Search Results for: collaboration

The negative entropy of workplace design and management

The negative entropy of workplace design and management

by • Comment, Workplace design

Immediately after the Workplace Trends Summit in London last October, Ian Ellison of 3edges and I retired to a side room to record an interview for a podcast over a glass of red wine. The main objective was to try to piece together a coherent summary of what we’d seen that day. Ian assures me the podcast (his are invariably excellent) will appear very soon, but I thought it would be worth exploring a theory I formed and rambled on about in our conversation ahead of the next Summit set to take place next week.

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Mobile working is a recipe for business success

Mobile working is a recipe for business success

by • Comment, Technology, Workplace design

Today, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is changing the face of work as we know it: introducing AI and automation to the workplace and creating a drastic shift in the skills required by organisations today. As automation increasingly frees employees up from the repetitive, process work that can so often dominate their day-to-day, organisations are instead looking to employees to showcase their critical thinking and creativity. Indeed, McKinsey’s Skill Shift confirms that by 2030 the demand for higher cognitive skills, such as creativity, critical thinking and decision making will grow by 14 percent in Europe.

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Noisy workplaces regularly distract and stress out staff

Noisy workplaces regularly distract and stress out staff

by • Facilities management, News, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Over half (52 percent) of workers are interrupted by noise distractions more than five times in a working day, with 17 percent stating that they are interrupted by noise more than 10 times. This is according to the Noise and Wellbeing at Work 2019 survey conducted by The Remark Group, and supported by environmental psychologist and workplace strategist Dr Nigel Oseland, an honorary senior lecturer at UCL’s Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering.  In the survey of 1,000 UK-based office workers, 65 percent reported that noise in the workplace impacted on their ability to complete work in an accurate and timely manner. (more…)

Companies that adopt agile working enjoy improved financial performance, claims report

Companies that adopt agile working enjoy improved financial performance, claims report

by • Flexible working, News

Companies that embrace agile working and and a generally more flexible and responsive way of working enjoy a financial and operational competitive advantage over their rivals, according to new research from PA Consulting.  Two thirds of the respondents said that their business model is at risk of fundamentally becoming outdated, with agile considered a key method for transitioning to a future-proof strategy. While agile is typically regarded by many as a method geared at streamlining operations, PA Consulting’s research suggests the approach could take things a step further. The consultancy conducted an international study among 500 executives of large companies across a range of sectors, asking them how they view agile working and what they see as the key factors for successful adoption. (more…)

UK employers struggling with recruitment and retention of service workers

UK employers struggling with recruitment and retention of service workers

by • Facilities management, Flexible working, Workplace

UK employers struggling with recruitment and retention of service workersThe recruitment and retention of manual and elementary service workers has become a significant challenge for UK employers, claims a new study. The research by Quinyx in collaboration with Development Economics and Censuswide, found that factors such as low pay and a lack of flexibility are key issue, resulting in nearly half (49 percent) of UK employers finding it difficult to recruit these workers, and the same percentage reporting challenges around retention. Issues with recruitment and retention were discovered to be most acute in industries such as hospitality, catering & leisure and retail. In addition, larger businesses (those with a workforce of 250 to 500) are more likely to face challenges compared to smaller-sized businesses. Regionally, businesses in London and the East of England are most likely to struggle to recruit workers into manual or elementary service roles. The findings come at a time when UK employers are expressing growing concern around access to manual and elementary service workers post-Brexit.

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Construction and property firms call on Government to set binding environmental targets

Construction and property firms call on Government to set binding environmental targets

by • Environment, News

Twenty-three of the UK’s most influential built environment businesses have signed an open letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer asking for the Environment Bill to provide the foundation for economic growth that is restorative and regenerative by design. In the letter, which was coordinated by UK Green Building Council in collaboration with GreenerUK, the signatories highlight the depletion of nature in the UK and call for a strong response to the challenge this presents. They urge the Government to use the upcoming Environment Bill to set legally binding targets for the achievement of environmental objectives – including tackling biodiversity loss, improving water and air quality and cutting down resource use and waste. (more…)

Designing a better workforce: how workplace design can impact wellbeing

Designing a better workforce: how workplace design can impact wellbeing

by • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design

A cartoon of a man painting a mountain to de-stressIn a recent survey, 95 percent of office workers said their physical work environment is important for their wellbeing and mental health. However, half believe their current working environment does not have a positive effect on their mental health, wellbeing, mood and productivity. The issue of employee wellbeing has risen up business’ agendas in recent years, and, as part of the drive for better mental health support for workers, companies are looking at ways in which the physical workplace can improve the mental health of their employees.

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Radical new environmental approach is needed to fix the global system, claims report

Radical new environmental approach is needed to fix the global system, claims report

by • Environment, News

Entire systems change and fewer ‘sticking-plaster’ solutions from world leaders are urgently needed to address global challenges, reveals a report from sustainability non-profit, Forum for the Future. The report calls for urgent collaboration between governments, businesses, NGOs and investors to avoid climate change disaster and secure the future of our society and economy. The Future of Sustainability 2019: Driving systems change in turbulent times reveals a ‘perfect storm’ of seven factors that are set to impact sustainability in the future – including climate migration, nationalism, plastics and biodiversity loss. (more…)

Vast majority of organisations still struggle with videoconferencing

Vast majority of organisations still struggle with videoconferencing

by • Flexible working, News, Technology

The overwhelming majority of enterprises (90 per cent) report that they experience challenges when connecting to video conference calls. This is according to a new survey from StarLeaf, conducted by Vanson Bourne, which includes responses from 500 IT decision-makers and Line-of-Business leaders in the UK, France, Germany, and the US and from a broad spectrum of private sector enterprises (with over 1,000 employees) with the aim to understand attitudes towards the general use of video conferencing systems.

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Landlords must respond in new ways to the changing world of work

Landlords must respond in new ways to the changing world of work

by • Comment, Technology, Workplace design

Hammocks, remote working, hot-desking. Contrary to common belief, these aren’t the only conversations landlords are having with designers on how to approach their workspaces for today’s tenants. Rising property values, the growth of flexible offices and political uncertainty have forced landlords to change the way they market their properties to respond to the demands of occupiers. And with no sign of London’s commercial office marketplace calming in the near future, the need for landlords to remain flexible and create channels of communication with their tenants, remains strong. (more…)

Century Office begins experiment into six hour working day

Century Office begins experiment into six hour working day

by • Company news, Flexible working

Century Office will soon be commencing an experiment into a shorter working day. In collaboration with the University of Essex, Century Office will be shortening the working day down to 6.5 hours. They expect that, although it remains to be proven, that employees will become more focussed and productive as the desire for more leisure times and time for self-care, family, hobbies etc outweighs the tendency for idle chat and periods of low productivity. It is also hoped that participants will feel less anxious or tired as they have more time to pursue personal endeavours and come out of work mode.

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Lack of cohesion in many organisations on adoption of digital workplace

Lack of cohesion in many organisations on adoption of digital workplace

by • AI, Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Technology

The majority of organisations (58 percent) do not have a have a clearly defined strategy in place when it comes to adopting and integrating digital workspace technology which suggests that implementing and making use of such technology is still being carried out in something of a haphazard manner. The findings of the research are summarised in SoftwareONE’s Building a Lean, Mean, Digital Machine report, which also claims that, despite the fact that almost all organisations (99 percent) employ some form of digital workspace technology, respondents have encountered a host of challenges when it comes to using them. These include higher security risks (cited by 47 percent) and a lack of employee knowledge in how best to use the solutions (45 percent).  (more…)

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