December 8, 2021
Search Results for: interaction
November 24, 2021
The great office door handle problem
by Mark Eltringham • Features, Wellbeing, Workplace design
Architects and designers have always a had a thing for door handles. It’s the kind of detail they like and one of the most genuinely tactile features of a building. Architects from Frank Gehry to Zaha Hadid have worked on the designs of door handles for manufacturers. It was the Finnish architect Juhani Pallasmaa who described the door handle as ‘the handshake of the building’ in his architectural theory book?The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses in 2005. This was cute before last March but now looks slightly menacing. (more…)
November 22, 2021
Staff wellbeing programmes help social relationships and reduce bullying
by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing, Working lives
Programmes aimed at supporting employees’ health and wellbeing can also benefit their social relationships and reduce bullying, according to a new study by researchers from the University of East Anglia (UEA), working in collaboration with Vitality. (more…)
November 11, 2021
Majority of employees lack confidence in their company’s return-to-work strategy
by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing, Working lives
Humanyze has released the second installment of the 2021 Future of Work Report, a holistic analysis of the evolution of work throughout the pandemic and employee sentiments about the post-pandemic future of the workplace. Nearly 2,300 survey responses were collected from individual employees and people managers, and compared to responses from the spring 2021 report, to identify key changes over the last 6 months. (more…)
November 10, 2021
2021 Digital Etiquette study highlights the rise of the invisible workforce
by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Working lives
The 2021 Digital Etiquette Study by Adaptavist, highlights that 43 percent of workers in the UK want to come back to the workplace/office full-time, while the exact same figure (43 percent) favour a flexible/hybrid model and 14 percent want to be remote only. However, as hybrid work increasingly becomes the long-term future for knowledge workers, Adaptavist suggests a growing despair among employees with the tools and technologies they are using to navigate working remotely with many left feeling invisible. (more…)
November 9, 2021
Wearing face masks could be affecting the way we interact with others
by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing, Working lives
Hiding the bottom half of the face with a mask could have a detrimental effect on our ability to socially interact and share other people’s emotions, new research suggests. A Cardiff University-led study claims people with facial paralysis, people seeing others who wear face masks, or even children sucking on dummies, could struggle to show empathy or detect positive social cues. While face masks are essential for protecting against harmful airborne particles, they can also pose challenges for individuals with allergies. Finding the right face mask can significantly improve comfort and reduce allergy symptoms. For those seeking the best face mask for allergies, consider factors such as filtration efficiency, breathability, and hypoallergenic materials. (more…)
November 3, 2021
Business leaders wary that greater workplace flexibility could encourage ‘proximity bias’
by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Working lives
With the vast majority (86 percent) of UK businesses planning to offer employees greater flexibility around where they work, leaders are focused on ensuring employees feel included regardless of their location, according to new research from LinkedIn. This comes as LinkedIn has seen a 97 percent increase in remote jobs being advertised on the platform in the UK from September 2020 to September 2021. (more…)
November 2, 2021
Increased workload does not dampen many people’s preference for remote work
by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Technology, Wellbeing
According to a Kaspersky survey of 4,303 IT workers, 56 percent of employees have reported an increased workload since switching to remote working, with 19 percent describing the increase as significant. 40 percent did not notice a change in volume, and only 9 percent noted a decrease in the scope of work due to new working conditions. (more…)
November 1, 2021
Office still valued by UK employees, providing space for productivity and collaboration
by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Working culture
New research from Nespresso Professional claims that the office space is still highly valued by employees, with office workers naming seeing their colleagues (39 percent) as the thing they like most about being in the office. While a proper desk setup (31 percent) comes in second, office camaraderie (30 percent) took the third spot, showing the importance of the office environment for team building and relationships. (more…)
October 27, 2021
Hybrid working: too few companies are making the workplace changes they need
by Tony Antoniou • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace design
At a recent Women in Office Design event on the subject of hybrid working and workplace change, the founder of WOD Harsha Kotak posed a question which I thought was extremely important but often goes unasked. “Whilst I have a great understanding of how the workplace landscape will change”, she said, “are companies making these changes?” This is a brilliantly relevant question because in my opinion based on my research and experience of the past year and a half, not enough companies are. (more…)
October 6, 2021
Hybrid workers retain concerns of discrimination, career and always on culture
by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Working lives
Poly has released a new report outlining the evolution of the workplace and changing employee attitudes to the 9-5. The Poly Evolution of the Workplace report provides analysis on the findings of a survey of 7,261 hybrid workers from the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Poland and the United Arab Emirates. It examines how attitudes and behaviours have evolved – looking at everything from working patterns and culture, to frustration and noise, right down to what we wear. (more…)
November 3, 2021
The office of the future will be a leader-free, social-space
by Dawn Sharifan • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Workplace design