January 22, 2025
The answer to the great question of life, the universe and everything is not 42, as you may have been led to believe. It’s 1/137 (or near enough). This is the greatest of the two dozen or so universal constants. According to current thinking, without the physical and quantum relationships it describes, the universe as we know it could not exist. (more…)
January 10, 2025
The Sustainable Design Forum – a one-day interactive event designed specifically for workplace designers and specifiers – is returning to the Crypt on the Green in Clerkenwell, London for its third year on Thursday 25th April 2025. With a focus on ‘People and Planet’, this year’s event has been expanded to include additional workplace topics. (more…)
January 9, 2025
Young people who began their careers around the start of the Covid-19 pandemic or soon after are being invited to share their experiences of the workplace, as part of an inquiry into the effects of hybrid working. To mark five years since the first lockdowns began globally, business standards and improvement company BSI is investigating the impact of the restrictions on younger workers, and how transformed ways of working have shaped subsequent career journeys. As part of this BSI has opened a public call for evidence, inviting submissions from individuals or groups with relevant experience on the topic. (more…)
January 7, 2025
Businesses have much to gain from neurodivergent employees. According to a recent Deloitte report “teams with neurodivergent professionals in some roles can be 30 percent more productive than those without them”. Benefits of neurodivergent individuals to the workplace – according to the CIPD, range from “problem-solving, to creative insights and visual spatial thinking.” (more…)
January 6, 2025
Flokk, one of the leading seating and furniture makers in Europe, has announced its expansion in the United States with the establishment of Flokk US. As part of this strategic expansion, the firm has appointed a new leadership team to oversee North American operations, including Frederik Fogstad as Chief Executive Officer, Randi Pastrovic as Chief Creative Officer, and Rich Oliver as Chief Commercial Officer. This new team are tasked with ensuring each brand within the business’s portfolio retains a distinct identity while advancing the firm’s growth in the North American market. (more…)
December 20, 2024
After a politically turbulent year, many employers are finding their workplaces more divided, with political views being brought into the office and the lines between free speech and inappropriate discussion increasingly blurred. So it’s important for firms to understand how to approach the potentially fractious issue of workplace politics. Just recently, a former UKIP councillor claimed that she was subject to bullying and harassment by her charity employer for expressing pro-Brexit views, which she argued was a legally-protected belief. (more…)
December 18, 2024
NETGEAR, the provider of award-winning connected products designed to simplify and improve people’s lives, has expanded its unlocked 5G mobile router lineup with the launch of the NETGEAR Nighthawk® M3 Mobile Hotspot Router (MH3150). The new product meets the growing demands for accessible and powerful WiFi coupled with advanced security features anywhere, anytime. (more…)
December 17, 2024
Originally published in 2019. There are writers whose language pervades our discourse so extensively that even those who have never heard of them will echo not only their sentiments but also their means of expression. One of these people is Charles Handy, who has just published his latest book 21 Letters on Life and its Challenges at the age of 87. His work resonates to this day and not least because he was so far ahead of the curve in detailing many of the characteristics of modern organisations and the challenges created for everybody by the changing nature of work and business. (more…)
December 3, 2024
There are so many different theories on how to lead change. Tom Peters says we should not discuss change but organisational revolution (Peters,1991); Chris Argyris talks about change management as flawed advice (Argyris, 1985); Kotter puts forward a top down change transformation process (Kotter, 1995); Beer, Eisnestat and Spectors, discuss a bottom-up process (Eisnestat and Spectors, 1990) and that is just to name a few ways of looking at this aspect of leadership. (more…)
November 25, 2024
More than a third of office employees (37 percent) feel their work ethic has improved over the past 12 months, according to a new study. This is particularly apparent among younger people such as those belonging to so-called Gen Z, as the figure rises to more than half of those aged 18-24 (55 percent) and 25-34 (57 percent). One in five (22 percent) suggest they ‘always go above and beyond’, with the same number saying that they will ‘do whatever needs to be done to deliver’. (more…)
November 22, 2024
In 2025, human resource leaders say they will be focusing on navigating the complexities of workplace transformation, at a time when most people say they are already worn out by change. This is one of the key findings from the Gartner HR Priorities Survey [registration] of over 1,400 HR leaders from 60 countries and a range of industries. The report highlights five pivotal areas—leader and manager development, organisational culture, strategic workforce planning, change management, and HR technology—as central to driving change in an evolving business landscape. (more…)
January 20, 2025
Forget all the talk of Blue Monday; work is still (largely) good for us
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Wellbeing, Workplace