March 22, 2021
With workplaces up and down the country now following new rules and regulations – and with online meetings also the order of the day – colleagues everywhere may be feeling demotivated. More →
March 16, 2021
Half (50 percent) of freelancers are planning to stop contracting in the UK after the changes to IR35 come into effect in April – unless they can get contracts unaffected by the changes – according to new research by IPSE (the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed). Instead, they are planning to seek contracts abroad (24 percent), stop working altogether (12 percent), seek an employed role (17 percent) or retire within the next year (11 percent). More →
March 15, 2021
We are scarcely nine months into the Covid-19 pandemic, after a long spring and harsh summer. Social distancing has led to remote working becoming widespread, leading to doubts regarding the office’s long-term relevance. However, Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) argues in a recent report that the office’s traditional domain will expand, with new functions including fostering collaboration, facilitating company culture, and promoting human experience. Similarly, experts increasingly characterise the workplace as a hybrid ecosystem combining virtual and physical elements with geographically-dispersed campuses. More →
March 15, 2021
Design manufacturer Herman Miller, Inc. (NASDAQ:MLHR) announced the introduction of a new sustainable textile collection including fabric made from all recycled and ocean-bound plastic materials and an industry-leading 100 percent post-consumer biodegradable polyester. More →
March 11, 2021
Swell is a lightweight, acoustic wall cladding solution with a height of 2.7m offering a unique design solution without horizontal seams. More →
March 10, 2021
New data from Steelcase claims to highlight what the UK workforce is enjoying most about working from home, and which elements of work are suffering without access to the physical office. Nearly all (97 percent) of respondents want to return to the physical office for some or most of the time when possible, but nearly a year of working differently has altered expectations of the office, and businesses need to make vital changes to reflect this. More →
March 10, 2021
Herman Miller (NASDAQ:MLHR) has been named to Fast Company’s prestigious annual list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies (MIC) for 2021. The list honours businesses that have not only found a way to be resilient in the past year, but also turned those challenges into impact-making processes. More →
March 9, 2021
Until recently, the nature of business was widely predictable. Tried and tested operational methods enabled businesses to forward plan confidently based on what had worked before. Even before the cataclysmic events of the global pandemic, the workplace landscape was shifting dramatically, with innovation, disruption, workforce and consumer expectations evolving at a pace. As we enter 2021, every business will need to rapidly adapt and evolve to survive and workforce agility will be a critical factor for that survival. More →
March 9, 2021
Looking back, who could possibly have predicted 2020? It’s been such a difficult pandemic year for so many individuals and companies. Yet it’s also been a transformative time, which has seen dramatic shifts in the way we work. So, with some trepidation, here’s my forecast for the near future. This year will see the office bounce back, but not as we remember it. The office of the future will have an important new role as the physical embodiment of a changing corporate culture. More →
March 5, 2021
Originally published in December 2014. Homeworking seems to have become a bit of a hot topic this year, but one sentence published on the www.gov.uk website brought a cold sweat to the brows of many managers and employees across the United Kingdom. “From 30 June 2014, all employees have the legal right to request flexible working – not just parents and carers.” More →
February 17, 2021
The past twelve months have proved to be a watershed year fo
r workplace digital transformation and the urgent shift to remote working has seen the world experience two years of digital transformation in two months. New research from Microsoft Surface claims to examine the impact of this transformation on the UK workforce, suggesting that employees are happier, but under more pressure working from home – despite almost 9 out of 10 (87 percent) of employees reporting their businesses have adapted to ‘hybrid working’. More →
March 19, 2021
We can design kindness into working life just as easily as unkindness
by Joanna Suvarna • Comment, Wellbeing, Working culture