March 4, 2020
Search Results for: office design
March 4, 2020
New smart building suite for a people centric workplace experience
Siemens Smart Infrastructure has launched a smart building suite designed to create more efficient and flexible workplaces where people are at the core. The suite of IoT (Internet of Things) enabled devices, applications and services turn offices into a competitive advantage for companies. (more…)
February 28, 2020
Exploring life at the new Siemens Campus in Zug
When it comes to creating an office to call home, all of the usual challenges are magnified by several degrees for a company like Siemens. It can’t afford to skimp on the building’s services, green credentials, integrated technology and all-round smartness then hold meaningful conversations on the same subjects with its clients. So, the new Siemens Campus in the Swiss town of Zug has to showcase the best the firm has to offer as well as delivering for the people who work there. (more…)
February 28, 2020
UK workers are greener at home than in the workplace
Nearly half of UK workers admit to being greener at home than they are in the office, although more and more are realising the importance of green habits, research by Instant Offices has suggested. With the government committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050, the workspace innovation company has been investigating what more employers can do to help to lead the way by instituting greener practices. (more…)
February 27, 2020
R&D sector boosts demand for Cambridge property
While Brexit uncertainty has dented business investment, on which the research and development (R&D) sector is particularly dependent, new research suggests Cambridge remains a popular destination for knowledge-intensive businesses. According to property consultants Bidwells, the property market in the city proved robust throughout 2019, with take-up moving well ahead of the 10-year average. Knowledge-intensive businesses were responsible for more than 80 percent of the space taken, roughly evenly split between the life science and tech sectors. (more…)
February 26, 2020
Wellbeing in the workplace consultation announced
Wellbeing advocacy group ukactive has announced a new partnership with HCA Healthcare UK, to undertake a consultation into health and physical activity in the workplace. The partnership brings together the independent research expertise of not-for-profit health body ukactive and the resources of healthcare provider, HCA UK. Anna Davison of ukactive can be heard speaking about workplace wellbeing in the Wellness Maters podcast here. (more…)
February 24, 2020
Car of 2050 will be a hub for meetings on the go
By 2050, cars will be completely driverless, electric and kitted out for hosting business meetings on the go, a report has claimed. Instead of a driving seat, there will be seats facing inwards and a screen for delivering presentations and making conference calls. The predictions in Auto Trader’s Car of the Future report are based on the forecasts of futurologist Tom Cheesewright and a survey of more than 2000 drivers to identify features that would be popular with consumers. (more…)
January 24, 2020
Workplace culture can eat strategy for breakfast
It was management consultant and author Peter Drucker who coined the well-worn maxim that “culture eats strategy for breakfast”. But often it is used in the wrong way. Far from suggesting that culture alone dictates workplace function, he presented culture as a first among equals. A strategy that does not heed culture is more likely to fail. A culture without strategy is prone to go adrift. It is vital for an organisation to be aware of its own culture and subcultures. Without self-awareness, the steps to improve or nuture those within the organisation will be futile. (more…)
January 21, 2020
The vaguery of workplace serendipity
It has become vogue to refer to the workplace as being ‘all about people’. It points in all directions at once. Organisations need fit, healthy, happy, skilled, motivated, engaged and purposeful people being (and feeling) productive and doing their best work every day. They want their people working closely together – they’ve spent a lot of time and money drawing in those they feel can contribute to a whole that is other than the sum of the parts. (more…)
January 16, 2020
What Baloo can teach us about our suspicion of tall buildings
“What Baloo had said about the monkeys was perfectly true. They belonged to the tree-tops, and as beasts very seldom look up, there was no occasion for the monkeys and the Jungle-People to cross each other’s path.” Of course, Rudyard Kipling meant this figuratively but there is a clear link between ‘up’ in the figurative sense and ‘up’ in the physical sense. The executives at Omnicorp don’t lease the most expensive offices in a tower in so they can sit around on the ground floor watching the hoi polloi pass by at street level. They need to be at the top of the building looking down on them. (more…)
January 8, 2020
From the archives: Is this the missing piece of the facilities management puzzle? 0
The IFMA Foundation Workplace Summit of summer 2014 felt like an optimistic time for facilities management and the workspace industry. Heavyweights from the sector were asking searching questions about our organisational contribution, with thankfully less of the internally focused, debate-free hubris typical of much of the industry narrative. The newly announced (and now evidently historical) collaboration between BIFM and CIPD was in full swing, endorsed by social media savvy Twitterati under The Workplace Conversation banner. (more…)
February 24, 2020
Ergonomics, movement and the evolutionary necessity of pain
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design