xsign has become a member of the prestigious British Council of Offices (BCO), the body that establishes best practice in office environments and sets out to promote diversity and inclusion in the office workplace.
The BCO was established in 1990, in response to the growing number of office-based jobs that were coming on to the market as a consequence of changes in working practices. Since the 1960’s the UK had undergone significant changes in the way that people worked. Traditional manufacturing and production industries such as car building and mining were starting to diminish as more service-based jobs started to emerge. The banking and insurance sectors had always existed but as many other countries stared to encroach into the UK’s traditional job areas, creating and exporting cheaper versions of home-grown products, the financial markets in the UK started to take over.
By the 1980’s these two areas were also starting to generate more jobs in ancillary areas of their operations, notably customer services which were seen as high growth areas with low risk and could be set up and operated with little investment. They could also be operated by what were essentially non-technical people, opening up the job market for many school leavers who didn’t see their future in the traditional industries.
The number of offices operating in the UK grew, and as they did, more emerging businesses clamoured for office space. The role of the office worker became the dominant one amongst the working population and the BCO was established to champion their rights.
But the BCO goes much further than that and has grown to encompass anyone involved in creating, acquiring or occupying office space, whether they be the architectural clients, legal entities, service provider, financial institutions or even public agencies. The BCO is the go-to organisation for anyone who has a query or an issue with any kind of office space.
The organisation keeps abreast of all the latest legislation and building standards, as well as having experts who can advise on design issues, sustainability, safety concerns or how offices deal with the increasing amount of diversity in the workplace. While the organisation is a forum and has no legal standing it is enormously influential, and its thoughts and findings help shape future office spaces.
xsign operate across a diverse spectrum of business, from industrial and educational through to commercial, consumer and social. A common theme through the projects the company works on is the growing and burgeoning amount of working space that people perform tasks in. Use of open plan space, individual working booths and focus zones are ways in which working environments are changing to meet the needs of people. These spaces all need innovative signage to provide wayfinding, branding points of reference and employee well-being. The company feels that being a part of the BCO aligns with the ambition to understand, modernise and transform working environments.
