January 5, 2024

Employers can be advocates for workplace eye wellness: four winning strategies

Proper management of employee health and wellness is an important facet to consider when striving for success in the workplace. Properly supporting employee health helps them perform better, encourages productivity, prevents losses from absences, enhances job satisfaction, and improves overall morale. Employers can promote employee wellness in different ways, but one area you should consider prioritising is eye care in the workplace. More →

January 5, 2024

Amazon employee claims he was told you’ve still got a job, but not a role

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

Last year Amazon made headlines for making 27,000 people redundant as part of a long-term cost-cutting exercise. One of the consequences was a fall in the firm’s share price. Now an employee has claimed in a blog post that the firm is handling its downsizing in more creative ways. Justin Garrison claims in the post that has been told he no longer has a role with Amazon Web Services, but that he will still be paid while he makes the finding of a new job his number one priority. More →

January 2, 2024

We are not blank slates and we don’t adapt to change in predictable ways

by Mark Eltringham • Features, Flexible working, Wellbeing

An idea that has never really gone away, but which seems to be enjoying a new lease of life is the tabula rasa. The conception of people as a blank slate is something that has crept back into mainstream political and social thought for a variety of reasons. Arguably, it is also behind many of the most misleading notions about work and workplace design, perhaps most importantly that a change to some single element or characteristic of a working environment will lead to a specific outcome in the behaviour of people. More →

December 20, 2023

Understanding how to project financials for a startup business

by Freddie Steele • Company news

Launching a startup can be an exciting endeavor that requires thorough planning and preparation. One of the most essential and challenging aspects of planning a startup is projecting the financials. To make credible financial forecasts, it is crucial to have a solid understanding of the fundamental aspects of projecting financials. In this article, we delve into the art of projecting financials for a startup business. More →

December 19, 2023

Flexible working is delivering the gift of seasonal productivity

by Frank Weishaupt • Comment, Flexible working, Technology

Employees have made it clear that they are keen for flexible working arrangements to stay. In fact, according to the Owl Labs 2023 State of Hybrid Work report, 40 percent of employees would decline a job if they were required to be in the office five days a week. With the festive season in full swing, employees will look to utilise the benefits of flexible working as they return home to their families. More →

December 19, 2023

How employers should navigate the ICO’s guidance on monitoring workers

by Anthony Woolich and Michelle Chance • Comment, Technology

As technology continues to advance at a rapid pace, so does the prevalence of firms monitoring workers and the sophistication of the tools available to employers to monitor their staff’s activities. Hand in hand with the increasing prevalence of workplace monitoring tools are concerns that their excessive use may infringe workers’ data protection and privacy rights. Employers must take heed of recent ICO guidance to ensure they do not fall foul of the law in pursuit of the hoped for benefits of workplace monitoring, such as boosting productivity and profit. More →

December 18, 2023

A bit of alien thinking on coffee and some other BS

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, Features, Technology, Wellbeing, Workplace design

I’ve sometimes highlighted how our perceptions of the workplace are subject to an apex fallacy. The daily consumption of narratives about campuses, tech palaces and ‘cool’ design can obscure the fact that most people don’t experience this stuff in their daily lives. They work in adequate or possibly nice offices. Some in shabby offices or horrible offices. Many travel into work at the same time each day and sit with roughly the same people and do roughly the same things. They may work from home more frequently now, but they have a routine there too. Most will work in a mundane or nice home that mirrors the mundane office that awaits at the other end of the commute. More →

December 12, 2023

Workplace innovation is boosted when managers have high social status

by Neil Franklin • Business, News

Social status of top management in a company is positively associated with innovation, including workplace innovation, due to greater access to resources for research and development (R&D), finds new research from UCD Lochlann Quinn School of Business (UCD Quinn School). The findings were first published in the journal R&D Management. More →

December 12, 2023

Workplace and property firms must wake up to the new era of networked businesses

by Rob Harris • Features, Flexible working, Property, Workplace design

While millions of words have been dedicated to the expected changes in post-Covid workstyles – how will people work, where will they work, how will they be supported – very little has been said about their employers: companies and corporations. Yet the anticipated changes to work and the workplace raise questions about the role of the company. Is it one just half of a transaction between employer and employee? Or is it something more? Indeed, what is the role of the company in the modern economy? Is the nature of the company likely to change? The answers could have a greater impact on workstyles than the pandemic. More →

December 10, 2023

UK built environment is woefully under-prepared for climate change

by Neil Franklin • Environment, News

New analysis published by UKGBC during the COP28 talks concludes that the UK’s built environment is severely under-equipped to adapt to our changing climate. On five out of seven critical climate resilience priorities, UKGBC’s scorecard finds that the Government policies in its Third National Adaptation Programme (NAP3) are insufficient, flawed, or missing, placing millions of homes and buildings – and the lives of people occupying them – at serious risk of damage from climate-related disaster. More →

December 8, 2023

Ten years of Insight and a few things I think I know (one of our most read pieces this year)

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Workplace, Workplace design

This website started in late 2012 as a way for me to explore both a new media format and a new way of thinking about work and workplaces. I’d already been active in various roles in the workplace, design and facilities sector for twenty odd years, but needed a new challenge. And this was it. I was going for a ride with an idea to see where it went. More →

December 7, 2023

Curtail zero hour contracts and give workers guaranteed work hours, say researchers

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

An evidence review led by the University of Warwick has concluded that the increase of zero hours contracts over the last 20 years has created significant risk for workers. They found that unreliable work can result in a sudden loss of hours and earnings, and an inability to access legal advice for unfair or potentially unlawful employment practices. Along with colleagues from the ReWAGE expert advisory group, academics at the Institute of Employment Research at the University of Warwick examined the legal and workplace practices associated with zero hour contracts, along with data covering flexibility, pay insecurity, workers ability to assert their rights and workers health and wellbeing. More →