Search Results for: creativity

We need to design for a multigenerational workforce

We need to design for a multigenerational workforce 0

Excitingly, the workforce is becoming increasingly diverse. However there’s more talk about millennials in the workplace than anyone else. In stark contrast to popular belief, the reality is that the British workforce is getting older on average which means that office design must now consider a new set of workplace requirements. The challenge for designers is to create inclusive environments that address the needs of highly skilled and experienced older workers, while still providing productive environments for all users, ensuring the entire multigenerational workforce is engaged, happy and productive. International bodies are already worried about the fiscal impact of an older workforce, in May the World Economic Forum (WEF) said that a looming fourfold rise in over-65s by 2050 is the financial equivalent of climate change. With people born today having a life expectancy of more than 100, WEF warned of more years in the office to provide financial security in later years, as well as a creeping retirement age heading towards 70. This ageing population and workforce will certainly need consideration when it comes to supporting their health and wellbeing.

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Majority of employees do not think their company culture is embracing the digital age

Majority of employees do not think their company culture is embracing the digital age 0

Majority of employees don’t think their company’s culture is meeting the digital ageA majority of employees (62 percent) believe their company culture is one of the biggest hurdles in the journey to becoming a digital organisation, and this is putting companies at risk in falling behind competition in today’s digital environment claims a new report. The Digital Culture Challenge: Closing the Employee-Leadership Gap published by Capgemini, and Brian Solis, a prominent digital analyst and world renowned author, uncovers a significant perception gap between the senior leadership and employees on the existence of a digital culture within organisations. While 40 percent of senior-level executives believe their firms have a digital culture, only 27 percent of the employees surveyed agreed with this statement. The survey asked respondents to assess their companies’ digital culture based on seven attributes: their collaboration practices, innovation, open culture, digital-first mindset, agility and flexibility, ‘customer centricity’ and a data-driven culture. Insights gathered from the report, and through a series of focus interviews, helped to identify some of the reasons behind this digital culture gap including senior leaders failing to communicate a clear digital vision to the company, the absence of digital role models and a lack of KPIs aligned to digital transformation goals.

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Whether you choose order or chaos depends on what you want to achieve

Whether you choose order or chaos depends on what you want to achieve

Chaos gets a bit of a bad rap when it comes to running a business. Yet as Greg Lindsay highlighted in his interview with Insight a while back, chaos is something that many organisations should actively try to harness as a way of fostering the creativity they claim to desire. Certain structures, be they cultural silos, traditions, professional demarcations or the physical walls and storeys of a building inhibit chaos and so restrict interactions and creative processes. So, if you want to achieve what many businesses say they want to achieve, they need to introduce a little anarchy. We’ve known about or suspected the links between harnessed chaos and creativity for a long time. In his 1883 novel Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None, the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, writes, “I tell you: one must still have chaos in oneself to give birth to a dancing star.” The same idea has been expressed in many ways, but few of them quite so poetic.

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Google submits revised plans for vast new campus in London

Google submits revised plans for vast new campus in London 0

Google has submitted a revised application for planning permission to Camden Council for its proposed £600 million King’s Cross Campus in London. This building will be the first, wholly owned and designed Google building outside the United States. Construction on the purpose-built 11-storey building, comprising of more than 1 million square feet, of which Google will occupy 650,000 sqft, will commence in 2018. The building, designed by Heatherwick Studio and Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) will feature a natural theme, with all materials sourced through Google’s healthy materials programme. This new building, combined with the current building at 6 Pancras Square and an additional third building, will create a Google campus with the potential to house 7,000 Google employees. The new building is being developed from the ground up and will contribute to the Knowledge Quarter and King’s Cross’s growing knowledge-based economy. The original plans for the building from 2013 by AHMM had been put on hold, although some features such as a running track remain.

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Settings and serendipity define workplace design at Clerkenwell Design Week

Settings and serendipity define workplace design at Clerkenwell Design Week 0

Because a vast show like Clerkenwell Design Week is about as easy to digest as a whale omelette, visitors often find themselves discussing with other people what is worth seeing and, perhaps more importantly, what they think its themes are. At this year’s show, the fine weather meant it was possible for people to occupy the pavements with a drink and share a general feeling that in terms of workplace design, there were few, if any, standout products and that most of the themes were now pretty well understood.

There was a great deal of talk about the need for privacy, the creation of a choice of settings in which to work, the influence of the coworking movement, wellbeing, agile working, Millennials, the intersection of design idioms from the domestic and commercial worlds and planned serendipity. These are now familiar subjects and, with the exception of a largely false narrative about Millennials, all in tune with the main concerns of occupiers and employees. They may be familiar but we should celebrate the fact that this in itself signifies not only growing sophistication in the demands of buyers but also the way we address workplace issues as a sector. Most tellingly, there is one common factor at the heart of each of the concerns addressed in the designs on show; people.

This marks a profound shift from the old hierarchical constraints that used to define office design. The idea that a building should be carved up and shared out semi-permanently between individuals based on their job and status for set periods of time now looks more and more archaic as each day passes. The modern workplace can be pretty much anything it wants to be and we should not take that for granted just because it’s been said before.

Boss Design

Boss Design

Encapsulating these ideas was a brand new range from Boss Design called Atom designed by Simon Pengelly. The business model of Boss has always meant it found itself at the intersection of various forms of design with a portfolio of products that could be used in a variety of settings, but Atom offers a fully resolved menu of elements that make the idea explicit.

Where once modularity in furniture design meant that parts fixed and tessellated, it now refers to a more freeform interpretation. This isn’t Lego modularity but something more organic, ingredients rather than parts.

The designs are very much focussed on people. These are the sorts of products that invite people to work in the ways that suit them best. Designers and office buyers are given the elements needed to offer employees choices but without any sense that solutions are prescriptive. As Simon Pengelly explained, it’s all very well having collaborative space but it only works if you’ve then got a space to do something with the ideas you’ve just shared. This was the best resolved system of products at the show and one very finely attuned to 21st Century office life.

Boss Design

 

Steelcase

The world’s largest office furniture manufacturer was pursuing similar themes while also sharing the stage with Microsoft, a firm with which it has just announced a global partnership agreement, focussed in large part on the forthcoming Surface Hub, previews of which were available at the event. The main focus of the firms’ approach was how work settings can be integrated with technology to produce working environments that foster creativity. In the accompanying presentation, we were told not only that this will be the main focus of office design in the coming years as machines take on most of our process driven work, but also that if office furniture firms want to survive the century, they’ll need to be talking about far more than office furniture which is perfectly true and equally applies to the whole workplace sector. This is not a time for one trick ponies.

Appropriately Steelcase offered up a number of settings to give people the chance to work creatively including a Respite Room. Offices may exist to bring people together but we always need time away from them.

Steelcase (and top)

 

Connection

Connection was one firm that made the link between wellbeing and domestic and commercial design explicit with a soft seating system called Hygge. This is a reference to the modish Scandinavian practice of hygge, which cleverly taps into our ongoing fixation with all things Nordic and our belief that they have a unique insight into how to achieve a work life balance and look after themselves. The firm was also on point with its new co.table which again expresses the overlap between domestic and commercial design as well as the increasing adoption of agile working models. Connection was also addressing the issue of acoustics and privacy with its elegant system of rooms, now a well-established requirement for shared spaces.

Connection

 

Spacestor

Another firm characterising the intersection of domestic and commercial design as well as the creation of room settings, Spacestor launched their new Palisades room divider system. Not screens but the sort of dividers used to break up space, as well as store and display objects. Spacestor were also showing their work pods, including options defined as railway carriage and phone booth.

Spacestor

 

Sit/stand workstations

Now almost as ubiquitous as the bench desk, sit/stand workstations have become mainstream in the UK as they have been for quite some time in parts of Scandinavia. In part this is down to the medicalisation of sitting down as a result of some well thought out but – in my view – slightly off the point PR. But it is also a signifier that firms are interested in the wellbeing of their staff, an issue about which it is impossible to be cynical.

So Staverton, Humanscale and others had nice products on show, but it is evident that as is true with bench desks (and toilets, come to that), the product itself exists in pretty much its purest form as it is. It is a worksurface with an actuator to make it rise and fall. It’s a good product, but one which you can hardly expect to see evolve.

Staverton

 

Task seating

Conversely, the design of task chairs has actually returned to a simpler form. Over the past 20 or more years, there had been a race to see who could offer users the most adjustments. So, where once the chair merely went up and down and rocked, every part of it had to be adjustable in at least one dimension and preferably three. An arms race, if you will. The result was a proliferation of controls around and underneath the seat.

Over the past few years, we have seen a reversal of this in favour of something more intuitive. Typical of this new generation of chairs are the se:joy from Sedus, Trinetic from Boss Design, various designs from Humanscale (who, it could be said, catalysed the development of chairs that work with the body rather than an instruction manual) and, new this year, the EVA chair from Orangebox which claims that by ‘refining the chair to just a few controls has allowed us to focus on maximising the range of adjustment it offers’. Counter-intuitive maybe but they’re right.

Orangebox

 

Flooring

Innovation in carpet design tends to come about as a result of the interrelationship of new materials and manufacturing technology and the designs each manufacturer can derive from them. There are some great products on the market, and each one has a separate narrative woven around it, if you’ll forgive the pun. These can range from the use of colour and trends forecasting, to environmental concerns, the crafts movement, biophilia and printing techniques.

In typical fashion, the major flooring showrooms at Clerkenwell Design Week had lively events programmes that highlighted trends in the market and are perhaps somewhat less product focussed than furniture showrooms. So, Interface focussed on the positive effects that design can have on people, Milliken hosted a series of events including a Design in Education debate with Jay Osgerby and Annie Warburton and Shaw Contract hosted several CPD accredited talks including one rejoicing in the title “Using virtual reality as a participatory approach for evolving spaces in our cities”.

Porcelanosa

 

Socialising

And, of course an event like Clerkenwell Design Week would be nothing without the chance to have a drink and a chat with friends and colleagues. The event this year was blessed with blue skies and temperatures in the high twenties, which is a mixed blessing if you’re hosting parties at one of the showrooms. Despite concerns that the warm weather would mean people swapping bars for studios, all the events seemed incredibly well attended, including those at Vitra and KI.

This is, of course one of the main aims of such exhibitions, to bring an industry together as one and with one voice, at least this year with regard to the aims and concerns of workplace occupiers and the people who work for them. In all senses, an event about people.

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Paul Goodchild is the Design Director of Fresh Workspace.

Employee’s digital skills not being nurtured, despite growing need for data literacy

Employee’s digital skills not being nurtured, despite growing need for data literacy 0

The majority of UK employees recognise the importance of data literacy to their career progression, but half have never been offered any relevant training. Statistics from a study of over 3,000 UK employees shows they understand the growing significance of data within their organisation, with almost all (94 percent) of those surveyed stateing that they consider data to be important for performing their role. Data skills were ranked as fourth in a list of the most important skills for their job – with only traditional, ‘soft’ skills such as ‘communication’, ‘organisation’ and ‘people management’ ranking higher. Yet the Censuswide survey, commissioned by Tableau revealed that despite four in five professionals (84 percent) believing data skills will be important for their career progression and a similar percentage (83 percent) using data on a weekly basis as part of their role, nearly half (49 percent) say their employer hasn’t offered them any kind of data analytics training.

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Winners of BCO Awards for Midlands and Central England announced

Winners of BCO Awards for Midlands and Central England announced 0

The £10 million new headquarters of Wolverhampton beer and pubs group Marston’s has been named as the Best Corporate Workplace at the British Council for Offices’ annual Midlands and Central England Property Awards. The refurbishment was led by interior design firm Newman Gauge. Centre City, in Birmingham, gained the award for best commercial workplace following a redevelopment by owner Bruntwood. The judging panel said the 1975 building had been brought back to life by the refurbishment. Energy Systems Catapult, a workspace lab based at Cannon House won the award for best fit out of a workplace, with judges praising the company ethos to stimulate innovation in energy technologies.

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Happiness at work takes precedence over money for the majority of people

Happiness at work takes precedence over money for the majority of people 0

Happiness at work takes precedence over money for the majority of workersMore than six in ten workers value happiness at work over salary and even those more motivated by salary agree that a setting that allows friendships to flourish could provide invaluable benefits for businesses, a new survey suggests. The research by Wildgoose found that 57 percent of respondents thought having a best friend in the office made their time at work more enjoyable, almost a third were more productive and over one in five said it boosted their creativity. The survey also highlighted the differences in attitudes across various groups and demographics. Women were far more likely to prioritise happiness, with eight in ten placing it above salary, compared to just 55 percent of males. The job level of an employee also played a significant role. For 85 percent of managers, salary was deemed more important, while 70 percent of entry-level, interns, and executives chose happiness.

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Best workplaces in London honoured by British Council for Offices

Best workplaces in London honoured by British Council for Offices 0

The British Council for Offices has announced the six winners of regional property awards for London and the South East of England. The winning entries, announced at a lunch at the Park Lane Hilton were Sky Central (main image), 8 Finsbury Circus, The Estée Lauder Companies, 20 Eastbourne Terrace, 67-71 Beak Street and Sea Containers House by BDG architecture + design. The prestigious BCO awards programme claims to recognise ‘the highest quality developments and sets the standard for excellence in the regional and national office sector.’ The winner of the Best Commercial Workplace was 8 Finsbury Circus while Sky Central took home the prize in the Best Corporate Workplace Category.

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Over three quarters of workers prefer traditional employment to the gig economy

Over three quarters of workers prefer traditional employment to the gig economy 0

Much has been written about the inexorable rise of the gig economy. However, a new survey from jobsite Glassdoor, claims that only 13 per cent of workers across all employment types would even consider this route for future employment, and the vast majority of employees (76 percent) feel more secure sticking to permanent employment in 2017. As with any work arrangement, using temporary or “gig” workers has both benefits and drawbacks when set against traditional employment.

The survey suggests that the major perceived benefit is flexibility, both for job seekers and employers. When asked the question, “What do you think would be the biggest advantage of working in the gig economy?”, most (35 percent) of employees selected  “flexible working”, followed by “better work-life balance” (11 per cent) and the ability to “be my own boss” (10 percent). Furthermore, 39 percent of female employees feel that the biggest advantage of working in the gig economy would be the flexible working, compared to just 31 percent of men. However, 73 percent of women also reported they already enjoy a good work-life balance in their current roles.

Salaries and benefits remain the most important workplace factors for both men (56 percent) and women (63 percent), something which is typically less stable in gig or contract work.

Gig employment for task-based jobs like car rides, accommodation rentals, and food deliveries are all now mainstream services. Glassdoor’s previous research for the US labour market suggests a slowdown for gig work in 2017, especially as job seekers weigh the pros and cons of this employment type. This new UK survey finds that only 12 per cent of those already self-employed feel they would earn more if they left a job to take on work which paid “per activity” (rather than an annual salary), with 21 per cent of those in full time work feeling the same. On a wider level, just one in ten of all respondents across all forms of employment believe that the gig economy would become the “future of work,” with double that amount (20 per cent) feeling it actually exploited workers and harmed employees’ rights.

In terms of job generation, only 13 per cent of all respondents predict that the gig economy would be a good way to reduce unemployment and create jobs in the future. When broken down by gender, nearly a third of women (31 per cent) feel that the gig economy would only ever be for a “limited number of workers” and was not accessible across a “wide range of roles”. This was opposed to just a quarter of men.

The millennial generation of employees has been labelled as the group who will structure and shape the way we work in coming years. However, only 10 per cent of 18-24 and 9 per cent of 25-34 year olds are of the opinion that the gig economy will eventually become the “future of work.”

Dr. Andrew Chamberlain, Glassdoor’s Chief Economist said: “The gig economy may be associated with prodigious growth of app-based taxi rides and food delivery, however, as we’ve already witnessed in the U.S., the impact on the UK workforce could remain minimal in the longer term.

“The main reason is size. Although many ride-sharing and travel platforms have popped up in recent years, they’re still confined to a small corner of the workforce. Further, gig roles only really work for relatively simple jobs that are easy to measure, don’t require deep institutional knowledge, and don’t rely on long-term relationships. The majority of the fastest growing jobs in the labour market today require human creativity, flexibility, judgment, and soft skills. For some jobs, the UK gig economy is here to stay. But don’t expect the majority of the workforce to be part-time contractors any time soon.”

Image: Jack Lemmon finally gets a corner office in The Apartment

Social technology has the power to make the workplace more humane

Social technology has the power to make the workplace more humane

Coloured-Social-Media-Icons-RoundSocial technology can, and should, make the workplace more humane. That’s because it has the potential and ability to shift the power dynamic from the few to the many. It gives more people a voice: one that they’re not afraid to use. You’ve only got to look at the uprisings, and the overthrowing of governments, in Egypt and Tunisia, to see the power of greater connectivity enabled by platforms such as Facebook. What was dubbed the Arab Spring was change on a grand scale. But, as Seth Godin points out in his book Tribes, it’s “tribes, not money, not factories,” that will change the world. The consequences of this are not lost on the people and cultural practices within organisations. The functions of how we recruit, how we learn, and how we communicate are all under pressure to bring greater humanity into the approach.

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The digital revolution is polarising the labour market and increasing wage inequality

The digital revolution is polarising the labour market and increasing wage inequality 0

The increasing ability of machines to perform cognitive, physical, and social tasks has polarised labour markets by “hollowing out” demand for middle-skill jobs, claims a new report published by IZA World of Labor based on research from economist Michael Gibbs of Chicago Booth School of Business. It suggests that analytical, problem solving, and social and communication skills are likely to be most valued in employees in the future. The new report finds that the advance of technology has opposing effects on jobs. It facilitates automation, creating fewer and less motivating middle-skill jobs. Conversely, it complements social and innovation tasks, creating more interesting low- and high-skill jobs. This causes labour market polarisation, “hollowing out” demand for middle-skill jobs, and increasing wage inequality.

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