June 29, 2020

Winners announced for 2020 KI Award from Royal College of Art and Imperial College

The winners of the annual KI Award, now in its fifth year, were announced in the lead up to the upcoming digital graduation show. The awards and cash prizes are given to final year students selected from the RCA’s ‘Design Products’ and the RCA/Imperial College London’s ‘Innovation Design Engineering’ double masters course. The winning projects showed an outstanding approach to functionality, durability, sustainability and enhancement to user experience for our future working or learning experiences. A summary of each award winner is included below. (more…)

June 24, 2020

The links between coffee, shared ideas and the office go back a long way

by Mark Barrell • Briefing, Premium Content, Wellbeing, Workplace design

The BBC recently published a piece on its website to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of Ridley Scott’s movie Alien and what it could tell us about office design and the workplace (of whatever sort). One of the interesting points raised in the piece was how the depiction of the conditions on board the spaceship Nostromo did away with the gloss and swish of previous visions of the future, replaced by grime, exposed services and strictly utilitarian interiors. The environment was one of the characters, a trick Ridley Scott later repeated in Bladerunner. (more…)

June 17, 2020

Time to apply the lessons we learned during lockdown

by Louise Bancroft • Features, Flexible working, Wellbeing

So far, 2020 has not gone to plan. For businesses, and the people they employ, the next few months may be just as bumpy, as each country, state and city takes its own approach to a phased return to work after lockdown. Today, in Houston, offices are limited to 25 percent capacity, in London, the underground is capped at 13-15 percent capacity, while in New Zealand and other countries hospitality and retail are returning with heightened hygiene measures and social distancing in place. (more…)

June 16, 2020

Virtual work has the potential to harm trust, social cohesion and knowledge sharing

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

Trust, social cohesion and information sharing are the most potentially vulnerable to damage when people work virtually, according to a study of around 750 academic papers conducted on behalf of the Advanced Workplace Institute (AWI), a global workplace management body. As organisations rapidly embrace home working and virtual work in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the study warns that without active management to respond to changes in working, team dynamics are under risk with a knock on effect on both employee happiness and performance. (more…)

June 16, 2020

Offices in the post lockdown era will focus on what they are good at

by Neil Franklin • News, Property

Office spaces will become a hive of activity in the future as more businesses embrace office designs which promote innovation, creativity and team collaboration, predicts commercial real estate advisors Colliers International. The EMEA Workplace Advisory team has published its latest report, Exploring the post-COVID-19 Workplace, which evaluates feedback from its global Work from Home survey to discuss future workplace trends. (more…)

June 15, 2020

Wellbeing for remote workers should not be lost in translation

by Brendan Street • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to disrupt the world of work – seeing many businesses remote working – employers are learning more about the importance of effective communication. Diminished in-person contact can lead to feelings of isolation and loneliness among employees. And managers are also facing new challenges in providing the level of social interaction and support that is crucial in maintaining the mental health wellbeing of employees while away from the office. (more…)

June 11, 2020

The lessons learned under lockdown will help us grow and improve

by Alicia Michael • Features, Workplace design

As the global community navigates the Coronavirus crisis, the nature of the workplace will be more important than ever. We have been working remotely on an unprecedented scale, and the benefits are clear – flexibility, time with family, and reduced commuting as a start. In some form, working from home is here to stay, even as returning to the physical office becomes possible. However, we have also discovered the limitations to remote working. While teams have been able to stay connected virtually, this cannot substitute for face-to-face collaboration, which is essential to fostering innovation. (more…)

June 5, 2020

Vast majority neglecting breaks when working from home

by George Eltringham • Flexible working, News

A new study claims that “microbreaks” have decreased for 95 percent of employees during home working, as lockdown sees people glued to our desks more ever before. The ‘Working from home’ study, conducted by Wildgoose, asked employees from 133 companies throughout the UK how their working day differs at home compared to in the office, whether they wanted to continue working from home after lockdown has finished, and how companies could improve home working practices. (more…)

May 29, 2020

The role of workplace professionals in the new era of work

by Kelly Bream • Comment, Flexible working, Property

Many consequences of the COVID-19 crisis are immediately apparent to workplace managers and users. Potentially less obvious, are the fundamental changes to the job roles involved in managing commercial property, both within occupier businesses and property management teams alike. (more…)

May 14, 2020

Life-Based Value launch digital training program harnessing new skills

by Freddie Steele • Company news

Life Based Value has announced the launch of ‘Crisis’, a brand new digital training program available for British businesses that harness unique skills learned during the current lockdown for the world of work. The announcement took place at EdTechX’s Global online summit, from company founder Riccarda Zezza, as the UK is facing one of its most intense and challenging ever transitions – the disruption of normal working life due Covid-19, and the eventual return to work after lockdown measures eventually ease. (more…)

May 12, 2020

How will delivery processes change as workers return to the workplace?

by Senel Sowerby • Company news

As workplaces around the country prepare to adapt to the various social distancing and personal safety measures they will have to put in place, many will be wondering what the typical working day will start to look like. Some of the activities we take completely for granted like commuting, meal breaks and even talking to colleagues, will have to be carefully considered from now on as routines change to avoid any unnecessary human contact. (more…)

May 11, 2020

Hygiene remains main concern of people returning to work

by Neil Franklin • News

As lockdown measures begin to ease, many UK office workers are concerned about going back to the office – with worries rife over being able to maintain social distancing (59 percent) and appropriate hygiene and cleaning standards (44 percent), according to new research. The YouGov poll, for the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management (IWFM) surveyed office workers across the country to reveal that over a third (34 percent) are concerned about getting used to a corporate office culture again after the lockdown. (more…)