April 23, 2013

CIBSE creates diversity panel to reflect varied workforce

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

Efforts to encourage a more inclusive culture within the built environment appear to have moved up a gear. RIBA President Angela Brady has voiced concerns on the “gender inequality that continues to pervade the profession,” and now the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineering (CIBSE) has launched a Diversity Panel. Formed to encourage diversity in all its forms, whether race, gender, age, sexual orientation or disability, it is made up of CIBSE members who are keen to increase the routes to the profession through educational paths and by promoting a diverse workplace. Commented CIBSE: “The employment and retention of a varied workforce is integral to meet the building services engineering skills gap and to therefore improve building performance.” More →

April 23, 2013

Stressed staff contribute average ten hours free labour a week

by Sara Bean • Knowledge, News, Workplace

British employees contribute an extra £142 billion a year to their employers, by working on average, an unpaid ten extra hours per week. According to a study by Travelodge of 2,000 workers across the UK, nearly three quarters (72 per cent) routinely do the extra hours, which translates into an average saving of £6,635 for employers. So great is the trend, that one in ten workers cram a whole extra week of unpaid work on top of their normal working schedule so that they can manage their workload, and a third of Britons now work an additional 16 hours a week for free than they did prior to the start of the recession. More →

April 22, 2013

Global dissatisfaction with work life balance on the rise

by Sara Bean • Knowledge, News, Workplace

More than one in four employees (27 per cent) at organizations that are not perceived to support work-life balance plan to leave their companies within the next two years, according to new research from Hay Group. At the same time, work-life balance concerns across the globe are on the rise, with 39 per cent of employees indicating that they did not have a “good balance” between work and personal life, compared to only 32 per cent who reported the same in 2011. “Organizations across the globe continue to ask their employees to ‘do more with less’, leading to increasing dissatisfaction with work-life balance,” said Mark Royal, senior principal at Hay Group Insight.

April 19, 2013

Flexibility not finance motivates Generation Y workers

by Sara Bean • Knowledge, News, Workplace

Millennial or Generation Y workers are not the bunch of entitled youths we’ve been led to believe. Those born between 1980 and 1995 say they would choose workplace flexibility, work/life balance and the opportunity for overseas assignments over financial rewards. PwC’s NexGen survey reveals that millennials view work as a thing rather than a place that requires a traditional nine to five routine, so are more likely to stay in a job if they feel supported and appreciated, are part of a cohesive team and have greater flexibility over where and how much they work. This contrasts with the non-millennial generation, who place greater importance on pay and development opportunities.

April 19, 2013

Female-friendly employers named as progress of women in boardrooms stalls

by Sara Bean • Comment, Knowledge, News, Workplace

In an interview this week on BBC’s Newsnight, Facebook’s CFO Sheryl Sandberg, revealed how she’d come to notice a growing gender imbalance as she moved up the corporate ladder. As her new book Lean in, points out, 30 years after women became 50 per cent of the college graduates in the United States, men still hold the vast majority of leadership positions. This is just one of many reasons why the publication this week of the Times Top 50 Employers for Women list of the UK organisations that are leading the way in gender equality in the workplace is to be welcomed.

April 19, 2013

High wire act: balancing attitudes and expectations in the workplace

by Simon Heath • Comment, Facilities management, Property, Workplace, Workplace design

This week, with some fanfare and a modest splash on social media, CBRE, the Global real estate services provider launched The Workshop Idea. One of its stated aims is the revitalisation of our high streets and, with the introduction of local venues in a number of differing guises, an increase in the degree of choice and flexibility of places in which to work when not travelling into the office. A whitepaper is due out shortly and we will cover this specific initiative once that has been given the proper consideration and thoughtful analysis it deserves. However, it raises some initial thoughts on expectations, attitudes and behaviours that need to be overcome in the way we view our high streets and places of work and the degree to which those who provide services respond.

April 18, 2013

Commercial construction sector grew in first quarter of 2013

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

There has been a steady growth in the UK commercial construction sector in the first quarter of this year, according to international property recruitment consultancy Judd Farris. The commercial construction sector has experienced steady growth, with a resulting high demand for experienced commercial candidates with knowledge of fit-outs and general build. There is also a strong recent demand for strategic sourcing candidates within Facilities Management. Said Tom Flood, Associate Director, Judd Farris: “As part of continuing cost-saving measures, companies are keen to appoint procurement specialists to effectively manage their strategic sourcing and supplier contracts.” More →

April 18, 2013

Is facilities management evolving into workplace management?

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Technology, Workplace

Not so long ago, there used to be a lot of talk about the overlap between facilities management and professions such as HR and IT, much of it to do with the endless search for the true meaning of the nascent FM profession. Now there is open talk of convergence of these three and other disciplines as we adapt to the changing world of work. The nature and implications of this new order for those professions, and the role of facilities managers in particular, is the subject of a new book called Moving On: Facilities Management to Workplace Management by Graham Jervis.

April 17, 2013

Older workers remain untapped resource for employers

by Sara Bean • Knowledge, Legal news, News, Workplace

Employers who ignore Britain’s growing population of older workers could suffer skills shortages and lose an important competitive edge, warns a new government guide. “Employing older workers”, published by the Department for Work and Pensions, warns that Britain is running out of workers. There are 13.5 million job vacancies which need to be filled over the next ten years, but only seven million young people are projected to leave school and college over that time. Yet despite a predicted surge in numbers of employees over 50, employers remain reluctant to recruit older people.

April 16, 2013

UK employers gain confidence to start recruitment of new staff

by Sara Bean • Knowledge, News, Public Sector, Workplace

UK businesses are slowly gaining confidence in hiring new staff this year and the majority of employers (79 per cent) don’t plan any job losses. This is according to the Barclays Job Creation Survey 2013 which found that while the proportion of larger employers that plan to create jobs this year has fallen to 65 per cent from 72 per cent in 2012, mid-sized businesses hiring intentions are up to 71 per cent from 65 per cent. The majority of those employers who do intend to hire remain cautious however, with 73 per cent planning to have sales growth lead to job creation as opposed to job creation creating sales (2012: 77 per cent).

April 16, 2013

Mobile devices set to outnumber humans as PC sales plummet

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, Technology, Workplace

One of the sure fire ways to judge what is about to happen to the world’s workplaces is to watch what people are doing with their gadgets. So as two surveys are published that show the dramatic decline in the numbers of PCs being sold around the world, a report from Cisco has forecast that by the end of this year, the number of mobile devices in operation globally will exceed the human population for the first time. Of course, that could only be possible if everybody was carrying around a number of mobile gadgets and, sure enough, a related survey from Juniper Networks shows that the average person surveyed now uses five devices at home and at work with at least three connected to the Internet.

April 15, 2013

UK firms want to stay in EU but majority favour employment law changes

by Mark Eltringham • Knowledge, News, Workplace

A new report from the British Chambers of Commerce shows that while the majority of businesses still favour the UK’s ongoing membership of the European Union, the majority would like to see significant changes in certain key legislative areas including employment law, health and safety regulations and regional development. The EU Business Barometer from the BCC gathered responses from around 4,400 firms of all sizes and from a range of sectors and found that over half (54 per cent) wanted changes to employment law, a similar proportion wanted changes to Health and Safety laws (46 per cent) and a third changes to policies related to regional development.