Search Results for: environment

May 30, 2018

Low unemployment means new recruits will quit if the job doesn’t measure up

Alongside the challenge of finding the right people to fill roles is keeping them there, according to a survey from Korn Ferry which claims that the majority (93 percent) of employers agreed that the retention of new hires in their organisation is becoming an issue. New recruits individuals agree, with 26 percent admitting they’d leave a job if it wasn’t a good fit, even if they didn’t have another position lined up. The top reasons new hires leave, according to the survey, is their specific role isn’t what they expected and working for the company was different than they thought it would be. Respondents said a desire for more money was not a primary reason a new hire would leave. More than half of the respondents (55 percent) said that offering more money to a new hire who wanted to leave would not make them stay and more than three quarters, (82 percent) said that if they personally accepted a job that they ended up not liking, even though it paid well, they would leave as soon as they found a new job.

May 29, 2018

Are these the UK’s best coworking spaces?

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Property

IPSE, the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed, has announced the 12 longlisted finalists for the 2018 Coworking Space of the Year award. The award has been launched to recognise the role coworking spaces play in ‘creating a nurturing, inclusive and stimulating environment for the UK’s thriving 4.8 million-strong self-employed workforce;. The venues were judged on a range of criteria including the quality of facilities and staff, the innovation, creativity and distinctiveness of their venue, the passion and commitment to their members and the freelancing community, and the price and value of its membership packages. Intriguingly, only one is in London.

May 29, 2018

A quarter of people would switch jobs for the chance of flexible working

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

New research from totaljobs claims that more than one in four workers (28 percent) would move jobs if they weren’t allowed to work from home, increasing to nearly half (45 percent) of millennial workers. While two thirds of UK employees (65 percent) can work from home, 35 percent are still not given the option of working remotely. Totaljobs’ research claims that remote working is in the top five most important benefits when looking for a new job, beating perks such as enhanced parental leave, travel allowances and learning and development.

May 24, 2018

Gallery: WeWork announces the opening of its flagship location in India

by Mark Eltringham • Case studies, Coworking, News, Workplace design

WeWork has announced its first flagship Indian location in Bengaluru. WeWork Galaxy is located on the site of the former Galaxy Theatre, and features a rooftop terrace with a pool and gym in addition to a mix of shared and private offices, which are designed around a 5-storey communal atrium. Bengaluru is India’s tech capital and one of the country’s leading cultural and economic hubs and so WeWork see it as a perfect fit for their coworking model. Created by the in-house design team, the goal was to create a space that ‘felt open, yet communal and intimate for members and guests, by creating individual programming and design moments within the atrium space’.

May 23, 2018

Flow of gig workers moving in and out of Britain will increase due to Brexit

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Workplace

UK businesses are already one of the top employers of short contract “gig workers” at an international scale and with Brexit just around the corner, a new survey commissioned by Graebel and carried out by Wakefield Research found that 97 percent of UK Millennials would be interested in relocating to another country for a contract job. After Brexit takes place, nearly three in five (58 percent) British gig workers are more likely to relocate from the U.K. to another EU country for a contract job, and 72 percent of British Millennials answered the same way. Gig workers in each of the top three gig economy markets (UK, US and Singapore), were asked how companies can cater for the needs of this new generation of workers and how to retain their top talent. New York (33 percent), Los Angeles (21 percent) and Paris (21 percent) are the top three picks for UK gig workers looking to relocate. On the other hand, London is still the top choice for US gig workers (33 percent) and second choice for gig workers in Singapore (26 percent).

May 23, 2018

Nearly half of workers blame technology issues as top reason for lack of productivity

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

Eight in ten workers use their personal smartphones for work purposes to make their jobs easier as almost half report wasting 10 minutes per hour in their working day due to their employers’ ineffective technology. According to the 2018 Connected Worker survey from Deloitte – just under half (49 percent) of respondents said they waste an average of ten minutes for each hour worked, in a median 35-hour week. Of the reasons given, 44 percent cited issues with technology, such as non-working or lack of devices as the main reason for not being productive at work. Workers compensate for the lack of employer provided technology with their own devices, with eight in ten (81 percent) already using their personal smartphones for work purposes. Over half (54 percent) of the workers feel they have the skills to use more technology at work.

May 18, 2018

The toxic workplace is not only about culture, but is a very real physical problem

by Johanna Ljunggren • Comment, Environment, Workplace design

In today’s society there is far more awareness and concern around additives in food and drink, vehicle emissions and the pollutants from factories. There is, however, a remarkable lack of knowledge when it comes to the air quality of our working environment, beyond air conditioning systems and whether printers emit anything ‘nasty’. The truth is that most of the contents of our offices are emitting substances; invisibly polluting the air we breathe for most of the day. And not least the furniture that surrounds us. Chemicals play a big part in the manufacturing of furniture, from glues to lacquers, fabric treatments to flame retardants. Chemicals are not all bad though. We need chemicals for almost everything we do. They enable us to create products that are long lasting, good looking and comfortable. Progress has much to thank chemicals for. The key is knowing what chemicals to use and what to avoid.

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?

May 17, 2018

Bosses warned about major leadership changes in a tech-driven economy

by Sara Bean • News, Technology, Workplace

With companies holding ever greater amounts of data and facing heightened scrutiny through social media, employers need to consider the wider implications of their business decisions. This was the message of the President of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), who has warned business leaders and students in Birmingham of the challenges facing bosses in the rapidly evolving tech and data-driven economy. Speaking at the annual MacLaren Memorial Lecture at Aston University, Bruce Carnegie-Brown told the 200-strong audience that the digital revolution is having a transformative effect on the priorities of business leaders, which pose new management challenges. “The growth of social media has made an invaluable contribution in democratising the control of information, he said by, “increasing transparency through universalising access to data and doing it in real time”. Carnegie-Brown, who is also the chairman of Lloyd’s of London, added: “With information more accessible than ever before, those that own or collect data find themselves with huge amounts of power – both social and commercial. But with great power comes great responsibility and balancing these two forces is the greatest leadership challenge of today’s generation of business leaders.”

May 16, 2018

A 21st Century take on the idea of the time capsule that tells us something about the way we work

by Freddie Steele • Comment

Last December, National Geographic published a story about the discovery of one of the oldest known time capsules. It was concealed by a chaplain of the Cathedral of Burgo de Osma in Spain, in the buttocks of a statue of Jesus Christ. Hidden inside were some documents that detailed life in Spain in the late 18th Century, along with some thoughts on the political and religious systems of the time. Historians have concluded that this was one of the very first time capsules, given that the creator clearly intended it to be discovered at some point in the distant future. This has been the standard approach to time capsules for hundreds of years; a chance to leave behind some artefacts or thoughts for a future generation to learn about the past.

May 16, 2018

Use of tech in the evening linked to sleep disruption and a range of serious mood disorders

by Neil Franklin • News, Technology, Wellbeing

People should not use their laptops and mobile phones in the evening if they want to avoid sleep disruption and a range of mood disorders, including depression, claims new research from the University of Glasgow. The largest study so far into the link between disrupted body clocks and mood disorders and wellbeing has been published in the journal Lancet Psychiatry. The research into the behaviour of 91,000 people shows that disrupted body clock rhythms are associated with increased susceptibility to depression, bipolar disorder, and adverse wellbeing. According to the study, disturbances to the body’s internal clock, characterised by increased activity during rest periods and/or inactivity during the day, are also associated with mood instability, more subjective loneliness, lower happiness and health satisfaction, and worse cognitive function.

May 15, 2018

Workplace aggression can lead to vicious circle of misconduct

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

New research led by the University of East Anglia (UEA) claims that frequently being the target of workplace aggression not only affects the victim’s health but can also cause them to behave badly towards others. Workplace aggression is a significant issue particularly in the healthcare sector, where nurses can be targeted by both their colleagues and co-workers through bullying, and by patients and their relatives through ‘third-party’ aggression. While workplace aggression has been examined in relation to the health-related consequences for victims, less is known about the possible negative impact it may have on their own behaviour at work. The findings of this study suggest that the experience of anger and fear associated with being the target of aggression at work could lead some nurses to translate the emotions that are triggered into misconduct, possibly disregarding professional and ethical codes. More →