February 7, 2019

Maybe the time has come to shoot the workplace messenger

by Rob Harris • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing, Workplace design

I spent some time with Frank Duffy recently, releasing a stream of memories of working with him, first as an employee at DEGW during the 1980s, and then as a client while directing developer Stanhope’s research programme during the 1990s. Along with his long-term business partner, John Worthington, and thinkers including Franklin Becker, Gerald Davis, Michael Joroff and Jack Tanis, to name a few, Frank helped sketch out the grand scheme of what we now call ‘workplace’. Much of the work of their successors has involved filling in the matrix of detail within the grand scheme. But further reflection has caused me to ask whether, in filling in the finer details, we have recently somehow lost our way. Are we, the ‘workplace profession’, instead of standing on giants’ shoulders, now just pandering to fads and fancies? Or, even more radical, might it be that ‘workplace’ is now done, and that we’ve run out of meaningful things to say? More →

February 5, 2019

UK cities joining the global movement to net zero building

by Natasha Stokes • Cities, Environment, Features

The UK is joining a global drive towards a ‘net zero carbon’ future, with its biggest cities setting ambitious decarbonisation targets in an effort to reduce their impact on the environment. Manchester plans to be a carbon-neutral city by 2038, while Bristol aims for full decarbonisation by 2030. In London, all new buildings will be net zero carbon by 2030, as the UK strives to meet targets set by the Paris Climate Agreement.

February 4, 2019

Financial services firms slow in offering flexible working to all employees

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

New research from TeleWare claims that 94 percent of employees in financial services firms believe it is important for them to be able to choose the hours they work and where from. Yet, only just over a third (36 percent) of employees in the sector work for firms that offer flexible working. Of those firms that do offer it, more than a fifth (22 percent) of employees said it isn’t available to all employees – only those of a certain level of seniority.

January 29, 2019

Northern English cities bear brunt of government spending cuts

by Mark Eltringham • Cities, News

The UK’s cities, and especially those in the North of England have borne nearly three-quarters (74 percent) of all real-terms local government funding cuts in the last decade despite being home to just 54 percent of the population, according to Centre for Cities’ annual Cities Outlook 2019 report – the Centre’s annual health check on UK city economies. This is equivalent to a reduction of £386 per city dweller since 2009/10, compared to £172 per person living elsewhere. Cities Outlook 2019 reveals a clear geographical divide in where cuts to cities have fallen, with the top five worst affected cities all located in the North of England.

January 28, 2019

The bumpy road to automation, dancing elephants, free beer and some other stuff

by Mark Eltringham • Features, Flexible working, Property, Technology, Wellbeing

The World Economic Forum’s Annual Summit in Davos offers the world’s elite the chance to rub shoulders and address important themes of capitalism and society. Its output has largely consisted of making assured noises about Big Subjects, and especially globalisation and the effects of technology on the economy, now typically framed around the current / imminent Fourth Industrial Revolution™.

January 28, 2019

Majority of large UK firms to address climate change in annual reporting

by Mark Eltringham • Environment, News

Two-thirds (67 percent) of UK corporations will be disclosing climate change related risks and opportunities in their 2019 annual reporting, according to new figures released by the Carbon Trust. However, fewer than a quarter (23 percent) of companies are expecting to fully report in line with the recommendations of the G20 Financial Stability Board’s Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), released in June 2017. More →

January 25, 2019

The state of the workplace right now? Everywhere and nowhere, baby ⁰

by Paul Carder • Comment, Facilities management, Features, Premium Content, Property, Workplace design

My trade is to ask questions about the workplace then make sense of the answers. That has been a particular challenge with the question, ‘what are offices today?’ What seems clear is that the various actors in the workplace ecosystem look at offices through very different eyes. Urban planning and development professionals still view offices as a distinct category of real estate and most real estate professionals view offices in terms of the delivery of floor space. Some things have changed,however. For some time, the hybrid economy of serviced offices has turned the product into a service. But, in many cases this has simply made the leasing of space simpler and more flexible.

January 25, 2019

Government announces protections for pregnant mums and new parents returning to work

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Pregnant women and new parents returning to work after having children are to be further protected from unfairly losing their jobs under new proposals set out by the UK government. The consultation, launching today (25 January 2019) and running to 5 April, proposes that the legal protection against redundancy for pregnant women and new mothers on maternity leave is extended so that it continues for up to 6 months after they return to work. It will also seek views on affording the same protection to parents returning from adoption leave or shared parental leave.

January 23, 2019

Work’s not working; to be productive we need to get creative

by Zoe Humphries • Comment, Workplace design

Productivity in the UK workforce is dropping; output per hour fell 0.4 per cent in the last quarter of 2018 compared with the previous and grew just 0.2 per cent on the third quarter of 2017, according to the Office for National Statistics. Yet the UK workforce log the longest hours in Europe, working 42.3 hours per week on average. Clearly something isn’t lining up. So we must surely ask the question, what is going wrong and what can we do to improve the situation?

January 21, 2019

Robot delivery dogs, digital pollution, why tech firms like ping pong and some other stuff

by Mark Eltringham • Features, Technology, Wellbeing

Today is officially* Blue Monday and instead of offering up an endless series of clickbait pieces telling you how to cope and make the day better for your colleagues, we’re turning our attention to more interesting things. Such as this recent piece arguing that our obsession with ‘millennials’ can cloud our perspective on more important issues about people, their characteristics, advantages and inequalities. It argues that birth dates are rather less important to people’s life chances than their background, individual abilities and structural issues in the economy and society. Who – as they say – knew?

January 21, 2019

MPs back plan to increase gender diversity in business

by Sara Bean • Legal news, News, Workplace

A majority of MPs have backed a recommendation to increase gender diversity in business by extending the “Women in Finance Charter” to cover all businesses in the UK. The recommendation comes from the professional accountancy body AAT (Association of Accounting Technicians). The Charter asks financial services firms to commit to implement four key industry actions; to have a named senior executive responsible and accountable for gender diversity and inclusion; set internal targets for gender diversity in senior management positions; publish progress annually and ensure the pay of the senior executive team is linked to delivery against these internal targets on gender diversity. More →

January 20, 2019

Shortlist for Business Book Awards features more on workplace and wellbeing than ever before

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

This year’s shortlist for the Business Booko Awards features more books than ever on wellbeing and happiness in the workplace as well as career self-development, company culture and business ethics. A record number of women authors have also made the shortlist. More →