Lincolnshire-based commercial fit out and design company APSS has confirmed what it predicts will be the office design trends of 2023. Businesses will see staff take advantage of the office environment again but in new ways. Many have become accustomed to the freedom of working from home. However, rising costs mean staff are ready to move back to the office on a more regular basis. This is especially true if they are trying to heat the house for just one person. So, what does this mean for businesses? There will be a need to have an environment that accommodates its staff in more ways than an office has ever done. Over the decades, the only thing that has been consistent with the office environment is the requirement to allow people to work. Long gone are the days when magnolia walls, cheap carpet and a few desks were enough. Staff need so much more and when a company doesn’t provide the right environment, staff are seen leaving for greener pastures. Hybrid Offices With more staff returning to the office, the hybrid working environment continues to adapt and become more prevalent. However, the days of being chained to a desk are in the past. Staff enjoy having their home comforts in the workplace – a more relaxed sofa to work on, a range of collaboration areas for teamwork and smaller meeting pods for solo or smaller groups to help reduce noise and improve concentration. For some companies, a hybrid office can mean a downsizing. These companies are confident they will not host all staff in one office again for the foreseeable future. However, other businesses are keen to keep the culture and the energy of the office alive. They will adapt the office to fit the requirements of the staff, creating a more dynamic environment. When staff have been used to working at home, it’s important the office compliments the way they now work. Acoustics and Concentration in the Office One of the positives of working from home has been a quieter environment. This is great for calls, video conferences and the ability to concentrate better with minimal distraction. An open-plan office is great for communication and teamwork, but with more people in the office acoustics and quieter spaces will be imperative. Office designs for 2023 will see more quiet areas included through private workstations and meeting rooms. Acoustics has become a primary focus to reduce excessive noise levels. Biophilic designs help dampen noise levels with the incorporation of plants and water features. Acoustic ceiling rafters are taking their place in the office providing a great feature whilst providing a practical purpose of absorbing additional noise. Feature slat walls will also become more prevalent to help reduce echo and excess noise and look great too. Natural and Biophilic Office Designs Biophilic office designs have been on the rise for a while now. Awareness of the benefits of working in an environment tied to nature is high and this trend will continue to develop over the next year. In addition to the living green walls, it will move forward with more natural, earthy colour schemes. White finishes are expected to be a thing of the past as natural wood colours take over and enhance that tie to nature. More plants will be welcomed into the office environment, however these need to be incorporated sensibly. Too few and it looks like a token effort. Too many and your office suddenly begins to look like an overgrown jungle where you expect the cast of Jumanji to come running through at any second. Businesses are shifting focus to providing an environment for positive mental health. Maximising the natural light that is able to permeate the whole office continues to be on the agenda. A huge difference can be made by adapting offices from having one small window to incorporating curtain walling and glass partitions. Adding a water feature can be very impactful, creating a more tranquil environment for concentration. All of this provides another link to the natural world, creating a more relaxed feeling for staff. Staff Wellbeing The pandemic highlighted the importance of people’s personal well-being and looking after their mental health. Promoting a positive attitude to mental health and staff well-being has become a key factor in office design. Encouraging staff to be more active and providing the ability to adjust their posture throughout the day is a great place to start. Providing the right break space and boosting natural light is also essential. If your staff can’t get away from their desk for a break, you will see the quality of their work gradually decrease along with their motivation. Providing the right equipment, like stand-sit desks, or maybe installing a gym in an unused room, can help staff better balance their work-life balance. These are things staff are unlikely to have at home and are a big incentive for making that commute to the office. Staying Connected Even though staff are looking to make the move back to the office, many businesses’ customer base has stretched much further afield. This means connectivity and having the right space available for video calls are just as important as it was during the pandemic. As a culture, we took huge strides in technology in the last three years and this is now engrained into our daily lives. Small “phone booths” or Zoom meeting pods for video calls, or just a bit of quiet will be a big trend going forward. Media and interactive walls provide a great presentation stage for the online world too. Sustainable and smart office design Sustainability and the goal of having a carbon-neutral office remain a key focus for those on the hunt for a new design. This goes hand in hand with a smart office as they reduce the company’s bills and its carbon footprint. If you’re upgrading your workplace, updating the technology can save you in the long run, and of course, it’s better for the planet. Solar panels on the roof of your building help reduce your energy bills whilst also reducing carbon footprints but when it comes to internal design, recycled materials are becoming more popular. These fabrics, used for anything from carpet tiles to fabric for seating, look and feel great and help reduce pollution. Some of these fabrics are made with plastic dredged from the sea, so have a fantastic ethical reputation. Office designs for 2023 need to be smarter to help with sustainability. Light sensors and LED lighting help reduce unnecessary energy usage along with automated climate controls. These find usage patterns and regulates temperatures to create a more comfortable and sustainable working environment. APSS has expert staff on hand to help you create an effective and impressive working environment for your staff and visitors alike. Visit the website to see how APSS can help transform your office.

It’s that time of year, when Business Link Magazine invites the region’s business leaders to offer up their predictions for the year ahead.  It has become something of a tradition, given that we’ve been doing this now for over 30 years. Here we speak to Anton Roe, CEO of MHR. Sustainability has long been a buzzword but now it’s becoming a critical part of strategic planning for organisations, especially as ESG (environmental, social, and governance) issues take a priority position for stakeholders and employees alike. There are many opportunities for organisations to forge the way as leaders in their sector and create real change if action is taken now. In times of financial challenge, it can be easy to reduce the time and investment spent on ESG, however, having sustainability-based objectives and reporting key results is one way to maintain focus and track progress. Furthermore, this can result in vital business benefits such as improved employee engagement, a stronger employer value proposition, higher talent retention and attraction rates, brand recognition, energy cost savings, alongside a sense of community and long-term stability across the people in your teams. One specific opportunity is engaging younger workers around issues of sustainability. Gen Z and millennials strongly value protecting the environment and ensuring our way of life is sustainable. This not only drives career choices but can also be leveraged for younger workers to influence senior decision-making around sustainability, with reverse mentoring being a great tool to inform the C-Suite on just how important this issue is. Whether it be environmental changes, community work, internal progression or training programmes, sustainability is about doing the right thing by people and the planet we share. Organisations need to find ways to push forward in the fight for people and planet.

With video now being the most popular digital marketing tool, your company’s video content needs to be as professional as you want to appear – not only to impress customers and create sales, but also to keep up with your competitors. There is a direct correlation between the quality of your video marketing and how well customers perceive your business. Video marketing is only becoming more and more essential, so it’s important to do it well in 2023. Here are some big reasons why you should consider hiring a professional video production company to promote your company effectively.   Staying relevant Over the last few years, there has been a 63% increase in the number of businesses that use video as their primary form of promotion.[1] If you aren’t keeping up with your competitors and staying relevant by posting slick, well-produced videos, your company is at a serious disadvantage. Video is not only a great means to inform people about why they should buy your products or services, but you now actually need to be posting great videos to even get noticed amongst the competition. Don’t get left behind. To achieve high quality, you should really consider a production company. Cost benefit It’s easy to assume that it isn’t worth the money to hire a professional video company, when you consider that filming on a phone doesn’t cost you anything. But it actually costs a lot more than you think. Your homemade looking videos are damaging your company’s image and reputation, ultimately affecting your bottom line when potential customers look elsewhere and buy from a competitor who seem more professional in their videos. Investing in high quality video marketing could be the trigger for big growth in your company this year. Great return on investment Your ROI for this form of marketing will be determined by the quality of your videos and how effectively your message is conveyed. In a survey, 86% of marketing professionals reported that they used video as a marketing tool – 78% of which considered videos to be responsible for a direct increase in sales.[2] Those people invested in making high quality videos with a production company, rather than those who tried to cut corners by filming on a phone. Let’s look at an example to illustrate the ROI you might achieve. If your average sale is £30 and the promotional video is seen by 20,000 potential customers, just a 3% conversion rate would create sales of £18,000. Considering that a professionally produced marketing video might cost around £1,000 to create and another £1,000 to promote – that’s an irresistible return on investment. This is why so many marketers are hiring professional video production companies. Of course, you may be promoting a more expensive item, or your conversion rate could be higher or lower, so results vary – but you can usually generate a lot of extra revenue with a professionally-made promo video. Boost your sales Seeing your product in action, or a video about how your service works, makes potential customers much more likely to buy. Video is naturally much more enticing and engaging for a viewer, as compared with still images. Unsurprisingly, around 8 in every 10 professional marketing videos have a positive impact on conversion rates and sales figures.[3] In fact, your website visitors are 85% more likely to buy after watching a high-quality sales video.[4] Professional videography If you want your company to appear professional and win more sales through video marketing, there is absolutely no reason why you should be filming on a phone. Attempting to film on a phone leads to a ‘homemade’ and amateur look, especially if the person filming has little to no knowledge of professional videography. This in turn presents your company as amateur, small or unprofessional. If you have the equipment that a video production company uses and you know how to use it, you can get the best quality videos. Even the greatest phone camera will struggle to compete with professional filming equipment. Unsteady shots, fake depth of field, wrong frame rates, noise, uncontrolled focus shifting, bad quality audio. These are just some of the issues that top gear and knowledge can overcome – meaning your videos will be more effective and more pleasing for customers to watch. Lighting is a hugely underestimated part of creating a professional image and is almost never utilised correctly by an amateur. You can’t expect to get good lighting with just the room lights turned on. In professional videography, multiple specialist lights are placed at precise angles and strengths to create a flattering, filmic and controlled image. Such lights often cost upwards of £1000 each. Hiring a video production company means you don’t have to buy any lights or learn any lighting techniques. You want your company to appear professional in your video marketing, so quality lighting equipment and knowledge is an absolute must. Similarly, sound quality is really important if you want your company to appear professional and appealing to customers. It’s been said so many times that audio can make or break a video. Even if you have an excellent looking image, if it’s accompanied by poor sound, viewers will rarely stick around. Microphone positioning, gain, compression and mixing – these are just some of the factors that contribute to high quality audio. A video production company has the equipment and knowledge to ensure your video not only looks fantastic, but sounds great too – taking away the stress of having to study audio production and buy your own equipment. Another often underestimated factor in producing professional videos is the amount of time and expertise required for editing. Post production often takes a lot longer than the filming itself and requires years of practice to become highly skilled at. The video is ultimately a presentation of your company, so the editing needs to be superb. You can see, therefore, how hiring a company with professional videography skills is a must if you want your video marketing to be effective.   Effective time management We’ve only covered a few aspects in this article but you can already get the sense that a lot of time goes into producing great video marketing content. We haven’t even discussed all that must be done pre-production (before the camera starts rolling). With time at such a premium in our fast moving business world, just the fact you can save so much of it is a fundamental reason why you should hire a video production company. You can free yourself to focus on other aspects of your business, while professionals deal with your video marketing. Which video production company should I choose? There are many to choose from, but it’s wise to hire a local video production company that specialises in video marketing and corporate videography, such as Glowfrog. This way, you know they have the skills necessary to do an effective job for your business. Glowfrog are a multiple award-winning production company based in the East Midlands. You can get a free, no obligation consultation just by filling in the short form at www.glowfrogvideo.com. Sources: 1. WyzOwl.com 2. TheSocialShepherd.com 3. G2.com 4. Wix.com

A feud between Topps Tiles and one of its major shareholders is continuing, with the tile specialist issuing an update ahead of its annual general meeting to be held on 18 January. The Topps board of directors says it has become aware that MS Galleon GmbH (MSG) has been contacting certain Topps shareholders individually, with information that contradicts previous statements made directly to Topps around the link between sourcing and MSG’s equity interest in the company. MSG owns Cersanit, a major European producer of tiles, in addition to having a range of home improvement and tile retailing interests, primarily in the Polish market. Topps says that information provided to shareholders by MSG included a statement that it had recently discussed increasing its share of Topps’ product purchases to 5 per cent. However, this statement is, according to Topps, not an accurate representation of the entirety of those discussions and directly contradicts statements made by MSG to Topps. The company added that MSG has, on a number of occasions, directly linked the level of its equity holding in the company with the level of supply that it wishes Topps to source from Cersanit. To this end it was requested as recently as November 2022 that Topps should source 29.9% of its tile purchases from Cersanit in line with MSG’s shareholding in Topps. Moreover, Topps says Cersanit, as a supplier, is uncompetitive when compared with other manufacturers of similar products, while Topps’ sourcing policy does not allow for more than 10% of tile purchases to come from any one supplier in order to avoid concentration risk. In addition to a potential conflict of interest around sourcing, the Board believes MSG may also be preparing to launch its Nexterio tile retail brand in the UK, potentially establishing a direct competitor to Topps, which would create a further material conflict of interest. In December MSG pushed for the firm to remove a director of the company from office, as well as eject him from the position of non-executive chairman. It was proposed that Darren Shapland be replaced, while Lidia Wolfinger and Michael Bartusiak (both employees of companies owned by MSG) be appointed as non-executive directors of the company. The Board however does not consider the proposals to be in the best interests of the Leicester-based company and its shareholders, intending to recommend that shareholders vote against the Requisitioned Resolutions at the business’s AGM. The Board believes that the proposed appointment of MSG’s non-executive directors has the primary objective of aligning Topps’ business and strategy to MSG’s commercial objectives as owner of Cersanit, a manufacturer of tiles, and is therefore not in the best interests of the company and Topps’ shareholders as a whole. The Board believes it is incompatible for the proposed non-executive directors to have the target of increasing tile purchases from Cersanit to 29.9 per cent., whilst at the same time acting in the best interests of all shareholders of Topps. Meanwhile Topps has now secured further support from key shareholders for the Board’s position. Over 41% of Topps’ shareholders have now confirmed intentions to vote against the Requisitioned Resolutions. Darren Shapland, non-executive chairman of Topps, said: “The Board continues to believe that these proposals would expose shareholders to a number of serious conflicts of interest and are not therefore in the interests of all shareholders of the company. The Board welcomes the strong support received from other large shareholders who support the Board’s position in voting against the Requisitioned Resolutions at the AGM.” Keith Down, senior independent director of Topps, said: “The Board has unanimously rejected these resolutions which it does not believe are in the best interests of the Company and its shareholders as a whole. MSG is attempting to remove the chairman, who has been leading communications with MSG on behalf of the Board, to allow it to increase its control over the business.”