Search Results for: innovation

July 17, 2018

London, Singapore and Seoul are the top smart cities in the world

by Neil Franklin • Cities, News, Technology

London, Singapore and Seoul make up the top three smart cities worldwide, according to new research from the Eden Strategy Institute. The 2018-19 study, in partnership with ONG&ONG Experience Design (OXD), involved 140 smart cities ranked across 10 measures; clarity of vision, leadership, budget, provision of financial incentives, support programmes, talent readiness, a people-centric approach, development of an innovation ecosystem, implementation of ‘smart’ policies and, finally, a track record of previous initiatives and projects. New York and Helsinki rounded off the top five cities, with Montreal, Boston, Melbourne, Barcelona and Shanghai finishing in the top 10.

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July 11, 2018

Avenue HQ is named as Coworking Space of the Year by IPSE

by Neil Franklin • Coworking, News

Liverpool’s Avenue HQ has been crowned ‘National Co-Working Space of the Year’ by The Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed (IPSE). The award claims to ‘recognise and celebrate the important role coworking spaces play in creating a nurturing, inclusive and stimulating environment for the UK’s 4.8 million-strong self-employed workforce’. The coworking industry is booming globally as companies of all sizes recognise the importance of working environment on employee and business performance. Pioneered by start-ups, entrepreneurs and freelancers, a growing number of companies, large and small, are incorporating the concept and rapidly reaping the benefits.

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July 9, 2018

Quarter of British workers have a side hustle as well as their main job

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Workplace

Academics at Henley Business School have revealed a growing trend in ‘side hustles’ which shows that as many as 1 in 4 people in the UK are running at least one business project alongside their main day job, contributing an estimated £72 billion to the UK economy. Henley has published a white paper on the emerging side hustle economy. Its study of over 500 business leaders and 1,100 UK adults found the trend is now happening at an unprecedented pace across the UK. A side hustle is defined as a secondary business or job that brings in, or has potential to bring in, extra income. 73 of people who start a side hustle do so to follow a passion or explore a new challenge, but there are financial benefits too, with side businesses contributing 20 percent to side hustlers’ income.

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July 6, 2018

Employers missing the opportunity to listen to employees ideas for improving business

by Sara Bean • News, Workplace

The majority (82 percent) of employees have ideas about how their company can help improve the business claims a new survey, but over a third (34 percent) say their ideas are being ignored by their employers. The findings were announced alongside the launch of Sideways 6’s inaugural State of Employee Ideas report, which explores how employees at all levels, at businesses of all sizes, all over the world feel their company treats their ideas also reveals that 39 percent of females felt that their ideas are not being listened to, compared to 30 percent of males. Interestingly, despite the number of ideas they have, many employees remain fearful of voicing them. According to the findings, one fifth (18 percent) of those same ideas are never heard because employees are afraid to put them forward. The results also identified a clear disparity in levels of confidence to put forward ideas between younger and older employees. When surveyed, 64 percent of senior level employees strongly agreed that they have ideas and aren’t afraid to voice them, compared to 42 percent junior level employees.

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July 5, 2018

Responsible office fit-out toolkit published by Building Better Partnerships

by Neil Franklin • News, Property, Workplace design

Commercial property trade body Building Better Partnerships (BBP) has today published its latest free industry guidance – Responsible Fit-Out Toolkit: Offices. The Toolkit claims to provide guidance for owners and occupiers on how to integrate sustainability and wellbeing into an office fit-out. The authors claim that while workplace design plays a pivotal role in demonstrating a business’s values and can have an immense impact on the comfort and productivity of those working within and visiting a space, opportunities are rarely fully appreciated.

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July 4, 2018

Podcast: The British new wave and the evolution of the workplace

by Mike Petrusky • Facilities management, Flexible working, Podcasts, Premium Content, Technology, Workplace design

In this podcast I talk to Mark Eltringham about British music, which leads to a discussion about bands from the early days of new wave in Liverpool, including Echo & The Bunnymen. The evolution of music serves as a metaphor which leads to a conversation about the history of the workplace where Mark shares his perspective on some of the founding thought leaders in our modern sector. I ask him about today’s places of work and Mark references a recent report from Chris Hood of AWA, Kate Lister of Global Workplace Analytics and Haworth while also sharing some research provided by Leesman Index. We talk about the blurring of the lines and need for collaboration across departments inside organizations, the relationship between facilities management and workplace as a whole, while also discussing the controversy in the UK about the future of the FM sector.

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July 3, 2018

Call for action within the built environment to help meet sustainable development goals

by Sara Bean • Environment, Facilities management, News, Property

Built environment organisations are calling for urgent action on issues such as consumption, innovation and infrastructure to prevent the UK slipping behind other nations on poverty, equality and the environment as a new report released today (3 July 2018) highlights the UK’s inadequate performance against the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including those for the built environment. The report, Measuring up, from the UK Stakeholders for Sustainable Development (UKSSD), is the first comprehensive assessment of the UK’s performance against all 17 SDGs and highlights a significant danger that quality of life in the UK will worsen if action is not taken. Just some of the findings of the report include; that the UK is performing well (green) on only 24 percent of its targets; no industry, innovation and infrastructure targets have achieved a ‘good’ performance rating, with gaps in policy coverage and inadequate or deteriorating performance and large scale, sustained investment in replacing ageing infrastructure and creating additional resilient and low carbon infrastructure of all kinds is required.

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June 28, 2018

Ten demonstrable truths about the workplace you may not know

by Kerstin Sailer • Comment, Facilities management, Features, Workplace design

The science of the workplace has gained a lot of interest over the last few years, highlighting recurring patterns of human behaviour as well as how organisational behaviour relates to office design. In theory, knowledge from this growing body of research could be used to inform design. In practice, this is rarely the case. A survey of 420 architects and designers highlighted a large gap between research and practice: while 80 percent of respondents agreed that more evidence was needed on the impact of design, 68 percent admitted they never reviewed literature and 71 percent said they never engaged in any sort of post-occupancy evaluation. Only 5 percent undertake a formal POE and just 1 percent do so in a rigorous fashion. Not a single practitioner reported a report on the occupied scheme, despite its importance in understanding the impact of a design.

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June 22, 2018

Organisations are easily distracted from the task of creating a great workplace strategy

by Chris Hood • Comment, Facilities management, Property, Workplace design

Earlier this month The Once Alternative Workplace Strategies 2018 workplace study was published. This study is the only known longitudinal workplace study and it was recently resurfaced by a group of volunteers to maintain a comparative thread of data on the evolution of workplace thought and practice now going back many years. Unfortunately, the results of this global study demonstrate that a high percentage of companies still see once alternative and now modern workplace strategies as a real estate initiative and not the opportunity to reinvent their businesses in deeper and more transformational ways. Workplace innovation is a litmus test for management quality and leadership. This isn’t about real estate, it’s actually about people and business outcomes.

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June 21, 2018

The future of the workplace emerges from the mists at Neocon

by John Sacks • Features, Furniture, Workplace design

Chicago is one of the world’s great cities. Its dramatic lake and river setting, its magnificent architecture and its raw energy inspire the locals and businesses to achieve great things. People work and play very hard. Competition is fierce both in business as in the way the people relate to each other, and befits a city heavily influenced by waves of immigration down the ages. Apart from somewhat overly aggressive and noisy driving, if there is friction, you don’t sense it and it isn’t obvious. Most locals seem genuinely open and friendly, including to strangers, and happy to get on with their lives without troubling others. Perhaps they’re all being buoyed up by the great street music which is everywhere.

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June 20, 2018

Successful EFMC event in Sofia sets its sights next on Dublin

by Beatriz Jiménez • Comment, Events, Facilities management

The Sofia Event Center in Sofia (Bulgaria), hosted from 5 to 8 June the 26th Edition of EFMC, the European Congress of Facility Management. The event, held for the first time in the Bulgarian capital, has brought together world experts of the sector and has served as a platform for communication between Facility Managers, suppliers, universities and associations. In the closing ceremony it was announced that EFMC 2019 will be held in Dublin (Ireland) on 13 and 14 June.

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June 19, 2018

We should not be quite so quick to demonise the open plan office

by Nigel Oseland • Facilities management, Features, Furniture, Workplace design

There is a witch hunt on in the workplace. “Open plan” has become a dirty word and the national press are leading the mob in vilifying this so-called scourge. The Guardian, The Independent, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail and Business Week have all reported that “we can’t get anything done in an open-plan office” as it affects our concentration, our performance and our health. These news items are all damning, but perhaps not as damming as the Wikipedia entry on open plan which states: “A systematic survey of research upon the effects of open plan offices found frequent negative effects in some traditional workplaces: high levels of noise, stress, conflict, high blood pressure and a high staff turnover… Most people prefer closed offices… there is a dearth of studies confirming positive impacts on productivity from open plan office designs”.