Search Results for: office

November 8, 2013

Time to refresh BYOD policies, as Smartglasses get set to improve workplace efficiency

Employers may soon need to add wearable computers to the list of BYOD in the office. According to analysts Gardner, over the next five years, corporate adoption of Smartglasses such as Google Glass will rise to ten per cent. Although of particular relevance for companies with offsite workers, such as field service personnel and inspectors, some of the basic functions of smartglasses could help bring added efficiency across the workplace. Their widespread adoption depends heavily on the apps and services being developed, but, the analysts say, apps will emerge that do specific tasks with smartglasses, which may cause organisations to provide them for a wider range of employees, while many other workers will simply wear their personal smartglasses at work. More →

November 6, 2013

Boom in London commercial property development, but demand still outstrips supply

by Mark Eltringham • News, Property

Office construction in the City of London is higher than it has been for five years, according to a report from Deloitte Real Estate. The London Office Crane Survey found that there are over 5 million sq.ft. of office developments at 23 schemes in the Square Mile including major landmark and well known buildings such as the Walkie Talkie and the Cheesegrater. Elsewhere in London, development is at a 4 year high in the central area which covers the West End, King’s Cross, Midtown, South Bank, Docklands and Paddington, with 71 schemes set to create some 9.7 million sq. ft. of new commercial property. The report claims that in 2014 alone, some 6.6 million sq ft of office developments will be complete in central London. More →

November 5, 2013

Interview: Greg Lindsay on engineering serendipity and harnessing chaos

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, Workplace, Workplace design

Render of Plaza at Zappos offices in LA

Greg Lindsay is a journalist and urbanist. He is a contributing writer for Fast Company and co-author of the international bestseller Aerotropolis: The Way We’ll Live Next as well as a visiting scholar at New York University’s Rudin Center for Transportation Policy & Management, a senior fellow of the World Policy Institute, and a research affiliate of the New England Complex Systems Institute. He is also one of the main speakers at this year’s Worktech conference in London on 19 and 20 November. In this frank and enlightening interview he offers his thoughts on how firms can engineer serendipity into their workplaces and cultures and how the way we design offices is already taking clues from the way we plan urban environments.

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November 5, 2013

Technology fix. What employers can do when social media becomes an addiction

by Pam Loch • Comment, Legal news, Technology, Workplace

Recent research shows that technology has helped us to become nearly five times more productive than we were in the 1970s. As well as enabling social interaction and personal expression, social media such as LinkedIn and Twitter can be valuable business aids for innovation and collaboration. However, with over half of people under 25 admitting they have to check Facebook at least once a day, it’s clear that for many, social media has become more than a form of virtual engagement. This can create something of an issue in the workplace, leaving employers with the dilemma of balancing the positive aspects of online communications while discouraging time wasting. More →

November 5, 2013

Winners of competition to uncover ‘Workplace of the Future’ announced

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Furniture, News, Workplace design

PopUP concept by Cincinnati School of Architecture and Interior Design

The results of a competition designed to showcase the Workplace of the Future, sponsored by Staples have been announced. The contest, run in conjunction with US based Metropolis magazine, attracted entries from some 200 architects and interior designers. The winner was Joe Filippelli, who created Vertical Flux, which is described as ‘a comfort-based approach to the 2020 workplace with fluctuating atmospheres’. The runner-up was CoLab from Rotterdam based Eckhart Interior Design with a ‘digital re-envisioning of the classic corporate office… which incorporates technology in a way that allows employees to work at any location throughout the office, collaborating with co-workers in any imaginable configuration.’

November 5, 2013

Chinese banks set to take up to 2m sq. ft of commercial property in London

by Mark Eltringham • Briefing, News, Property

Bank of China HQ, London

According to a new report from commercial property consultancy Savills, the global expansion of Chinese financial institutions may see them take up as much as 2 million sq. ft. in the City of London over the next decade. The report claims that Chinese firms see London as one of the key centres for global finance and will take up the opportunities offered by setting London as a base as part of a $1 trillion investment in the West over the next seven years. With four in ten of the World’s largest banks now Chinese, and the sector expanding rapidly since the 2008 downturn, the investment will not only change the structure of the City but also consolidate its position as a global financial centre.

November 5, 2013

It’s not all about BYOD; data security also remains a low-tech issue

by Mark Eltringham • Legal news, Technology

While firms worry about the loss of data through the practice of BYOD, employees continue to find low tech ways of breaching security according to a report from Iron Mountain. While under half (42 percent) of employees describe their organisation’s approach to hard copy as secure, one in ten describe it as chaotic. Nearly half claim to have seen confidential information lying around in the usual places such as on desks or photocopiers. The most common types of information exposed in this way are details of salaries and performance reviews as well as commercial and financial data, although many will remember the scandal that broke two years ago when Government minister Oliver Letwin (above) repeatedly dumped classified information in a park bin including some about Al Qaeda, Libya, Afghanistan, the Dalai Lama and Aung San Suu Kyi.

November 4, 2013

Majority of British ex-pats working overseas now work flexibly, claims report

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, Technology

The majority of British expatriates who work overseas embrace flexible working arrangements, according to a survey commissioned by NatWest International Personal Banking. More than two thirds of those surveyed have exported their preferred working practices as well as themselves as they seek a better lifestyle and work-life balance overseas. Flexible working is most common for ex-pats in English speaking countries such as Australia (85 percent), New Zealand (79 percent), USA (78 percent) and Canada (76 percent). However the survey of 1,800 ex-pats also reveals that flexible working is even prevalent for Brits working in other countries such as China (53 percent), UAE (48 percent) and Singapore (47 percent).

November 1, 2013

There is very little about flexible working that is actually flexible

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Events, Flexible working

It’s pretty clear why some of the world’s greatest writers have been drawn to the human propensity for moral and linguistic inversions and subversions. Books like 1984, Catch 22 and A Clockwork Orange are predicated on the idea. And it’s not one limited to literature. If we look, we can see it going on all around us. In the field of workplace design and management we can see it in the use of the word ‘flexible’ as used in the phrase flexible working. This is a word that in this particular context is coming to mean something like its opposite. According to a survey from YouGov, the 9 to 5 is a thing of the past, supplanted by a style of work labelled flexible but which involves a third of us working for over ten hours a day, many at home right up until the point we go to bed with a smartphone that sits by our side, to wake us with a beep and a wodge of new notifications the next morning.

October 31, 2013

9 to 5 consigned to history as flexible working patterns take over

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, Legal news, News

Flexible working practices don’t necessarily equate to working fewer hours. In fact, people are working increasingly longer hours as flexible working patterns consign the traditional 9-5 to history. A third of Britons are now working more than 10 hours a day, with a short or no break and are bringing work life into the home by responding to work emails, texts and calls in the evening. Research conducted by YouGov for business communications systems firm, RingCentral found that more than half (55%) surveyed now work more than 40 hours a week. As working patterns change, companies are seeing the importance of managing a geographically dispersed workforce (68%), and also believe that providing employees with the ability to work flexibly (78%) or from home (60%) are important for employee productivity levels. More →