Business Info - issue 135

Eight office trends for 2018 As suggested by workplace guru Professor Jeremy Myerson 1 Flex-Space: As large companies shrink their corporate footprints and seek out flexible alternatives, the co-working juggernaut will be unstoppable. 2 Biophilia: 2018 will be a big year for bringing nature into the workplace to boost wellbeing. Not just plants, but also natural materials, such as slate and hemp. Tech-enabled robotic plants will make their entry too. 3 Superfoods: In a fresh bid to improve performance and productivity, companies will focus on the links between nutrition and neuroscience and offer employees a diet to sharpen the brain. 3 Chatbots: Artificial Intelligence (AI) will switch from science fiction to a workplace near you in 2018, with chatbots leading the charge. The discourse will swing from robots taking our jobs to humans having to do the work of robots. 4 Smart Precincts: A big year ahead, not just for smart buildings but also for smart precincts, the building blocks of digital cities. Digital districts like Hudson Yards or King’s Cross are set to blend mixed-use developments with smart services. 6 Mindfulness: The big health and wellbeing accent in 2018 will be on the mind rather than the body. Mental health will top the agenda, as days lost through stress, anxiety, depression and burnout cut into corporate profits. 7 Narrative: The workplace brandscape will make a comeback in 2018, but the storytelling element will be more abstract and subtle than the overtly branded statement interiors of the early 2000s. 8 Data Analysts: 2018 will be a breakthrough year for collecting data in the workplace through smart sensors and beacons. The key question will switch from how we collect the data to what we do with it. In-house data analysts could be the answer. Professor Jeremy Myerson is the Helen Hamlyn Chair of Design at the Royal College of Art and director of theWORKTECH Academy, a community of professionals interested in the future of work and the workplace. www.worktechacademy.com AGENDA Spaces to open hub in Birmingham Spaces is set to open a work hub in Birmingham. The workspace will occupy all 7,523 sq m of The Crossway on Great Charles Street and will offer co-working space, serviced offices, day offices, bookable meeting rooms and virtual office facilities. A 10-minute walk from New Street station and a 23-minute drive from Birmingham Airport, Spaces Birmingham is easy to reach by road, rail and air. www.spacesworks.com Wake up to the importance of sleep Business in the Community (BITC), in association with Public Health England (PHE), has launched the first Sleep and Recovery toolkit for employers. The toolkit highlights the business and moral case for adequate, good quality sleep and includes a checklist of actions for employers to take. Lack of sleep is increasingly being linked to high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes. It also raises the risk of accident and injury. Rand Europe claims that sleep deprivation results in 200,000 working days lost every year, at a cost to the UK economy of £30bn. https://wellbeing.bitc.org.uk/all-resources/toolkits/sleep-and-recovery-toolkit It’s Tuesday, I must be ill Analysis of data from users of BrightHR’s employee absence management system reveals that in 2017: n Tuesday was the most popular day of the week to call in sick. n October was the month with the highest sicknesses logged. n Maxine and Alistair were the male and female names least likely to take a sick day. n December 2017 was the month for the most holiday requests. n 25th of August was the most popular date to book off. n Edinburgh was the city with the highest staff lateness. n Birmingham was the city with the lowest staff lateness. www.brighthr.com One in three workers expects more flexibility in the next decade One third (33%) of UK workers expect more workplace flexibility in the next decade, reveals the Workforces 2025 report by TalkTalk Business. A further third (33%) think the Monday to Friday working week will become redundant; 42% believe evolving routines driven by new technologies will spell the demise of the 9-5 working day in the next 10 years. That said, over a third (39%) believe there will still be a need for a permanent office building, even if just under a quarter (23%) think offices will be a lot smaller. www.talktalkbusiness.co.uk Personal parcel deliveries without the interruptions With the ecommerce industry booming, employees are having more and more personal items delivered to the workplace rather than their own homes. To minimise the time spent managing deliveries and the storage space needed, The Safety Letterbox Company has launched the E-Office Box parcel solution. The intelligent parcel boxes, with integrated myRENZbox system, enable employees to send, receive and return parcels with ease. Employees are authenticated by the myRENZ app, electronic key chip or by inputting a personal PIN via the unit’s touch screen display. It is then possible to select between ‘collection’, ‘return shipment’ or ‘delivery’ functions for the required service. www.safetyletterbox.com businessinfomag.uk magazine 06 The future of work Office furniture company Bene has published a paper on the working environment of the future. Based on interviews and discussions with more than 40 international experts, The Bene Future of Work Report 2018 highlights trends such as artificial intelligence, big data and mobility. Find it at http://futureofwork.bene.com/