Search Results for: office

March 27, 2019

Third of UK employees work way outside contracted hours

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Over 35 percent of employees regularly arrive at work early or stay late, and that younger people are more likely to work longer hours than their older colleagues. The study, conducted by Love Energy Savings discovered that 8 percent of British employees work a staggering 20 hours or more each week than their contracted hours. Of those surveyed, over 40 percent of 18 to 24-year-old employees admit to working more than their contracted hours, a higher number than any other age group; 10 percent of 25 to 34-year-olds admitted to working over 20 hours of overtime per week.

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March 26, 2019

Automation could replace 1.5 million UK jobs, according to Government study

by Neil Franklin • AI, News, Technology

Around 1.5 million jobs in England are at high risk of some of their duties and tasks being automated in the future, Office for National Statistics (ONS) analysis shows. The ONS has analysed the jobs of 20 million people in England in 2017, and has found that 7.4 percent are at high risk of automation. Women, young people, and those who work part-time are most likely to work in roles that are at high risk of automation. (more…)

March 21, 2019

Interiors are not enough to win the war for talent

by Ben Capper • Comment, Workplace design

I often refer to Google and Facebook in my blog, due to their influence on workplace design. Many consider them to be workplace interior’s holy grail. But today’s big employers are competing with one another on a much broader set of principles. Cool interiors alone just won’t cut it. Zürich, like many European cities is home to a large number of global brands, with bustling financial services and tech sectors. I regularly hear of people with multiple job offers taking a job with a lower salary, rather than accepting a role in a company that doesn’t reflect their ideals. This decision can be influenced by office design and facilities, career development options, corporate culture and much more. (more…)

March 20, 2019

Feeling appreciated and the quality of workplace both key to employee happiness

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Wellbeing, Workplace, Workplace design

The quality of the workplace has a powerful effect on the levels of happiness of staff, with nearly half of respondents (49 percent) to a recent survey stating that having a great office environment is important to their happiness at work, but according to the figures, only a quarter (25 percent) say a good workplace environment is a current positive about their work. The survey from Peldon Rose also found that less than half (45 percent) of employees actually feel appreciated at work and only two-thirds (67 percent) report feeling happy. Yet the majority of workers (80 percent) who took part, believe that feeling appreciated is most important to their happiness at work – ahead of salary (58 percent) and feeling trusted (55 percent).

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March 18, 2019

Pressing self-destruct, a final solution to workplace noise, a broken psychological contract and some other stuff

by Mark Eltringham • Features

I’ve never really wanted to go to MIPIM. I’m suspicious of it all for a number of reasons I won’t go into although you might reasonably guess what they are. So, I enjoyed this piece from Polly Plunket-Checkemian about her own misgivings. I understand that the testosterone level has been dialled down recently, but like Polly I’d like to see a re-examination of its format and intent, especially given that the real estate sector is having to rethink where it fits into the new era of work and meets the challenge of coworking.

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March 18, 2019

Government report shows increase in number of workers balancing care commitments

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

A new official report has highlighted the increasing number of people who are having to balance caring for family members with their own working commitments. Catherine Foot, the Director of Evidence for the Centre for Ageing Better, responded to these statistics by calling for legislation to promote flexible working among older workers. Published by the Office for National Statistics, the report has found that one in four older female workers, and one in eight older male workers, have care responsibilities.

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March 17, 2019

Time to unlearn the time management system you learned at school

by Steve Hartert • Comment, Technology

Picture a workplace where everyone follows rigorous to-do lists. Employees are told what to do, how long to spend on it, and in what order to tackle their projects. Then, picture a workplace where there are no to-do lists, no project deadlines, and no estimations of how long projects will take. Employees tackle work in the order they choose, when they feel like doing it. Which workplace do you think will be more successful?

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March 15, 2019

When exactly did busyness become a sign of status?

by Francesca Langton Kendall • Comment, Wellbeing

When exactly did “busyness” become a status? At work, in our personal lives and online, the competition to “live our best lives” and “hustle harder” is being taken to the extreme. Neuroscientists refer to busyness as a state of “cognitive overload.” This state can hinder our productivity, as well as our abilities to think clearly, plan and control our emotions. In the early 1990s, John Maynard Keynes predicted that, by 2028, living conditions would improve so much that the working day would shrink to three or four hours. However, it is now 2019 and we are busier than ever.

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March 15, 2019

How artificial intelligence changes occupant experience

by David Karpook • Facilities management, Features, Technology

If a robot received a signal that you had entered the building, it might bring you a fresh cup of coffee just as you reach your desk. If the front door recognised your face, it might unlock itself for you without requiring you to use a fob to gain access. If your desk knew you had left for the day, it might offer itself to a colleague who is looking for a quiet workspace. Throughout history, the interaction of humans with technology has been pretty much one-sided. We turn our technologies on and off, operate and guide them in their tasks, and use our senses to monitor their functioning and detect anomalies.

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March 14, 2019

The negative entropy of workplace design and management

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Workplace design

Immediately after the Workplace Trends Summit in London last October, Ian Ellison of 3edges and I retired to a side room to record an interview for a podcast over a glass of red wine. The main objective was to try to piece together a coherent summary of what we’d seen that day. Ian assures me the podcast (his are invariably excellent) will appear very soon, but I thought it would be worth exploring a theory I formed and rambled on about in our conversation ahead of the next Summit set to take place next week.

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March 14, 2019

Mobile working is a recipe for business success

by Sally Elliott • Comment, Technology, Workplace design

Today, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is changing the face of work as we know it: introducing AI and automation to the workplace and creating a drastic shift in the skills required by organisations today. As automation increasingly frees employees up from the repetitive, process work that can so often dominate their day-to-day, organisations are instead looking to employees to showcase their critical thinking and creativity. Indeed, McKinsey’s Skill Shift confirms that by 2030 the demand for higher cognitive skills, such as creativity, critical thinking and decision making will grow by 14 percent in Europe.

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March 13, 2019

Noisy workplaces regularly distract and stress out staff

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Over half (52 percent) of workers are interrupted by noise distractions more than five times in a working day, with 17 percent stating that they are interrupted by noise more than 10 times. This is according to the Noise and Wellbeing at Work 2019 survey conducted by The Remark Group, and supported by environmental psychologist and workplace strategist Dr Nigel Oseland, an honorary senior lecturer at UCL’s Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering. In the survey of 1,000 UK-based office workers, 65 percent reported that noise in the workplace impacted on their ability to complete work in an accurate and timely manner. (more…)