Search Results for: opportunities

Lockdown mental fatigue is rapidly reversed by social contact, study claims

Lockdown mental fatigue is rapidly reversed by social contact, study claims

by • Features, Flexible working, Wellbeing

Many of us are looking forward to a summer of relative freedom, with road-mapped milestones that will grant us more opportunities to see our friends and family. But we’ll be carrying the effects of months of isolation into those meetings, including a sense that our social skills will need dusting off, and our wits will need sharpening. The mental effects of lockdown have been profound. Social isolation has been shown to cause people’s mental health to deteriorate even if they have no history of previous psychological problems. Alongside this drop in mood, loneliness has been linked with a host of cognitive problems, including fatigue, stress and problems with concentration. (more…)

Wellbeing strategies could add £61bn to English economy

Wellbeing strategies could add £61bn to English economy

by • News, Wellbeing, Working culture

wellbeing strategiesCorporate wellbeing could add £61bn to the English economy by 2025 through added productivity, if UK companies can create new wellbeing strategies and improve underperforming ones, according to a new study by Westfield Health. (more…)

Growth in the home office furniture market expected to increase significantly in 2021

Growth in the home office furniture market expected to increase significantly in 2021

by • Furniture, Home, News

home office furnitureThe Covid-19 pandemic had a serious impact on the home office furniture market in 2020, according to a new report, by AMA Research. Despite a move to homeworking, demand for home office furniture is expected to have declined by 8 percent in 2020; however this can be contrasted with the 17 percent fall in the total office furniture market. (more…)

Employees more likely to resist change if it contradicts firm’s traditional values

Employees more likely to resist change if it contradicts firm’s traditional values

by • News, Working culture

employeesEmployees are more likely to resist beneficial organisational changes if they contradict historic firm values according to research from Imperial College Business School. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced organisations all over the globe to rethink how they do business, yet it may not be easy to make lasting change if new organisational practices grate against traditional, deeply-held values. (more…)

Sustainable office design will not be possible until we are clear about a few things

Sustainable office design will not be possible until we are clear about a few things

by • Comment, Environment, Furniture, JK, Workplace design

sustainable office designMany organisations make bold claims about their zero carbon ambitions. Even if they don’t, most have sustainability statements. Yet the environmental impact of office furniture and sophisticated approaches to sustainable office design seem to be way down the ‘pecking order’. During the last year, we have read considerable commentary about the office – starting with its death but moving onto predictions of the ‘new dawn’ with more versatile and healthier workspaces. (more…)

Hybrid working must be at heart of plans for regeneration and growth, claims new report

Hybrid working must be at heart of plans for regeneration and growth, claims new report

by • Flexible working, News, Property

hybrid workingA new report from think tank Demos and Legal & General calls on the UK Government to back policy change that supports growth of hybrid working and local offices to drive forward its plans for regeneration and economic growth. The report, Post Pandemic Places, claims that huge increases in home working, coupled with a desire for continued flexibility, could support significant increases in local spending. On the back of the findings, the report calls on the government to incentivise the establishment of more local offices and hybrid working initiatives. (more…)

Moving front-line staff between company locations might be key to boosting innovation

Moving front-line staff between company locations might be key to boosting innovation

by • Business, News

front-lineTemporary moves boost creativity according to new research from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM). The study suggests, when front-line employees are exchanged between company sites, they contribute more valuable ideas. (more…)

Serfs up for the self-employed and gig economy workers (and the middle class)

Serfs up for the self-employed and gig economy workers (and the middle class)

by • Features, Flexible working, Working culture

One of the most significant consequences of the 2008 economic crash was a remarkable shift in the nature of employment. The recession led to a surge in the number of people categorised as self-employed. The numbers have been increasing ever since, albeit at a lower rate. By the end of 2019, the number of self-employed people in the UK exceeded five million people for the first time. Fifteen percent of the workforce.  (more…)

Workplace anthropology will help us make sense of the now and anticipate what’s next

Workplace anthropology will help us make sense of the now and anticipate what’s next

by • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design

workplace anthropologyWe are scarcely nine months into the Covid-19 pandemic, after a long spring and harsh summer. Social distancing has led to remote working becoming widespread, leading to doubts regarding the office’s long-term relevance. However, Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) argues in a recent report that the office’s traditional domain will expand, with new functions including fostering collaboration, facilitating company culture, and promoting human experience. Similarly, experts increasingly characterise the workplace as a hybrid ecosystem combining virtual and physical elements with geographically-dispersed campuses. (more…)

Frontline workers overlooked in employee engagement strategies

Frontline workers overlooked in employee engagement strategies

by • Business, News, Working culture

employeeNew research from Opinion Matters, commissioned by SocialChorus, claims there is a stark disparity between desk-based/wired and frontline workers when it comes to Digital Employee Experience (DEX) with a fifth of HR and Internal Communications (IC) respondents admitting to focusing on employees in the office, and just 12 percent prioritising deskless workers. (more…)

Why command and control doesn’t fit in the 2021 workplace

Why command and control doesn’t fit in the 2021 workplace

by • Company news

Until recently, the nature of business was widely predictable. Tried and tested operational methods enabled businesses to forward plan confidently based on what had worked before. Even before the cataclysmic events of the global pandemic,  the workplace landscape was shifting dramatically, with innovation, disruption, workforce and consumer expectations evolving at a pace. As we enter 2021, every business will need to rapidly adapt and evolve to survive and workforce agility will be a critical factor for that survival. (more…)

New guidance for renewable energy procurement and carbon offsetting

New guidance for renewable energy procurement and carbon offsetting

by • Environment, News

The UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) has published Renewable Energy Procurement and Carbon Offsetting Guidance for Net Zero Carbon Buildings. This guidance provides clarity for the property and construction industry on the procurement of high-quality renewable energy and carbon offsets for net zero buildings and organisations in the UK. (more…)

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