Search Results for: technology

Schools aren’t doing enough to prepare children for collaborative working life

Schools aren’t doing enough to prepare children for collaborative working life

by • Flexible working, News

schools and working lifeNew research from the organisers of UC EXPO claims that just 44 percent of British people believe that the current school curriculum does enough to provide students with the collaboration skills they need for modern working life. According to the study of 2,000 respondents carried out in February of this year, 70 percent of the UK workforce already believes that collaboration is very important in the work environment. But just over half (51 percent) either never collaborated or collaborated infrequently in school, and 37 percent stated that collaboration wasn’t an important focus of their education.

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Data, AI and the commercial property sector – what’s the connection?

Data, AI and the commercial property sector – what’s the connection?

by • Comment, Property, Technology

The property industry is not the first to be permeated by artificial intelligence, and it is far from being the last. Machine learning is working its way into various sectors, but it’s proving to be of great use particularly in the property sector, providing a helping hand for humans to help reach their professional goals. One of the ways in which AI is being used successfully within the property industry is to analyse data more efficiently. This is particularly significant, as collection and analysis of data can often be time and resource-consuming and difficult to navigate; with the help of intelligent software, however, it is easier to infer the “story” or direction that a batch of data is pointing in, and consequently come to a clearer conclusion or evaluation.

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New working styles are risking the health and wellbeing of people, claims report

New working styles are risking the health and wellbeing of people, claims report

by • AI, Flexible working, News, Technology, Wellbeing

A new report from the British Safety Council and consultancy Robertson Cooper, explores what it claims is the probable impact of new working practices and technology on people’s physical and mental wellbeing, and what employers, unions and legislators should do to address them. The report, Future risk: Impact of Work on Health, Safety and Wellbeing, argues that the safety, health and wellbeing of older workers will become more important and new risks will arise related to the adoption of artificial intelligence and automation.

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Google is the gold standard employer in UK tech sector but small brands can still compete

Google is the gold standard employer in UK tech sector but small brands can still compete

by • Company news, Facilities management, News, Technology, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Google 'gold standard' in tech sector but smaller brands can still compete, suggests reportGoogle has been named the Ideal Employer among tech professionals in the 2018 Dice UK Ideal Employer Report. While market leaders including Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Facebook and IBM are placed highly, the report suggests that smaller tech brands can also attract the top talent through benefits including yoga, in-house cafeterias and more. For many technology professionals, Google is the gold standard employer, with a perfect mix of competitive salary, perks, benefits and interesting work, something smaller companies can learn from. The survey of 464 tech professionals found that simple office upgrades including yoga, colourful furniture and other positive innovative cultural perks can help smaller companies attract the best talent, even if smaller in size. Good work/life balances, open communications and manageable working hours also ranked highly.  (more…)

About time we simply accepted that coworking and flexible working are the new normal

About time we simply accepted that coworking and flexible working are the new normal

by • Comment, Coworking, Flexible working, Workplace design

Ask someone to list innovative companies which have become notable disruptors in their market and they invariably respond with two names – Uber and Airbnb. That is because both brands are positioned squarely and successfully at the retail consumer: for people who use a taxi or take an occasional short break in a foreign city, they have become the automatic default options. But there is another equally successful business targeting the corporate space, aimed particularly at small businesses and millennial tech start-ups: WeWork. Just like Uber and Airbnb, it is less than a decade old. In that time, WeWork’s ambition of being the world’s leading coworking company has been realised. Championing itself as a disruption revolutionary, it has succeeded more prosaically by ‘creating environments that increase productivity, innovation, and collaboration,’ according to its website. WeWork’s model involves renting office space cheaply via long-term lease contracts. Small units are then re-rented at higher rates to start up companies which are happy to pay a premium because they need very little space.

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BIFM to change its name to reflect greater focus on workplace issues and pursue chartered status

BIFM to change its name to reflect greater focus on workplace issues and pursue chartered status

by • Facilities management, News

The British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM) has today announced plans to embrace ‘workplace’ as a key ‘differentiator’ for its members and to help establish facilities management as a chartered profession. The manifesto for change announced by BIFM Chair Stephen Roots, sets out to ‘reposition facilities management, emphasising its ability to make a real contribution to organisations’ performance’. It sets the Institute the ‘twin tasks of helping members to improve their skills and their status to meet the needs of modern organisations, and to raise the profile of facilities management and the understanding of the value it contributes’. The proposed new name is the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management (IWFM).

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Unnecessary meetings costing UK business more than £191bn a year

Unnecessary meetings costing UK business more than £191bn a year

by • News, Technology

UK office workers are spending almost an entire working day every week attending and preparing for unnecessary meetings, according to a new survey from meeting technology firm eShare. The average office worker spends 10 hours 42 minutes every week, preparing for and attending 4.4 meetings, with 2.6 of those deemed unnecessary. With the average meeting revealed to have 6.8 attendees, this equates to annual staff costs for unnecessary meetings per business of over £35,000, based on ONS average earnings data. With 5.4 million businesses in the UK, this means the total staff cost per year is more than £191bn, according to the firm.

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Nearly a third of UK staff feel disengaged and stressed due to inefficiencies at work

Nearly a third of UK staff feel disengaged and stressed due to inefficiencies at work

by • News, Technology, Wellbeing, Workplace

Nearly a third of UK staff feel disengaged and stressed due to operational inefficiency

Nearly a third (29 percent) of UK workers say that they have become disengaged and a third (33 percent) have gone as far as looking for a new job due to the frustrations of dealing with workplace inefficiencies. Alongside functional frustrations, 50 per cent of the most stressed UK workers said that they felt undervalued by their boss. With 67 percent of them doing more hours in the office, 46 per cent working more on weekends and 56 per cent taking fewer breaks, nearly half (47 per cent) of the most stressed respondents believed, given the opportunity, they could do a better job than their managers. These are some of findings of the Digital Work Survey 2018 which was commissioned by Wrike that highlight frustrations over inefficiencies at work and the worrying impact this is having on how engaged, productive and happy employees are in their roles. Of those who were feeling most stressed, 66 per cent said that over the last two years they’ve seen increased expectations around the speed at which they must deliver work.

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Bisley announces plans to elevate the humble locker

Bisley announces plans to elevate the humble locker

by • Company news, Products

Bisley has launched Bisley LateralFile Lodge, a new range of lockers in response to the increased need within contemporary agile offices for personal, transient and temporary storage space. Bisley’s new range of personal storage provides a timely evolution to this essential element of office design. Key features include:

Power  

Mobile technology is an essential tool for a majority of workers and running out of power can be disruptive. Bisley’s new lockers are powered, making it possible to take a laptop away to a desk, only to be charged again when it goes back in the locker overnight, locked safely away behind a simple barrel lock, digital combination locks or an RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification) lock.

Zoning

A range of seamless back and surface material options such as acoustic performance panels or dry-wipe boards, and the absence of tie bars, results in a slick and contemporary finish.

The aesthetic appeal and multi-use of the of these lockers means that they do not need to be located on the perimeter of the floorplate, but become an integral part of the interior design, zoning spaces, enhancing breakout spaces and encouraging movement amongst employees.

Personalisation        

The ‘hard to reach’ bottom section of the locker stack can be modified to include a retractable personal drawer, maximising its capacity and accessible use. There is also the opportunity to further personalise each locker with business card/photo holders included as standard to increase the sense of ownership and belonging.

Choice and versatility

The range is available in a multitude of sizes (single or double height to suit requirements), colours, finishes and lock type. Planting tubs can be integrated on to the top of the storage units, enabling the incorporation of storage in biophillic workplace designs, increasingly popular due to the proven benefits for the wellbeing of employees. The wide range of aesthetics available for the tops and shelves, and the option of wood finish doors, mean the new locker range can be specified in any design scheme.

Helen Owen, Director of Business Development at Bisley says: “We accept that change is the only certainty in business but human nature will always dictate the need for employees to have a space that they can call their own. Lockers are a simple, effective and efficient way to provide this. The resurgence of the locker as the perfect storage solution for agile, dynamic workplaces, as well as supporting the co-working phenomenon is to be welcomed.”

The full range of lockers can be seen here:

https://www.bisley.com/products/storage/personal/lateralfile

Occupiers incorporating third-party agile space into their real estate strategy

Occupiers incorporating third-party agile space into their real estate strategy

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

Occupiers increasingly incorporate third-party 'agile space' into their real estate strategyCorporate real estate departments need to become more effective partners in the agile transformation of their broader organizations., claims a new survey conducted by CBRE, in partnership with CoreNet Global. When describing Portfolio Agility, i.e. the ability to rapidly adapt, scale and reposition the organization’s real estate portfolio to support shifting enterprise needs, 67 percent consider portfolio agility as the most important type of agility for business success, yet only 14 percent consider themselves highly agile in this area. The most prevalent portfolio agility practices included negotiating flexible space options in the lease, seeking shorter and/or more flexible lease terms, supporting an enterprise-wide flex-work program and delivering free address work environments. The report states that new workplace guidelines for efficiency have altered the way companies plan for density and more occupiers are incorporating third-party ‘agile space’ into their overall real estate strategy.

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Report calls for better understanding of the future risks of tech to workplace wellbeing

Report calls for better understanding of the future risks of tech to workplace wellbeing

by • AI, News, Technology, Wellbeing, Workplace

Better understanding needed of the future risks of work to health, safety and wellbeingIn a workplace dominated by insecurity, gig work and intelligent machines we need to improve our understanding of their potential impact on health, safety and wellbeing claims a new report. Future risk: Impact of work on employee health, safety and wellbeing, commissioned by the British Safety Council from RobertsonCooper researchers argues that the public debate on the future of work has centred so far on the likely shape of the workplace and its implications for both employers and employees. There has been far less focus on what this might mean for workers’ health, safety and wellbeing, with discussions centring on the present, rather than preparing us for the challenges of the future. Yet, the impact of automation on the workplace will be more fundamental than is commonly understood, with 11 million jobs predicted to be lost in the next 20 years in the UK. As we are already seeing with some ‘gig’ working, it may undermine such basic human needs as social identity, economic security and a sense of belonging. The report reviews the existing literature on this subject and makes a number of recommendations.

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Open plan offices are distracting and reduce rather than improve productivity, says report

Open plan offices are distracting and reduce rather than improve productivity, says report

by • Facilities management, News, Wellbeing, Workplace, Workplace design

Open plan offices are distracting and reduce rather than improve productivity says report

Open, collaborative work environments have been hailed as a boost to collaboration and performance, but since individual tasks that require high levels of concentration and minimum disruption still account for over half of the typical working day, noise and distraction within open plan workplaces prevent employees from focusing properly and may reduce productivity, claims a new report. According to research by Unispace, 60 percent of the average working day is devoted to individual task-focused work; 25 percent to collaboration, 7 percent to socialising and the same for learning. The research found that the issue of noise has actually become much worse over the last 12 months, with more workers complaining compared to the same research conducted in 2016. Survey respondents flagged noise (15 percent) as the primary cause of inefficiency during the working week, a number that has risen by four per cent in just 12 months. Second to this was a lack of quiet areas (13 percent), a lack of privacy (9 percent) and 7 percent felt that the temperature and air quality of their office was also a factor. The findings come as part of Unispace’s research of more than 11,000 workers in a global study of working practices and workplace design.

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