Search Results for: industry

July 22, 2015

Workers of all ages want employers that commit to digital progress

by Sara Bean • News, Technology, Workplace

Employees across all age groups want to work for businesses committed to digital progress, and companies that are slow to embrace digital technology will not thrive and are more likely to lose talent, according to a new global report. Strategy, Not Technology, Drives Digital Transformation from MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte Digital is based on findings from the fourth annual global survey of more than 4,800 business executives across 27 industries and 129 countries. It suggests the ability to digitally transform and reimagine a business is determined in large part by establishing a clear digital strategy, supported by leaders who foster a culture that can change and reinvent their organizations. People want to work for digitally maturing organizations, with nearly 80 percent of respondents preferring to work for a digitally enabled company or digital leader. This sentiment crossed all age groups nearly equally, from 22 to 60.

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July 20, 2015

Government urged to reinstate zero carbon buildings pledge

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

More than 200 businesses from the construction, property and renewable energy industries have written to the Chancellor to reconsider the Government’s decision last week to abandon plans to introduce zero carbon buildings. In an open letter to the Chancellor, senior leaders from 246 organisations warn that the policy U-turn has “undermined industry confidence in Government” and will “curtail investment in British innovation and manufacturing”. In the Chancellor’s productivity plan “Fixing the foundations”, George Osborne unexpectedly axed the policy designed to ensure that all new homes built from 2016 meet zero carbon standards – together with a sister policy that applied to all new non-residential buildings such as offices, schools and hospitals from 2019.

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July 10, 2015

UK Government abandons zero carbon buildings pledges

by Mark Eltringham • Environment, Facilities management, News, Property

The UK Government has today announced that it is to abandon its plans to introduce zero carbon buildings, including homes in 2016 and zero carbon commercial buildings in 2019. As part of a range of planning measures officially announced by the Treasury, it has been confirmed that the government ‘does not intend to proceed with the zero carbon Allowable Solutions carbon offsetting scheme, or the proposed 2016 increase in on-site energy efficiency standards’. Officials from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) have also separately confirmed that the zero carbon policy for non-domestic buildings will also be discarded as part of the new changes. The move has already been heavily criticised by the UK Green Building Council and senior figures in the construction sector, who are dismayed at the move by a Government that once claimed it was to be the UK’s ‘greenest ever’.

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June 25, 2015

Long distance commuting, agile working and dinosaur extinction in the UAE

by Douglas Langmead • Cities, Comment, Flexible working, Property

In Dubai, there are no suburban dinosaurs; those large-scale, single purpose office buildings that ignore the agile realities of modern working life. In the western world, these giants evolved on business parks, driven by the perceived benefits of having office workers agglomerated in order to achieve efficiency of communication and dissemination. The business practices and technologies that underpinned these buildings have evolved and improved and many are in the process of being re-purposed. Things happen on a grander scale in the Middle East where the mantra is “if the land-use doesn’t fit the land, make more land.” Here, the patterns of work and place have evolved differently from the west, and at a much faster pace with creeping tides of development spreading rapidly out from the small centres of traditional trade and commerce to vast tracts of new development.

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June 24, 2015

CTBUH announces winners of best tall buildings awards for 2015

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Case studies, Cities, News, Property

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat has announced the winners of the Best Tall Building Awards for 2015. The winners were selected from a pool of 123 entries based on an evaluation by a panel of industry experts. The organisers claim that not only do the winners exemplify best practice they also advocate ‘improvements in every aspect of performance, including those that have the greatest positive effect on the people who use these buildings and the cities they inhabit’. Many of this year’s winners demonstrate a commitment to sustainability, especially those that make use of greenery to enhance the looks and environmental credentials of the building. The organisers also note that buildings are better integrated into their surroundings which ‘has been a long-needed requirement’. The Best Tall Buildings have been named from 33 countries in four competing regions.

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June 24, 2015

Construction work completes on UK’s greenest commercial building

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Environment, News, Property

Morgan Sindall has completed construction of what is claimed to be the UK’s greenest commercial building, the Enterprise Centre at the University of East Anglia. The building boasts record-breaking sustainability credentials including both BREEAM Outstanding and Passivhaus accreditations. It has been designed to maximise the use of low embodied carbon materials over a projected 100-year life span. The building incorporates an innovation lab, a 300-seat lecture theatre, flexible workspaces, teaching and learning facilities, as well as business ‘hatcheries’ and incubator units for small businesses and start-ups in the low carbon sector. The developers believe that by placing like-minded academic and private sector occupiers side by side, the centre will foster innovation, stimulate smarter ways of working, promote industry standards and create new sustainable supply chains.

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June 19, 2015

RICS case studies focus on business impact of strategic facilities management

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

Six case studies, which outline how businesses can make the most of strategic facilities management to enhance their performance are being launched today (19 June), at the NEC in Birmingham. Developed by International Workplace for the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, the latest set of case studies in the series, provides examples of best practice as outlined in RICS’ Strategic Facilities Management (FM) Guidance Note. The case studies, which can be downloaded from RICS’ website, cover a range of strategic FM issues including procurement, innovation, technology, sustainability, talent management and health and safety. Key themes include a professional understanding of the impact of FM to a company’s reputation, brand and performance, engagement with staff and the supply chain, the importance of measuring impact and outcomes and communication.

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June 16, 2015

London cements its status as Europe’s most important tech hub

by Mark Eltringham • News, Property, Technology

A new report launched to coincide with London Technology Week claims that London has cemented its position as the most important tech hub in Europe and will boost the UK economy by £18bn in 2015. According to the event’s organisers, London’s technology sector is growing faster than both the overall economies of London and the whole UK and will continue to do so for the next decade. The figures show that the number of companies in London’s digital technology sector has grown by 46 percent since the launch of the Tech City programme. The sector now employs almost 200,000 people, 17 percent more than in 2010. Other research from EY claims to show London’s dominance of the European tech sector. According to EY more than 1,000 international tech investment projects located in London between 2005–2014, significantly more than the next most attractive city, Paris (381).

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June 15, 2015

The London Festival of Architecture explores the workplace of the future

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Events, News, Workplace design

The ongoing London Festival of Architecture (LFA) which is running for the entire month of June, continues what the organisers say are the ‘big workplace conversations’ with a week of focussed discussions, debates and contributions from a number of prominent designers, architects and industry commentators on the theme of the workplace of the future. Running in tandem with London Technology Week (15-21 June), week three of the festival will focus on what the organisers claim are several ‘game-changing’ workplaces as well as the smart technologies and architecture already being created by industry leaders shaping where we work, how we work and what the next generation office and employee will need. Exclusive access will also be given into the practices realising the new models of the workplace through the RIBA Open Studios programme.

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June 10, 2015

Flexible hiring out of step with flexible working, especially in London

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Workplace

Only a handful (6.2%) of new jobs offer both decent salaries and the opportunity to work flexibly, according to new research from Timewise. Despite technological advances and significant changes in how and where people work, employers consistently underestimate how precious a benefit is flexibility, and rarely mention it in job ads. The flexible talent pool is massive; with more than 5.4 million people already in flexible roles, yet the number of jobs advertised with flexibility are so scarce that 77 percent of flexible workers feel ‘trapped’ in their current role, leaving those who want flexibility to fit with modern life, locked out of chances to progress. Flexible opportunities are better outside of the Capital, as candidates looking for flexible jobs have comparatively greater opportunities in Scotland, Northern Ireland and in the north of England.

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June 8, 2015

Three reasons why National Work From Home Day has it all wrong

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Public Sector, Technology

Last Friday was National Work From Home Day in the UK. Each year, the TUC and organisers Work Wise seem to take this as an opportunity to analyse data about the uptake of flexible working and arrive at the wrong conclusions. This year, its analysis of the ONS Labour Force Survey found that the number of people regularly working from home had increased by more than 800,000 since 2005, taking the total to over 4.2 million. These are solid enough data, but what are we to make of TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady’s conclusion that: “these figures show millions of British workers have adopted homeworking and are enjoying a better work-life balance, while saving time and money on costly commuting that benefits no-one”? There are several reasons to suggest that he’s got that wrong to a large extent.

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June 8, 2015

FIRA announces winners of competition to design the workplace of the future

by Mark Eltringham • Furniture, News, Products, Technology, Workplace design

The judges of a design competition which challenged undergraduates to share their ideas for a workplace of the future have announced the three winners. The ‘FUTURE@WORK’ competition was run by the Furniture Industry Research Association (FIRA) and sponsored by contract furniture firm Morgan. Winners of first, second and third prize were chosen from four shortlisted entries. The designs were subject to a public vote which took place at Morgan’s showroom throughout Clerkenwell Design Week and on FIRA’s website. The winner of the first prize and the public vote is Familiar Systems, a piece of technology which aims to replace the computer screen. The device was designed by Jack Darby and Andy Lyell, is based on drone technology and incorporates a projector and a pivoted support known as a gimble which allows the user to work in a variety of locations and configurations.