July 24, 2024
A new report from Harvard Business Review Analytic Services, in collaboration with Canva, claims to have uncovered the significant challenges organisations face when it comes to fostering creativity within the workplace. Despite the widespread belief in the importance of creativity, many organisations are struggling to create environments that nurture and encourage innovative thinking. (more…)
July 24, 2024
The rising costs of welfare and the country’s increasing dependency on immigration have become significant concerns, prompting a call for reform from a prominent government health adviser. Alan Milburn, a former health secretary, has emphasised the need for individuals with long-term illnesses and others stuck in a cycle of long term unemployment to actively seek employment. He argues that this approach is essential to address the unsustainable welfare costs associated with the long term unemployed and to mitigate the “toxic” reliance on immigration for the workforce. (more…)
July 24, 2024
In a world in which people have more choice about how and where to work, how can organisations meet their diverse and ever-changing needs? And how can they attract them to the office without issuing controversial mandates? Some of the UK’s most high-profile workplace, design, property and facilities management experts met recently at the London showroom of MillerKnoll to discuss one of the most vexed questions of recent years. Namely, how do you create workplaces that meet the needs of people who have more choices than ever of how, when and where to work? And its corollary: if you want people to spend more time in the office with each other, how do you entice them to do so without making it an obligation? (more…)
July 24, 2024
July 23, 2024
A new study from the Open Research Lab found that while unconditional cash transfers such as universal basic income slightly reduced employment rates and work hours, they increased the financial stability and agency of recipients. People were 2 percent less likely to be employed and worked 1.3 fewer hours weekly but had higher incomes when including the cash transfers. The financial support allowed individuals to pursue education, caregiving, health improvements, and more meaningful work. Overall, cash transfers provided recipients with the flexibility to make employment decisions aligned with their personal goals and circumstances. (more…)
July 23, 2024
The introduction of the Flexible Working Act is another sign that the concept of the ‘workplace’ has undergone a significant transformation. These shifts in work patterns, office usage and approach are all having dramatic knock-on impacts when it comes to the future of the physical infrastructure of the nation’s office environments, and the investor communities behind them. The growth of the adaptable office is one of the most obvious responses to the growing appetite for flexible working and agile property strategies. (more…)
July 23, 2024
Bisley and MARK Product have announced their participation in Material Matters, as part of London Design Festival 2024. This marks the debut of their collaboration since their strategic partnership was announced earlier this year, spotlighting their commitment to a sustainable and circular economy. Material Matters bring together over 40 world-leading brands, designers, makers and manufacturers. MARK and Bisley have been invited as part of the Room 12 exhibit, curated by designers TP Bennett and The Furniture Practice in celebration of the importance of material intelligence in architecture and design. Their installation focusses on the social aspect of the circular economy – how good jobs and skills along with building strong manufacturing and creative communities are essential for a sustainable future. (more…)
July 23, 2024
Urban Infill Architects has secured planning consent for a 58,000 sq ft (GEA) redevelopment of New Devonshire House in Bromley, within the borough’s Business Improvement District. The redevelopment of New Devonshire House will provide a 10-storey office building designed to the latest BCO Grade A standards. The specifications include 78 cycle spaces, EV charging facilities and a communal sky deck level with break-out spaces, bar and sky garden. (more…)
July 22, 2024
Efforts to bring employees back to the office over the past year have generated high degrees of success, according to the 2024 European Office Occupier Survey from CBRE. According to the research, the proportion of companies reporting average building utilisation of 41-80 percent has risen to 61 percent, up from 48 percent in 2023. Conversely, the proportion of companies reporting lower utilisation has fallen, with only a third of companies reporting utilisation of 40 percent or below, compared with nearly half of the companies surveyed last year. (more…)
July 22, 2024
Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson have unveiled Skills England, an initiative designed to unify the fragmented skills landscape and foster a cohesive national ambition to enhance the nation’s skills. Richard Pennycook CBE, former chief executive of the Co-operative Group and lead non-executive director at the Department for Education (DfE), has been appointed as the interim Chair of the new body. (more…)
July 19, 2024
Nuffield Health’s 2024 ‘Healthier Nation Index’ – a survey of 8,000 UK adults has highlighted how the young workforce is more social media obsessed than ever before. The study claims that social media use has increased for Gen-Z, with 16-24-year-olds spending over two hours a day doomscrolling on social media apps like TikTok, Instagram and Facebook per day (129 minutes), which is a seven percent increase and nearly ten minutes more a day than they were last year (119 minutes). This is four times the daily recommended amount for improved wellbeing. (more…)
Global architecture and design firm
July 19, 2024
Book review: Workspace Made Easy
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Property, Workplace design