March 11, 2021
BCO offers new guidance on indoor air quality
A new BCO research paper, Thoughts on ventilation design and operation post COVID-19, has called for UK offices to ensure they have adequate ventilation ahead of the return to work. The paper highlights that while most offices that follow good practice guidelines do benefit from indoor air quality, there are also many examples of poorly ventilated offices that fall short of the best practice guidelines set out in the BCO’s 2019 Guide to Specification. Poorly ventilated indoor spaces have been linked to COVID-19 super spreader events and the paper states that ventilation in these offices must be “addressed urgently.” (more…)
New research by 
Until recently, the nature of business was widely predictable. Tried and tested operational methods enabled businesses to forward plan confidently based on what had worked before. Even before the cataclysmic events of the global pandemic, the workplace landscape was shifting dramatically, with innovation, disruption, workforce and consumer expectations evolving at a pace. As we enter 2021, every business will need to rapidly adapt and evolve to survive and workforce agility will be a critical factor for that survival. 
Years of pathologising offices should have prepared us for the patholigisation of virtual spaces. It seems like months since anybody has come out with that tired old rant about open plan. Certain vociferous and obsessive 
Now, more than ever, both at home and at work, we need to be surrounded by people we can rely upon and trust as we ride the waves of uncertainty. Over the past year, we have learnt that priorities and targets can be shifted in the blink of an eye which has increased the importance of flexibility, support networks and relying on each other. This is just as relevant in business, including who we choose as strategic partners and how we contract with those partners. 
A new study on recruitment and workforce trends has crowned London as the world’s most desirable city to work in, with the UK capital holding onto the top spot, despite uncertainty around Brexit and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. 
Someone really should have warned HR and people leaders that we needed to strap ourselves in, right? Even then, would we have ever been completely prepared for the rollercoaster ride organisations have experienced because of the pandemic? As part of Sage’s research, ‘
Progress for women in work could be back at 2017 levels by the end of this year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to analysis conducted for 
The much discussed idea of Zoom fatigue turns out to be a real phenomenon according to new peer reviewed research from Stanford academics. The study published in the American Psychological Association’s journal 
In March 2020, the COVID-19 global pandemic forced countless employers around the globe to send their non-essential employees home. Few organisations had a contingency plan for such a scenario, meaning the overwhelming majority of employers had to rethink their operations and communication functions on the fly. 
March 15, 2021
Workplace anthropology will help us make sense of the now and anticipate what’s next
by Christopher Diming • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design