Search Results for: remote working

August 15, 2019

Reasons to be agile, part three

by Sarah Booth • Comment, Workplace design

The Agile Manife st o, published in 2001, signalled a shift in approach to workplace design as well as technology. Though the document was conceived as a guide to speeding up software development, its contents have gone on to inform how organisations think and operate in ways that extend far beyond IT. “Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.” That’s the fifth of 12 ‘principles’ in the manifesto. (more…)

July 25, 2019

UK SMEs must leverage tech-friendly culture to secure talent

by Jayne Smith • News, Technology, Workplace

UK SMEs must create a tech-friendly culture to attract and retain top tech talent, according to a new white paper from Robert Half UK, Recruiting for the future: The challenges for UK SMEs. While remuneration and work–life balance are the top reasons for job moves, SMEs’ ability to offer an innovative culture with high levels of responsibility is central to their ability to secure and retain talent over larger organisations. With the UK talent market suffering from a lack of digital skills, companies across all sectors are locked in a war for talent, competing with one another to hire skilled technology professionals to help their businesses adapt to increased digitalisation. (more…)

July 23, 2019

Office design should take account of the quality of interactions as well as quantity

by Jonathan Hindle • Comment, Workplace design

Ever since technology first made it possible for people to work remotely from their colleagues, there has been speculation not only that office design should change but even that the physical office could be dispensed with entirely, and with it the idea that people should come together to work in the same place at the same time to achieve common goals and to share in a common identity.

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June 27, 2019

Promotion: How a Yorkshire firm is transforming the way we work

by Jayne Smith • Company news, Insight promotion

What is it that makes (some of) us bound into work, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, in the morning? Is it the promise of a proper coffee from the barista-style machine so many modern offices and studios now boast? Or could it simply be the chance to catch up with a favourite colleague? For many, it may be the lure of work itself that gets them out of bed. Few of us will hum merrily on our morning commute, though, contemplating the comfort of our office chair, or daydreaming about taking five minutes to enjoy the calming ambience of the breakout area. A West Yorkshire-based company specialising in acoustic design is making huge strides to change our attitudes about the workplace, though. After all, why shouldn’t we feel at home in the office? (more…)

June 11, 2019

Moving the wellbeing debate beyond a fixation on stress

by Matt Weston • Comment, Wellbeing

The world of work is evolving. Geopolitical change, digitalisation of the workplace and increased regulation are just some of the changes that businesses and their employees have to navigate. This disruption can feed into employee stress levels, impacting their happiness at work. Maintaining good mental health in the workplace is vital for employee wellbeing – it’s a key factor in employee retention and in turn, business success. However, it has been reported that between 2017 and 2018, 15.4 million working days were lost to work-related stress.

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May 31, 2019

Commuters receive little help from employers to alleviate their stress

by Marie Hillen • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Over a third of respondents (36 percent) to a new survey report they are commuting for more than 90 minutes a day; yet despite a high demand for employer provisions to help alleviate the stress of the commute such as flexible or remote working and season ticket loans, 43 percent of employees stated that these were not currently offered by their employer. The Commuter Survey from Office Space in Town also claims that among the top commuting complaints were: lengthy journeys (32 percent); overcrowding (27 percent) and delays and frequent cancellations (26.01 percent). With the survey also revealing 75 percent take the commute into account when making their employment decisions, there is a lot that employers could be doing to minimise the negative impact on employee attraction and retention.

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May 22, 2019

The new normal of flexible work transforming workplaces

by Marie Hillen • Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Technology, Workplace

Digital innovations, and in particular, cloud computing is enabling increasing numbers of employees to work remotely and flexibly. This means the central company workspace is rapidly becoming an administrative hub, rather than a traditional central focus where everyone gathers during set hours. This is according to Condeco’s new research paper, The Modern Workplace 2019: People, places & technology (registration) which claims that 41 per cent of employers already offer remote working, while 60 per cent now allow employees to set their own flexible hours. (more…)

April 23, 2019

The flexible solution to workplace loneliness

by Guzman de Yarza Blache • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing, Workplace design

For years, the word ‘office’ would doubtless conjure images of the traditional individual cubicle. However, times have changed, and where the cubicle once ruled the roost, a flexible working revolution is already disrupting the office market and reshaping the world of work.

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March 14, 2019

The negative entropy of workplace design and management

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Workplace design

Immediately after the Workplace Trends Summit in London last October, Ian Ellison of 3edges and I retired to a side room to record an interview for a podcast over a glass of red wine. The main objective was to try to piece together a coherent summary of what we’d seen that day. Ian assures me the podcast (his are invariably excellent) will appear very soon, but I thought it would be worth exploring a theory I formed and rambled on about in our conversation ahead of the next Summit set to take place next week.

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March 6, 2019

Less time spent commuting is key to workplace wellbeing

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

Lenovo has released a study on ‘Britain’s evolving workplace’ (registration). It claims that more than three quarters (76 per cent) of those that have no commute by working from home are overall satisfied with their job and a third (37 per cent) of those surveyed admit to choosing their current role based on its close proximity to their home. The report claims that the changing nature of the modern workplace benefits both workers and employers, with one in ten workers most productive outside of typical 7am to 6pm working hours and a quarter (26 per cent) wishing to work more flexible hours.

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February 26, 2019

Digital and mobile tech at work is still not being used to full advantage

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

Just a third of businesses are using mobile technologies for their administration tasks, and as organisations struggle to digitise, many employees admit to finding pen and paper simpler to use. The vast majority (91 percent) of workers still prefer to use a desktop or laptop for administrative tasks, according to the research commissioned by ABBYY, as only one third (35 percent) use mobiles for admin, despite 43 percent of workers wanting to use it for this purpose. Millennials in particular are keen to use mobiles, with 55 percent wanting to use mobiles for admin – yet only 43 percent currently do. Older generations are also open to using mobile for admin, with 35 percent of Gen X currently doing so, and 41 percent wanting to. However, it’s clear that some employees are finding the latest technologies, such as mobile, too difficult to use – 28 percent still want to use pen and paper for admin tasks, as 46 percent find it simpler than other means. Desktop still runs the workplace in the UK, regardless of today’s remote working climate. Almost half of workers (48 percent) use a desktop or laptop because it’s easier, and 41 percent because it’s faster.

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February 17, 2019

Landlords must respond in new ways to the changing world of work

by Ben Gillam • Comment, Technology, Workplace design

Hammocks, remote working, hot-desking. Contrary to common belief, these aren’t the only conversations landlords are having with designers on how to approach their workspaces for today’s tenants. Rising property values, the growth of flexible offices and political uncertainty have forced landlords to change the way they market their properties to respond to the demands of occupiers. And with no sign of London’s commercial office marketplace calming in the near future, the need for landlords to remain flexible and create channels of communication with their tenants, remains strong. (more…)