Search Results for: productivity

September 24, 2013

Seminar programme for workplace ergonomics and productivity event unveiled

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Furniture, News

Paying attention to ergonomics in design; MSDs in the office – a demographic challenge; and boomers and Millennials and the changing workplace; are just some of the topics being covered in a series of seminars dedicated to workplace ergonomics and productivity taking place over two days next week. The Workplace Ergonomics & Productivity exhibition and seminar event is organised by the Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors, to showcase the latest products, services, research and ideas about how ergonomics can benefit workers, managers and their businesses. Visitors will have the opportunity to examine products at exhibition stands, listen to speakers on a range of topics and gain an understanding of how ergonomics and productivity are related. For more information on the event – Ibis Earls Court, London (1 – 2 Oct), click here.

August 28, 2013

Dull corporate offices with no “buzz” inhibit productivity, complain staff

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Workplace, Workplace design

Creating a dynamic and creative workplace is dependent on a number of factors; the office layout and design, the style of management and the wider company culture. Get these elements right and, says workplace consultants Morgan Lovell you hit the “Buzz Barometer” – a combination of a good atmosphere, energy and teamwork which encourages productivity and high levels of employee engagement. However, according to their recent research, three quarters (78 per cent) of employees say they would be significantly more productive if their workplace had more buzz. And worryingly for larger organisations, corporates are failing to match small company buzz, with four-fifths (81 per cent) saying SMEs offer a better working atmosphere than large companies.

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August 22, 2013

Communications gap hampering employee engagement and productivity

by Sara Bean • News, Workplace

Communication gap hampering employee engagement and productivity

A stream of surveys published over the past few weeks have indicated a deep rooted sense of unease and lack of job security amongst UK workers. Now yet another poll reveals that far from being keen to discuss career progression opportunities, many employees are reluctant to bring up personal development and career progression with their bosses because they think it will put them at a disadvantage at work. According to the new research from Badenoch & Clark, this growing communications gap between employees and managers could lead to lack of engagement and lower productivity within the workforce. Meanwhile too many employers are investing in the wrong kinds of personal development for their staff. (more…)

June 25, 2013

What Jeremy Clarkson can’t teach us about workforce productivity

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Workplace

In 2011, one of Top Gear’s regular bits of lazy casual racism caused a bit more fuss than the rolling of eyes it typically deserves. The presenters had mocked a Mexican sports car with Richard Hammond – who has never said anything interesting or funny in his life – claiming that ‘cars reflect national characteristics. A Mexican car’s just going to be a lazy, feckless, flatulent oaf with a moustache, leaning against a fence asleep, looking at a cactus with a blanket with a hole in the middle on as a coat.’ There was a bit more of this kind of stuff with Jeremy Clarkson suggesting that the Mexican ambassador to Britain would be too lazy to make any kind of complaint. He was wrong about that (he did) and they were all wrong about Mexicans anyway because according to a new report into global productivity, Mexico has the world’s most productive workforce.

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May 23, 2013

New report offers latest evidence of link between office design and productivity

by Mark Eltringham • Briefing, Knowledge, Workplace, Workplace design

So, does workplace design have any impact on productivity and business performance? Well duh. So why are we still trying to convince managers when there is so much evidence and experience to prove it. The latest study to demonstrate the link builds on decades of research and adds further compelling evidence in a debate that should have been over a long time ago. In this report, workplace strategist Nigel Oseland and the Atomic Weapons Establishment’s estate masterplanner Adrian Burton describe their research quantifying the effect on worker performance of improvements to the office environment. The question these reports always beg is why the argument still has to be made.

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May 23, 2013

UK employee engagement and productivity lags behind most of world

by Sara Bean • Knowledge, News, Workplace

You might regard the concept of employee engagement as just a new way to describe industrial relations, but there is a growing body of research that UK employers need to do more to keep their employees on side. According to the latest missive, low employee engagement and lagging productivity is the greatest employment challenge facing UK business in 2013. Global research by Right Management found that this was the key concern for one in three (31 per cent ) employers compared to a global average of just one in five (21 per cent ) HR professionals, suggesting that after years of economic uncertainty and doing ‘more with less’, the UK workforce has reached a productivity impasse. (more…)

April 10, 2013

Productivity challenges of modern office workers’ email deluge

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Knowledge, News, Technology, Workplace

Possibly the most perplexing picture of the modern office is whether technology has made it more, or less productive. New research by Warwick Business School has found that on average UK office workers deal with 40 emails a day and one in 12 with 100 messages a day, which can’t be good for productivity. Meanwhile another piece of research by psychologists at the University of Chester reveals the somewhat unsurprising fact that an over reliance on social media reduces the ability to maintain ‘meaningful’ relationships due to a lack of visual emotional cues – which could further cast doubts over the efficacy of remote working. (more…)

April 5, 2013

Employers missing employee health and productivity link

by Sara Bean • Knowledge, News, Workplace

Only a minority of employers understand the productivity benefits of their health and wellbeing initiatives, new research reveals. Towers Watson’s latest Health, Wellbeing and Productivity survey found that 66 per cent of employers thought the link between health and employee performance was a relatively limited part of their health and wellbeing programme, with the main drivers being the desire to be seen as a responsible employer and the need to focus on more preventative health measures to manage rising healthcare and disability costs. (more…)

January 23, 2013

Designing for productivity means creating space for us to be alone

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, Furniture, Knowledge, Workplace design

On the face of it, the case for working in open plan offices is clear cut. Not only are they more conducive to collaborative work and less bound by ideas of that great no-no that we used to call ‘status’, the economic case is seemingly open and shut. Open plan workstations not only take up around half the space of cellular offices, the fit-out costs are typically 25 per cent lower. And yet there are clear signs of a backlash, at least to the idea of them fostering collaborative work.

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October 12, 2026

AI isn’t replacing meetings, it’s changing their purpose

by Brad Hintze • AI, Comment, Technology, Workplace design

Throughout the years in the workplace technology industry, I’ve heard one common question among organization leaders: How can we have fewer meetings and how can we make the ones we do have more effective? When AI came along, many thought that it would be the solvent to this long-standing challenge. But it turns out, as individuals utilize AI to help them automate routine work, the need to collaborate with team members on the outputs has become more prominent. Rather than focusing on reducing the number of meetings, organizations should ask themselves: Are we designing the workplace with intentionality for meetings that are actually worth having? (more…)

October 7, 2026

Employees aren’t hiding their AI use to cut corners. They’re hiding it because they’re afraid

by Gethin Nadin • AI, Comment

There’s a double bind facing employees when it comes to artificial intelligence. They’re expected to use it to be more productive, yet judged on how they do so. Recent Deloitte research found that nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of the UK workforce has now used generative AI, a third of those users do so without their employer’s knowledge, and one in ten have used an AI tool that their employer has banned or would disapprove of. Separate Deloitte figures found show that one in six are even paying for AI tools they use at work out of their own pocket. (more…)

September 29, 2026

AI skills divide risks leaving majority of workers behind, PwC finds

by Neil Franklin • AI, News

A widening divide between workers who are benefiting from artificial intelligence and those being left behind is emerging as AI use accelerates, according to a global study by PwC. The consultancy’s 2026 Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey found that 64 percent of workers had used AI at work during the previous 12 months, up 10 percentage points from last year. Daily use of generative AI increased from 14 percent to 22 percent, while 59 percent expect their use of AI tools to increase over the coming year. (more…)