November 9, 2015

Last chance to book next week’s Worktech London at a discounted rate ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Events, Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Technology, Workplace design

In just over a week’s time, Worktech, the international conference series on the future of work, workplace and technology will return to Level 39 – Europe’s largest technology accelerator space. The event will bring together over 350 of the biggest and brightest names to debate, discuss and divulge the latest thinking on the future of work. Companies booked to attend include ANZ, AON, Allen & Overy, Arup, Barclays, Cabinet Office, Catlin, Central Working, Cisco, Deloitte, Deutsche Bank, Diageo, Discovery, Ebay, EE, Ernst & Young, GlaxoSmithKline, Goldman Sachs, IKEA, ITV, International Group for Environment and Development, Kings College London, Lenovo, McKinsey, Microsoft, National Grid, Royal Bank of Scotland, Schroders, Sonos, UBS, Vasakronan and Vodafone. Worktech15 takes place on 17th and 18th November and Insight readers can enjoy discounted tickets.

November 6, 2015

Shortage of German office space as demand in Europe reaches record high ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Property

The demand for office space in Europe grew over the third quarter of 2015 with total take up of over 3 million sq metres, on a par with the previous third quarter peak seen in 2007, according to new figures from property consultancy JLL. Take-up over the third quarter of 2015 is the highest on record – up 29 percent year-on-year and full year volumes are forecast to reach 11.5 million square metres, an increase of 8 percent on 2014. Across the continent, demand for office space is being driven by multiple markets recovering, albeit at varying speeds. Germany demonstrated some of the strongest results in Europe. Four of the five largest markets improved on Q3 2014 and Berlin, Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich reported a combined take-up of 775,000 sq m, as the strong employment market in Germany pushes up demand for office space even further.

November 5, 2015

Data transforms the roles of offices and the people who manage them

by Philip Ross • Comment, Facilities management, Technology, Workplace

The modern workplace creates the physical,technological and cultural point of intersection between a number of abstract or movable facets of the business, including people, technology, culture and creativity. That has always been true to a large extent but with the growing complexity of exactly how, when and where we work, this role of the office as the epicentre of it all has been thrown into sharp relief. With that has come a greater understanding of the intersections that exist between disciplines such as IT, FM and HR. In some areas, the roles already appear indistinguishable and I believe this will only become more apparent. The main driver of that growing convergence of roles will be the availability of data to make informed decisions about interrelated aspects of organisational culture, work practices, office design and management and the development and motivation of individuals.

November 5, 2015

Design for performance study looks to improve energy performance ⁰

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

Developers, owners and occupiers of buildings might expect that compliance with regulations will produce a building that is energy efficient in operation and well on its way towards the 2020 nearly-zero energy target mandated by a European Directive. In practice, the actual performance of most buildings falls well short of the design intent – the so-called performance gap. In Australia, this chronic problem has been eliminated for new office building projects in which clients and their teams sign up to – and then follow – a “Commitment Agreement” protocol to design, construct and manage their buildings to achieve agreed levels of actual in-use performance. Now with the backing of the Better Buildings Partnership, a four month study to develop a prototype UK scheme which embraces Australia’s ‘design for performance’ approach has been launched by a team led by Verco and including BSRIA, Arup and UBT.

November 3, 2015

Less than one year’s supply of office space now available in Central London ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Property

Office occupiers are being forced to search further afield from traditional London commercial property centres as the vacancy rate of office space in Central London falls to a 15 year low. According to research from BNP Paribas Real Estate, at just 4.68 percent of total stock, the level of supply during the third quarter of the year was just 10.29m sq ft; equivalent to less than one years’ supply at current levels. Take-up to the end of September reached 10.78m sq ft, 18 percent above the long term trend, whilst the investment volume of £11.91bn is 28 percent ahead of the average. The West End’s office market was boosted by several large transactions involving Media Tech firms and take-up in Q3 2015 reached 1m sq ft, making the third quarter the busiest so far in 2015. The City is still attracting media tech companies, but there’s been a resurgence in traditional City occupiers from the professional sector.

October 29, 2015

Facilities management must become more strategic or risk becoming irrelevant ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, News, Technology, Workplace design

A new report claims that there are persistent and well-founded perceptions at boardroom level that facilities management is a support function with little or no strategic relevance and that this poses a serious risk to the discipline. While this may raise few eyebrows amongst those who have been aware of the problem for many years, what is startling is that the report comes from the International Facilities Management Association. The report, Redefining the Executive View of Facility Management, authored by Richard Kadzis, highlights the long reported mismatch between this perception and that of facilities managers themselves who believe they represent an industry that continues to adapt to a changing world and add value to the organisation. Conversely, senior executives see FMs as ‘glorified custodians’ whose performance should be measured in terms of the money they save the organisation.

October 28, 2015

What Shakespeare’s Henry V can teach us about flexible working

by Julia Johnston • Comment, Facilities management, Flexible working

Why are so many of us preoccupied with the status that having an office brings? They say it’s lonely at the top. Well, that loneliness often starts with the social exclusion of being in an office. Why would you not want to be in with the in-crowd, to be with your own team of people and the go-getters who are making a difference to your organisation? Why not be where the action is at the working coalface of your organisation? Stuck in your office, you can feel like a kid in the corner of the playground, wondering what the others are whispering about. Some of us want an office because we believe it shows our peers that we have made it; that we have reached the upper echelons of our corporate management structure and become an acknowledged achiever. We want an office so that we can preen to others, but that doesn’t automatically make for better managers, leaders or companies.

October 27, 2015

Study links green building design to higher cognitive performance ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Environment, Facilities management, News, Workplace design

People who work in well-ventilated offices with below-average levels of indoor pollutants and carbon dioxide have significantly higher cognitive functioning scores in crucial areas such as responding to a crisis or developing strategy than those who work in offices with typical levels. That is the headline finding of a new study from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Center for Health and the Global Environment, SUNY Upstate Medical University, and Syracuse University published this week in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.The researchers looked at people’s experiences in “green” vs. “non-green” buildings in a double-blind study. The findings suggest that the indoor environments in which many people work daily could be adversely affecting cognitive function-and that, conversely, improved air quality could greatly increase the cognitive function performance of workers.

October 27, 2015

OECD report urges firms to use Big Data analytics for growth and wellbeing ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, News, Technology, Wellbeing, Workplace

A new OECD report claims that organisations could be doing far more to use the data they and their employees generate to deliver a wide range of social, economic, commercial and personal benefits. In Data-driven innovation for growth and wellbeing, it suggests that governments do more to encourage investment in Big Data and promote data sharing. The report urges countries to act to train more data scientists, reduce barriers to cross-border data flows and encourage investment in business processes to incorporate data analytics. It also claims that few companies outside the ICT sector are changing internal procedures to take advantage of data. This is particularly the case for small and medium-sized companies who face barriers to the adoption of data-related technologies such as The Cloud, partly because they have difficulty implementing organisational change due to limited resources.

October 27, 2015

Seven ways your choice of new office may boost business performance ⁰

by Darren Bilsborough • Comment, Facilities management, Property

There are generally four main reasons why a business considers changing to new office space: your business is growing and your existing office can’t be expanded to accommodate that growth; your need for office space is reducing due to a change in business circumstances; your office lease is nearing expiration: you are prepared to explore whether a change in office could improve your current business performance. It is the last of these four reasons that sits at the heart of this article, but that does not detract from the validity of the other motivations for investigating options for new office space. Changing office space requirements and/or the fact your lease is expiring do not preclude searching for new ways to improve business performance. In fact, they provide a compelling excuse to explore alternatives and often organisations choose to move for a number of good reasons.

October 26, 2015

An updated green building standard designed to meet wider business objectives ⁰

by Sue Gregson • Comment, Facilities management, Legal news, Property

The publication in September 2015 of the revised ISO 14001 Global Environmental Management Standard has been heralded as a move that will “shift business focus on the environment from compliance with regulations and direct operations, to placing the environment at the heart of thinking and strategy.” This will assist businesses around the world to respond to increasing global sustainability challenges and ensure long-term business success. Currently there are over 300,000 organisations worldwide that are certified to the ISO 14001 Standard, first published in 1996. According to the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment, (IEMA) ISO 14001 is the second most used standard companies employ to manage their performance globally, with 171 countries now represented. Its popularity as a management tool has been linked to both improved financial and environmental performance.

October 25, 2015

Vacant property management survey seeks FMs main concerns ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Property

When squatting in a residential building became a criminal offence three years ago an Orbis survey revealed that a third of property managers predicted a rise in squatters targeting commercial properties as a result. Orbis has now launched a new vacant property management survey for 2015 with the BIFM to obtain views from property and facilities managers about the empty buildings in their portfolio. It seeks to understand what facilities managers’ main concerns are when it comes to empty buildings, their understanding of the legal and insurance requirements around empty properties and how they currently manage them. The survey also considers urban exploring, the exploration of man-made structures, to determine whether this is a growing trend and a threat. Guy Other, chief executive officer of Orbis said: “With this new survey we will better determine the extent of the problem in 2015, and the extent of any new threats.” Click here to take part