Search Results for: office

How the media oversold standing desks as a fix for inactivity at work

by • Features, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Sitting is so culturally ingrained at work, at the wheel, in front of the TV and at the movies, it takes a great effort to imagine doing these things standing up, let alone pedalling as you work at a bike desk. So, when the world’s first specific guidelines on sitting and moving at work were published, they generated headlines such as: Abandon your chair for four hours to stay healthy, office workers are told and: Stand up at your desk for two hours a day, new guidelines say. But what many media reports did not mention was the guidelines were based on limited evidence. They were also co-authored by someone with commercial links to standing desks (desks you raise and lower to work at standing or sitting), a link not declared when the guidelines were first published in a journal. Media reports also overplayed the dangers of sitting at work, incorrectly saying it wiped out the benefits of exercise. Our new study reveals the nature of this media coverage and its role in overselling standing desks as a solution to inactivity at work.

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The Genesis of ideation and the places we go to have our best ideas

The Genesis of ideation and the places we go to have our best ideas 0

by • Facilities management, Features, Technology, Work&Place, Workplace design

Picture1Because collaboration, creativity and innovation are increasingly perceived as key objectives and differentiators of performance, the genesis and mechanisms behind ideation and creativity are an an integral part of both business and personal development. As a consequence, there is growing interest in the way the physical attributes of work settings may influence or even trigger creative behaviour. The cliché of the shower as one of these favourite places comes to mind and yet experience does show that the idea of seeking a setting, a “zone” if you will, for a specific purpose is intuitively right. This needn’t be a retreat or cocoon, as is often assumed, but can also be a crowded, busy, noisy place, which might explain why so often the most animated work conversations move out of the office shop into the coffee shop. Equally, highlight events or special meetings tend to be held in a “venue’, often dressed for the occasion.

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Refurbished industrial buildings provide perfect modern workplaces

Refurbished industrial buildings provide perfect modern workplaces

by • Architecture, News, Property, Workplace design

Refurbished industrial sheds provide the perfect space for the creation of modern workplaces, according to a study by Hawkins\Brown and JLL. In what the authors claim is the first comparative study of its kind, Industrial Rehab: A new space of opportunity takes a look at the global trend for companies in the knowledge economy to seek out large-span buildings because they support creative working, are able to accommodate rapid growth and deliver high quality, good value accommodation.

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Developing a resilient mindset to cope with stress

Developing a resilient mindset to cope with stress

by • Comment, Wellbeing

Earlier this year, The New York times reported on a company in New Zealand that reduced its employee’s work time to four days a week whilst paying them for five. The idea came to the CEO after he read research that showed that employees generally only spend three hours a day on actual productive work. The change was highly successful, employees were as productive over the four days as they were over the five but the wellbeing of employees improved dramatically.

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Microsoft unveils new Surface devices, headphones, and software updates

Microsoft unveils new Surface devices, headphones, and software updates

by • Company news, Technology

Microsoft expanded its Surface family of devices with Surface Headphones, Surface Laptop 2, Surface Studio 2 and Surface Pro 6, designed to offer more performance and productivity enabling people to achieve more. The devices seamlessly fade into the background, empowering people to work without interruptions to their creative flow, whenever and wherever inspirations strikes.

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Fall in number of employees who feel motivated at work

Fall in number of employees who feel motivated at work

by • Wellbeing, Workplace

Fall in number of employees who feel motivated at work Employee motivation levels appear to be the decline, with 29 percent of employees surveyed saying they were not motivated at work in 2017 compared to just 18 percent who said the same in 2016 the research report, “Living to Work” has claimed. Motivates Inc. has commissioned its employee motivation research for the past three years, surveying over 2,000 UK employees in full-time employment. The full data shows like-for-like how employees are feeling in the workplace and what hygiene factors have affected behaviours year-on-year. According to the latest data 71 percent of UK employees were motivated in 2017, which on its own shows a positive result, yet when you look at the motivational statistics from 2016 the data actually shows the percentage of motivated employees has dropped by 11 percent in just one year. That’s 220 more employees in an organisation of 2,000 who are not feeling good about their job.

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How to measure the impact of biophilia on individual performance

How to measure the impact of biophilia on individual performance

by • Features, Wellbeing, Workplace design

The improvement in well-being and performance in the workplace are economic and social critical factors since the loss of productivity for companies means a cost of up to US$ 550,000 million per year. Numerous studies affirm that biophilic design, defined as a response to the inherent need of human beings to be in contact with nature, in the workplace improves productivity and user well-being. As Lord Kelvin said, if you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it, so the challenge that arises is how to objectify and quantify rigorously the features that improve productivity and wellbeing in spaces designed with biophilia in mind. From this, it is necessary to go a step further and objectify the design criteria serving as an operator for performance and wellbeing in design practice.

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The horrors and harmonies of workplace hierarchy

The horrors and harmonies of workplace hierarchy

by • Comment, Technology, Workplace design

I am a child of the seventies, and one of my favourite shows when I was just a tyke was The Jeffersons. For those not familiar with The Jeffersons, it was about a black family in New York City who had, through ambition and entrepreneurship, ‘made it to the top’. George Jefferson, the patriarch, was a bolshie character. Hijinks usually ensued. But what stuck with me about that show was the catchy theme song, Movin’ On Up. The lyrics were ‘I’m movin’ on up, to the upper east side, to a deluxe apartment in the sky… I finally got a piece of the pie.’ Growing up in suburbia, this was probably the first time that I learned the idea of a penthouse, and the notion that the higher up the building, the more important you were. It wasn’t until I was about age eight that I realised the word wasn’t ‘high-archy’, but ‘hierarchy.’

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Change of mindset can transform workplace performance says Smart Summit

Change of mindset can transform workplace performance says Smart Summit

by • Events, Facilities management, News, Wellbeing, Workplace, Workplace design

Change of mindset can transform work performance says Smart Summit

Changing mindsets and the workplace through co-creative leadership was the theme of the latest Quora Smartworking Summit which took place this week at ExCeL London. Hosted by Quora’s Managing Director John Blackwell, the event featured a distinguished group of senior leaders who discussed under Chatham House rules, how they have helped change their organisation’s mindsets using leadership styles aimed at achieving successful work performance transformations.

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A changing world with inbuilt human obsolescence defines first day of CoreNet Global

A changing world with inbuilt human obsolescence defines first day of CoreNet Global

by • Facilities management, News, Property, Technology, Workplace design

The  forces that are changing the world, from AI and the current digital and technological transformation, to the short and long-term implications of Brexit, provided many of the key lessons during the first day of the CoreNet Global Summit in Madrid.

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With six months to go before Brexit, only 630 finance jobs have left UK, claims Reuters

With six months to go before Brexit, only 630 finance jobs have left UK, claims Reuters

by • News

As few as 630 UK-based finance jobs have been shifted or created overseas with just six months to go before Brexit, a far lower total than banks said could move after Britain’s surprise vote to leave the European Union, according to a new Reuters survey. Many bankers and politicians predicted after the June 2016 referendum that leaving the EU would prompt a mass exodus of jobs and business and deal a crippling blow to London’s position in global finance.

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Sociable Gen Z prefer to work in a communal workplace rather than home

Sociable Gen Z prefer to work in a communal workplace rather than home

by • Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Workplace, Workplace design

Sociable Gen Z prefer to work in a communal workplace rather than homeGeneration Z, the latest generation of workers to enter the workplace (aged 18-24) are social creatures a new report suggests, preferring to work in an office environment, with only 8 percent thinking they work best from home compared to 20 percent nationally. However, putting aside the assumption this is because they’re sharing a cramped flat or living with parents, even within the office environment, the vast majority (81 percent) think social and communal areas are important workplace facilities compared with only 64 percent of all employees and 58 percent of Baby Boomers. (more…)

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