What You Needed to Know About the Workplace in 2014

We’ve rounded up our ten most popular “expert insights” published in 2014 — that is, “Perspective” and “Idea, Tip, & Trend” pieces written by industry insiders — and the stories run the workplace gamut, from better ways to measure performance to what to do about those darn millennials. Take a cruise through and arm yourself with the essential workplace insights you’ll need to get a head start in 2015.

10. Why You Need a “Destination Workplace”

Workplace innovation leaders and branding strategists at NELSON and RipBang Studios tell us how employers would benefit by taking cues from sports and entertainment venues. Key takeaways include treating your employees more like fans, taking pains to express why someone would want to work for your organization, and understanding how a workplace brings people together. Read more >>

 9. What It Takes to Move a Law Firm

In the first part of a two part series, two real estate experts talk to key players behind two law firm projects — Pillsbury in D.C. and DLA Piper in Chicago — about their decision to move and how they are managing the changes it entails. In part two, find out more about the programming process and how the firms are bracing for the future of work. Read more >> 

8. 5 Ways to Make Your Office a Happier Place

According to Gallup’s 2013 State of the American Workplace Report, which surveyed more than 150,000 workers, only 30 percent of employees are engaged and inspired at work. From offering more eco-friendly amenities to why you shouldn’t stop relying on that old standby — free food — here are five ways to make your office a more enjoyable place to work. Read more >>

7. How to Embody Your Brand in the Workplace

When it comes to branding, many companies focus on external marketing elements like website design, advertisements, and business cards. But if a company’s brand extends beyond that and into the workplace, it will encourage employees to achieve corporate objectives. Here, lessons about the essential roles that architects and designers play in branding space for clients. Read more >>

6. The Workplace Design Implications of Emergent Worker Attitudes

With shifts in technology and increasing environmental concerns, we’re looking ahead at a brave new workplace. But the biggest driver behind it will be changes in attitudes about work, with the millennial generation contributing to the biggest shift. Here, Charlie Grantham shares the latest in professorial deep-thinking about how that mindset will change the workplace. Read more >>

5. 5 Ways to Put More Wellness in Your Workplace

Workplace talk often focuses on hip-looking, flexible spaces with lots of open offices, all in the name of innovation. But there’s something even more important that the best places to work have taken into account: employee wellness. To stay on top, you’ve got to make it a priority. Here are five ways to incorporate it into your next project. Read more >>

4. What to Do When Bad Acoustics Happen to Good Workplaces

Boy, were open workspaces a hot topic in 2014. But for every advocate touting the benefits, there are ten others complaining that it’s just too loud. Bad acoustics are the culprit in many unsuccessful workplace design projects. Here, Steve Johnson explains how and why the proper use of sound absorbing materials and sound masking can make all the difference. Read more >>

3. Ugh, Collaboration: How to Replace an Old Buzzword

Are you tired of the word “collaboration”, too? When people say “collaboration”, what do they really mean? To find out, we asked a group of designers from One Global Design to sketch out their idea of a collaborative space. They had less than five minutes to do it. In this story, you’ll see the sketches and find out how we can start expanding our design vocabulary and stop saying collaboration. Read more >>

2. Measurable Strategies for Engaging Your Employees

Only 30 percent of U.S. employees are “engaged” in their jobs, according to a recent Gallup report. The report shows that a disheartening seven in ten American workers are “not engaged” or are “actively disengaged” at work, and therefore less likely to be productive. So is there a secret sauce for engaging employees? Not yet. But measurable strategies are a good place to start. Read more >>

 1. The New Metrics for High-Performance Workspaces

Gary Miciunas posits that it’s the integration of the “three C’s”–concentration, collaboration, and community–that is redefining workspace, and suggests that the relationships between and among them are critical to support new ways of working and achieve target metrics of a high-performance work environment. Read more >>