Search Results for: information

Digital transformation offers great opportunities for firms, but at a risk

Digital transformation offers great opportunities for firms, but at a risk

by • News, Technology, Wellbeing

Digital technology can improve our lives but it also poses a major risk of widening social inequality and blocking opportunities for people without the skills to navigate the online world safely, according to a new OECD report. A mix of technical, emotional and social skills is a pre-condition for people to combine their digital and real lives in a balanced way, and to avoid the mental health problems and other risks linked to abuses of online technologies, the report says.

(more…)

Filtering out the noise, the pathology of work, busy doin muffin and some other stuff

Filtering out the noise, the pathology of work, busy doin muffin and some other stuff

by • Comment, Features

We might think that an inability to absorb the vast amount of information generated by our fellow humans and their machines is something of a modern phenomenon, but we’ve always known we can have too much of this particular good thing. Distringit librorum multitude, wrote Seneca in the First Century. An abundance of books is a distraction.

(more…)

One Dorset Street becomes first Fitwel certified building in Hampshire

One Dorset Street becomes first Fitwel certified building in Hampshire

by • Company news, Wellbeing, Workplace design

One Dorset Street in Southampton has become the first building in Hampshire to achieve Fitwel certification, the system for designing and operating buildings that claims to actively improve occupant health, and also commands the highest commercial rent in Southampton (£24.50psf).  The investment in One Dorset Street aims to support occupiers who understand that employee wellbeing is critical to their commercial success.

(more…)

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Workplace

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Workplace 0

by • Comment, Facilities management, Technology, Workplace, Workplace design

the_hitchhikers_guide_to_galaxy_don_panic_desktop_1920x1080_hd-wallpaper-805696We know, and have for a long time, that the workplace is in a state of near constant flux and so we often fall into the trap of assuming that there is some sort of evolution towards an idealised version of it. That is why we see so many people routinely willing to suspend their critical facilities to make extravagant and even absurd predictions about the office of the future or even the death of the office. This is perniciously faulty thinking. However we can frame a number of workplace related ideas in terms of evolutionary theory, so long as we accept one of the central  precepts about evolution. Namely that there is no end game, just types progressing and sometimes dying out along the distinct branches of a complex ecosystem. As a nerdy sort of guy of a certain age, I’ve tended to frame my thoughts on all of this with reference to an idea from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by the great Douglas Adams.

(more…)

The new issue of Work&Place, the most influential workplace journal in the world, is now available for free download

The new issue of Work&Place, the most influential workplace journal in the world, is now available for free download

by • Premium Content

We have published the latest Work&Place issue for Spring 2019. As always, it offers a diverse compilation of timely and provocative perspectives focused on the intersections between and among work, the workplace, technology, culture, and business strategy. You might start with Rob Harris’s call for shooting the messengers in his (highly responsible) rant on the dearth of meaningful research about the business value of open offices and the all-too-frequent unfounded claims about how wonderful open plan is.

(more…)

Vast majority of organisations still struggle with videoconferencing

Vast majority of organisations still struggle with videoconferencing

by • Flexible working, News, Technology

The overwhelming majority of enterprises (90 per cent) report that they experience challenges when connecting to video conference calls. This is according to a new survey from StarLeaf, conducted by Vanson Bourne, which includes responses from 500 IT decision-makers and Line-of-Business leaders in the UK, France, Germany, and the US and from a broad spectrum of private sector enterprises (with over 1,000 employees) with the aim to understand attitudes towards the general use of video conferencing systems.

(more…)

Amazon drops plans for HQ, judging others in the open plan, why people would rather electrocute themselves than sit and think and some other stuff

by • Features

Why is it so hard to design a decent office space? demands this article in Quartz. It’s a fair enough question but probably the wrong one. It’s perfectly possible to design a decent (or adequate) office with a pen, paper and bag of presuppositions and many people have done exactly that. The real question is why it is so hard to design a good or excellent office.

(more…)

Digital transformation requires more than just new technology

Digital transformation requires more than just new technology

by • Comment, Technology

Digital transformation has been a priority for businesses for many years, primarily to benefit from the opportunities presented by a mix of digital technologies and their impact across all aspects of society. Customer-facing functions such as sales, marketing and procurement, in their quest for new revenue sources and information-powered ecosystems of value, have led the way on digital transformation, while HR has historically taken a back seat. But in order for the entire organisation undergoing transformation to work together holistically, HR needs to take the lead and embed a digital DNA within the organisation.

(more…)

Insight weekly for 8 February 2019 is available to view online

Insight weekly for 8 February 2019 is available to view online

by • News, Newsletter

If you don’t already subscribe to our weekly newsletter (signup on the right and you’ll only ever get the newsletter, nothing else), you can still read it online here. This week: Rob Harris wonders whether one of the solutions to the most common forms of misinformation and misperception about the workplace might be to break with traditional wisdom and shoot the messengers; Jonathan Hindle calls for an end to the incessant bickering about open plan and enclosed offices as if it were a zero sum game and suggests we should focus more on finding the Goldilocks point offered by agile workspaces; our weekly round-up of the best stories online considers the permanent beta of the office, encouraging certain types of behaviour and the problem of belligerent job interviews; and Amy Laviers points out that, while robots might be able to impress us with their ability to do backflips, they still can’t pick up a paperclip or fold a piece of paper.

Staff wellbeing moves up the HR agenda and yes, includes the provision of free fruit

Staff wellbeing moves up the HR agenda and yes, includes the provision of free fruit

by • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Employers have placed wellbeing high on their agenda in a bid to encourage employee engagement and reduce absence, claims new research from XpertHR. More than half of employers (54.4 percent) run informal employee wellbeing initiatives, while one-in-five (22 percent) has a formal programme in place. The majority of these formal employee wellbeing programmes (69.6 percent) have been in place for a year or more – demonstrating a high level of employer commitment but also that programmes have gained traction within organisations. (more…)

Finding the Goldilocks Point for collaborative workplace design

Finding the Goldilocks Point for collaborative workplace design

by • Comment, Technology, Workplace design

two people working togetherOne of the great paradoxes of modern life is the ever increasing likelihood of breakdowns in communication in a world in which we have more ways to talk to each other than ever before. This can play out in especially toxic ways in the wider world, but its effects in the workplace can also be problematic. Most importantly, what we often assume to be true about communication and collaboration may not be borne out by the facts and this in turn has implications for workplace design.

(more…)

Half of HR departments plan to offer new employee benefits

Half of HR departments plan to offer new employee benefits

by • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

According to Gallagher’s Benefits Strategy & Benchmarking Survey (registration required), 45 percent of HR practitioners are planning changes to current employee benefit offerings amid a highly competitive labour market. The survey shows an increasing number of organisations are fully aware of the measurable impact that benefits have on engagement and productivity. Among HR practitioners planning changes, 72 percent are seeking to enhance benefits, thereby improving their employer brand and becoming more competitive in recruitment. The second-most popular planned change is improving flexibility in benefits, with 47 percent attempting to bolster flexible options to extend individual choice. (more…)

«< 51 52 53 54 55 >»