June 22, 2023

Businesses need to take real action to create a more sustainable workplace

by Ashley Lawrence • Comment, Environment, Workplace design

For the last decade, if not longer, we’ve heard businesses saying they are focused on reducing their environmental impact. It’s been written in annual reports and immortalised in pledges shared with stakeholders, but the question still remains – what action is actually being taken, including in the creation of a sustainable workplace? More →

June 16, 2023

KI Work2.1 sit-stand desks create personal and collaborative workspace for Braze

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Furniture

Following a period of rapid growth, consumer engagement platform Braze has recently moved into the City of London’s Broadgate Exchange Square. Outgrowing their presence at a nearby shared co-working facility, the company wanted their new dedicated facilities to be an employee attraction tool, whilst also being as ‘future-ready’ as possible. Making the workspace desirable and enjoyable was an important consideration for the company, who exercise a fully agile, hybrid working policy. And sit-stand desks from KI have been specified to optimise the comfort of workers. policy. More →

June 15, 2023

Younger workers are the least likely to favour hybrid working

by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

New research has revealed the nuances in attitudes towards hybrid working and work-life balance in the UK and US. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the appeal of hybrid work is linked to the life and career stage of employees. The poll from United Culture suggests that work-life balance is the factor most valued by employees at work (58 percent), but is much more appealing to women than men (66 percent vs. 52 percent). Flexibility came in second place, chosen by 47 percent. More →

June 1, 2023

Refurbishment of 25 Hanover Square commences

by Freddie Steele • Company news

Major work has begun on the refurbishment of 25 Hanover Square, completing the regeneration of a prominent corner site in London’s Mayfair with a 7-storey premium office building. This collaborative project between multiple stakeholders, including architects, interior designers and workplace experts Basha-Franklin, and asset and development manager Morgan Capital, has been holistically designed to fit the aesthetic of one of London’s most recognisable and historic garden squares. More →

May 24, 2023

Unintended economic consequences of remote working becoming evident

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

New data suggests that office attendance in London has recovered strongly since the end of Covid restrictions, confounding predictions of remote working becoming the ‘new normal’, according to a new report from the Centre for Cities. However, recovery has stalled in 2023 and the report, London, Office politics: London and the rise of home working, co-authored with Professor Dan Graham and his colleagues from Imperial College and published in partnership with EC BID, addresses the possible economic risks of businesses adopting hybrid working permanently. More →

May 10, 2023

WorldGBC launches Circular Built Environment Playbook

by Jayne Smith • Environment, Facilities management, News

The World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) and its network of over 75 Green Building Councils are launching the Circular Built Environment Playbook. The organisation claims this is ‘a critical guide for the building and construction sector around the world to accelerate the adoption of circular economy and resource efficiency principles’. More →

April 26, 2023

Biophilic office design has a clear business case, report claims

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing, Workplace design

A new report, Reap What You Sow: Valuing Workplaces that Grow Good Ideas from PLP Labs sets out to explain the process of measuring and monetising the wellbeing and environmental value of biophilic office design. The report argues that in corporate real estate, the environment impacts the bottom line. PLP’s study – run in collaboration with academics from Loughborough University, the University of Reading, and Benholm claims to enable real estate clients to fairly evaluate the worth of investing in nature alongside other project costs. More →

April 7, 2023

The need for reimagination in an age of uncertainty

by Eugenia Anastassiou • Comment, Everything Omni

Since we are now very much in the age of uncertainty being the new certainty, with all the old playbooks out the window and no cookie cutter approach in the ways we work, since one size doesn’t fit all – what the hell do we do? Curl up in a ball and die? Go into panic mode and go around shouting ‘We’re doomed! We’re doomed’ manically? Or just ostrich the problem and hope it all goes away or at least reverts back to how it was before? More →

March 27, 2023

The five ages of the office and the man who shaped the way we talk about them

by Rob Harris • Features, Flexible working, Workplace design

The office has passed through five ages. The ‘coffee houses’ of the 17th century, yielded to the ‘clerical factories’ of the 19th as machines revolutionised work. After the Second World War, the ‘corporate offices’ of global corporations and William Whyte’s Organization Man dominated the scene. Following the launch of IBM’s PC in the early-1980s, we saw the rise of ‘digital offices’ in the 1990s, complete with internet, email and social media. And for the past few years we have been moving inexorably towards the latest age: ‘network offices’. Each age was shorter than its predecessor: both the digital and network ages began less than a career span ago. More →

March 20, 2023

Lighting is just as important for those working from home as it is in the office

by Brendan Keely • Company news, Lighting

Working from home now constitutes a part of many office workers’ lives so the latest revision to The Society of Light and Lighting Guide now includes guidance for those creating an office in their home through the conversion of a bedroom or other room. This revision to The Society of Light and Lighting’s Lighting Guide 7: Lighting for Offices [paywall] is the most significant in a long time. Not because of the amount of information that has changed or been introduced, but because home working now constitutes a part of many office workers’ lives. Such a dramatic change for many could not have been foreseen when the previous edition of LG7 was published. More →

March 15, 2023

The UK workplace sector reacts to the Spring Budget 2023

by Jayne Smith • Environment, News, Property, Workplace

Today the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt presented his Spring Budget to the House of Commons. In it he announced what her referred to as his ‘four pillars’ of industrial and productivity strategy, namely: ‘Enterprise’, ‘Employment’, ‘Education’, and ‘Everywhere’. Perhaps the headline element of this announcement was the creation of twelve new investment zones across the UK as well as incentives for older workers to return to the country’s patchy workforce. This includes£63m for programmes to encourage retirees over 50 back to work, “returnerships” and ‘skills boot camps’. Another headline for the workplace sector was the offer of improved childcare arrangements, especially for the parents of very young children, who will see 30 hours of free childcare expanded to include one and two-year-olds. More →

March 15, 2023

Office market continues to fail on environmental standards …. say landlords

by Neil Franklin • Environment, News, Property

A new survey that explores the state of sustainability within the UK office market, jointly commissioned by infinitSpace and The Instant Group, claims that the office market is falling behind on environmental policies. The poll of 250 landlords suggests that almost half (47 percent) of landlords believe the office market is lagging behind other areas of the property sector in implementing/adopting environmental policies. The same number say they can’t ‘go it alone’ with 47 percent of landlords agreeing they need help in shaping environmental policies. At the same time, 84 percent of landlords report a vacancy rate of 30 percent and above as average among their office building portfolio. More →