Workplace

Why Are America's Most Innovative Companies Still Stuck in 1950s Suburbia?

Why Are America's Most Innovative Companies Still Stuck in 1950s Suburbia?

When Apple finishes its new $5 billion headquarters in Cupertino, California, the technorati will ooh and ahh over its otherworldly architecture, patting themselves on the back for yet another example of “innovation.” Countless employees, tech bloggers, and design fanatics are already lauding the “futuristic” building and its many “groundbreaking” features. But few are aware that Apple’s monumental project is already outdated, mimicking a half-century of stagnant suburban corporate campuses that isolated themselves—by design—from the communities their products were supposed to impact.

Read the article on collectorsweekly.com >

The new corporate workplace: Beers on tap, bring your dog to work and a short-term lease

The new corporate workplace: Beers on tap, bring your dog to work and a short-term lease

When co-working firm Cross Campus opens an office in downtown Los Angeles next month, its tenants will include the typical start-ups looking for collaborative work environments, shared coffee bars and the flexibility of a short-term lease. But the 33,000-square-foot location on Wilshire Boulevard also will house businesses of a less typical variety, including real estate developers, legal firms and FactSet Research Systems Inc., a publicly traded financial data company out of Connecticut with more than 8,000 employees worldwide.

Read the article on latimes.com >

On Collaboration: An Interview with Blitz Architecture Principal Melissa Hanley

On Collaboration: An Interview with Blitz Architecture Principal Melissa Hanley

In the 8 years since Office Snapshots began publishing, we’ve watched the idea of the collaborative office rise to the level of an almost meaningless buzzword. But collaboration – working together to achieve a goal or complete a task – is an essential ingredient in any workplace that will not disappear any time soon. We recently spoke with Melissa Hanley, Principal of Blitz Architecture + Interiors, the San Francisco-based firm responsible for the design of offices for companies like MicrosoftMalwarebytesInstacart, and Zendesk. She tells us about what collaboration in the contemporary office landscape looks like and how the firm works to help clients create an environment which matches the unique needs of each organization.

Read the article on officesnapshots.com >

Nature in the workplace: 6 ways to do it well

Nature in the workplace: 6 ways to do it well

Bringing nature into the workplace is not only a beautiful design element, but has been shown to reduce stress, minimize illness and enhance employee wellbeing. Whether your workplace has green spaces inside or access to green spaces outside, the impact is overwhelmingly positive. 

Read the article on myturnstone.com >

Friendly workplaces are less innovative, claims new report

Friendly workplaces are less innovative, claims new report

Work friendships can contribute to a lack of creative diversity in the office, according to new research from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University.‘Relational capital and individual exploration: Unravelling the influence of goal alignment and knowledge acquisition’, a paper that examines the double-edged sword of friendships between colleagues, has revealed that friendly workplaces discourage employees from challenging ‘group think’. The researchers examined 150 respondents within large R&D departments of three Fortune Global 500 firms, gauging whether their accounts of personal friendships affected individual creativity, in information obtained from their colleagues. Tom Mom, along with co-authors Pepijn van Neerijnen, Patrick Reinmoeller and Ernst Verwaal, demonstrate that by aligning themselves, employees become less likely to innovate away from the established and accepted ‘norm’.

Read the article on workplaceinsight.net >

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Workplace

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Workplace

We know, and have for a long time, that the workplace is in a state of near constant flux and so we often fall into the trap of assuming that there is some sort of evolution towards an idealised version of it. That is why we see so many people routinely willing to suspend their critical facilities to make extravagant and even absurd predictions about the office of the future or even the death of the office. This is perniciously. faulty thinking. However we can frame a number of workplace related ideas in terms of evolutionary theory, so long as we accept one of the centralprecepts about evolution. Namely that there is no end game, just types progressing and sometimes dying out along the distinct branches of a complex ecosystem. As a nerdy sort of guy of a certain age, I’ve tended to frame my thoughts on all of this with reference to an idea from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by the great Douglas Adams.

Read the article on workplaceinsight.net >

London needs open workspaces for creativity and growth

London needs open workspaces for creativity and growth

Open workspaces have grown in the last five years as a solution to the problem of workplace costs spiralling higher than smaller tenants can afford. They include artists’ studios, makerspaces, incubators, accelerators and co-working spaces. London was recently reconfirmed as the most expensive city in the world to live and work; the combined cost of living and working space has overtaken New York and Tokyo, and is 70 per cent higher than start-up capital San Francisco. In this very challenging environment, open workspaces enable businesses and professionals to reduce upfront or ongoing costs by sharing space, facilities or specialist equipment.

Read the blog on blogs.lse.ac.uk

Seven Steps to Surviving Your Office Renovation

Seven Steps to Surviving Your Office Renovation

When your office lease expires, opting to stay in place and upgrade your existing space can yield significant savings. However, successfully achieving such cost reduction requires careful attention to and management of a wide variety of issues in what can be a complex project process.

Read the blog article on interiorarchitects.com >

Open workspaces can test workers in new ways

Open workspaces can test workers in new ways

“Think of the workspace as a tool. And any tool — whether a computer or a wrench — will require training,” said Jed Link, spokesman for the Houston-based International Facility Management Association. So “if you approach an open office the same way you approach a closed office, it’s not going to work.”

Read the article on mystatesman.com >

Want to improve Recruitment and Retention of Millennials? Focus on Workplace Design.

Want to improve Recruitment and Retention of Millennials? Focus on Workplace Design.

Workplace design is important to millennials It’s an undeniable fact, companies need to successfully recruit and retain millennials to drive desired business results. As of 2015, millennials make up the largest generation in the workforce and that number will continue to rise in the immediate years ahead. Millennials are no longer a sub-group of employees on the horizon, they are the people leading teams, redefining corporate goals and contributing business ideas for the future. One constant amidst this shift in our workforce is that employee recruitment, compensation and training remains organizations’ largest expense. Successfully hiring and keeping strong employees is directly correlated to profit. It is estimated the cost of replacing a millennial employee ranges from $15-20K on average. 

Read the article on cannondesign.com >

The only thing worse than employing idiots is employing engaged idiots

The only thing worse than employing idiots is employing engaged idiots

The current obsession with ‘engagement’ is evident every time you read the business media these days. This is understandable in many ways, not least because it seems true that firms and employees are often working in an atmosphere of mistrust. But one thing that is often noticeable when a profession such as HR gets itself into a debate of this nature is the gap that can exist between practitioners and everybody else proffering a view. So while academics can talk about definitions and suppliers seek to apply their solutions to the issue, it is often down to those who work at the sharp end to dish up the truth, however unpalatable or cynical that can seem to be. One of the best and funniest quotes on the matter was something that once appeared in a small piece in Human Resources magazine, in which Vance Kearney the HR Director EMEA for Oracle said ‘the only thing worse than employing an idiot is employing an engaged and motivated idiot’.

Read the article on workplaceinsight.net >

Working Smarter and Sleeping Better: Circadian Rhythm in Workplace and Healthcare Design

Working Smarter and Sleeping Better: Circadian Rhythm in Workplace and Healthcare Design

On October 14, 2015, Susan S. Szenasy, Metropolis publisher and editor in chief, was in Seattle as part of the Metropolis Think Tank series to discuss both the need to consider circadian rhythm in workplace and hospital environments as well as the importance of understanding biophilia as a systems approach. What follows is an edited transcript of that conversation, prepared by Dora Vanette, with architects and designers at ZGF Architects LLP, their client, Seattle Children’s Hospital, and their colleagues and research partners at the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) and the University of Washington. Think Tank 2016 is in full swing--early this June we’ll be in Washington DC.

Read the article on metropolismag.com >

Workplace wellness: how offices could be the healthiest place for you

Workplace wellness: how offices could be the healthiest place for you

Already buzzing with energy as he is, the real estate wellness pioneer Paul Scialla takes it to another level when discussing how to lure office workers to the water cooler. “If people see water, they drink water,” he says. The former Goldman Sachs partner is outlining his plan as to how office space can be configured to improve the visibility of what he insists on referring to as “hydration stations”.

Read the article on theguardian.com >

Shifting Workforce, Shifting Expectations

Shifting Workforce, Shifting Expectations

As we create new workplaces to support organizational goals, those workplaces must do their part to attract and retain top talent and enable team performance. Much has been written about what the newest members of the workforce want and how to design for them. This is only part of the picture. As the workforce evolves – not only by adding the next generations, but also by becoming global and increasingly diverse, exible, full-time, or contingent – our expectations of the workplace continue to evolve as well. Expectations are and will continue to be a moving target. We now have de nitive insights into six signi cant factors that consistently correlate to knowledge worker performance that we can apply. Our challenge, then, is to design a dynamic, adaptive workplace that embraces diversity in all its forms, and enables the more timeless elements that support performance: relationship building and social cohesion, trust, effective communication, and expertise sharing. 

Read the article on allsteeloffice.com >

A quick guide to remote working

A quick guide to remote working

The concept of place, and placemaking, has largely been missing from corporate strategy. We believe that the “corporate placemaker” has a key role, especially in large and complex organizations, by working for and on behalf of the people within their corporation.

Read the blog post on blog.condecosoftware.com >

How to Millennial-Proof Your Office

How to Millennial-Proof Your Office

To nail your new office design today, focus on tomorrow.

Workplace design trends are changing, so thinking ahead is crucial for any entrepreneur moving to a new location or giving their existing office a redesign, according to Dezeen. Michael O'Neill, head of research at office furniture company Haworth, told the architecture and design magazine that changing employee demographics and social norms are making the planning process for office design much less straightforward than 15 years ago.

Read the article on inc.com >

The new office floor plans: Flexible or demoralizing?

The new office floor plans: Flexible or demoralizing?

Do you recognize the person sitting next to you at the office? In many workplaces, you’d be forgiven if not. As employees have expressed a desire to move throughout office spaces during the day and choose how and where they work, experts in office design say they have seen a shift in traditional workplace office designs in the last several years.

Read the article on marketwatch.com >

After numerous delays, Microsoft finally starts shipping its $22K Surface Hub

After numerous delays, Microsoft finally starts shipping its $22K Surface Hub

If you’re in the market for a giant 84-inch 4K touchscreen computer (and have about $22,000 set aside for that), today is a good day. After numerous delays, Microsoft today started shipping its Surface Hub to business customers.

Surface Hub comes in both the giant 84-inch version and a smaller 55-inch HD edition for a relatively affordable $8,999. You’ll still need a stand for them, too, which will set you back another $3,699 for the rolling stand for the 84-inch model and $2,350 for the 55-inch version (or less if you just want to mount your Hub to a wall).

Read the article on techcrunch.com >

NEW REMOTE WORK STATS SHOW RISE IN TELECOMMUTING

NEW REMOTE WORK STATS SHOW RISE IN TELECOMMUTING

Gallup Poll results documented in this article support the notion that the telecommuting trend is on the rise.  Signifiantly, 37% of participants say they have worked remotely at one point, which is four times the amount of respondents that indicated this just 20 years ago.  Likely contributors to this jump?  Advanced technology, a generation entering the workforce that prefers mobility and flexibility, and organizations seeking to expand remote and/or flexible work options as a way to attract and retain talent.

Read the blog post on theflexmatch.com >