February 8, 2022

The office sector needs to develop better arguments for its products

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Property, Workplace design

The distillation of every received and laundered idea of the past two years leads us here. A claim from Gallup that in future just over a third of the desks in offices will be empty. Whatever Gallup thinks, this is great news for the office sector. One of the truths the office sector hasn’t always liked to talk about too much over the last few decades is that in a typical office over that period, around half of the desks have already been empty. (more…)

February 3, 2022

Workplace culture needs a rethink in line with employees’ changing priorities

by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Workplace

Considerable job insecurity and uncertainty has pushed companies to rethink their workplace culture to meet employees’ new needs, priorities, and expectations, according to the annual Fjord Trends report from Accenture. According to the report, nearly two years of social, economic and employment disruption has resulted in a collective shift in people’s relationships with work and employees are re-assessing what they want and expect from a company culture and employee value proposition. This means enhancing workplace flexibility, benefits packages, and greater employee care and compassion will continue to be notable trends in 2022, creating both challenges and opportunities for businesses looking to retain and recruit talent. (more…)

January 31, 2022

The great workplace conversation (still) needs to be held with a great deal more humility

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

“Nobody knows anything”. William Goldman’s infamous summing up of the essential unknowability of the movie business also has a less quoted second part. “Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what’s going to work. Every time out it’s a guess and, if you’re lucky, an educated one.” It is a call for humility. That no matter how much we know about what we do and how good we are at it, we can’t always predict its outcomes. And that is clearly the case with the ongoing Great Workplace Conversation. (more…)

January 18, 2022

Firms need to do more to engage, attract and retain staff

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Workplace

Over 40 percent of employers are finding it more difficult to retain and recruit staff, according to Aon’s Benefits and Trends Survey 2022 (registration). The report claims that many employers have adjusted their benefits strategies to address an intense labour market, in which employee work motivations have shifted in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Forty-one percent of employers said they have found it more difficult to retain staff in the last year, while 44 percent have found it more difficult to recruit new staff. Many employers anecdotally expressed in the survey that they need to pay higher salaries or sign-on bonuses to entice new recruits. (more…)

January 17, 2022

Is your office worth the journey it takes to get to it?

by Despina Katsikakis • Comment, Flexible working, Property

A couple of years ago, in the wake of a surge in self-care start-ups and viral diet fads, Forbes declared 2019 as the year of the “wellness revolution”. Three years and a global pandemic later, the revolution appears to have swept our offices. Why? Quite simply, we have woken up to the fact that we could be productive remotely, while also realising the risks of not accommodating employee wellbeing in the office. (more…)

January 11, 2022

Great Resignation offers firms a chance to create the Great Retention

by Erin Eatough • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing, Working culture

The last 18 months have seen unprecedented change. Covid-19 has forced people to re-evaluate every aspect of their lives, including their career. As a result, we’ve seen a surge in workers taking charge of their careers and leaving their jobs as part of the so-called Great Resignation. Recent data from the ONS shows that there were nearly 1.2 million job vacancies in the UK this quarter, with 15 of 18 sectors reporting record numbers. (more…)

January 7, 2022

Majority of employees are rethinking their career paths

by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Working lives

LumApps is releasing new workplace data claiming how employees and employers are dealing with the fallout of the Great Resignation. The survey was conducted in collaboration with CMSWire during the Fall of 2021. (more…)

December 17, 2021

One in six employees are retrained and ready for new careers

by Jayne Smith • News, Working lives

A new survey has revealed that nearly one in six (15 percent) employees working in the UK have already retrained for a new role or profession. Their current employers just don’t know it yet. (more…)

December 16, 2021

Pandemic highlights the need for smarter, more adaptable offices and cities

by Cedrik Neike • Features, Technology

The coronavirus pandemic is a new experience for every one of us. It has changed life as we know it – at work, at home and for public interactions. As some countries start to ease restrictions on public life, how can we go back to ‘normal’ while still maintaining social distancing and feeling safe? How do we manage crowded public spaces like shopping malls, cinemas and restaurants? How do we optimize safety in our offices and factories? More importantly, how do we avoid shutting down entire cities and countries when the next pandemic hits? (more…)

December 15, 2021

Company culture, linked to share price, funding success and growth

by Jayne Smith • Business, News, Working culture

A new research report from Culture Amp, claims that company workforces’ overall confidence as well as employees’ belief in their leaders are the biggest differentiators when it comes to achieving sustained stock price increases between July 2020 and June 2021. (more…)

December 7, 2021

What the 21st Century office of the future looked like in the 1960s

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Furniture, Technology, Workplace design

$refraction and the office of the future$ We’re used to hearing people predict what The Office of the Future will look like. It’s been going on for a very long time now and each new generation of commentators on the subject comes up with its own forms of wishful thinking, wild generalisations, distorted conclusions and failures to account for the inherent unknowability of future disruptive technology. The best way of reminding ourselves of these pitfalls is not to look forward, but back. Only then can we see how an image can be refracted and make allowances. (more…)

December 3, 2021

Menopause may amount to a disability under law in some cases

by Kathryn Clapp • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing

World Menopause Day is held each year on 18 October and its purpose is “to raise awareness of the menopause and the support options available for improving health and wellbeing” according to the International Menopause Society. This autumn, we have seen this awareness translated into a practical response by the UK Government. (more…)