Editorial comment.

AuthorPrickett, Ruth

As every estate agent knows, this is the time of year when people start to think about moving, renovating and decorating. Spring cleaning is just around the corner and new year's resolutions are still able to give us an incentive to make improvements. This may sound trivial, but many companies could benefit by following suit. No matter whether your firm is based in a Sir Norman Foster-designed glass pavilion by the Thames, in a warehouse on an industrial estate or in a series of rented tower blocks around the world, your offices make a statement about your business. Such statements do not come cheap: average annual workstation costs in the UK range from 9,041 [pounds sterling] in south-east England to a staggering 18,978 [pounds sterling] in the West End of London. But there are ways to make this investment more effective if you are prepared to think imaginatively about developing open-plan spaces and flexible working practices (page 20).

Of course, changing your office layout is also likely to affect your heating and electricity costs. The drive for energy efficiency has been given a new impetus by the climate change levy, but many firms are still unaware of the massive savings they could make by comparatively small changes to things like air-conditioning timers. What's more, the government is backing green investment with an increasingly wide range of allowances and grants, which may make the idea more palatable to cash-strapped companies (pages 9 and 24).

But improving the working environment must involve far more than your physical surroundings. An efficient building and a flexible workforce require efficient...

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