Contract furnishings provider, Hightower received multiple awards at NeoCon 2021, including IIDA's 'Best Small Showroom' (under 4,000 sf) and 'Best of Competition' for its newly designed Chicago showroom.
Humanscale welcomes Elizabeth Margles to its Marketing Division in the role of Chief Marketing Officer. Margles comes to Humanscale with twenty years of experience in design, fashion and retail and a background in public relations and advertising.
The exclusive relationship with Kontrol's BioCloud® Technology will provide real-time detection of airborne pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2 to help make workplaces safer as organizations return to the office.
Blue Sky has visited some of the city’s most innovative office spaces. We’ve seen spaces for startups and corporations, both high-budget and those furnished by Ikea. We’ve seen treadmill desks, nap rooms, snack closets, graffiti walls and one of the country’s only Killer Queen machines. And we can’t forget the office pets, from well-behaved pooches to a turtle named Speedy. But a few things stand out.
The topic of transparency is met with widely varied responses in the built environment. In workplace design, the conversation can quickly turn to negative associations with privacy and distractions. However, these concerns are not intrinsic to transparency itself. Through well-considered environments, the benefits of transparency across social and spatial realms can be realized.
Read the article on workdesign.com > [paywall]
Thirty, and even twenty, years ago workplace attire wasn’t even a discussion. Men came to work in a suit and tie and women wore dresses and skirts. Everyone “dressed for success” regardless of what position in the company they held or who they interacted with daily. This was also a time when each individual sat at their desk all day and connecting with co-workers was reserved for lunch breaks. My how things have changed!
Your coworkers sitting nearby probably know how you take your coffee or the song you play when you need creative inspiration.
However, in the modern office you are engaging more than ever with a different, quieter teammate that also recognizes your preferences, from email spam to office temperature. This colleague doesn’t gossip or eat lunch with you—but they greet you every morning, and sort your emails overnight.
In the workplace, some furniture is designed to make your office functional. A desk, ergonomic chair and conference room are typical components of a typical office. Just bring your computer and you’re in business, right?
Marking World Day for Safety and Health at Work, the United Nations’ International Labour Organization (ILO) today outlined the findings of its latest research on the impact of stress in the workplace.
The claims that robots will render the human species redundant are largely exaggerated suggests a new report from Cognizant’s Centre for the Future of Work and the Economist Intelligence Unit. But we will have to find a new path and it may be one that emphasises human strengths and characteristics working alongside robots. The study of 420 managers in Europe and the US explores the future of the workplace in an increasingly automated world and suggest we will also see the emergence of new jobs involved in the design of augmented reality and avatars as well as a generally greater emphasis on robot-human partnerships in an increasingly digital world. The study claims, unsurprisingly, that the reliance on physical office space will recede, forcing businesses to employ intelligent workplaces which will monitor workers’ environment, needs and even moods.
Between 2005 and 2015 the number of people working over the age of 50 in the UK increased by 2.5 million, while those working over the age of 65 more than doubled. By 2022, there will be 12.5 million job vacancies that need to be replaced due to people leaving the workforce in addition to the two million new vacancies that will be created. However, there are estimated to be just seven million younger people to fill them. Recruiting and retaining older workers will be critical to closing this gap. Now in a major new initiative, the Centre for Ageing Better has gone into partnership with Business in the Community to identify and test what works to recruit, retrain and retain older workers. Through this partnership, it wants to hear from employers across the country who see the benefits of older workers and who are implementing changes to create age friendly workplaces.
Meeting room technology which does not work seamlessly is a huge hindrance for productivity, with 86 percent experiencing serious “meeting stress” when grappling with it during meetings, according to new research from Vanson Bourne and Barco. Among the biggest challenges for UK employees were sharing content and screens, and finding the right cables to connect to in-room devices. In trying to deal with tech problems, staff are wasting significant amounts of their valuable time: 60 percent try to fix problems themselves, 49 percent call IT/tech support, 30 percent end up giving up with the tech and going to their plan B. 15 percent even postpone meetings until technology problems can be fixed. The vast majority (90 percent) actually pre-prepare for technology failures: preparing handouts as alternatives to tech, coordinating with IT in advance, and 44 percent even do a tech rehearsal. As a result of struggling with technology in meeting rooms, a quarter of UK office workers have missed important deadlines, and some have even missed out on personal opportunities like promotions (7 percent).
Effective, effortless communication is essential in the modern workplace. However, many business communication methods currently on the market are inefficient, noisy and outdated, threatening productivity. The right communication platform can help eliminate distraction when implemented properly, while the wrong one can create barriers and hinder efficiency.
Millennials will account for 50% of the global workforce within the next four years so brands need to understand how to manage them more effectively. That means creating a collaborative environment where people are continually challenged so they don’t get bored and allowing them to take ownership of their development, says Helen Tupper, careers consultant and head of marketing at Virgin Red.
Facing productivity issues in your business? You might want to take a look at your office space. The research shows that an attractive working environment is crucial to getting the most out of your employees. A recent academic study indicated that decorating an office with plants can influence workers’ quality of life and productivity levels by up to 15%.
At KI, we are firm believers in Active Design, the practice of turning sedentary work environments into spaces that encourage healthier lifestyles. It’s evident that our reliance on technology has caused American workers to spend far more time seated, tied to a computer screen or device. So the question remains, how do we get employees out of their seats, fully engaged and healthier?
How sedentary is your work? If you’re like many office workers, you probably wish you could be more active, maybe spend less time sitting. But, work keeps most of us at our desks. We may have a cell phone, maybe a tablet or laptop, so you’d think we could be fairly mobile. But most workers aren’t.
The way we work changes rapidly. The intersection of technology and architecture offers a glimpse into the workplace of the future. A typical workday no longer resembles a worker sitting in rush hour traffic for an hour, and then at a cubicle for eight more. Advances in workplace architecture and emerging technologies are changing the face of the work environment. These changes are having positive effects on productivity.
What's the relationship between quality of office space and company performance in tech companies? originally appeared on Quora - the knowledge sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights.
How much did you weigh when you started your current job? And what do you weigh now? Forgive the personal questions but, if you’re anything like the 3,000 full-time employees in a new CareerBuilder survey, you’ve noticed that you’ve put on at least a few pounds—and you’re not thrilled about it.
As an industry, flexible workspace is an opportunity-rich hybrid that can – and frequently does – branch out into many new and exciting avenues. But words alone don’t do justice to the strength and vitality of the flexible workspace sector. We need statistics to give us a clear indication of how and where the industry is developing, its strengths and weaknesses, the challenges that lay ahead, and its ultimate potential.
We all fear the job that looks great on paper and is a nightmare in practice. What makes some companies great to work for and others a disaster? The answer: good workplace culture. It’s the difference between Google and Yahoo, Costco, and the Department of Corrections. Studies have shown that office culture is one of the most revealing indicators of workplace satisfaction. How can companies be intentional about building and nurturing a good workplace culture?
To say that I am obsessive about the subject of productivity in the workplace is an understatement. It is integral to much of the subject matter I write about, including the core theme contained in my book Don’t Worry About The Rent. Whilst undertaking research, it was important for me to get to the bottom of the decision making processes that many businesses go through when choosing office space. I was well aware of the predisposition for the commercial real estate industry to ask questions around size, cost and location, but I was particularly interested in what other issues might rise to the surface and become “top of mind” for management to consider around office choice. Predictably, I found that tenant surveys, including those undertaken by Colliers International confirmed that the two major issues management would consider were size and cost. The next biggest issue however was a surprise and it related to concerns around commuting.
