April 8, 2019

Navigating organisations through digital transformation

It’s hard to escape the digital disruption that is reshaping not only the world we live in, but the fundamental way that businesses operate. Greater levels of data exchange and automation are creating new layers of innovation, shifting functional workflows to agile systems. And to prosper in this upheaval, leaders must look at how they can support their company’s ability to adapt and identify new opportunities to embrace these changes.

April 5, 2019

The ladder of life, the death of work, the cane toad of property and some other stuff

by Mark Eltringham • Features

We start with a question. Why hasn’t the gig economy killed traditional work?, asks Greg Rosalsky and goes on to explain what many people have now realised. The answer, as Greg points out, is that the gig economy doesn’t replace traditional work, never has, and the rise of casual work of this kind has primarily been a way for people to deal with a volatile labour market and shrinking real incomes. Offer them the choice of a decent monthly income, benefits and a contract and most of them will take you up on it.

April 4, 2019

Workplace art can draw the distinction between branding and corporate identity ⁰

by Helen Owen • Comment, Workplace design

One of the many traps that lies in wait for unwary organisations is to confuse corporate identity with their brand. The visual aspects of an identity may reflect the firm’s personality and values, and a change may go in hand in hand with the development of a new strategic direction or culture, but a mismatch can be jarring if the stakeholder perception of the organisation does not marry up with its branding. More →

April 2, 2019

Gaslighting widespread in the UK workplace

by George Eltringham • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

More than half of people questioned in research by HR software and services provider MHR claim they have experienced what they consider to be gaslighting at work. The Twitter poll of 3,033 people aged between 18 and 54 found that 58 percent of respondents have experienced what they consider to be gaslighting during their working lives. Thirty percent of respondents said they hadn’t experienced gaslighting in the workplace, with 12 percent saying they didn’t know. More →

April 1, 2019

Against metrics: how measuring performance by numbers backfires

by Jerry Z Muller • Features, Workplace

More and more companies, government agencies, educational institutions and philanthropic organisations are today in the grip of a new phenomenon. I’ve termed it ‘metric fixation’. The key components of metric fixation are the belief that it is possible – and desirable – to replace professional judgment (acquired through personal experience and talent) with numerical indicators of comparative performance based upon standardised data (metrics); and that the best way to motivate people within these organisations is by attaching rewards and penalties to their measured performance. More →

April 1, 2019

A chance to have a say on your experience of open plan office design

by Mark Eltringham • News, Wellbeing, Workplace design

The debate on open plan versus enclosed offices rages on, but it’s not binary, it’s not black or white, it’s not a dichotomy. Furthermore, office occupants appear to have different preferences from the wide range of workplace design solutions that are available. To inform workplace design, we need to understand what drives these individual preferences. Is it factors such as personality, personalisation, flexibility, sense of belonging and familiarity that affect where people prefer to work?

March 29, 2019

Smartphone addiction is driven by need to connect, but means we make bad choices

by Mark Eltringham • News, Technology, Wellbeing

Two new studies published in the Journal Frontiers in Psychology explore our complex relationships with smartphones. The first study from Canadian researchers, concludes that our addiction to smartphones is a real phenomenon but one that is rooted in a primal desire to connect with other people, suggesting that smartphone addiction is best described as hyper-social, rather than anti-social. However, the second study led by academics in Brazil claims that a pronounced preoccupation with smartphones can lead to poorer decision making.

March 28, 2019

The rise of the digital workplace is transforming the physical office

by Giles Fuchs • Comment, Coworking, Workplace design

A recent survey by Gartner predicts that one in five workers will have an AI bot as their co-worker by 2022. It’s almost impossible to talk about the future of the workplace without mention of AI or robotics, and is therefore hardly surprising that there is a feeling of apprehension amongst workers. PwC’s 21st global CEO Survey in 2018 revealed that between 23 percent and 51 percent of respondents were “extremely concerned” about the speed of technological change, and indicated “anxiety about the impending promise and perils of AI.”

March 27, 2019

New book on the future of work argues that the office is not just surviving, but thriving

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Property, Workplace design

A new book from RIBA Publishing, which examines the future office, argues that despite predictions that the office is on the verge of extinction, it is not only surviving, but thriving. Digital technologies have spurred this transformation, and with it, the metamorphosis of our entire working environment. The office of today can vary from a sweeping open expanse of ergonomic, futuristic workstations, to a local coffee shop. Future Office: Next-Generation Workplace Design debates tradition, change, and the future of how we work and where.

March 22, 2019

The future of work will be defined by four models, claims RSA

by Mark Eltringham • News, Technology

The RSA’s Future Work Centre has released research that models four ‘futures of work’ by 2035 – and claims to show how out of touch politicians are with changes in the workplace. The report, published in partnership with Arup, claims to avoid the usual sensationalism around topics such as automation, the Internet of Things, surveillance, gig work and AI to establish what workers can expect in the workplace in the near future. The report applies morphological analysis to generate its four models of work.

March 21, 2019

Performance-based pay linked to employee mental-health problems, study suggests

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing

In what its authors claim is the first big-data study combining objective medical and compensation records with demographics, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and Aarhus University in Denmark discovered once a company switches to a pay-for-performance process, the number of employees using anxiety and depression medication increased by 5.7 percent over an existing base rate of 5.2 percent. More →

March 18, 2019

Artificial Intelligence is transforming the workforce as we know it

by Dennis Spaeth • AI, Comment, Technology

It may seem like an inevitable fact of administrative positions that anyone who fills them will be subjected to a never-ending litany of repetitive tasks. Employees in these jobs often don’t receive work that engages their brains or peaks their interests. Rather than flexing their critical thinking skills, these workers are resigned to completing the necessary, yet boring, administrative tasks.