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magazine
07
agenda
Surrey Heath andWaverly local authority
districts are the greenest areas of Britain,
with 40% tree cover, according to the first
ever nationwide map of trees produced by
aerial mapping specialist Bluesky.
Surrey is home to five other districts
ranked in the top ten for tree cover. The
remaining Top Ten places are taken up by
Neath Port Talbot with 32% and Bracknell
Forest and New Forest District Councils.
The areas with least tree coverage are
Boston and South Holland in Lincolnshire,
with just over 2%. Neighbouring Fenland
and East Cambridgeshire are also in the
bottom 10, as is the City of London.
The district council closest to the
national average is North Dorset District
with tree coverage of 13.67%.
Bluesky Managing Director Rachel
Tidmarsh said: “Behind the headlines, the
Bluesky National Tree Map is a serious
source of information that is already being
used by councils, government organisations
and utility companies to inform the
management of our landscape and protect
our infrastructure.”
The dataset is based on high resolution
aerial photography, colour infrared data and
detailed height models. It includes three
individual map layers, detailing more than
280 million trees with a canopy cover in
the region of 20,000 square kilometres or
13.5% of land cover.
Leafy Surrey tops UK tree ranking
Collaboration wall
The NiceWall from Bene is a room module for meetings,
brainstorming sessions and visual presentations. It is
powered by we-inspire, a continuous frameless and
interactive wall, scalable up to 30 metres in length,
that can be written on by seven people simultaneously
using Anoto digital pens. Combining the NiceWall with
upholstered furniture elements from Bene’s PARCS series
turns any office space into an area for the exchange and
development of ideas.
Stressed workers are less
productive
Employees suffering from high stress levels have
lower engagement, are less productive and have
higher absentee levels than those not operating
under excessive pressure, according to the
Global
Benefits Attitudes survey
by professional services
firm TowersWatson.
It found that over half (57%) of employees who
claimed to be experiencing high stress levels were
disengaged. In contrast, only one in ten employees
claiming low stress levels said they were disengaged.
Moreover, half of the low stress group claimed to be
highly engaged.
Rebekah Haymes, senior consultant and well-being
specialist at Towers Watson, said: “The research clearly
shows the destructive link between high levels of
stress and reduced productivity. A third of respondents
said they are often bothered by excessive pressure
in their job and this can lead to higher instances of
disengagement and absenteeism – clear indicators of
low productivity in the workplace.”
Stress also influences absence levels with highly
stressed employees taking an average of 4.6 sick
days per year, compared to 2.6 days for low stress
employees. Presenteeism, the act of attending work
when unwell and unproductive, was 50% higher for
highly stressed employees, at an average of 16 days
per year versus 10 days for employees claiming to
have low stress.
Inadequate staffing was the biggest cause of
stress cited by employees, with 53% considering
it a top cause of workplace stress. However, few
employers agree, with only 15% of senior managers
acknowledging it as a cause of stress in their
organisation. Conversely, a third (34%) of employers
thought technology that made employees available
outside working hours was one of the top causes of
stress, but employees largely disagreed, with only 8%
listing it as a contributor to workplace pressure.
Steelcase identifies top five open plan coping
mechanisms
As disquiet about noisy open plan offices grows, Steelcase has identified five ways
that office workers can find peace and quiet at work.
An international study carried out by market researchers IPSOS and theWorkspace
Futures Team of Steelcase found that only 41% of office workers are able to undertake
important work in privacy. The rest have had to develop their own strategies to avoid
disruptions. These include:
1
Strategic anonymity:
Being unknown or ‘invisible’ for a while in order to avoid
normal social distractions and restraints. Going off radar makes workers feel that they
are free of the restraints that come with normal social surveillance.Workers may choose
to go to a café to avoid the social distractions of the workplace.
2
Selective exposure:
Choosing what
others see by being selective about the
personal information and behaviours
that we reveal. Examples of selective
sharing can be opting for a telephone
call instead of a video conference or
choosing which personal items to
display in a workstation.
3
Entrusted confidence:
Sharing
information confidentially within a
trusting relationship, for example in a performance review with a manager.
4
Intentional shielding:
Protecting yourself from others’ sight lines to avoid being
observed or distracted. Many office workers like to create a personal space by using
earphones to block out audio distractions or by sitting with their back against a wall.
5
Purposeful solitude:
Physically separating yourself from co-workers in order to
concentrate, recharge, express emotions, rejuvenate or engage in personal activities.
These workers appreciate quiet spaces within the office or sit in the furthest corner of a
large room.
Bostjan Ljubic, vice president of Steelcase UK and Ireland, said: “Because people
experience privacy in these different ways, the key is to design a workplace that supports
them all.Workplaces dominated by enclosed offices won’t solve the engagement
problem. The best way to support today’s workers is to provide the ability to move
between individual time and collaborative time, fully leveraging the power of the
workplace to strengthen satisfaction and engagement.”
