Eastlake Work Group and Steelcase, global leaders in the office furniture industry, invited guests to eastlake work group’s head office in East Kilbride for a seminar to highlight the increasing challenge of a multi-generational workforce. (more…)

These questions wer answered at a seminar last Thursday in Cardiff hosted by workplace interior specialists, eastlake work group, in association with Steelcase - a global leader in the office furniture industry.

The Steelcase Applied Research and Consulting (ARC) team has extensively studied the impact of emerging trends and cultural diversity within the workplace and following over a decade of research, has uncovered four different generations working side by side in the office.

Steelcase workplace consultant, Zoe Humphries, presented the team’s most recent research into the needs and behaviours of office workers.

“With people living longer, they are working longer and we now have four different generations working together,” explained Zoe.  “Naturally when conflict arises, productivity is slowed.”

“Traditional office design has been structured around hierarchy, with workers in the middle of a room and management on the outside, often in bigger offices.  However, business today relies on social networks and is about communication and collaboration, not hierarchy, and therefore office design needs to reflect this.”

The four generations in the workplace today are Traditionals (born before 1945), Boomers (born between 1946-64), Generation X (1965-77) and Millenials (1978-99).  All these groups have varying expectations of the organisations they work for, different ways of working and different attitudes to technology and communication.

Inevitably there is a clash of different work styles and attitudes between younger and older employees.  This is one of the most significant productivity challenges facing present employers.  There are also space-planning implications.  Different generations work better in different environments, some prefer open plan offices whilst others need private office space - how do employers accomdate this?

Zoe continued, “there are four things to consider when translating generational issues into space. Firstly, hierarchical design should be avoided, the Millenials don’t like to respond to hierarchy, Generation Xers like to move around the work place, while Boomers like to sit in teams.  So, it is important that the office design supports people’s preferred working practice.

“Physical barriers should be removed to facilitate and support communication and collaboration.  Top management should be integrated with those working at a lower level to both share and exchange knowledge.

“Finally, and probably the most important thing, design should achieve and support face to face mentoring.  Mentor pods indicate to staff that management have time for them.  This works particularly well for the younger generation who have access to Traditionals and their knowledge before it is lost from the workplace.”

Formerly Georgesons, the company was taken over by David Eastlake in 2003 and has gone from strength to strength with targeted turnover projected to be £40m in 2008 and staff numbers currently standing at 180.    (more…)

Clients who helped to push the record figure over the £8m mark include the engineering consultancy, WSP, a large pensions + investments group and a major international bank. (more…)

The leading UK-wide workplace design and consultancy firm has an office in Cardiff Bay and has decided to support the UWIC School of Art & Design summer exhibition for the second time, with the work placement the first opportunity for an under-graduate to join the team. (more…)

In addition to taking on new staff across all businesses within the group, others have been given new roles within the business. Emphasis has been placed on increasing the strength of eastlake’s Major Accounts team, which looks after the organisation’s key clients including BP, Scottish Media Group and Aegon.

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Workplace interiors specialist, the eastlake group, has announced a major expansion for its Manchester operation. The expansion will see the Middleton-based team expand from 12 to 18, with a projected turnover increase of £4m to £6.5m.

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Leading workplace development company, the eastlake group, is celebrating its most successful year yet as 2007 comes to a close. The company, acquired by CEO David Eastlake in 2003, has gone from strength to strength since the MBO, this year securing two of their highest sales months ever with £3m revenue in both October and November – a record for the business. (more…)