Columnists

Facilities managers should harness information to show the value of what they do

by • Comment, Facilities management

Of the various myths that plague the facilities management profession, the most pernicious may well be that the role of facilities managers is largely to carry out what the early feminists called shit-work – the kind of job that only becomes visible when it is done badly or isn’t done at all. Conversely, when it […]

Sometimes health and safety failures can be a laughing matter

by • Comment, Facilities management, Legal news, Workplace

One of the regular refrains from those involved in health and safety management is that while they aren’t killjoys, protecting people from harm is no laughing matter. Well actually yes, sometimes it is. And if the health and safety profession wants to shake off the po-faced image it claims is unjust, it needs to realise […]

Forget Gen Y – the future workplace is multigenerational

by • Comment, Flexible working, Knowledge, Legal news

There is quite possibly more guff talked about the impact of Gen Y on businesses and the workplace than any other management topic. However, it’s not only wrong to characterise the people of Generation Y as some homogeneous blob with stereotyped attitudes that set them apart from the rest of humanity, but also to miss […]

UK Government making slow progress on commitment to spend more with SMEs

by • Comment, News, Public Sector

There is no doubt the UK Cabinet Office has been responsible for some commendable improvements in the Government’s approach to property and procurement. Yet, like most government departments it is also prone to fudging or spinning the outcomes of projects that don’t quite cover the department and its initiatives in glory. One of the sure […]

UKIP quip that women not competitive enough for business obscures real debate

by • Comment, Legal news, News, Workplace

The comment by UKIP treasurer Stuart Wheeler that women are not competitive enough to merit a place in the boardroom grabbed all of the headlines from an important debate on the introduction of gender quotas on City boards. The news broke on the same day that employment body the CIPD issued a warning that businesses […]

Progress made on proposed FM bodies’ merger but membership consultation to wait

by • Comment, Facilities management, News

The British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM) reports that merger talks with fellow FM and services related bodies, Asset Skills, the Facilities Management Association and the Cleaning and Support Services Association are progressing, but says a membership consultation must wait for the findings of the steering and working groups. As Simon Heath pointed out in his […]

Rise in number of temporary jobs as employment rates show modest increase

by • Comment, News, Workplace

The latest employment figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveal that unemployment fell by just 4,000 in the three months to June. At 7.8 per cent, the overall rate remains unchanged since the previous quarter. The figures don’t reveal how many people are working on temporary, rather than full time contracts. According to […]

Proceed with caution when using social media to recruit new talent

by • Comment, Knowledge, Legal news, Workplace

Time was, not so long ago that a job seeker could choose which aspects of their experience, interests and personality they wanted to reveal on a job application. For the employer this meant wheedling out the right candidates from a pile of written applications, then using the interview process to determine whether the applicant measured […]

Worldwide space standards moving closer to UK norm, claims new report

by • Comment, Facilities management, Flexible working, Knowledge, News, Property, Workplace design

Worldwide office space standards are now moving closer to the norm seen in the UK according to a new survey from CoreNet Global. According to the CoreNet survey of real estate managers, the average amount of space per office worker globally has dropped to 150 sq. ft (14 sq.m.) , from 225 sq. ft. (21 […]

The war against environmental cynicism puts an onus on suppliers to be honest

by • Comment, Environment, Furniture

Greenwash is one of those terms that has gone from needing an explanation to being in common usage in the space of a few years. The reason for that is quite simply that it is the perfect description of a particular form of marketing bullshit that we all recognise. However, while a degree of scepticism […]

Effective recycling is about good management as much as it is materials and design

by • Comment, Environment, Furniture, Products

We all like to think we are discerning about what we will and won’t put in our trolleys at the supermarket. Not any old salty, fat-saturated gloop will make the cut these days. That’s why the producers of food like to proclaim its healthiness on packaging, regardless of the nature of the product within. ‘Lower […]

Predicting the future of the office means looking at what is happening now

by • Comment, Facilities management, Furniture, Workplace, Workplace design

Futurology is notoriously a mug’s game. Especially when it comes to making predictions about technology. Just ask Ken Olson, the founder of DEC who in 1977 pronounced that ‘there is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home’. Or Bill Gates himself who once claimed that Microsoft ‘will never make a 32 bit […]

«< 103 104 105 106 107 >»