April 5, 2018

A vision of how the facilities management profession can embrace the modern workplace

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, News

Following its March announcement of a proposed name change to reflect a greater focus on workplace issues, the British Institute of Facilities Management has published a new report to explore the relationship between FM and a nascent workplace discipline. According to the authors, the purpose of the report is to ‘highlight the opportunities and challenges that workplace presents for FM by exploring the relationship between FM and workplace – and considering how this relationship could change in the future’. While the report acknowledges that facilities managers have always addressed workplace issues as a core element of their role, recent developments in the way people work and the way firms think about their workspace have led to a new emphasis on workplace as a discipline coupled with a sense that its core principles are subject to a number of misunderstandings.

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April 4, 2018

Government announces details of new real estate agency

by Mark Eltringham • News, Property, Public Sector

The UK government has announced the creation of the Government Property Agency (GPA) which will aim to ‘improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Government Estate and generate benefits of between £1.4 billion and £2.4 billion over the next ten years’. GPA’s initial portfolio of 80 properties will grow to over 1,000 as it takes on increasing responsibility for managing the general purpose central government real estate portfolio. This is intended to manage the government’s property portfolio strategically in order to realise the benefits that departments cannot achieve on their own. The GPA will partner with government departments to find innovative property solutions, and provide expertise to enable them to deliver wider business change more efficiently. More broadly, the GPA will also be an enabler for the delivery of Civil Service transformation, regional growth and the government’s vision to strengthen the Union.

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April 3, 2018

Nearly half of large organisations will adopt artificial intelligence in the workplace by 2019

by Mark Eltringham • AI, News, Technology

Chatbots and voice assistants powered by artificial intelligence are starting to gain traction in the workplace of large organisations, according to a report from tech firm Spiceworks. The report, based on a survey of 500 IT professionals in organisations across North America and Europe, found that within the next 12 months, 40 percent of large businesses – those with more than 500 employees – expect to implement one or more intelligent assistants or AI chatbots on company-owned devices, compared to 25 percent of mid-size companies and 27 percent of small businesses. The findings indicate that although adoption is on the rise, some organisations are holding back due to a lack of use cases in the workplace and privacy concerns.

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April 2, 2018

Combination of factors means UK faces severe workforce crisis by 2025

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

New projections published in Mercer’s Workforce Monitor predict that a perfect storm of falling net migration driven by Brexit and an ageing population, will lead to a severe shortage in the UK labour market. If these challenges are not met with immediate action by UK employers, they will face significant costs trying to attract workers with the leadership and skills they need to execute their business strategies. Mercer anticipates the UK workforce will increase by just 820,000, or 2.4 percent, by 2025, a significant reduction in recent trends that have seen 9 percent workforce growth in the 10 years to 2015. For the first time in half a century, the overall population will be increasing at a faster rate than the workforce, creating long term structural challenges for the economy.

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March 30, 2018

UK remains a world leader in technological innovation

by Mark Eltringham • News, Technology

A new report from KPMG suggests that the UK is the third most dynamic global centre of innovation, disruption and technological development behind the US and China. KPMG’s 2018 Global Technology Innovation Report surveyed almost 800 global business executives to reveal the world’s top technology innovation hubs. Of those surveyed, 19 per cent named the UK as the third most promising market for tech breakthroughs behind China at 26 per cent and the US at 39 per cent.

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March 30, 2018

Agile working driving structural change in New Zealand commercial property

by Mark Eltringham • Coworking, Flexible working, News, Property

Technological developments and agile working methodologies are driving significant, structural changes in the requirements for commercial property in New Zealand, according to new research from CBRE. One of these structural shifts is the rise in agile working, which has profound implications for the way office space is used. Unassigned seating is just one aspect of a truly agile business. Activity based working, third party space, coworking and flexibility around the way office space is used and leased are other real estate parts of a wider transformation into an agile organisation.

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March 30, 2018

CIPD to co-chair Government’s flexible working task force

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Workplace

The CIPD has been invited to co-chair the UK Government’s new Flexible Working Task Force. The task force has been established by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy to promote wider understanding and implementation of inclusive flexible work and working practices, bringing together policy-makers, employer groups, Unions and employee representative groups, research groups and professional bodies. (more…)

March 30, 2018

Employers should not write off older female workers quite so readily

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

An ageing population and changes to the default state pension age mean employers need to better prepare for the needs of older women in the workplace, according to a study by Anglia Ruskin University published by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). With more and more women aged between 50 and 65 now employed, the research reviewed published literature to look into the experience of those workers and how their needs might change in the future.

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March 29, 2018

With a year to go, occupiers are less concerned than they were about the impact of Brexit

by Mark Eltringham • News, Property

Occupiers are less concerned about Brexit than they were a year ago, according to a new CBRE research survey of over 100 major occupiers across Europe, most of whom have pan-European or global operations. By late 2017, the proportion of European occupiers worried about Brexit having a ‘very significant’ impact on their operations in the UK had dropped from 15 percent to 6 percent compared with a year earlier. The proportion of occupiers worried about Brexit having a ‘significant’ effect has also fallen, from 38 percent to 33 percent, meaning that the number of occupiers worried about negative impacts from Brexit has fallen in total from 53 percent to 39 percent. A year to the day on which Britain aims to exit from the EU, global real estate advisor CBRE has published an updated guide unpicking some of the key real estate impacts of Brexit.

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March 29, 2018

UK Government shrinks size of its estate for eighth consecutive year

by Mark Eltringham • News, Property

The size of the UK government’s estate fell for the eight consecutive year in 2017, according to the annual State of the Estate report. The Cabinet Office’s report found that the government reduced its land holdings by more than 1m sq ft over the period 2016-2017, netting the government £620m in capital receipts and slashing running costs, which the Government claims is a direct consequence of its use of mobile technology and workplace design. The report outlines the property disposals in 2016/2017, which included the sale of its stake in the King’s Cross Central development and the 70-acre Sunningdale Park estate. The aim of the divestment programme is to generate £5bn in receipts and sell enough land for 160,000 homes by 2020. In the first two years of the Asset Efficiency programme, £1.66bn has now been raised in capital receipts from disposals, according to the report.

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March 29, 2018

HMRC signs for Manchester HQ as part of nationwide programme of lettings

by Mark Eltringham • News, Property, Public Sector

HMRC has completed a 25 year letting of 157,153 sq ft at the English Cities Fund’s New Bailey development in Greater Manchester. HMRC will take over the whole of the seven storey 3 New Bailey development with staff moving in from 2022. The move is part of a nationwide programme of lettings in major cities to deliver HMRC services at local level, overseen by the Government Property Unit. There have already been announcement of new HMRC hubs in Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds and Birmingham. The New Bailey move will form the initial phase of the HMRC Manchester Regional Centre. Additional capacity for around 2,500 staff working in the city will be retained at Trinity Bridge House as a transitional site until 2027/8, when the second phase of the regional centre is expected to open. (more…)

March 29, 2018

Stress and mental health growing priority at board level but bosses struggle to support staff

by Sara Bean • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Two new reports published today reflect increasing concerns about stress and mental ill health at work and a lack of understanding by many organisations in how to combat the problem. A new study by Bupa claims that mental health is now a priority at board level for almost two-thirds (65 percent) of businesses, rising to 72 percent among large corporates, while mental health is now a bigger issue than physical illness among employees for nearly a third (29 percent) of businesses. Yet while an overwhelming majority (96 percent) of businesses want to help support their people, many (57 percent) do not know how to best support employees with these challenges. Two in five (39 percent) admit that awareness and understanding of mental health issues is still low across their organisation. These findings are echoed in a report carried out by Perkbox that claims work is by far the most common cause of stress (59 percent). Yet almost one in two (45 percent) of British businesses do not offer anything to help alleviate this, despite the fact that 1 in 4 (25 percent) struggle to be as productive at work when stressed.