Search Results for: workplace

A four hundred year old guide to ergonomics that still rings true today

A four hundred year old guide to ergonomics that still rings true today

by • Comment, Workplace design

Changes to the nature of work, where it takes place and the things we use to complete it are always constrained by one particular eternally fixed element; the human being. The unchanging individual at the centre of it all is the thing that makes us return to old ideas time and again and ensures that whatever we do, something like it will have been done before in some way or other. That goes for products like the office cubicle as well as apparently modern principles such as ergonomics. The term ergonomic may have been coined as recently as the 1950s and we might associate it primarily with the ways in which we use computers, but the ideas behind it have always been with us since we started using tools. Looking back, what we learn is that people have been writing guides to good ergonomics at least since the early seventeenth Century.

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London remains top gateway city in the world for commercial property investors

London remains top gateway city in the world for commercial property investors

by • Cities, News, Property

London maintained its position as the top city for global real estate investment in 2018, according to research published today by JLL. The report claims that investors continue to favour cities they are familiar with and that have well-established investment markets and high levels of transparency. Well-known, large gateway cities with the world’s deepest concentrations of capital, companies and talent continue to dominate the top ranks. Twelve cities–London, New York, Paris, Seoul, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Shanghai, Washington DC, Sydney, Singapore, Toronto and Munich–have appeared in the top 30 ranking every year for the past decade and account for 30 percent of all real estate investment. (more…)

Business leaders lack ethical insight needed to get the best out of AI

Business leaders lack ethical insight needed to get the best out of AI

by • News, Technology

Although executives have high expectations for the impact that AI will have on their businesses according to Cognizant’s new report, ‘Making AI Responsible – and Effective, only half of companies have policies and procedures in place to identify and address the ethical considerations of its applications and implementations.  The study analyses the responses of almost 1,000 executives across the financial services, technology, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, insurance and media & entertainment industries in Europe and the US. The research suggests that business leaders are positive about the importance and potential benefits of AI. Roughly two- thirds (63  percent) say that AI is extremely or very important to their companies today, and 84  percent expect this will be the case three years from now. Lower costs, increased revenues and the ability to introduce new products or services, or to diversify were cited as the key advantages for the future.

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Robot delivery dogs, digital pollution, why tech firms like ping pong and some other stuff

Robot delivery dogs, digital pollution, why tech firms like ping pong and some other stuff

by • Features, Technology, Wellbeing

Today is officially* Blue Monday and instead of offering up an endless series of clickbait pieces telling you how to cope and make the day better for your colleagues, we’re turning our attention to more interesting things. Such as this recent piece arguing that our obsession with ‘millennials’ can cloud our perspective on more important issues about people, their characteristics, advantages and inequalities. It argues that birth dates are rather less important to people’s life chances than their background, individual abilities and structural issues in the economy and society. Who – as they say – knew?

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What we have wrong about why some companies are more successful than others

What we have wrong about why some companies are more successful than others

by • News

New research published in the Strategic Management Journal suggests a firm’s competitive advantage can last more than three times as long as previously believed. INSEAD Assistant Professor of Strategy Phebo Wibbens found that companies with “higher-order” resources can greatly outlast their competitors. Traditionally, strategy experts have focused on a firm’s operating resources – assets and capabilities that directly affect profit – when analysing its competitive advantage. Based on that assumption, high-performing firms were believed to have a run of success lasting on average about five years. But as IKEA, Apple and other firms have shown, a much longer period of success is available to some companies.

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Major new research projects will explore impact of management on productivity

Major new research projects will explore impact of management on productivity

by • News, Wellbeing

A major new project led by the University of East Anglia (UEA) will examine how health and wellbeing practices can improve employee productivity. Working with research institute RAND Europe, based in Cambridge, it will look to identify which combinations of workplace health and wellbeing practices reliably improve worker health, wellbeing, engagement and performance – and deliver the best return on investment. (more…)

MPs back plan to increase gender diversity in business

MPs back plan to increase gender diversity in business

by • Legal news, News, Workplace

MPs back new measure to increase gender diversity in business

A majority of MPs have backed a recommendation to increase gender diversity in business by extending the “Women in Finance Charter” to cover all businesses in the UK. The recommendation comes from the professional accountancy body AAT (Association of Accounting Technicians). The Charter asks financial services firms to commit to implement four key industry actions; to have a named senior executive responsible and accountable for gender diversity and inclusion; set internal targets for gender diversity in senior management positions; publish progress annually and ensure the pay of the senior executive team is linked to delivery against these internal targets on gender diversity. (more…)

Pointless meetings set to cost organisations $541bn this year

Pointless meetings set to cost organisations $541bn this year

by • News

Professionals spend two hours a week in pointless meetings, which will add up to over $541bn worth of resource around the world in 2019. That is the main claim in a new report from Doodle. The State of Meetings Report 2019, calls on proprietary data from the firm alongside new research conducted with 6,528 professionals in the UK, Germany and the USA. The report claims to be a comprehensive look at the time taken up by cancelled or unnecessary meetings, inefficient ways of working and preferred methods of meeting and features expert comment from organisational academics and psychologists.

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Nowy Styl acquisition of Kusch+Co latest sign of changing office furniture sector

Nowy Styl acquisition of Kusch+Co latest sign of changing office furniture sector

by • Company news, Furniture, Workplace design

The Nowy Styl Group, a European manufacturer of office furniture has acquired the German family company Kusch+Co, a manufacturer and distributor of commercial furniture. It is the latest sign of change and possible consolidation in the global office furniture sector which has seen Steelcase acquire Orangebox as firms seek to expand their offering and market penetration. The trend is also evident elsewhere in the supply chain as shown by ByBailey’s merger with Insidesource and the creation of The United Workplace by Fourfront Group and partners around the world.

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Employers must take better action to avoid sick building syndrome

Employers must take better action to avoid sick building syndrome

by • Company news, Facilities management, Workplace design

Sick building syndrome is a collective term to describe when occupants of a specific building suffer from a related illness. Problems can either be localised to a specific room or more widespread throughout a building. The symptoms can manifest as headaches, blocked or runny noses, skin irritations, sore eyes or tiredness and difficulties with concentration. A number of building-related factors are linked to the condition with ageing offices and factories acting as magnets for sick building syndrome. Studies have shown that headaches and respiratory problems among office workers were directly related to the use of air conditioning and inadequate ventilation. Room temperature, light and noise, humidity, carbon dioxide, chemical contaminants (volatile organic compounds – VOCs), air quality and naturally occurring poisons can all inflame symptoms for sufferers requiring more precise control over environmental factors in the workplace. Making sure buildings are healthy for their occupants is a challenge. (more…)

Regional office occupier markets enjoyed record breaking level of take-up in 2018

Regional office occupier markets enjoyed record breaking level of take-up in 2018

by • Cities, Facilities management, News, Property

Regional office occupier markets enjoyed record breaking take-up in 2018: Credit Like ArchitectsThere was a record-breaking rate of take-up within the regional office occupier markets outside of London and the South East in 2018, with few signs of Brexit-related uncertainty, according to an analysis by CBRE. Across the ten regional cities monitored by CBRE, provisional analysis shows that overall take-up reached nearly 7.3m sq ft. This level was 16 percent above the five-year average and 6 percent higher than 2017, the previous record-breaking year. The majority of regional office demand has again been driven by the business and professional services sectors.  2018 saw record take-up from flexible office operators across the UK, representing the leading portion of business services take-up. This was the year the co-working revolution surged into regional cities. Birmingham, Bristol and Glasgow were all stand out expansion locations. With more demand from flexible workspace operators – both from established and new entrants, further expansion is anticipated in 2019 albeit at a further pace as markets become more saturated.

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Working environment, not time of the year has most negative effect on staff wellbeing

Working environment, not time of the year has most negative effect on staff wellbeing

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

Working environment, not time of the year has most negative effect on staffHalf of employees say that their working environment has a negative effect on their mental health (51 percent) and wellbeing (49 percent) and two-thirds (67 percent) say that they only ‘sometimes, rarely or never’ feel valued at work. The research by Peldon Rose shows that two-thirds of employees (64 percent) currently have poor or below average mental wellbeing and that the majority (56 percent) claim increasing workloads, followed by a lack of time to focus on wellbeing and exercise (46 percent) are the leading causes of their stress.  While half of employees think introducing exercise facilities will help them to better tackle their workplace stress (50 percent) – less than a fifth of workplaces (16 percent) currently provide these facilities, something employers should consider when looking to boost the morale of their workforce.

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