November 3, 2014

Scalpel achieves excellent rating under new BREEAM environmental standard

by Mark Eltringham • Environment, News, Property

The first building to achieve an excellent rating under the new BREEAM UK New Construction 2014 standard is Kohn Kohn Pedersen Fox’s design of the Scalpel tower in the City of London. The £500 million building at 52 Lime Street is a 190m tall 35-floor office tower which is set to open in 2017. The new building was granted planning consent in early 2013 and will offer around 500,000 sq. ft. of commercial space in the City. Andrew Reynolds, managing director of developers WRBC Development, said he was “delighted” the scheme had received such a high rating under the new BREEAM environmental standard. Our team is determined to deliver a high performance building that is not only architecturally superb but creates a pleasant and productive environment for those who will be working there.” Gavin Dunn, director of BREEAM, said: “this achievement demonstrates a genuine commitment by the project team to deliver a high-quality development that will benefit the building owners and occupiers into the future.”

November 3, 2014

BIM adoption set to soar in UK and US over next two years, claims report

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

Building owners are embracing building information modelling (BIM) as a powerful technology benefitting the design process, managing project schedules, controlling costs and minimizing project errors, according to the recent McGraw-Hill Construction SmartMarket Report “The Business Value of BIM for Owners”. The latest report focuses on the business value of BIM from the perspective of building owners in the United States and United Kingdom for whom the technology has been deployed. Initially adopted as a design tool and later evolving into an important tool for contractors, its adoption among building owners is expanding, the report claims, and that building owners are becoming more directly involved as “their power is even greater to align BIM use with their specific goals, engage more effectively with all stakeholders and extend the value of BIM beyond construction into facility management.” The study claims that 40 percent of US owners and 38 percent of UK owners expect that more than 75 percent of their projects will involve the technology in just two years.

October 31, 2014

UK Government announces new research programme into workplace wellbeing

by Mark Eltringham • News, Public Sector, Workplace, Workplace design

The UK Government’s interest in what makes us happy continues unabated with the news that it has officially launched its new What Works Centre for Wellbeing. The centre will commission researchers to study ‘the impact that different interventions and services have on wellbeing’. It will focus initially on work and learning, communities, cultural and sporting activities. It claims that the results of the research will help the government, councils, health and wellbeing boards, charities and businesses make decisions on what ‘really matters for the wellbeing of people, communities and the nation as a whole’. The centre is the latest addition to the What Works Network, which was launched by the government last year to improve public services through evidence-based policy. It builds on the work of the Office for National Statistics which has been tasked with measuring national wellbeing, and of the Commission on Wellbeing and Policy.

October 30, 2014

Report claims business ethics are linked to performance

by Mark Eltringham • News, Workplace

Companies with well defined and consistent ethical policies are both more stable and more commercially successful, according to a new report published this week by the Chartered Management Institute. Based on a self-reporting survey of 2,500 CMI members the study found that over a third (37 percent) of managers in growing companies rate their own ethics as high, compared to just 19 percent in businesses that are contracting, which suggests a correlation if not causation. Just under a third (29 percent) of managers rate their organisation’s ethical standards as mediocre or poor. Senior managers also appear to have a more positive idea of their own organisation’s ethical standards than those in more junior and front line roles. Nearly half (48 percent) of senior managers believe their organisation has excellent ethical behaviour, compared to just a fifth (22 percent) of junior managers.

October 30, 2014

Employee engagement and satisfaction levels increase, despite career concerns

by Sara Bean • Knowledge, News, Workplace

Levels of job satisfaction and employee engagement are on the up, despite the fact that more than a quarter (28%) of employees report being either dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the level of career training and development offered by their current employer. The latest CIPD/Halogen Employee Outlook survey found that one in three employees (33%) felt their career progression to date has failed to meet their expectations, however, levels of job satisfaction have increased over the last 12 months, rising by four percentage points to +44. The survey suggests that although employees might be satisfied in their current job role, there is a clear link between satisfaction with the level of career training and development and job-seeking intentions. Only 12 per cent of those satisfied with the level of career training and development are looking for a new job with another organisation, compared to almost a quarter (23%) of employees overall. The proportion of engaged employees has also grown to reach 38 per cent from 35 per cent in spring 2014, now matching the levels of engagement a year ago. More →

October 29, 2014

Prejudice against those with mental ill health still prevails in the workplace

by Sara Bean • News, Workplace

The overwhelming majority (94%) of business leaders admit there is a prejudice in their organisation towards people with mental health issues, and despite claims by 88 per cent of employers that they are trying to encourage an open culture of discussion around mental health – as many as seven in ten (70%) employees don’t feel they can speak candidly about such issues or concerns. These are the results of a new study, Breaking the Silence, from Bupa, which identifies a disconnect between what leaders think they are doing to support good mental health, and what employees say they are actually experiencing. While three quarters (76%) of business leaders know that creating a mentally healthy workforce makes good business sense, leaders are not as understanding as they believe. Employers admit to labelling employees with mental health conditions unpredictable (27%), erratic (22%) and weak (22%). Meanwhile, almost half (47%) report treading on eggshells around employees who have experienced a mental health condition and one in five leaders (22%) avoid talking to them altogether. More →

October 28, 2014

Four-building Hammersmith office development acquired by AXA

by Sara Bean • Company news, News, Property

A 193,000 sq ft (17,930 sqm) office property based in Hammersmith West London has been acquired by AXA Real Estate. 77 Fulham Palace Road comprises four buildings: Hamlet, Horatio, Ophelia and Elsinore and is currently let to 19 tenants. It has a wide range of floor sizes across the four buildings and unusually for Central London has 221 parking spaces. Given a current lack in supply of Grade A office space in West London, AXA has indicated that it will increase the current floor space at the property by 18,900 sq ft (1,755 sqm), and transform it into Grade A office space. This expansion would be undertaken alongside a planned refurbishment of some of the buildings, to enhance their overall functionality and design, adding to the current facilities on offer. Huw Stephens, Head of UK Transactions at AXA said: “At 77 Fulham Palace Road we have identified an opportunity, through a number of asset management initiatives, to add value to a core, well located asset in London. By utilising the expertise of our local asset management teams, we will be able to improve the tenant mix, whilst delivering investment performance to our clients.”

October 28, 2014

Great Place to Work Institute reveals world’s best multinational workplaces

by Mark Eltringham • News, Workplace

Google Offices in Amsterdam

The Great Place to Work Institute has released its latest list of the 25 multinational companies that it believes are “leading the way into a more hopeful economic age”. The full list is available on the organisation’s convoluted and impenetrable website and as part of a new report, The Dawn of the Great Workplace Era, which describes a world in which “all people can expect to work for an organization where they trust their leaders, enjoy their colleagues and take pride in what they do”. This year’s list of firms has been chosen from 6,200 companies worldwide based on employee surveys and an assessment of each company’s policies. The Top Five for 2014 – Google, SAS Institute, NetApp, W L Gore and Associates and Belcorp – have been ranked as the top multinational workplaces, “for demonstrating rising levels of trust, camaraderie and pride.” These are the companies that “are taking steps to ensure that promotions go to those who best deserve them, to increase transparency, and to encourage employees to balance work and life,” according to China Gorman, CEO of Great Place to Work.

October 27, 2014

EU’s targeted 2030 greenhouse gas cuts receive lukewarm welcome from industry

by Mark Eltringham • Environment, News

The states of the European Union (EU) have reached an agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030, compared with 1990 levels. The EU says it aims to meet the new target in the most cost-effective ways possible. The EU has also set itself the target of generating 27 percent of energy from renewable sources over the same period. The new target is set to remain independent of any more ambitious cuts set by individual member states suggesting that the EU sees the new targets as being a minimum ambition. The new targets will also take account of the EU’s internal energy markets and the degree of integration of members states. The EU, in its announcement, claims that the market for renewable energy is dependent on a well integrated internal energy market, co-ordinated at regional level. The new announcement has been broadly welcomed by industry sources albeit with some significant caveats.

October 27, 2014

Majority of UK SMEs believe technology can help rebalance the economy

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Technology

The UK’s small and medium sized businesses believe that the regional divide in the economy can be bridged to a large extent by technology, according to a new report from Brother UK. According to the report, Regional Attitudes to Growth and Competitiveness, carried out in conjunction with Cardiff University and based on a survey of 600 SMEs around the country, over half (57 percent) believe technology was the key driver of their region’s competitiveness and only one in ten say the competitiveness of their region has declined since the start of the recession. Over two thirds (71 percent) believe technology can improve regional competitiveness and slightly more (73 percent) believe it’s possible to service customers and clients across multiple regions efficiently from their current location. The survey also claims that because each company spends an average of 244 working days a year on business travel and the UK has the second highest annual business travel spend of any Western European nation, despite its comparatively small size, many firms are turning to technology to enhance their competitiveness.

October 27, 2014

Over 50s have highest rate of long term unemployment

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Workplace

More than a million people over 50 have been pushed out of the workplace a new report from The Prince’s Initiative for Mature Enterprise (PRIME) has revealed. Up to 1.5 million people aged 50-69 “involuntarily” left employment over the last eight years due to a combination of redundancy, ill health or “forced” early retirement. Of these, 1.1 million people would be willing to work. Yet if the employment rate of this 50–64 age group matched that of the 35–49 age group, it would boost UK GDP by £88 billion (5.6%). The report: ‘The missing million: illuminating the employment challenges of the over 50s’ was produced by PRIME, now part of Business in the Community, in collaboration with The International Longevity Centre (ILC), the leading think tank on longevity and demographic change. The report explores the employment challenges facing older workers and calls for urgent action from policy makers and employers to ensure that people over 50 remain in the labour market, for example through flexible working and retraining. More →

October 24, 2014

No natural light in almost half of European offices, finds report

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

Almost half (42%) of European office employees have no natural light in their working environment, over half (55%) don’t have access to any greenery and 7 per cent have no window in their workspace. Yet according to the findings of The Human Spaces Report, commissioned by Interface and led by Organisational Psychologist Professor Sir Cary Cooper, European employees who work in environments with natural elements report a 13 per cent higher level of well-being and are 8 per cent more productive overall. With nearly two-thirds (63%) of EMEA office workers now based in either a town or city centre and spending on average 34 hours per week in the office, their interaction with nature is becoming increasingly limited. Yet despite city dominated lives, the research found workers have an inherent affinity to elements that reflect nature. Flexible working was a surprisingly low preference, with just 11 per cent of workers choosing a space that suits their needs as their productive way to work.. More →