May 22, 2020

Doing the homework on home-work

by Tim Oldman • Comment, Flexible working

COVID-19 will change the world in innumerable ways. It is already affecting how we think about disease transmission, consumption, labour, travel, and even space and distance. And it will change how we think about work. Almost immediately, however, designers, architects and everyone else with a stake in the future of workplace have spotted an opportunity to get creative and solve a problem that we don’t yet understand. More →

May 21, 2020

Most British workers reluctant to work mainly from home, BCO poll claims

by Neil Franklin • News, Property

Rumours of the demise of the office are much exaggerated, according to new independent polling commissioned by the British Council for Offices (BCO), the representative body for the UK’s office sector. Just one in five (20 percent) UK adults plans primarily to work from home in the future, while only 16 percent hope that working from home replaces the office. Last week, Twitter, the social media company, announced that staff could ‘forever work from home’ if they wanted to. However, that offer would only be partially taken up by British workers, with many instead opting for ‘mixed working’, balancing time between the office and home. More →

May 13, 2020

Peter Löffler explores the world of digital twin technology in the Workplace Insight podcast

by Mark Eltringham • Podcasts, Technology

The expression “if these walls could talk” is taking on an entirely new meaning with the emerging opportunity to create digital twins for buildings, claims Peter Löffler, the head of innovation at Siemens Smart Infrastructure in a new episode of the Workplace Insight podcast. Across the entire lifecycle of structures such as office buildings, hospitals, airports and hotels, creating a digital twin can significantly reduce costs, improve efficiencies, speed construction delivery, as well as enhance performance and the user experience. More →

May 12, 2020

Government publishes guidance on how people should safely return to work

by Jayne Smith • News

The UK Government has issued new guidance to help people return to work safely. Measures include redesigns of all workplaces including offices to maintain social distancing, staggered times of work, the use of as many entrances to a building as possible and changed layouts. The guidelines cover eight workplace settings including construction, offices and contact centres, factories, plants and warehouses and shops. More →

May 7, 2020

Remote working has a number of hidden risks

by Dave Cook • Features, Flexible working, Wellbeing

Many of us have had little choice but to resort to remote working in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. It is just days since Google, Apple and Twitter were making headlines by ordering their employees to work from home, but you could now say the same about lots of companies. More →

May 5, 2020

Three quarters of workers want the choice to work from home after lockdown

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

Seventy-seven percent of the workforce say they want to continue to work from home, at least weekly, when the pandemic is over. That represents a 132 percent increase over those who did so before COVID-19. These and other findings from the Global Work-from-Home Experience Survey, which claims to be the largest post-COVID survey on the topic to date, will lead to profound changes in office space needs, workplace design, workforce policies and practices, and employer, employee, and environmental outcomes. More →

May 1, 2020

Organisations should seize this opportunity to look at their values

by James Morley • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing

Not since 911 has one event triggered such global impact and uncertainty across all businesses and industries. The unprecedented speed and scale of organisational change has challenged even the prepared leadership team. More →

April 30, 2020

Team building exercises have never been more important

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Workplace

These days, almost every company implements team building exercises — and rightly so, as decades of research have shown how beneficial they can be. Indeed, in a Forbes article O2E Brands CEO Brian Scudamore argues that team building activities are the most significant investment companies can make. More →

April 29, 2020

We should be addressing the why of the return to work as much as the how

by Judy Gavan • Comment

As we anticipate a return to relative normality post lockdown (whenever that may be), workplace strategy is a hot topic. In considering how we respond to new challenges let’s make sure we keep sight of the big picture. We need to address immediate issues whilst exploiting new opportunities to reinforce and expedite our established strategic direction. Choice and flexibility are central to the wider business reform agenda and should remain our touchstones. More →

April 28, 2020

A brief history of workplace disruption

by Anthony Brown • Features, Workplace design

Office work has existed in some form ever since people started writing on tablets and papyrus. Depictions of clerical staff are common in the Bible and on the walls of pyramids. In the mid 14th Century the Church of San Nicolò, commissioned the artist Tomaso da Modena to create the fresco in the chapter room of the church depicting forty monks of the order hard at it at their desks. The word office itself derives from the famous Uffizi in Florence, created in 1560. More →

April 27, 2020

The new ways of work in our lives after lockdown

by Ben Capper • Comment, Workplace design

And so our timelines flit from 5G conspiracy theorists, to 10 tips for your home office, Zoom group selfies, right back to where we started: the worn out topic of ‘the future of workplace‘. We’re in something of a collective thought process, excluding Donald Trump that is, who is clearly on his own individual trajectory. More →

April 22, 2020

An optimistic take on the future of work

by Chris Hood • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Setting aside the drastic personal tragedies, the financial devastation and the strain the virus has placed on government infrastructure, business, finance, and healthcare systems worldwide, the coronavirus has been able to achieve what legions of workplace strategists and change managers have been unable to do: encourage middle managers to give remote working a try. More →