July 31, 2020

Return to work offers us a unique opportunity to change everything

by Simone Fenton-Jarvis • Comment, Facilities management

The way we worked before covid was fundamentally broken; our wellbeing, our climate and our business efficiency. The genie is out of the bottle; going back just simply isn’t an option. When considering the return to work, there are organisations making knee-jerk decisions trying to avoid a complex minefield of potential missteps which could impact the safety of their employees and health of their business. Simply creating a ‘covid secure’ workplace right now would be a great opportunity lost in cementing real change and transformation into the world of work; for our wellbeing and our planet. More →

March 19, 2020

Will coronavirus mean the death of the office?

by Mark Eltringham • Comment

Betteridge’s law of headlines declares that “Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no”. And so I simultaneously ask and answer the question of whether the coronavirus pandemic will really lead to the death of the office. So it goes. Of course, I’m not the first person to raise the question over the last few weeks as the world adapts to the threat of the pandemic. But it’s worth reminding ourselves that the demise of the office has been predicted for at least a quarter of a century, although never in such circumstances. More →

October 15, 2019

Flexible working could improve mental health and lives of fathers

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News

Men feel frustrated in their jobs and discriminated against at work and want a better balance between work and family life in much the same way as women, according to the results of the annual survey by workingdads and workingmums. One in four dads said they’d had time off work due to mental illness, with a third of those citing the stress of work and home. Around half of working dads said their career had stalled since they became a father. Almost 70 percent admitted they feel stuck in their current role because they fear they wouldn’t be able to find another job with the amount of flexible working they need. More →

March 18, 2019

Pressing self-destruct, a final solution to workplace noise, a broken psychological contract and some other stuff

by Mark Eltringham • Features

I’ve never really wanted to go to MIPIM. I’m suspicious of it all for a number of reasons I won’t go into although you might reasonably guess what they are. So, I enjoyed this piece from Polly Plunket-Checkemian about her own misgivings. I understand that the testosterone level has been dialled down recently, but like Polly I’d like to see a re-examination of its format and intent, especially given that the real estate sector is having to rethink where it fits into the new era of work and meets the challenge of coworking.

December 17, 2018

Meatspace, cyberspace, the uncertainty of expertise and some other stuff

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

The sign that somebody knows their stuff about a subject is often that whatever they say about it is full of questions, equivocations and caveats. They’ll often start out by saying things are complicated in mitigation of their opinion on a particular topic. They’ll say there are no silver bullets. It’s almost always neophytes, chancers and the conflicted that offer certainty. To prove my point here is David D’Souza of the CIPD making a point about the tendency to look for pat, narrow solutions to complex, broad challenges. Not only does he have something interesting to say, you know that he has the depth and breadth of knowledge to expand on each of the points he makes with yet more sophistication. It’s fractal thinking.

May 9, 2024

As hybrid offices continue to evolve, report explores global occupancy planning

by Neil Franklin • Facilities management, News, Property, Technology

Four years after the start of the pandemic, a new survey from JLL claims that hybrid working is now the most common workstyle globally, with 87 percent of organisations operating with a hybrid program today. JLL’s new 2024 Global Occupancy Planning Benchmarking Report claims to outline how hybrid offices are actively shifting to accommodate a greater variety of work activities and how companies can look at occupancy planning and workplace design more holistically to reflect these changes. By investing in new technologies, leveraging utilisation data and prioritizing individual and private seating, companies can ensure they are effectively reflecting the workplace’s changing needs. More →

May 1, 2024

Hybrid working era means a boom time for workplace apps

by Helen Parton • Facilities management, Flexible working, Technology, Workplace design

Disseminating information about a building to the people who occupy it has come a long way from a basic, intranet desktop interface with warnings about wet floors or notices about charity fundraising. These days apps promise a much more sophisticated workplace experience, which can be accessed in the palm of your hand. Gartner has a useful definition of workplace apps’ capabilities, stating, “They are used to explore and reserve workspaces, navigate the workplace, find colleagues, plan the best days to attend the workplace, access services and ensure that employees could feel safe in a future post pandemic workplace.” More →

April 30, 2024

Stress, unpaid overtime and other pressures taking a toll on people’s wellbeing

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing

A new poll from leisure operator Better suggests that the UK population is working far beyond its contracted hours, and this is taking a toll on the health of the nation. Two-thirds of people surveyed say they regularly work unpaid overtime, on average an extra two hours per week, equating to 14 working days per year. One in ten (11 percent) of 45-54 yrs work more than five extra hours per week; that’s the equivalent of 35 days of unpaid work per year. Those working in the education and HR sectors undertake the most unpaid overtime; at an average of 15 days per year. More →

April 18, 2024

A look back at The Stoddart Review: the once and future guide to workplace productivity?

by Rachel Houghton • Comment, Workplace design

The Stoddart Review, published in 2016, was one of the most significant reports of recent years to explore the role of the workplace for employee productivity in extensive detail and why the office environment was key for productivity purposes. There has been a huge shift in the world of work since then. What we once knew as the workplace has changed forever. More →

April 10, 2024

MIPIM has changed, and mostly for the better

by Anna King • Environment, Features, Property

With an estimated 27,000 delegates from 90 countries, MIPIM is still a force to be reckoned with when it comes to opportunities to network and learn as delegates, with organisations using the week to deliver news, insights and thinking. The theme for MIPIM this year was The Global Urban Community; and it really did feel more international than previous years, the majority of attendees are still from France, Germany and the UK, but there were significant delegations from the United States, Canada, Oman, Egypt and Hong Kong, more from Asia generally and a show stopper from Saudi Arabia, more of which later. More →

April 4, 2024

Half of workers say they are ready to take advantage of new flexible working laws

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

Businesses are being advised to brace themselves as a new poll claims more than half (55 percent) of respondents are planning to make a new request for flexible working when new rules come into UK law this weekend. The changes introduced by the Flexible Working Bill on April 6 – allowing workers to ask for flexible forms of work from day one of their employment (previously six months) – look set to lead to a sharp increase in flexible working requests even though 74 percent of employees report already having some degree of flexibility. More →

April 2, 2024

Nine in ten employers of knowledge workers offer hybrid working. Nearly all would like them in the office more

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

Around 91 percent of companies with a workforce that can work from home currently offer some form of hybrid working, according to a new poll of 500 HR professionals from Towergate Health & Protection. On average 39 percent of the workforce are hybrid working and 27 percent of employers have more than half their workforce hybrid working. The poll also suggests that 30 percent of employees work from home for at least three days a week. Employers stated that 31- 40-year-olds are the age group most likely to want to work from home, and over 60s and under 25s are least likely to want to work from home. More →