April 8, 2024

New issue of IN Magazine + All you need to know about new flexible working rights + A warning from history about office design

Insight Weekly includes a round up of the best stories and commentary from the past seven days. It includes free premium content including features, podcasts, supplements and a link to the digital editions of IN Magazine and Works Magazine. In this week’s issue: it now costs more to commute by train than car in the UK; everything you need to know about flexible working rights and other new legislation; the new issue of IN Magazine; what remote work is doing to people’s pay and careers; and a thirty year old take about an office design that has lessons for today; our Events diary; and much more. You can subscribe to this and our magazines here.

March 25, 2024

Biophilic design has a long history and an even bigger future

by Mark Eltringham • Features, Wellbeing, Workplace design

There are plenty of definitions of the modish concept of biophilic design around right now. But perhaps nobody can top that of Erich Fromm, the sociologist and psychoanalyst who first described it in his 1973 book The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness as “The passionate love of life and all that is alive”. (more…)

March 17, 2024

Employees increasingly want to work for firms with a clear sense of purpose

by Neil Franklin • Environment, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

In the face of climate change, social justice movements, and recession, employees are seeking alternative commitments from employers. A new poll from Sparta Global claims that for job seekers in 2024, a company’s contributions to environmental sustainability, poverty alleviation, and community well-being are of growing importance. (more…)

March 14, 2024

When the chairs took over the world and what it all meant

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

Of all the things we buy, with the exception of our clothes, furniture is the most intimate, the one item we spend most time in contact with. According to JG Ballard who dedicated himself to understanding our relationship with the world around us, ‘Furniture constitutes an external constellation of our skin areas and body postures’. Whether he would have recognised it as such, Ballard was a pioneer of the principle we now refer to as psychogeography, defined by one of its founders, Guy Debord, as ‘the study of the precise effects of setting, consciously managed or not, acting directly on the mood and behaviour of the individual’. (more…)

March 4, 2024

A quarter of projects don’t meet their stated goals – but that’s not because of remote working

by Neil Franklin • Business, Flexible working, News

A quarter of all projects do not meet the business goals that their organisations set for them, according to research published by the Project Management Institute (PMI) in the 15th edition of its Pulse of the Profession report – The Future of Project Work. The newly released report, based on the responses of over 2,000 project professionals and 300+ senior leaders around the world, paints what the report says is a concerning picture of project outcomes across various industries globally. The report also highlights the reasons for this and excludes remote working as a major factor. (more…)

March 4, 2024

Insight Weekly: the bosses tracking workers and the only way is ethics

by Neil Franklin • News

Insight Weekly includes a round up of the best stories and commentary from the past seven days. It includes free premium content including features, podcasts, supplements and a link to the digital edition of IN Magazine. In this week’s issue: the rapid growth in the practical use of AI; … and remote work trackers; what we can learn from elite sports; what we’ve always known about flexible working; and David Sharp joins us for the Workplace Cocktail Hour.

You can subscribe to this and our magazines here.

February 29, 2024

Employee wellbeing advocate shortlisted for Veuve Clicquot Bold Awards

by Jayne Smith • Company news, Wellbeing

Francesca Brady, founder of AirRated who advocates for employee wellbeing and cleaner air in the workplace has been named as a finalist in Veuve Clicquot’s Future Awards, the international awards programme celebrating businesswomen. Previous winners include Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert, the inventor of the Oxford AstraZeneca COVID vaccine and Jo Whitfield, CEO of Co-Op Food. Francesca’s work highlights the dangers of a polluted workplace, as research shows the link between pollution, cognitive decline, dementia and poor employee wellbeing and mental health. (more…)

February 23, 2024

Less than a week to go before the Workspace Design Show opens its doors

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Workplace design

In just a few days the eagerly-awaited Workspace Design Show, the trade show that brings together the UK workplace interiors community, will open its doors. Held at London’s Business Design Centre, handily placed in the heart of Islington, from 27-28 February 2024, the event offers attendees the chance to explore the latest industry trends, see the latest products, and find inspiration in the thought-provoking talks programmes. (more…)

January 25, 2024

Forty percent of firms expect people to work from the office five days a week

by Neil Franklin • News

Virgin Media O2 Business’ first full-year Movers Index claims that 2023 was the year of the ‘Great Office Return’, with 40 percent of companies returning to a five-day office working week, despite more than half (55 percent) of workers experiencing public transport delays of an hour or more on their commute. The Movers Index claims that businesses and consumers alike are doubling down on getting the most value for every pound spent amid the cost-of-living crisis. (more…)

January 24, 2024

Chance to retrofit offices is going begging, report claims

by Neil Franklin • Environment, Facilities management, News, Property

The UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) has launched new guidance on retrofitting large office buildings. Setting out the most cost- and carbon-effective retrofit measures in the immediate and longer term, the guidance reframes retrofit as an iterative process rather than a standalone project. UKGBC has found that significant opportunities are being missed by office investors, owners, and occupiers who do not have clear strategies to retrofit offices in place. Firstly, through missing the “easy wins” –low cost, low disruption measures that reduce energy consumption – and secondly, through missing key “trigger points” in lease and maintenance cycles that facilitate easier, more efficient retrofit. (more…)

January 5, 2024

Get Workplace Insight weekly and free magazines straight to your inbox

by Neil Franklin • News

Get the best of the previous week’s news, features and commentary from Workplace Insight direct to your inbox by subscribing at the link below. In this week’s newsletter: news on the growth in the flexible working market, the impact of AI on middle class jobs, and how the final stage of your career might be one of disillusionment. There’s commentary on the most popular workplace stories from the past year and how tech is stealing your time. And we ask what ever happened to the Great Resignation. Plus links to the new issue of IN Magazine and the latest episodes of the Workplace Geeks and Workplace Cocktail Hour podcasts. (more…)