Based Targets initiative. Building upon this momentum, the firm has established a goal to become carbon negative by 2030. More →

Working from home and the future of work. How quaint

Working from home and the future of work. How quaint

by • Comment, Flexible working, Technology

In 1962, a professor of communication studies called Everett Rogers came up with the principle we call diffusion of innovation. It’s a familiar enough notion, widely taught and works by plotting the adoption of new ideas and products over time as a bell curve, before categorising groups of people along its length as innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. It’s a principle bound up with human capital theory and so its influence has endured for over 50 years, albeit in a form compressed by our accelerated proliferation of ideas. It may be useful, but it lacks a third dimension in the modern era. That is, a way of describing the numbers of people who are in one category but think they are in another.

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Job clusters and urban sprawl will become evident post lockdown

Job clusters and urban sprawl will become evident post lockdown

by • Cities, Features, Flexible working

job clustersFor most of us the experience of working from home this year has, on balance, been positive – enough that it may well become the norm after the COVID-19 crisis ends. But modelling by Victoria University’s Centre of Policy Studies shows there will be costs alongside the personal benefits, with more urban sprawl, job clusters with a flight to the biggest cities and greater economic disparities between regions. More →

Workers only apply newly learned skills half of the time

Workers only apply newly learned skills half of the time

by • News, Workplace

Employees are applying only 54 percent of the new skills they learn, despite the number of skills required for a single job increasing by 10 percent year on year, according to Gartner, Inc. Gartner TalentNeuron data also claims that 33 percent of the skills needed three years ago are no longer relevant. More →

Furloughed workers feel insecure about their future

Furloughed workers feel insecure about their future

by • Flexible working, News

New data looking into the attitudes of  6,273 employees, commissioned by Perkbox, claims the considerable impacts of the furlough scheme and the prospect of returning to work to wellbeing. The research claims that 61 percent of furloughed workers have concerns over their future job security, and a further 42 percent have concerns about the future of their company due to their employer’s participation in the scheme. This is despite almost half (45 percent) enjoying the time off and break from working that this time provided. More →

Survival, inquiry, sophistication – picking the right workplace battles

Survival, inquiry, sophistication – picking the right workplace battles

by • Comment, Workplace design

We know, and have for a long time, that the workplace is in a state of near constant flux. The meteor strike of lockdown is an accelerant, not a deviation. It has also laid bare -yet again – the faulty assumption that there is some sort of general evolution towards an idealised version of the office. That is why we see so many people routinely willing to suspend their critical facilities to make extravagant and even absurd predictions about the office of the future or even the death of the office. More →

People increasingly confident about return to offices

People increasingly confident about return to offices

by • News, Wellbeing

Half (49 percent) of employed British adults feel positive about the prospect of returning to their place of work after lockdown, with less than one in five (18 percent) feeling negative, an Aviva study claims. The findings paint a relatively positive picture for businesses that have supported their people through lockdown, such as regularly communicating with workers and taking necessary steps to manage the risk of infection in the workplace. However, where businesses have not embraced risk management and prevention strategies, employees may decide not to return to work at all. More →

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