September 12, 2023

Shanghai Design Week announces details of London event

by Neil Franklin • Events, News, Workplace design

Shanghai Design Week has announced details of its ‘Design to Wonderland’ event, being staged in London for the first time later this month. The event organisers hope that the inaugural event will serve as a global platform to spotlight Chinese innovation across a number of creative sectors, including architecture, art, fashion, and beauty. Taking place from 16th – 29th September, China Exchange Centre will host the event, a collaboration between Shanghai Design Week and the London Design Festival. As well as being a celebration of Chinese creativity, D2W is planned to serve as ‘a bridge’ between the design industries of China and the UK. London Design Festival is also hosting an event in collaboration with Insight, details of which can be found here. 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

September 5, 2023

Working from home won’t last forever… will it?

by Zain Ali • Comment, Flexible working, Technology

Have we all gone a little OTT on RTO? The so-called return to office and pushback on working from home seems to be the must-talk topic on workplace strategy right now; a heated debate ignited by Zoom’s recent call to reduce remote working days for its employees. Many have been surprised at how polarising this decision has become. Who would have thought that a global business asking employees to work from the office two days a week could cause such controversy? Even if that business does specialise in video calls for remote work? More →

August 18, 2023

The challenge for office acoustics is to make people feel at home

by Freddie Steele • Comment, Workplace design

A number of apparent truisms about work and workplaces entered mainstream consciousness in the wake of the pandemic, and the shift to more flexible and hybrid working cultures. One of them is that people are better off carrying out focussed, quiet work at home, and creative and collaborative work in the office. And that this might suggest our approach to office acoustics would shift in particular ways. More →

August 10, 2023

Zoom opens new London ‘Engagement Hub’

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Flexible working, Technology, Workplace design

Zoom has opened a new London ‘Engagement Hub’ which the firm claims will spearhead the shift from traditional office spaces to ‘experiential working hubs’. With the demand for hybrid working and remote capabilities giving rise to unconventional ways of operating, Zoom says it has designed its new office to support the changing nature of the employee experience, marking a new era of modern work. More →

August 7, 2023

Webinar: How to adapt to a new era of dynamic space management

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Facilities management

As organizations adopt hybrid work, reduce their real estate footprint and redesign floor plans, space planners are running into a slew of new challenges. Yesterday’s antiquated tools can’t handle these challenges, because they were built for the old, relatively static world of work. More →

August 7, 2023

Sedus office cube solutions: a symbiosis of proximity and distance

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Furniture

Open space concepts, flexibility and new working styles will continue to be defining characteristics of the office of the future. They offer a number of advantages by eroding entrenched structures and supporting collaboration and communication. When people work in close proximity, with flexible meetings and spontaneous exchanges, they are able to determine the shape of each working day. Employees are increasingly deciding for themselves where and how they can best manage their tasks. Concentrated individual work shifts seamlessly into collaborative work and teamwork precedes periods of retreat or relaxation. For certain tasks, focus, silence and a sense of distance from the outside environment are essential. The office cube solution is one way of insulating people from interruptions and unwelcome noise. As an enclosed cubicle and thanks to its acoustically effective components, se:cube from Sedus can minimise acoustic and visual disruption. More →

August 1, 2023

Award-winning WorkBold Podcast returns for a ninth season on space-as-a-service

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Podcasts

Caleb Parker’s award-winning #WorkBold Podcast returned for an industry-leading ninth season, which took the podcast to over 100,000 downloads (117,000 at the time of publishing this article) with an audience from 90+ countries. The only podcast dedicated to Space-as-a-Service (SPaaS), #WorkBold Podcast is in the top one percent of business podcasts globally. Its host, entrepreneur Caleb Parker, is the founder of Bold – a joint venture with NewFlex. More →

July 31, 2023

Digital nomads are starting to price out local communities around the world

by Dave Cook • Cities, Comment, Flexible working

For eight years I have studied digital nomadism, the millennial trend for working remotely from anywhere around the world. I am often asked if digital nomads are driving gentrification. Before COVID upended the way we work, I would usually tell journalists that the numbers were too small for a definitive answer. Most digital nomads were travelling and working illegally on tourist visas. It was a niche phenomenon. Three years into the pandemic, however, I am no longer sure. More →

July 26, 2023

One-third of hybrid working managers feel they need to prove their worth when working from home

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

A poll of 3,000 workers in Europe and North America from Insights Learning & Development claims that managers of hybrid working teams see multiple benefits to a new working arrangement. These include improved team performance, improved team agility and increased ability to deliver on objectives. However, on a personal level, many managers highlighted the need for more support. Almost one-third (30 percent) of these managers feel they need to prove their worth when working from home – significantly higher than the non-management population. More →

July 14, 2023

To boost productivity in the UK, we need to think big and different

by Peter McAteer • Comment, Technology

The decline in UK productivity since the Great Recession of 2008/2009 has been a matter of concern for business leaders, policymakers, and economists alike. Despite hopes that the pandemic would act as a catalyst for transformation and boost productivity, recent figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that the UK still lags behind several other G7 economies. More →

July 11, 2023

Workplace generations express different demands of their jobs

by Neil Franklin • News

Even though people who belong to so-called Generation Z are often described as digital natives, it is actually ‘Baby Boomers’ who are most focussed on workplace technology, a new poll claims. The report from interior design and fit-out business Claremont claims that firms are having to work increasingly hard to address the needs and priorities of different workplace generations. It claims that Baby Boomers (born 1946 to 1964) want better technology in the office to help them be more productive. They also want more face-to-face collaboration and team spirit more than any other generation. More →