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offce
As businesses adopt more fexible, mobile
workstyles, employees could be given their
own budgets with which to hire temporary
or shared workspaces.
This is one of the possibilities outlined in
a new report,
VWork: Measuring the Benefts
of Agility at Work,
produced by serviced offce
provider Regus and Unwired Ventures.
Based on insights from real estate
executives at 16 global companies including
Cisco, Nokia, BBC, Tesco and GSK, the report is
an attempt to defne and quantify the benefts
of “agility” in a world where offce occupancy
rates are running at just 45%, yet metrics
are still based on rent, rates and a ‘per square
foot’, one-person-one-desk approach.
One option is a ‘buy your own’ (BYO)
workspace model, which mirrors IT
provisioning strategies that give staff the
option to purchase their choice of technology
at work, thereby lowering costs and enhancing
fexibility. An extension of the BYO work
model will see individuals given an annual
budget to purchase the tools, spaces and
services they need to work most effectively.
“As the concept of virtuality gains ground,
monetizing agility and creating a robust
business case for changing the way we work
will become essential,” said Regus group chief
executive Mark Dixon. “The future of work will
involve organisations moving toward a more
fexible work model where employees will be
allowed to buy their own offce space.”
www.regus.com
Desk sharers multiply
Desk space website Offcegenie.co.uk has
reported a big rise in demand for desks
in shared offces, with average monthly
enquiries in the frst half of this year
double the level they were in the second
half of 2010. Demand for space in other
companies’ offces is being driven by a
number of factors, including steady growth
in small businesses; downsizing by larger
frms; and greater acceptance of fexible
working practices. Offce Genie helps offces
with spare desks make money from wasted
space, while giving small businesses the
opportunity to rent a small area for a price
they can afford.
Offce checklist
Offce design and ft out company Morgan
Lovell has produced a free online checklist
to fnding new offces.
Choosing the Right
Offce Space
addresses all aspects of the
evaluation process – from deciding on the
right location to negotiating lease terms
– and contains more than 90 essential
‘checks’ to help managers make an informed
decision when renting or buying space.
The guide is available as a free download
at
www.morganlovell.co.uk/useful-info/
checklists
Xmas cheer
Ambius has reported a 35% rise in
Christmas tree orders as businesses buck
the trend for austerity with some much
needed festive fun. This year, for every
Christmas tree sold Ambius is donating
£5 to the gardening charity Greenfngers.
Buy your own workspace
Taller people can look forward to more
comfortable working conditions following
a revision to the standard for offce desk
dimensions that takes into account how
much taller Europeans have become over the
last 40 years.
The new standard developed by FIRA
International and the European offce furniture
standards committee (CEN TC SC3WG2) is
based on today’s population sizes rather than
measurements from the 1970s which formed
the basis of the previous offce desk/table
standard (BS EN 527 Part 1:2000).
Levent Caglar, FIRA International’s chief
ergonomist, said: “Taller workers have dealt with
the constant struggle of having their legs hitting
the underside of the desktop, knees knocking
into structural beams and an inability to stretch
their legs without hitting an obstruction such
as modesty panels or under desk CPU mounts.
However, with the new standard for offce desk
dimensions coming into force today (1 July), this
is set to change.”
The introduction of the revised standard, BS
EN 527-1 2011, means that any desks bought
or designed for an offce environment will have
to comply with a new set of height, depth and
legroom dimensions, including an increase in the
height of fxed desks by 20mm to 740mm.
Full details are available on the FIRA website:
www.fra.co.uk/consultancy/ergonomics/
bs-en-527-1-2011
Desk heights
raised to suit
taller workers
Humanscale has entered the height adjustable desking market
with Float. The sit-stand table gets its name from the effortless
one-handed height adjustment mechanism, which has a range
of 20 inches and supports up to 170 pounds of desktop weight
(excluding the tabletop). Made predominantly from steel and
aluminium, Float is available with a white, silver or black fnish and
a range of tabletop widths (from 42 to 72 inches). To maintain a
consistent look and feel throughout an offce, Float can be ftted
with other manufacturers’ tops.
www.humanscale.com
in brief...
In the future, employees may have their own
budget for renting offce space from fexible
offce space providers like Regus