Search Results for: employee experience

May 17, 2018

What exactly is driving the global workplace conversation?

by Andrew Mawson • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace design

There is a growing body of research and understanding on the impact that working environments, workplace habits and culture have on people and broader business performance. The very best workplaces in the world – some of which will be on show at Workplace Week in New York next month – are changing our expectations around the look, function and purpose of office space. These workplaces are designed much like ecosystems – every inch designed with the comfort, wellbeing and productivity of the people who occupy them in mind. The new world of ‘workplace management’ is about designing and delivering multi-faceted, minute-by-minute, multi-sensory experiences that create an emotional response. It is about designing workplace experiences to deliver a specific mission. It encompasses thinking about journeys and destinations, the fusion of space, information, and services – and how these reflect organisational personality, support human effectiveness, and lure in talent. But, as those in the industry will be all too aware, this hasn’t always been the case. So, what’s to thank for this fresh approach to workplace design and management?

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May 1, 2018

No surprises in new report on future workplace trends

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Wellbeing, Workplace design

The latest Global Workplace Trends report from Sodexo focuses on the ‘workplace experience’ and how it affects levels of engagement, wellbeing and corporate performance. It’s an undemanding study that sets out seven trends covering familiar themes in a familiar way, even though the authors claim it offers ‘fresh insights’. As well as the idea of ‘experience’, it touches on ideas about the intersections of digital and physical space and the implications for people and organisations as well as the workplace professions. It uses the standard vocabulary, various buzzwords and the usual presuppositions to look at the impact of Millennials, AI, the sharing economy and so on. The visuals are the usual parade of smiling, diverse – but no unattractive, disabled and old – hipsters sharing screens and being creative in sun-dappled interiors. Sauce it with some virtue signals and it’s job done.

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January 29, 2018

Financial companies learning to better utilise office space to attract right talent

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Property, Workplace, Workplace design

Financial services organisations are reducing the amount of commercial office space they require as they adopt more flexible work styles. This is according to a new report from HOK’s US team, The New Financial Workplace, an investigation into the threats and challenges facing the financial services industry, with a special focus on how new technologies like cryptocurrency, biometrics and blockchain are disrupting the sector. Financial services companies are being challenged by the emerging fintech industry, says the report, which is projected to grow to $8 billion in 2018. These traditional companies must adopt the cultures and workplace design practices of the technology industry to stay ahead.

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January 4, 2018

Hard working females under 35 most likely to join January job exodus

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Workplace

It probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise to learn that in the annual January ‘job exodus’, junior employees under the age of 35 years are most likely to leave their current roles, according to new research. However the Qualtrics Employee Pulse – a quarterly survey of more than 4,000 workers – shows that employees that pose the greatest flight risk are most likely to be female, think about work outside of contracted hours, and regularly checking emails on weekends. Of most use to employers, utilising its Experience Management Platform, Qualtrics has identified the top three drivers that will help encourage employees to stay in their jobs in the long-term. These are supporting a work-life balance, allowing employees to try out new tasks and skills in their existing role and ensuring managers are proactive in helping to solve problems or concerns in the workplace.

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November 17, 2017

Seven stories about people, places and technology we’ve been reading this week

by Mark Eltringham • AI, Features, Technology, Workplace, Workplace design

How to navigate beyond sustainability buzzwords

The communist party offices around the world

Hawking’s fear that AI may replace humans altogether

Tech giants are transforming Sydney’s business district

How AI will transform the employee experience

Promotion improves men’s job satisfaction but not women’s

Why we value physical objects over digital

November 6, 2017

Time to address the missed opportunities and wasted resources of the modern workplace

by Chris Moriarty • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Rapidly changing work and workplaces. Productivity languishing below optimum levels. Staff engagement well below where it should be. Ongoing recruitment and retention challenges. All this has been building over the last couple of years; it would appear that organisations have never had it so tough. There have been plenty of tough times before, of course, but we have been witnessing something of a ‘perfect storm’ in recent months, where a whole range of issues and developments, as well as advancements and opportunities, have come together to push these challenges up the management agenda. But there are things we can do to make the workplace a better experience for everybody.

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October 26, 2017

Workplace design continues to lag behind the needs of modern working life

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Technology, Workplace design

Companies around the world waste potentially billions of dollars on under-utilised office spaces that are unfit for purpose and do not reflect the needs of modern workers, a recent benchmark study of over 100 workplaces claims. The study, Optimaze Workplace Review, from Finland based workplace analyst Rapal Oy took place during 2016, aggregates space utilisation data collected from 15 countries. The 330 observational space utilisation studies involved more than 6,600 walk-throughs of 111 buildings and 53,600 work spaces around the world to explore the working practices and environments of more than 23,000 people. It also includes a dataset of around 354 million observations of workstation use in total. The report’s main conclusion is that leadership teams are increasingly placing workplace management issues higher on their agendas, aware of the need to align spaces with new working cultures.

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October 20, 2017

Office ping pong tables a waste of money as solution to low productivity

by Sara Bean • News, Technology, Wellbeing, Workplace, Workplace design

Over half (55 percent) of UK employees are productive for less than 30 hours per week yet UK employers plough money into quirky benefits that a majority of employees see as a distraction a new report claims. New research from Sage. ‘Why your workforce isn’t working’ found that while many companies invest in quirky benefits to keep staff happy, their employees aren’t impressed. Only 9 percent believe company outings are a valuable benefit, and even fewer were favourable on office games such as ping-pong – with only 6 percent saying they value it as part of the work experience. In fact, in some cases people felt these were doing more harm than good: with over half (55 percent) saying that they are distracting and decrease productivity. Commissioned by Sage People, the study spoke to 3,500 global workers to uncover what people really want from their employers. The UK findings show the disconnect between the benefits employers provide and what employees want.

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September 18, 2017

The mega trends that continue to reshape the workplace around the world

by Neil Franklin • Events, Features, Property, Technology, Workplace design

Last week, over 600 workplace and property experts met in London at the CoreNet Global Summit 2017 to discuss some of the most important trends affecting the sector. The debates underlined one important fact about property and workplaces, which is how they are shaped by major, globalised events as much as they are local needs and the objectives of specific organisations. This quickly became evident on day one, which demonstrated how dramatic shifts in the geopolitical landscape, all of which are impacting corporate real estate – from America First to Brexit – remain key talking points for the industry. Opening speaker Linda Yueh (University of Oxford and London Business School) explored several possible scenarios, including how the focus of ‘Trumpism’ would have a significant effect on the U.S. role on the world stage, with the priority on the domestic economy leaving little scope for global trade. She also predicted that a ‘hard Brexit’, with no new trade deal with the EU, will be the most likely outcome for the UK’s withdrawal process; and that businesses will need to focus on alternative WTO rules as an urgent priority. Other impacting factors covered by Yueh included the rise of a dominant global middle class, and China’s need to rebalance its economic growth drivers.
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September 7, 2017

Report sets out building blocks of a successful digital workplace strategy

by Neil Franklin • News, Technology, Workplace design

Digital workplace developments often lose their way, or fail, due to a fragmented approach that prioritises a few technology ‘fixes’ over business strategy, according to analysts at Gartner. To combat this, ‘digital workplace leaders’ in public sector organisations need to employ a framework to ensure their digital workplace initiatives address eight critical components required for a successful implementation, according to Gartner. The report (paywall) sets out what it claims are the eight critical components — “building blocks” — that application leaders need when planning, directing and evolving digital workplace programs:

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March 1, 2017

Employers not ready for digital disruption, where tech and people work side by side ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Technology, Workplace, Workplace design

Very few organisations are ready to manage a workforce where the latest technologies and people work side by side. Just 13 percent of UK companies are ready to respond to digital disruption and create “the organisation of the future”; despite 88 per cent believing this has become a priority. This is according to the 2017 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends survey, which tracks the top trends shaping the agenda for HR and business leaders. However, while UK companies believe they are ill-prepared for the change brought by digital disruption, this has not stopped many of them from embracing disruptive technologies. 42 per cent report that they have adopted robotics, cognitive and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies within all or parts of their workforce. Another 42 per cent are running pilots in certain areas of their organisation. But only 16 per cent say they are ready to manage a workforce with people, robots and AI working side by side.

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January 25, 2017

Physical spaces should be designed to support the digital workplace ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Technology, Workplace, Workplace design

In an era in which the digital workplace is just as prevalent as the physical office, organisations that create spaces, technologies and social networks specifically focused on enabling more collaborative work, perform above their direct competitors in their respective industries – in employee connectedness and responsive leadership. This is according to research conducted by Nick van der Meulen of Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) and MIT’s Center for Information Systems Research (CISR). The report assessed on a basis of five indicators, including growth in market share, profit growth and employee satisfaction, and found that trusting employees by giving them autonomy is the key to making a success of the digital workplace. The survey of 313 organisations showed that the high-performing organisations have an integrated and company-wide approach to greater employee connectedness.

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