February 8, 2023

Poor air quality affects chess players, and it might be affecting you too

Humans are exposed to poor air quality and pollution almost everywhere. The World Health Organization estimate that 99 percent of the world’s population breathe in polluted air each day. Chess players competing indoors are no exception – and it can affect their performance. A recent study conducted by researchers from Maastricht University (Netherlands) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA) analysed the quality of chess moves across multiple German chess tournaments. They found that chess experts perform worse when there is more particulate matter (PM2.5) in the air. (more…)

February 1, 2023

New legally-binding air quality targets fall short of their ambitions, safety body warns

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing

The British Safety Council has warned that new legally binding air quality targets for the UK, which passed the final stages of parliamentary scrutiny earlier this week, fall well short of what is needed to keep people safe. The new limits will come into force in the wake of last year’s Environment Act, after the Government missed its own deadline of December to introduce them, following a consultation. (more…)

December 12, 2022

New study claims people who can work remotely come into the office for less than two days a week

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

A global study of 220 offices in 33 countries, representing nearly 250,000 employees, has revealed that hybrid working is becoming established as the norm for those who can work remotely. Those people now come into the office an average of just 1.5 days a week, versus nearly four days a week before the Covid-19 pandemic. AWA’s second Hybrid Working Index study, conducted between September and November this year, found that on average people go into the office 29 percent of the time. Among employers surveyed in both the first study, in the summer, and this one, attendance was steady at around 25 percent. (more…)

December 11, 2022

Lambeth plans major expansion in sustainable office space

by Jayne Smith • Company news, Environment, Property

Lambeth is set for London’s biggest increase in sustainable office space over the next decade with an estimated six million square feet of extra space for business set to be created. A report commissioned by Lambeth Council details this expansion, how it supports the borough’s growth priorities and delivers space fit for the future of work. The report ‘Lambeth: The Future of Sustainable Work’ sets out how expansion supports the council’s bold ambitions to foster well-paid jobs in growth sectors for the borough’s young people, to achieve its Net Zero by 2030 outcome and to create an environment for local entrepreneurs to flourish. (more…)

November 23, 2022

The unspoken privilege of wellbeing

by Stephanie Fitzgerald • Comment, SF, Wellbeing

I sat in the main hall at a recent conference, listening to the keynote presentation. A Head of HR at a large manufacturing company described the implementation of their wellbeing strategy over the last year. So far, so important. There is no doubt that the conversation around wellbeing has been rightly amplified, as employees are seeking to gain and maintain more life in their work-life balance. However, as I sat there listening, I became uncomfortable. Seriously uncomfortable. Then I became cross. (more…)

November 17, 2022

The workplace circus continues to entertain, but back in the real world…

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Wellbeing

The Great Workplace Circus headlines its 322nd show of the year with everybody’s favourite distraction, Elon Musk, being driven into the ring by his own shoddily built clown car, declaring he needs everybody at Twitter to be ‘extremely hardcore’ before sacking a few people from his space programme, then setting fire to the tent himself. The swarm of stories spawned by this extraordinary behaviour include this tired and predictable rant in the Telegraph about ‘lazy Brits’. Ironically, there’s nothing lazier than a columnist on this rag with some space to fill. (more…)

November 10, 2022

Summing up where the office now stands in the scheme of things

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working

The argument about what it takes to encourage people to come into the office more often seems to have boiled down to an equation. It’s now common to hear somebody argue that the office has to be worth the commute it takes to get to it. So, if you want people to spend more time in the building, you need to do the maths. O must be greater than or equal to C (more…)

November 9, 2022

Disability pay gap rises despite greater awareness and efforts of campaigners

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

Non-disabled employees now earn around 17.2 percent more on average than disabled workers in 2022, an increase from the 16.5 percent disability pay gap last year, according to analysis published by the Trades Union Congress (TUC). The research suggests that the disability pay gap for 2022 was £2.05 an hour, or £3,731 per year for those working a 35-hour week. The pay gap starts at age 20 at 65 pence an hour and increases to a peak of £3.55 an hour, or £6,461 a year, for disabled workers aged 40 to 44. (more…)

November 4, 2022

Responsible capitalism, and space as a service will shape real estate industry over next 20 years

by Neil Franklin • Environment, News, Property

Europe’s real estate leaders have set out a long-term vision for the industry. In this scenario the most successful firms have adopted ‘responsible capitalism,’ the user is the centre of attention, the cycle of demolition and development has been broken, mixed-use is the norm and multi-disciplinary and in-house teams deliver space as a service across a range of sectors. Emerging Trends in Real Estate Europe 2023, the twentieth annual survey of European real estate sector leaders’ expectations by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and PwC, has looked beyond the year ahead at the trends shaping the industry over the next two decades. This report captures the views of over 900 sector leaders from across Europe. (more…)

October 26, 2022

World Green Building Council launches guide to climate change resilience

by Neil Franklin • Environment, News

The World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) has launched a new industry guide on ‘Climate Change Resilience in the Built Environment’, collating effective and practical steps that can be taken on a building, community and city scale in order to adapt and build resilience to the changing climate. Under the inevitable impacts of climate change, which are affecting at least 85 percent of the world’s population, bringing acute hazards such as droughts, rising sea levels, heat waves and floods increasing frequency and severity, resilience action is essential to build community capacity to survive and thrive in our built environments. (more…)

October 25, 2022

The underlying problems with the way we think about work

by Mark Eltringham • Features, Wellbeing, Workplace design

An idea that has never really gone away, but which seems to be enjoying a new lease of life is the tabula rasa. The conception of people as a blank slate is something a that has crept back into mainstream political and social thought for a variety of reasons. Arguably, it is also behind many of the most misleading notions about work and workplace design, perhaps most importantly that a change to some single element or characteristic of a working environment will lead to a specific outcome in the behaviour of people. (more…)

October 5, 2022

Younger workers tend to rely on the office more

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

A new poll claims that people belonging to “Gen Z” rely heavily on the professional and social structure of the office, with 78 percent finding it easier to bond with colleagues in the workplace and 81 percent feeling disconnected from their peers when working from home. The survey of 3,000 people, from Unispace, claims that the majority (79 percent) of younger workers felt more active when working in the office, while among older workers this figure is 66 percent. (more…)