July 20, 2022

Enduring problems holding back success of UK government property strategy

by Neil Franklin • News, Property, Public Sector

Longstanding problems such as poor data pose major risks to the successful delivery of the UK Government’s property strategy, according to the National Audit Office (NAO). Central government property, valued at £158 billion, is one of government’s largest assets. It includes offices, hospitals, academy schools, jobcentres, courts, prisons and museums. The Office of Government Property (OGP) sets the strategic direction for the management of government property. The Cabinet Office has categorised properties into 12 portfolios (such as health, defence and school portfolios), 10 of which are led by a single department or arm’s-length body. The Government Property Agency (GPA) sets and implements a property strategy for the government’s office and warehouse portfolios. More →

July 18, 2022

The future of work is asynchronous

by Adam Dover • Comment, Flexible working, Technology

In our pre-, post-, and mid-pandemic worlds, the corporate workspace landscape underwent – and continues to undergo – a great many adaptations. It is changing out of necessity so firms can survive in a new present and future of work. The way we work had never evolved as much as it has in the past 2 years. It was dominated by strict schedules, physical meetings and on-site technology only. As time passed and technology evolved, the 9-to-5 in-office schedule remained, and teleworking, despite being possible, was extremely rare.

July 17, 2022

Design freely with the Origin 70 Luxury Vinyl Tiles Collection from IVC

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Works Magazine

Origin 70 is the new Luxury Vinyl Tiles flooring collection from IVC Commercial, letting you design freely with the ultimate in performance through quality, loose lay installation and design flexibility. With loose lay installation and plank and tile formats that let you mix and match seamlessly with carpet tiles, IVC Commercial’s Origin 70 Luxury Vinyl Tiles collection brings design freedom to flooring for projects. Designed and made in Belgium to be completely recycled, projects benefit from a more sustainable floor as well. More →

July 14, 2022

95 percent of organisations have experienced issues implementing hybrid working

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

A new poll from XpertHR claims that nearly all UK organisations (95 percent) have encountered challenges implementing hybrid working, with reluctance to return to the workplace the leading issue currently faced by employers. Of the 292 organisations XpertHR surveyed, almost all (95 percent) operate a hybrid model. For most (59 percent) organisations, staff generally spend between 2-3 days working from home each week, however, over a third (37 percent) of staff are unhappy with this split and would prefer to spend even less time in the office. More →

July 12, 2022

Working from home has more than doubled in the UK since 2019

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

The number of people working from home in the UK from October to December 2019 and January to March 2022 has increased by 108.8 percent, according to the latest employment data from the Office for National Statistics. Between the two periods, the number of home workers increased from 4.7 million to 9.9 million. The number of homeworkers increased by more than 50 percent in all UK regions. More →

July 6, 2022

Hybrid working can help graduates succeed

by Lindsey Rowe • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace

The pandemic has transformed how we think about and approach the workplace, with the majority of employees having alternated between remote and hybrid working over the last two years. While this experience has been almost universal, many have found this transition challenging – even for the established professionals used to adapting to change. But what does this mean for those about to enter the workplace for the first time? More →

July 1, 2022

UK rated world number one as Europe sets the standard on real estate transparency

by Jayne Smith • News, Property

Europe is leading the way on real estate transparency as a raft of new sustainability legislation raises industry standards, according to the latest Global Real Estate Transparency Index [registration] published by JLL, in partnership with LaSalle. Six of the 12 countries classed as ‘Highly Transparent’ in the report are in Europe with France, the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium among the most improved, joining Ireland and Sweden. More →

June 30, 2022

Four day week rejected by majority of SME leaders

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

Around three quarters (76 percent) of UK business leaders are either unlikely or very unlikely to introduce the four day work week to their business, according to the latest quarterly UK SME CEO Confidence Index for Q2 2022 from Vistage. The study reports that the SME business confidence index hit 77 points, a 22 percent decrease since the last quarter. The index suggests that small and medium sized businesses overall feel pessimistic about the current economic landscape. 69 percent of SME leaders think that economic conditions have significantly worsened over the last 12 months. Only 5 percent predict that the economic landscape will improve over the next year, while 72 percent strongly believe that the economy will further deteriorate. More →

June 30, 2022

The fifteen minute city will transform the way we think about workplaces

by Wybo Wijnbergen • Cities, Features, Flexible working, Property

For most of history, there have been a small number of immovable truisms that formed the nature of what work is, and how communities form around it. While individuals have long held some agency around the structure and pattern of their work, being present in a communal workplace has been a non-negotiable reality. This need to work from an office comes wed with parallel requirements to help facilitate it. Employees have been willing to strike a compromise between where they wish to live and where they want to work through commutes, with the financial and time cost and associated stress that comes along with it. More →

June 29, 2022

The perfect storm shouldn’t force us to jump aboard the wrong ship

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Workplace design

For all the millions of words written and gabbed about work and its future over the past couple of years, one of the few things we can say with any certainty is that we still don’t know which parts of it all are short-term responses to events, and which are permanent long-term shifts.

June 27, 2022

Two thirds of those working from home suspect their employer thinks they are less productive

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

Employers appear to lack trust in their workers to decide where they are the most productive, with more people now returning to the office full-time. Whilst 76 percent of UK respondents said they are more productive working remotely or are just as productive as they are in the office, 65 percent also believe their employer is concerned they are actually less productive when working from home. According to the fifth quarterly Talent Index from Beamery, almost half of workers (44 percent) in the UK say they have been asked to return to the office full-time with almost nine out of ten (88 percent) saying their employer sees staff returning to the office as essential and important. More →

June 27, 2022

Four in ten people would take unpaid leave to get more time off

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

New research shows British workers are increasingly willing to take measures to achieve better work-life balance, as over 4 in 10 (43 percent) of UK employees would take unpaid leave to get more time off – the second highest amount of all European countries surveyed. The poll from SD Worx, claims that while people want to prioritise taking time off, the struggle is how to disconnect from the working world. Findings show that almost a third (32 percent) of UK employees check their work while they should be offline, and 34 percent say that it’s difficult to let go of workload when on holiday. More →