JAC Group attends #MixInspired London Seminar 2018
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JAC were delighted to attend the Mix Inspired seminar on ‘The People Changing Tomorrow’s Workplace’, on Tuesday 18th September. The event was created by the Mix Group, hosted by Turner & Townsend and sponsored by Interface, Specialist Joinery and Colebrook Bosson Saunders.
The seminar was opened with a narration by Suzanne Archer, director at Turner & Townsend, focusing on the contextualisation of the office workplace. The four key speakers were Tahera Hammond from Investec Asset Management, Nikki Kirbell from Unilever, Sarah Lodge from Turner Broadcasting System and Karen Rogers from the Canary Wharf Group.
The focus of the seminar revolved around what is currently transforming the workplace and which areas drive the transformation. The initial collective belief of the panel was that while technology drives the transformation, human resources has the biggest impact on the workplace. However, a poll taken from the attendees found that 44% believe that the health of a company’s workforce has a stronger influence in the workplace than technological advances (17%) or the drive to recruit and retain (39%).
People coming into the workforce was another interesting topic of discussion. Most of the speakers agreed that now, more people are applying for a job because of who the company is, but evidence suggests a larger volume of candidates search for a company and organisation that reflects their values, rather than the name of the company. The counter argument to this, however, is that if companies apply this idea to their workplace, how long until it becomes the norm and a new trend is started
The seminar ended on the topic of inclusivity. All the speakers had informative answers to several questions, particularly whether inclusivity was a factor when transforming the workplace. The responses were very insightful, pointing out that even though companies try and offer their employees amazing opportunities, sometimes it was the simplest and smallest things that had the biggest impact. Unilever regaled us with an anecdote about trying to give their employees amazing new concepts, but it was a sofa in the break room that was the most popular idea.
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