August 6, 2024

How can companies address the skills gap and ongoing talent shortage in their industry?

The modern business landscape is facing a significant challenge: a growing skills gap and a persistent talent shortage across various industries. Companies are finding it difficult to find qualified candidates with the necessary skills to fill important roles as technology changes quickly and job requirements change. This talent shortage may hinder general productivity, growth, and innovation. Employers can, however, take proactive measures to address these problems and thrive by implementing smart solutions and adopting innovative tactics like Employer of Record (EOR) services to acquire top talent. (more…)

August 2, 2024

Remote work is holding back innovation, study claims

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

Remote work and ‘hybrid working’ models may greatly enhance employees’ work-life balance, but new research suggests they might also be stifling innovation. The study, led by economists from the University of Essex and the University of Chicago found that employees who worked in a hybrid model were less likely to come up with innovative ideas compared to their colleagues who always worked in the office. Additionally, employees working entirely from home tended to produce lower quality ideas than those who consistently worked in the office. (more…)

August 2, 2024

Tech workers and young people will need a major skills upgrade if they are to keep up with AI

by Neil Franklin • AI, News

The vast majority (92 percent) of ICT roles are expected to undergo big changes as a result of advancements in artificial intelligence and the technology continues to transform the information and communications (ICT) sector according to a new report from tech giants, Cisco, Microsoft and Google. The AI-enabled ICT Workforce Consortium, led by Cisco has published the “Transformational Opportunity of AI on ICT Jobs” report, offering guidance on the areas for of concern for workers to reskill in response to the evolving job landscape. This transformation will impact professionals in 47 ICT roles, including cybersecurity, data science and software development, according to the report. (more…)

July 30, 2024

Challenging the concept of work-life balance as we know it

by Beth Stallwood • Comment, Wellbeing

The notion of work-life balance has been talked about for decades with the underlying claim that if you achieve it, everything will be perfect. In post-Covid workplaces, hybrid working is becoming the norm and promises of flexibility and yoga on a Thursday lunchtime adorn recruitment adverts. From a distance, it would be easy to think we’ve now nailed the work-life balance challenge. Yet hybrid working hasn’t waved a magic wand and many people struggling feel more like a circus performer, juggling with different-sized objects with sharp corners, whilst riding a unicycle, than they do a calm and collected master balancer. (more…)

July 23, 2024

Accelerating the rise of the adaptable office

by Adil Sheikh • Company news, Workplace design

The introduction of the Flexible Working Act is another sign that the concept of the ‘workplace’ has undergone a significant transformation. These shifts in work patterns, office usage and approach are all having dramatic knock-on impacts when it comes to the future of the physical infrastructure of the nation’s office environments, and the investor communities behind them. The growth of the adaptable office is one of the most obvious responses to the growing appetite for flexible working and agile property strategies. (more…)

July 23, 2024

Urban Infill Architects secures planning win for latest office scheme

by Jayne Smith • Architecture, Company news

Urban Infill Architects has secured planning consent for a 58,000 sq ft (GEA) redevelopment of New Devonshire House in Bromley, within the borough’s Business Improvement District. The redevelopment of New Devonshire House will provide a 10-storey office building designed to the latest BCO Grade A standards. The specifications include 78 cycle spaces, EV charging facilities and a communal sky deck level with break-out spaces, bar and sky garden. (more…)

July 19, 2024

Book review: Workspace Made Easy

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Property, Workplace design

There’s a dog-eared, yellowing paperback on my bookshelf called Understanding Offices. Written by Joanna Eley and Alexi Marmot, it dates from 1995. It is a handbook for everybody who needed to know how to develop a workplace strategy during the infant phase of the digital and cultural revolution of the late 20th Century. I used to refer to it all the time, but now it serves mainly as a reminder of how much has changed over the past thirty years, and also how little. (more…)

July 18, 2024

The city and the office have much to teach each other

by Marian Evans • Cities, Features, Workplace design

Whatever you might hear, these times are far from unprecedented. History has lessons for us both in terms of how we view the events of 2020 and how we might respond to them, including how we progress as a species and make our lives and the world a better place. In 1832, there was an epidemic of cholera in the UK’s towns and cities. In those with a population of 100,000 or more life expectancy was just 26 years. The reasons for this were picked up on by a government official called Edwin Chadwick as a member of the Poor Law Commission. (more…)

July 17, 2024

Want a creative workplace? Make life difficult and chaotic for yourself

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Workplace

We launched IN Magazine officially on the 4th of March 2020. So, this month marks some sort of anniversary. You could argue that this was the worst day in the history of mankind to launch a new magazine about people, work and workplaces and you’d probably be right. People were already not shaking hands. They had begun deserting public transport and planning for less contact with each other. Lockdown was only a couple of weeks away. (more…)

July 17, 2024

How IT Simplification creates a superior Digital Employee Experience

by Workspace365 • Company news

The workplace continues to evolve rapidly, with the shift to hybrid models now featuring heavily in employees’ expectations. Indeed, a recent global study of workers from 11 countries, including the UK, shows 44 percent of employees prefer hybrid work. This new chapter in workplace dynamics could explain Gartner’s recent research, which has shown a growing focus on the Digital Employee Experience (DEX). The findings revealed that by 2025 half of IT organisations will have a DEX strategy, up from just 20 percent in 2023. DEX refers to the quality of employees’ interactions with technology in their work environment, and as remote work becomes the norm, a seamless DEX is crucial. (more…)

July 15, 2024

Nearly all CEOs now say they work across different locations

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Property

CEOs are leading by example when it comes to hybrid working, with nine in 10 (93 percent) saying they have personally adopted flexible working patterns according to a new poll. The survey of more than 500 CEOs by International Workplace Group suggests that the vast majority now split their working time between locations. Just 7 percent said they spend five days a week working from a central office. (more…)

July 11, 2024

How AI will transform the way we design and manage the places we work

by Nell Watson • AI, Comment, Facilities management, Workplace design

The integration of Artificial Intelligence into the workplace is not just a technological shift; it’s a fundamental reimagining of how we work, interact, and manage our professional environments. As AI capabilities rapidly evolve, they promise to transform every aspect of workplace design and management, from physical layouts to organizational structures and employee experiences. (more…)