July 21, 2016

Offices not yet smart enough to support new ways of working ⁰

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

Employees believe their workplace is not making best use of latest technology, but expect this to improve as remote work begins to provide both quality of life and productivity benefits. In the latest Future Workforce Survey conducted by Dell and Intel, nearly half of global employees believe their current workplace is not smart enough, while 42 percent of millennial employees say they are willing to quit their job if technologies are not up to their standard. The research suggest that the addition of collaborative tools and innovations such as internet of things (IoT) and Virtual Reality (VR) will soon become vital to the workplace. According to the poll of nearly 4,000 full-time employees in ten countries, over half (57 percent) believe they will be working in a smart office within the next five years, while 51 percent believe that better technologies will make face-to-face meetings redundant within the next five years.

July 20, 2016

New device has potential to store huge amounts of data at atomic level ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • News, Products, Technology

Over the past few years, there has been talk that we are approaching the end of the era of Moore’s Law. The law originated when the technologist Gordon Moore, who later founded Intel, wrote an essay in which he claimed that the process of miniaturisation would mean that computer chips would double in power every two years and they would eventually become so small they could be embedded in a wide number of objects including something he called a ‘personal portable communications’ device. Over the last half century, the eponymous law has held up pretty well and it has been the driving force of the world’s economy over that time. A 2013 McKinsey article argued that around 40 percent of the global productivity growth over the previous two decades could be attributed to the exponential increase in computer power described by Moore. So there was inevitably a great deal of interest in what would happen when further miniaturisation became impossible.

July 19, 2016

SMEs must offer flexible work or face recruitment and retention challenge ⁰

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

SMEs that neglect to offer flexible work options may find their employees decide to switch to somewhere that does, according to a survey from Regus. Over 3,000 professionals across a variety of sectors were quizzed on the importance of flexibility in their working life. SME respondents left very little doubt about the value of a flexible approach, with 92 percent of workers in SMEs saying that, faced with a choice of two similar jobs, they would choose the one that offered flexible work. A third of respondents (33 percent) also stated that they would have stayed longer in their previous jobs if flexibility had been offered. According to Richard Morris, UK CEO, Regus, SMEs should think long and hard about the type of roles that they are offering to today’s professionals. He argues that the days of the fixed hours, fixed location job are becoming as outdated as the office fax machine. Flexibility is no longer seen as a perk, it is now a key differentiator for talented individuals.

July 19, 2016

UK should avoid severe recession and property crash after Brexit vote ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Knowledge, News, Property

UK growth had already eased from around 3 percent in 2014 to around 2 percent before the EU referendum due primarily to slower global growth, but the Brexit vote to leave the EU is likely to lead to a significant further slowdown. UK GDP growth is forecast to decelerate to around 1.6 percent in 2016 and 0.6 percent in 2017 according to PwC’s main scenario in its latest UK Economic Outlook report. Quarter-on-quarter GDP growth could fall to close to zero in late 2016 and early 2017 in this main scenario, but is then projected to recover gradually later in 2017 as the immediate post-referendum shock starts to fade. The UK would avoid recession in this scenario, although the report notes that uncertainties around this view are significant, with alternative scenarios showing GDP growth in 2017 of anywhere between +1.5 percent and -1 percent. But even this latter relatively pessimistic scenario would not be a severe recession of the kind seen in the early 1980s or in 2008-9.

July 19, 2016

Millennials will stay engaged in the workplace if they feel they are valued ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Workplace

The “ability to make an impact on the business” matters notably more to millennial employees than their salary and other benefits. According to a new survey from recruitment firm Korn Ferry, income comes in last on their list. The Second Annual Korn Ferry Futurestep Millennial Survey highlights the younger generation’s workplace preferences, including a need for feedback and a willingness to work long hours. In the survey, which asks what will make a millennial choose one job over another, 38 percent said “visibility and buy-in to the mission and vision of the organisation.” The survey also found that consistent feedback is key to managing millennials, with three quarters of respondents saying this generation needs more feedback than other generations. However, only 13 percent of respondents said they offered more feedback sessions to this group, and less than half offered mentorship opportunities.

July 18, 2016

Opportunities and challenges crystallise for smart cities and buildings ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Case studies, Cities, Facilities management, News, Workplace design

Global law firm Osborne Clarke has released its fourth research report on smart cities and the future of the built environment. The new edition addresses a number of key issues related to the built environment and poses what it suggests are the two key questions: How can the built environment become smarter? And what are the challenges and obstacles that might prevent this from happening? The report looks at case studies cross Europe and interviews experts in an attempt to discover how smart built environments ‘leverage data, new technology and innovative and collaborative thinking to deliver services that benefit citizens’. The report concludes that a fundamental shift in thinking is already well underway but it is patchy and still faces a large number of major obstacles, not least a silo mentality in decision making which restricts the ability of organisations to innovate and achieve results across a broad base of objectives.

July 18, 2016

The ethics of everyday working life come under the spotlight ⁰

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

The ethics of everyday working life are the subject of two new surveys. A study from job site CV-Library, claims that over half of UK workers believe their workplaces have become ‘more strict’ in recent years over issues such as health and safety and personal behaviour, attitudes and appearance. There are some exception to this, according to the survey, as employers become more tolerant of behaviour such as the wearing of tattoos, relaxed dress codes and making personal calls. The second survey from online expenses management provider webexpenses claims that, contrary to popular belief, people working in sales and marketing are the least likely to lie at work while the most dishonest professions are human resources and IT. Four out of five people working in either HR or IT admit they have committed at least one deceitful deed at work, against while only 60 percent of those working in sales, media and marketing jobs admit to fibbing (unless they’re lying about that, obviously).

July 15, 2016

ICE makes the case for infrastructure ahead of Brexit negotiations ⁰

by Neil Franklin • Cities, News, Property, Public Sector

In a new report Brexit – The Case for Infrastructure, the Institution of Civil Engineers has set out the business case for the valuable contribution which infrastructure makes to the economy and argues that the UK should not lose sight of this as it begins negotiations for Brexit as it leaves the European Union. The report claims that high quality, high performing infrastructure is vital for economic growth and improved quality of life. It points to transport, communications, energy and housing as being central to spreading opportunity across the whole country. It also makes the case that infrastructure acts as a catalyst for social and economic inclusion, encouraging greater participation in society from people of all walks of life. In particular, during uncertain or volatile economic times, continued investment in UK infrastructure can help provide economic stability, facilitate inward investment and drive economic growth.

July 15, 2016

Substantial growth in 21st Century self employment in the UK ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News

The 21st Century has seen an explosion of self employment in the UK, and most people who have become self employed have done so for positive reasons, claims a new report from the UK Government’s Office for National Statistics. According to the Trends in Self Employment Report, there are now more than 4.7 million people classified as self employed, around 15 percent of the workforce. There has been a marked upturn since the 2008 recession, an increase of 730,000 over that period. The trend to self employment has been evident since the turn of the Millennium when around 3.2 million people were classified as self employed. Between 2001 and 2015, part time self employment grew by 88 percent, compared to 25 percent for full time work, partly because of the growing number of workers choosing part time self employment before retirement. The report describes the changes as structural, which suggests that the growth will continue.

July 14, 2016

Google and LinkedIn reach agreement on enormous office swap ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • News, Property, Technology, Workplace design

In March, we reported on the stumbling blocks faced by Google in its plans to create a vast new home for itself in Silicon Valley, not least resistance from local authorities in California and the problems associated with neighbouring land owned by LinkedIn. Now, according to a report in the Silicon Valley Business Journal, it appears the noisy neighbours have come to a deal to swap large chunks of real estate. According to the report, Google will acquire all of LinkedIn’s existing land in the Mountain View area, which consists of LinkedIn’s existing 370,000-square-feet headquarters and eight acres of land LinkedIn had set aside for turning into new office space. LinkedIn will now relocate its headquarters to four office buildings in the area currently owned by Google to create a new 750,000 sq. ft. portfolio. The deal represents a win-win for both parties with LinkedIn doubling its existing space without the costly need to build new offices, while Google finally gets the chance to realise its dream of building the quirky campus designed by Heatherwick Studio and Bjarke Ingels.

July 12, 2016

Major European telecoms firms to drive roll out of 5G across continent ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Cities, Legal news, News, Technology

A coalition of twenty major European telecommunications firms has come together to drive the rapid creation of a continent wide 5G network and warn national Governments and the EU of the dangers of over-regulation. The seven page document entitled the 5G Manifesto for timely deployment of 5G in Europe, is backed by firms such as Vodafone, Telenor, Orange, Nokia, BT, Ericsson, Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom, and Hutchison. Its core aim is to showcase the technology on a large scale by 2018 and launch a commercial network capability in at least one city in every EU nation by 2020. The document outlines the features and benefits of the technology but also sets out the potential risks posed by over-regulation, including the possible threat to net neutrality, the principle that Internet service providers should enable access to all content and applications regardless of the source, and without favouring or blocking particular products or websites

July 12, 2016

Skyscrapers in London will be hardest hit by new business rates ⁰

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

As we reported yesterday there are plans afoot to surround the ‘Walkie Talkie’ winner of last year’s Carbuncle Cup with other tall building. However for organisations interested in occupying a London skyscraper it’s worth noting that according to Colliers, businesses in London’s twenty tallest skyscrapers can expect to pay an extra £50 million under forthcoming major changes to business rates. In a data analysis published recently, Colliers has assessed the likely effects of forthcoming business rates changes – floor-by-floor – on the occupiers of London’s twenty tallest buildings. Overall, firms will need to cough up an extra £50m as business rates bills go from £194m to £243m over the next three years. And the infamous ‘Walkie Talkie’ at 20 Fenchurch Street, and now fully occupied – will see the largest increase with office occupiers and luxury rooftop restaurants faced with a business rates bill of over £19m by 2019, an increase of £5.1m compared with current levels.