Help! How can I make the office more enticing for my staff?
05/03/22 • 18 min
Most of us enjoyed a lot more time outside in nature during the pandemic so could bringing nature into the office help lure workers back to their desks? In this episode, Isabel Berwick, Working It host and the FT’s Work and Careers editor, talks to architect Rick Cook about his ‘biophilic’ buildings. Rick creates buildings that don’t just look good, but stimulate us to smell, feel and touch the world around us, bringing beehives, greenery and even praying mantis into employees’ lives. Isabel also speaks to the FT’s New York correspondent and Working It regular, Josh Chaffin, about the cutting edge of US office design. There are hospitality groups contracted to make offices look and feel like cool private members’ clubs as well as ice-cream carts and new quiet spaces for introverts. Will it tempt back employees reluctant to give up working from home? What can managers do to make their offices even a little bit more alluring and healthy?
Want to read more?
Josh Chaffin on Rick Cook’s ‘biophilic’ architecture
https://www.ft.com/content/e032feee-6d3d-4773-b8b6-c0744bdadb49
How New York’s offices are getting a post pandemic shake up
https://www.ft.com/content/0fc60c68-7e8f-492d-ae4c-f66272793212
Pilita Clark on why commuting to an office is still offputting
https://www.ft.com/content/8d7e40da-0cf3-453e-9eb3-40036d4e2582
Hot desking in offices is coming back
https://www.ft.com/content/06f5e384-e278-4c30-8215-085512c6820d
How companies are luring staff back with restaurant-quality free food
https://www.ft.com/content/218e50fb-9bff-4589-bff2-7975ea354456
HBR on the power of getting away from your desk for a walk
https://hbr.org/2021/02/dont-underestimate-the-power-of-a-walk
FT subscriber? Sign up for the new weekly Working It newsletter. We’ll cover all things workplace and management — plus exclusive reporting on trends, tips and what’s coming next. One-click sign up at www.ft.com/newsletters
We love to hear from you. What do you like (or not)? What topics should we tackle? Email the team at [email protected] or Isabel directly at [email protected]. Follow @isabelberwick on Twitter
Subscribe to Working It wherever you get your podcasts — please listen, rate and subscribe!
Presented by Isabel Berwick. Editorial direction from Renée Kaplan and Manuela Saragosa. Assistant producer is Persis Love. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. Produced by Novel.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Most of us enjoyed a lot more time outside in nature during the pandemic so could bringing nature into the office help lure workers back to their desks? In this episode, Isabel Berwick, Working It host and the FT’s Work and Careers editor, talks to architect Rick Cook about his ‘biophilic’ buildings. Rick creates buildings that don’t just look good, but stimulate us to smell, feel and touch the world around us, bringing beehives, greenery and even praying mantis into employees’ lives. Isabel also speaks to the FT’s New York correspondent and Working It regular, Josh Chaffin, about the cutting edge of US office design. There are hospitality groups contracted to make offices look and feel like cool private members’ clubs as well as ice-cream carts and new quiet spaces for introverts. Will it tempt back employees reluctant to give up working from home? What can managers do to make their offices even a little bit more alluring and healthy?
Want to read more?
Josh Chaffin on Rick Cook’s ‘biophilic’ architecture
https://www.ft.com/content/e032feee-6d3d-4773-b8b6-c0744bdadb49
How New York’s offices are getting a post pandemic shake up
https://www.ft.com/content/0fc60c68-7e8f-492d-ae4c-f66272793212
Pilita Clark on why commuting to an office is still offputting
https://www.ft.com/content/8d7e40da-0cf3-453e-9eb3-40036d4e2582
Hot desking in offices is coming back
https://www.ft.com/content/06f5e384-e278-4c30-8215-085512c6820d
How companies are luring staff back with restaurant-quality free food
https://www.ft.com/content/218e50fb-9bff-4589-bff2-7975ea354456
HBR on the power of getting away from your desk for a walk
https://hbr.org/2021/02/dont-underestimate-the-power-of-a-walk
FT subscriber? Sign up for the new weekly Working It newsletter. We’ll cover all things workplace and management — plus exclusive reporting on trends, tips and what’s coming next. One-click sign up at www.ft.com/newsletters
We love to hear from you. What do you like (or not)? What topics should we tackle? Email the team at [email protected] or Isabel directly at [email protected]. Follow @isabelberwick on Twitter
Subscribe to Working It wherever you get your podcasts — please listen, rate and subscribe!
Presented by Isabel Berwick. Editorial direction from Renée Kaplan and Manuela Saragosa. Assistant producer is Persis Love. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. Produced by Novel.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Previous Episode
Upskilling: Why it makes sense to retrain staff
The term ‘upskilling’ is suddenly everywhere. We might once have called it training and development, but the meaning is the same: organisations are spending vast sums to give their existing staff new tools to succeed at work - and, increasingly, to support their personal development. In this week’s episode, Isabel explores how training, or upskilling, has evolved as a way to retain staff in the post-pandemic workplace. She speaks to FT columnist and Working It regular Emma Jacobs about which aspects of upskilling are worth the time and investment, and also to Dan Bullock and Raul Sanchez, training and communications experts at New York University. Dan also works at the UN as a trainer, and both of them are convinced that teaching staff new language and communication skills is the key to a post-pandemic skills refocus - and better global understanding. Could upskilling staff actually help end the Great Resignation?
Want to read more?
What is needed to bridge the skills gap? Andrew Hill on the World Economic Forum’s research https://www.ft.com/content/c82a4096-f4fc-424e-bc74-6df52055640d
More investment in older workers will pay off - Camilla Cavendish on the short-sighted approach of employers who favour younger staff
https://www.ft.com/content/1a72ed42-6d96-4ed5-9528-fb4810b0dbd6
Emma Jacobs on using ‘‘stay’ interviews as a way to find out the training staff want
https://www.ft.com/content/57556b65-f8c8-41f1-9f07-c6c470777229
How the Japanese company Rakuten made English its global language
https://www.ft.com/content/2fdd6626-ba3b-11e7-8c12-5661783e5589
Dan Bullock and Raul Sanchez’s work on training staff to communicate globally
https://www.globallycommunicate.com/the-team
FT subscriber? Sign up for the new weekly Working It newsletter. We’ll cover all things workplace and management — plus exclusive reporting on trends, tips and what’s coming next. One-click sign up at www.ft.com/newsletters
We love to hear from you. What do you like (or not)? What topics should we tackle? Email the team at [email protected] or Isabel directly at [email protected]. Follow @isabelberwick on Twitter
Subscribe to Working It wherever you get your podcasts — please listen, rate and subscribe!
Presented by Isabel Berwick. Editorial direction from Renée Kaplan and Manuela Saragosa. Assistant producer is Persis Love. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. Produced by Novel.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Next Episode
‘Flight shame’ and the return of business travel
US business travel is back to about 50 per cent of its 2019 levels. But post-pandemic and amid the climate crisis, can we justify those quick jaunts to sit in airless conference rooms and sip bad cocktails with strangers?
In this episode, Isabel Berwick, Working It host and the FT’s Work and Careers editor, talks to Evan Konwiser, executive vice-president of product and strategy at American Express Global Business Travel. As an advocate for business travel, Evan thinks the future is going to be about making meetings unusual or special. Meanwhile, FT columnist Pilita Clark questions whether we should really be encouraging our staff to get on planes given the climate crisis. Both Evan and Pilita look at near-future trends: the new practice of blending business travel with leisure time – or ‘bleisure’ as some call it – and why your employer may even be booking your vacation.
Want to read more?
Pilita Clark on the post-pandemic future of business travel
https://www.ft.com/content/75d096e5-a429-496b-a62d-f8f6b9b2fb35
More on the Swedish ‘flygskam’ or flight shaming
https://www.ft.com/content/5c635430-1dbc-11ea-97df-cc63de1d73f4
Emma Jacobs on the rise of ‘bleisure’
https://www.ft.com/content/8003a384-bc22-4ae9-b1c1-2c5452136cbe
EY sends new recruits on a trip to Disney
https://www.ft.com/content/da797e20-85fe-4beb-a054-c611aebfdfd9
American Express business travel report outlining its view that business travel will become the centre ‘of the new company culture’
Salesforce’s ‘trailblazer ranch’ for staff meetings in California
https://www.salesforce.com/news/stories/introducing-trailblazer-ranch/
FT subscriber? Sign up for the new weekly Working It newsletter. We’ll cover all things workplace and management — plus exclusive reporting on trends, tips and what’s coming next. One-click sign up at www.ft.com/newsletters
We love to hear from you. What do you like (or not)? What topics should we tackle? Email the team at [email protected] or Isabel directly at [email protected]. Follow @isabelberwick on Twitter
Subscribe to Working It wherever you get your podcasts — please listen, rate and subscribe!
Presented by Isabel Berwick. Editorial direction from Renée Kaplan and Manuela Saragosa. Assistant producer is Persis Love. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. Produced by Novel.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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