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.

November 24, 2015

WeWork announces latest plans to dominate London’s commercial property scene ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Property, Workplace design

Coworking giant WeWork has announced three new deals as it seeks to become the major player in London’s commercial property market. The firm, founded by Adam Neumann in New York in 2010, has made no secret of its plans for London as we reported earlier this year. The office space provider already has six London locations which it lets out to members (not tenants) who have access to the network of 57 locations in 17 countries on flexible terms via an app. According to a report published this week in Estates Gazette it is now set to add another 1 million sq. ft. to its portfolio in the capital with locations on City Road, Waterhouse Square and Docklands. The plans were announced to coincide with the launch of its largest London centre at Moor Square designed by Oktra. The company has also announced that it intends to launch its WeLive residential property concept in London in the near future following its successful launch in New York.

November 24, 2015

Many staff are planning to bunk off or shop online at work this Black Friday ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Workplace

Whatever you make of Black Friday, and we see it quite clearly as an alien intrusion that taps into the worst instincts of some people, there is no doubt that it has quickly captured the imaginations of pretty large parts of the UK population. Although only on these shores for a couple of years, its influence is such that the media has already begun what promises to be an annual hand-wringing over this coming Friday’s outpouring of consumerism. Meanwhile logistics companies are dusting off their mothballed depots to cope with demand and gum up the roads while retailers continue to ponder whether they want to associate themselves with the whole wretched exercise in the first place. It’s also a growing problem for employers as two new surveys show that a significant number of their employees are planning to spend at least some part of their day shopping online, throwing sickies or taking the day off work.

November 24, 2015

Fast workplace migration to Windows 10 as demand for digital devices soars ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Technology

By 2019, organisations will deliver twice as many applications remotely compared with 2015, according to analysts Gartner which predicts that 50 percent of enterprises will have started Windows 10 deployments by January 2017. Several factors are driving this, specifically awareness of the end of support for Windows 7 in January 2020, strong compatibility with Windows 7 applications and digital devices, and a pent-up demand for tablet and 2-in-1 device rollouts. Gartner also predicts that by 2018, touchscreens will be shipped on one-third of all notebooks. As the incremental price for touch decreases, it will become more normalized as a default feature for notebooks. Pricing is expected to get much more competitive in the second half of 2016 as manufacturing processes continue to improve and Windows 10 migration planning starts to accelerate. In addition, by 2018, 30 percent of enterprises will spend more on display screens than on PCs.

November 23, 2015

Two thirds of managers have little idea what their organisation’s strategy is ⁰

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

While facilities and human resources managers continue to agonise over their lack of strategic influence, a new study from researchers at the London Business School and MIT confirms what cynics may have suspected all along; a significant number of senior managers don’t have any real idea what their organisation’s strategy is in the first place. According to the study of 11,000 senior executives and managers from 400 companies worldwide, only around a third of respondents were able to correctly identify their employer’s main strategic priorities. “We asked people to list their company’s top three to five priorities”, says Rebecca Homkes, a fellow of London Business School, who led the study. “Even with five tries, on average only around 50 per cent could list the same one priority and only a third can list their firm’s top three priorities. For firms to execute a strategy well, that strategy must be clearly communicated and understood throughout the organisation.”

November 23, 2015

RIBA signs UN Compact as part of an increased focus on ethics ⁰

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

RIBA (The Royal Institute of British Architects) has become a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) and has undertaken to support its principles on human rights, labour standards, the environment and corruption. Joining the UNGC is part of the RIBA’s focus on ethics which has recently included co-founding a new coalition to develop a set of globally recognised ethics standards for real estate and related professional organisations. RIBA President Jane Duncan said: “As our profession changes and becomes increasingly international, so must our approach to developing and reinforcing professional ethics. Architecture has a direct impact on societies and economies; it shapes and influences the world we live in. For this reason, we architects have a duty to uphold the highest standards wherever we practice. I am delighted that RIBA has signed the UN Global Compact and undertaken to support and promote its principles.”

November 20, 2015

Two thirds of employers disappointed in performance management process ⁰

by Sara Bean • Knowledge, News, Technology, Workplace

As the economy recovers and the so-called ‘war for talent’ increases, there is a renewed focus on performance management, with 87 percent of companies in the latest research from Towers Watson, saying it is their primary method for aligning individual performance objectives with strategic priorities. However, only a third (36 percent) of companies actually consider their performance management process to be effective, and one in three managers and employees are shown to be dissatisfied with their process. According to the survey, 45 percent say managers don’t see the value in it and 53 percent say managers don’t have the time to do it well. Under 10 percent of companies have scrapped performance management altogether, or plan to do so, and though 30 percent of companies are considering eliminating performance ratings or scores, just 7 percent have already taken the step to do this.

November 19, 2015

Dubai office market shows signs of cooling down over the next year ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Property

The Dubai office market is showing signs of cooling, following a strong growth period, with average rents remaining unchanged during the first three quarters of 2015 across all the city’s major submarkets and free zones. Clutton’s Winter 2015/16 Dubai Commercial Market Outlook report revealed prime, secondary and tertiary office rents stand at AED 250 psf, AED 130 psf and AED 70 psf, respectively. However, micro-markets, which are often as small as specific buildings, buck wider trends, such as Emirates Towers (AED 310 psf) and The Gate District (AED 225 psf). Banks, financial institutions, law firms, construction companies and technology-media-telecoms (TMT) firms are the most active occupiers, with the city’s free zones remaining the primary target. This is because the free zones continue to be dominated by multinational organisations, with take-up activity intrinsically linked to business performance in their home markets.

November 19, 2015

Stalled career progression could prompt rise in employee turnover ⁰

by Sara Bean • News, Workplace

A lack of career opportunities is resulting in more people leaving their job and this increase in employee turnover is costing organisations thousands in lost productivity, finds a CEB survey of more than 12,000 employees worldwide. Traditional, linear career paths where employees climb the corporate ladder one promotion at a time are a thing of the past, but the resulting flat organisational structures mean employees spend more time at each level – roughly three more years than in 2010. This stalled progression has caused 70 percent of employees to be dissatisfied with their opportunities, leading to greater turnover. Rather than encouraging an environment where promotions are the measure of career progression, companies should build growth-based cultures where moves across functions are not only planned but encouraged says CEB. Doing so not only improves engagement but also helps improve the bottom line.

November 18, 2015

Women earn less than men because they make different choices, report confirms ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, News, Workplace

In spite of its own attempts to link it to the gender pay gap a new report, Opportunities and outcomes in education and work: Gender effects, released yesterday by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES), merely confirms that the key factors that determine how much people earn are the jobs they do and the hours they work. The report shows that male workers are paid on average 19 percent more than female workers. However, a report this year from the ONS confirmed that women now earn slightly more than men in like for like jobs up to the age of 35 and the UKCES report shows that it is career and personal choices that explain the gap in incomes across the whole economy. This confirms that the keys to closing the overall pay gap are for women to enter higher paying fields such as STEM and construction as well as employers offering flexible working arrangements and greater support for parents in their careers.

November 18, 2015

One in three high-earning and influential part time workers are men ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Workplace

Three in four workers in Britain do not believe it is possible to have a successful part time career, yet new statistics by flexibility experts Timewise shows that there are now an estimated 680,000 workers who are working formally part time in the higher income bracket (earning a minimum of £40,000 full time equivalent). And of these, 230,000 are men and 450,000 are women. The figures were unveiled as part of the publication of the fourth Power Part Time List – in association with Management Today, which lists the UK’s top 50 men and women who work in senior, business-critical roles, all on less than full time hours. This includes a record number of men – 11 out of 50, including the highest number of male nominees since the list’s launch in 2012; including part-timers from businesses such as – Dixons Carphone plc, leading advertising agency AMV BBDO, famed architecture practice EPR Architects, the Bank of England and EY.

November 17, 2015

Best tall building in the world winner announced at Chicago event ⁰

by Neil Franklin • Architecture, Cities, Environment, News

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) Awards Jury has announced that Bosco Verticale, Milan, is the overall “2015 Best Tall Building Worldwide” at the 14th Annual CTBUH International Best Tall Building Awards Symposium, Ceremony & Dinner, held last week at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. In July, the CTBUH Awards Jury named a winner from each of the four competing regions in the world: Americas, Asia & Australasia, Europe, and Middle East & Africa. The Regional Winners were One World Trade Center, New York City, United States; CapitaGreen, Singapore; Bosco Verticale, Milan, Italy; Burj Mohammed Bin Rashid Tower, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Although the overall winner was primarily a residential tower, offices were well represented in the regional winners thanks to the inclusion of One World Trade Center and Capita Green.