About Sara Bean

Sara Bean is one of the UK's best known and most widely respected workplace and facilities management journalists. She is a regular contributor to IN Magazine and the editor of FMJ.

Posts by Sara Bean:

December 7, 2015

Ambitious commitments made by Green Building Councils at COP21 ⁰

by Sara Bean • Architecture, Environment, Facilities management, News, Property

A total of 25 Green Building Councils from around the world have unveiled commitments reduce greenhouse gas emissions and ensure that the building and construction industry plays its part in limiting global warming to 2 degrees. More than 1.25 billion square metres of buildings – almost double the size of Singapore – will be registered, renovated or certified as green building space over the next five years, under ambitious commitments made by Green Building Councils at COP21 in Paris. Green building is one of the most cost-effective solutions to climate change, which generates significant environmental, economic and societal benefits. A new alliance of 16 countries and over 60 organisations, known as the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (which includes WorldGBC, its 74 Green Building Councils and their 27,000 member companies) is now committed to help countries meet their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) through green building.

December 4, 2015

Zero-hours contract employees happy as permanent, full-time staff ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, Legal news, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

People working on zero-hours contracts have less pressure and a better work-life balance than full time employees, a survey published by the CIPD claims. Zero-hours employees experience similar levels of job satisfaction and personal wellbeing to employees on permanent, full-time contracts and also report comparable satisfaction levels in their relationships with managers and colleagues. However, the report also shows that, while the majority of zero-hours employees choose to work part-time, they are more likely than part-time employees to say they would like to work additional hours. The research also updates the CIPD estimate of the number of employees on zero-hours contracts, which has increased from 1 million in 2013 to 1.3 million in 2015. The proportion of zero-hours contract employees who are either very satisfied or satisfied with their jobs is 65 percent, compared to 63 percent for all employees.

December 4, 2015

New Acas guidance aims to prevent disability discrimination at work ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Legal news, News, Workplace

A new guide to help employers and managers identify, tackle and prevent disability discrimination in the workplace has been published by Acas. The new free guide ‘Disability discrimination: key points for the workplace’ helps employers get to grips with what disability means, how it can happen and how to prevent and manage complaints in the workplace. Iver the past year, the Acas helpline dealt with around 12,000 calls on disability related discrimination. Over four out of ten disabled people seeking work found that misconceptions around their capability to work were the biggest barrier to getting hired. According to Acas’ Head of Equality, Steve Williams: “Disability is a complex area of employment law that can encompass many conditions or situations that employers may not be aware of. HIV, cancer, depression, phobias, diabetes or an impairment caused by obesity are all conditions that could be considered as a disability.”

December 3, 2015

Dog-friendly offices more appealing to Millennials than play rooms ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Workplace, Workplace design

Only a third of US workers believe that promotion offers the potential to advance their career with more than a third of all workers and 44 percent of Millennials preferring to jump ship if the right opportunity arises. Addison Group’s second annual generational workplace survey found that regardless of generation, healthcare benefits was most important benefit (70 percent), followed by a high salary (59 percent). However, Millennials would choose one company over another that paid a higher salary if free meals, beverages and snacks (40 percent) and tuition reimbursement (36 percent) were provided. Millennials also rank a dog-friendly office (14 percent) higher than a napping room, concierge services and a play room with ping pong, billiards and video games. They also value the social aspect of the workplace highly, with nearly twice as many (15 percent) marking work-sponsored happy hours as important compared to Baby Boomers (8 percent).

December 2, 2015

Too much focus on standing in the sit-stand debate say ergonomics experts ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Furniture, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Campaigners have been keen to promote the health benefits of adjustable or sit-stand workstations. However, according to the latest advice from the experts at the Ergonomics Program at Colorado State University’s Office of Risk Management and Insurance, too much focus has been placed on standing more and sitting less, when the mixture of the two postures is most important. Although sitting for too long can have detrimental effects on the body, standing for too long has its own set of detriments such as pooling of blood in the feet, increased back pain, varicose veins and even an increased risk of atherosclerosis (i.e. hardening and narrowing of the arteries). At the recent U.S. National Ergonomics Conference and Exposition, Dr. Joan Vernikos, former director of life sciences at NASA, simply said to stand up often. “Standing up often, at least 30 times a day, is a powerful antidote to sitting,” she said.

December 2, 2015

RICS issues new international property measurement statement ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Property

From 1 January 2016, all property measurements undertaken or commissioned by RICS’ professionals will need to comply with its new Property Measurement Professional Statement, which incorporates the new International Property Measurement Standard (IPMS), that changes the way office buildings are measured worldwide. The IPMS was developed by the independent Standards Setting Committee to address how different measurements create inconsistencies between regions. According to RICS, the change represents a major advance and will be welcomed by investors, occupiers and governments. RICS is making the new Property Measurement Professional Statement (incorporating IPMS) mandatory for all its professionals that undertake or commission property measurements in order to assure clients of surveyors that they will benefit from international best practice as the norm when working with RICS professionals.

December 1, 2015

Regional office market takes off, with Bristol and Manchester in demand ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Property

Demand for prime office space in key regional business hubs is strengthening, driven primarily by the professional services sector, according to a review of market trends in the UK property markets by Cushman & Wakefield. Manchester is the strongest performing regional office market, with several large transactions recently completed, but a number of other cities, such as Bristol, are also in hot demand. The Thames Valley, South East and West Midlands have been the strongest performing regions in 2015, and prime rents in the top office locations have reached new highs, with further growth forecast. While overall take up is being constrained, to a certain extent, by the lack of prime stock new commercial property developments are picking up as a result, but are still some way below what is required to meet demand levels and cities such as Glasgow, Manchester and Birmingham have all seen reductions in availability rates.

November 30, 2015

Six hour working day + WeWork London plans + Megacities & COP21 ⁰

by Sara Bean • Environment, Facilities management, Public Sector, Technology, Workplace design

In this week’s newsletter; Mark Eltringham argues the six hour working day is a deeply conservative idea, dressed up in radical clothing; Matias Rodsevic says it’s important to understand what employee engagement actually means and Darren Bilsborough identifies seven separate layers or “skins” of workplace productivity. As COP21 gets underway, there’s evidence that Megacities are taking the lead in climate action, WeWork unveils its latest plans to dominate London; three new reports reveal technological confusion in the workplace; and a study says the Government’s challenge is how best to match its commitments with its resources. You can also download the new issue of Work&Place and access our first Insight Briefing, produced in partnership with Connection, which looks at agile working in the public sector. Visit our new events page, follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn Group to discuss these and other stories.

November 27, 2015

Built environment crucial to attaining emissions targets say RICS of COP21 ⁰

by Sara Bean • Environment, Facilities management, News, Property

The built environment has a vital role to play in helping governments meet their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions targets says RICS – ahead of the 21st Conference of the Parties or COP21. This begins on Monday, when 196 governments meet in Paris for the climate change summit hosted by the United Nations. Buildings are some of the biggest emitters of CO2 accounting for one-third of global greenhouse gasses. Commercial and residential buildings also account for 40 percent of the world’s energy consumption. RICs is working with members in the land, real estate and construction sectors to find solutions across the property lifecycle to support more sustainable business practices, and will be in Paris to join stakeholders from governments, industry and civil society to support efforts to reach an agreement. The commitments made at the summit could have far-reaching repercussions for the built environment, and the global economy more generally.

November 27, 2015

Over a third of UK workers are miserable at work and most plan to leave ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Workplace

Only 35 percent of UK workers are happy with their job, and over a third (39 percent) admit that they feel miserable at work. In a new survey by Workwear Express of over 1,000 people, just 14 percent said they planned to stay in their current job for the next year. This appears to be reflected in the amount of sickness they take, with 25 percent admitting that they’ve taken sick leave from work due to being so unhappy. Poor management was seen as the biggest contributor to an employee’s low sense of satisfaction at work, as just over 31 percent of those polled agreed that being badly managed was their biggest issue in the workplace. However, having a heavy workload was a close second, with 29 percent of people citing this as the reason for their unhappiness. A third (35 percent) of those polled said that Monday was the most miserable day of the week to work.

November 26, 2015

Megacities are leading the way on climate change, claims action group ⁰

by Sara Bean • Cities, Environment, Facilities management, News

Ahead of COP21 next week, a new report ‘Climate Action in Megacities 3.0’, published by the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40) and research partner Arup states that since COP15 cities have taken the lead in climate action by forging a collaborative pathway to low carbon and climate resilient development. Mayors have scaled-up action- with 51 percent of schemes now delivered city-wide, as opposed to 14 percent in 2011. Since the last major COP in Copenhagen, C40 cities have taken 10,000 climate actions – a doubling of actions in just six years – and have committed to reduce their CO2 emissions by 3 Gt CO2 by 2030, equivalent to the annual carbon output of India. Furthermore, decisions taken by global cities to invest in low carbon development over the next 15 years have the potential to avoid locking in a total of 45 Gt of CO2, or eight times the total current annual emissions of the United States.

November 25, 2015

Northern Powerhouse office market showing strong performance levels ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Property

When the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne announces the Spending Review today, he’s likely to mention the Northern Powerhouse, the programme to rebalance the UK economy by pushing growth in England’s northern cities. His vision of this form of one nation conservatism may have helped to increase occupier and investor confidence across the Northern Powerhouse office markets, as illustrated by the Northern Powerhouse Office Market Report 2015/16, published by Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH). It shows strong performance across the eight key markets so far in 2015 – with combined take-up expected to reach 5.2m sq ft by the end of the year compared with 4.6m sq ft in 2014. Manchester city centre is leading the way and is on track for a record year, with almost 1.4m sq ft of office space expected to be let or sold by the end of 2015 – well above the 10-year annual average of 966,000 sq ft.