September 23, 2019

Office design alone cannot motivate us or make us happy at work

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Knowledge, Workplace, Workplace design

There’s a good reason why we find it hard to establish the causal links between our working lives, office design and our personal happiness. It’s because it’s all very complicated. So complicated in fact that you can sidetrack any discussion on the subject by asking elementary questions such as: ‘what do you mean by happy?’ or ‘should it be the role of work to make us happy?’ (more…)

September 23, 2019

Growing number of organisations pledge to take action on climate change

by Neil Franklin • Environment, News, Property

As world leaders meet in New York for today’s UN Climate Action Summit, a group of 59 large multinationals including Swiss Re, Ikea, and L’Oréal have signed up to the UN Global Compact to pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The compact now has 87 corporations as signatories, including Astra Zeneca and Unilever who signed up earlier this year, with a combined market value of $2.3 trillion. As is the case with countries, there is still a way to go for more companies to take decisive action on climate change, however. (more…)

September 20, 2019

Managers lack confidence in their ability to develop employee skills

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

Despite acknowledging the importance of new skills, 45 percent of managers don’t feel confident in their ability to develop the skills employees need today, according to a poll by Gartner. In addition to a lack of confidence, Gartner research also claims that managers lack time to coach their direct reports, with managers spending on average 9 percent of their time on developing their direct reports. (more…)

September 19, 2019

Workers want firms to do more about air quality

by Neil Franklin • Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

Flexible working, sharing information about local clean air routes and incentivising active travel are just some of the ideas being put to businesses today as new research suggests employers need to do more to address the issue of air quality and pollution for staff both in the workplace and on their commute. (more…)

September 17, 2019

US firms dominate most desirable workplaces for tech workers

by Neil Franklin • News, Technology, Workplace design

The BBC, Monzo and Skyscanner are the companies UK top tech talent wants to work for the most according to new research from Hired which has today released its annual Brand Health Report. However, despite the UK’s flourishing tech landscape, British business are not featured on the global list of the top 15 private or public companies indicating that UK brands are losing popularity. This is especially worrying at a time when 60 percent of London firms apparently anticipate a ‘Brexit Brain Drain’. (more…)

September 17, 2019

Workers uncomfortable talking about mental health

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing

A new survey from Babylon Health claims that nearly 80 percent of UK adults would be uncomfortable discussing their mental health with their employer. Workplace pressures were listed as the second-largest cause of anxiety among the 2000 participants, behind personal relationships. 45 percent of adults said they felt stressed by issues at work. (more…)

September 16, 2019

High streets should switch focus to office space and high-skilled jobs

by Neil Franklin • Cities, News, Property

Many British High Streets face a bleak future as policymakers are failing to identify a clear economic focus to city centre regeneration strategies. According to the Centre for Cities’ latest research, in partnership with Nationwide Building Society, success is defined by those policies that create skills, jobs and quality office space for businesses rather than currently accepted interventions such as cultural initiatives, business rate reforms and online sales taxes. (more…)

September 16, 2019

Flexible office space transforming US commercial property sector

by Neil Franklin • Coworking, News, Property

A new report from CBRE claims that the US market for flexible office space will generate significant growth over the next decade, even in the event of a recession, as flex operators consolidate and forge financial partnerships with building owners. (more…)

September 13, 2019

Final line up for Workplace Week announced

by Jo Sutherland • Company news, Events

Marking its ninth consecutive year, Workplace Week London 2019 – brainchild of Advanced Workplace Associates (AWA) – will take place the week commencing 11 November 2019. 30 organisations, a third of which are debutants, have confirmed their support for the philanthropic week, which has so far raised over £100,000 for BBC Children in Need. (more…)

September 13, 2019

Office costs continue to rise across the UK

by Neil Franklin • News, Property

Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH) has released its latest Total Office Cost Survey (TOCS) which provides detailed information on office costs for over 50 UK locations. Across 54 surveyed locations, the survey shows the prime core of London’s West End remains by far the most expensive UK office location, with the annual cost for a new office in Mayfair standing at £18,988 per workstation. This stands at 139 percent above the UK average and 45 percent ahead of the next most expensive office location, the City of London. (more…)

September 10, 2019

Are coworking spaces really all the same?

by Uri Bar-Joseph • Comment, Coworking, Technology, Workplace design

If you’ve ever shopped around for a coworking space, you’ve undoubtedly heard every shared workspace operator brag that its offices aren’t just a place to work – they’re all about community and culture. As Fast Company’s Ruth Reader put it, we’re just a “bunch of co-work startups saying the same things about how different [we] are.” She’s not entirely wrong, but (with all due respect) I think she’s missed the point about coworking.

(more…)

September 10, 2019

Start-ups slump as UK gears up for Brexit

by Neil Franklin • Business, News

The number of new start-ups in the UK fell sharply last year and established firms scaled back their growth ambitions due to Brexit uncertainty, according to new data looking at the health of the grassroots economy. The findings have emerged from the Enterprise Research Centre’s UK Local Growth Dashboard report, an annual publication that looks at a range of metrics charting the growth of small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which account for 99 percent of all firms in the UK. (more…)