Search Results for: london

Workforce to grow across the regions next year, bolstered by flexible working

Workforce to grow throughout the country in 2014The management issues which dominated 2013 centred on the rise of flexible working; if pay scales would remain below inflation; and whether jobs recovery would continue and if so, could expand beyond the fringes of London. As today’s ONS figures show unemployment at the lowest rate since 2009, the latest CBI/Accenture Employment Trends Survey reveals that more than half of UK companies expect to create jobs over the next 12 months for the first time in over five years. It says private sector workforces are anticipated to grow across all regions, Yorkshire and Humberside and the east midlands being the most buoyant. Bosses will continue to take a cautious approach to pay however, with flexible contracts used to bolster economic growth and job creation. More →

Insight newsletter is now available to view online

2.Insight_twitter_logo smIn the Insight newsletter, available to view online; cost is still viewed by businesses as the most important factor in assessing an office’s performance; a suspiciously high number of occupiers claim that their programmes of workplace change are successful; PwC’s nine-storey headquarters in London surpasses all BREEAM scores to date, and we review The Emergent Workplace – a new book which aims to help people make better decisions about their offices. Nigel Sikora discusses the challenges of ensuring the right level of acoustic and visual privacy within the workplace; Charles Marks says London may grab all the headlines but the creative and tech industries are thriving around the country and Richenda Oldham explains ways businesses can improve their knowledge of the range of costs involved in owning or leasing commercial real estate.

Highest ever BREEAM outstanding score for PwC’s HQ refurbishment

PWC refurbishment wins highest every BREEAM

PwC’s nine-storey headquarters at One Embankment Place in London has surpassed all BREEAM scores to date for both new build and existing structures. The 450,000 sq ft commercial office building located at Charing Cross station in London has achieved a milestone 96.31 per cent BREEAM Outstanding score, including a 100 per cent score for materials, transport and management. Built in the early 1990s, the structure, which comprises a basement below the station and nine floors of office space above it, has had a complete office refit and refurbishment as well as full central plant replacement in the basement areas, roof and terraces. Achieving a high BREEAM rating and EPC score was a priority of the refit, which was achieved while some 2,000 staff remained in occupation. More →

Remarkable resurgence of confidence in the UK commercial property market

Edinburgh is one region enjoying a resurgence in confidence

Edinburgh is one region enjoying a resurgence in confidence

The UK commercial property market is continuing its strong recovery, driven in large part by a resurgence in regional markets and financed by more adventurous borrowing by investors, a juxtaposition of three new reports reveals. According to Lloyds Bank’s twice yearly Commercial Property Confidence Monitor, around three quarters of the small and medium sized commercial property agents surveyed for the report expect a  surge in activity over the next six months, led by especially strong confidence levels in Scotland, South West England, North West England and the Midlands. The results are mirrored in the latest Savills’ commercial development activity survey which found that  the UK’s commercial sector grew at its fastest rate on record during November. Meanwhile, another report from Laxfield Capital claims that investors are willing to take on more debt for new deals to take advantage of the new confidence in the market.

More →

Don’t be caught by surprise by the hidden costs of commercial property

 

let-signAccording to Colliers International’s recent Global Investor Sentiment Report, 2014 will see an increase in commercial property investor confidence, with 74 per cent of UK based investors saying they were more likely to risk investing across all property sectors, although offices remain the most popular category to invest in. Yet despite this vote of confidence, it seems strange to report that the real costs involved in property acquisition and maintenance, are frequently overlooked by the purchasers. It appears that businesses often have a patchy knowledge of the range of costs involved in owning or leasing commercial real estate, which is surprising when you consider that a company’s biggest single investment next to its workforce is commercial property.

More →

Built environment vows to improve accessibility for UK’s 12m disabled people

Built environment vows to improve accessibility for disabled in UKSix of the top professional institutions that represent architects, town planners, surveyors, engineers and facilities managers have committed to improving accessibility for the country’s 12 million disabled people. To mark International Day of People with Disabilities, built environment institutions, including the Royal Institution of British Architects (RIBA), the British Institution of Facilities Managers (BIFM) and Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), have signed up to the Built Environment Professional Education Project; to  change the curriculum so inclusive design becomes a requirement of all built environment accredited courses at universities and colleges. The aim is to have nearly one third of all built environment professionals proficient in inclusive design within 10 years.  More →

Revival in UK commercial property driven by high tech enclaves such as Cambridge

Silicon FenAs we reported recently, it’s not just technology firms in London’s creaking digital enclaves that are driving recovery in the economy and commercial property markets. The UK is home to several hothouses of innovation and talent and the cluster of technology firms and related businesses in Cambridgeshire – inevitably Silicon Fen – are contributing to the highest level of commercial real estate activity in over six years, according to a survey we reported recently from property advisor Savills. The Cambridge arm of the firm is reporting that as well as new projects, schemes that were shelved during the recession are coming back online. Now in an interview in local magazine, Business Weekly, Savills has described how the national recovery is manifesting itself in one of the UK’s high tech hotspots.

More →

The meaningful aspects of what we do give us the greatest rewards

It is the meaningful aspects of what we do

Charles Handy recently explained to attendees at Worktech 13 London why money is not the main motivating factor for employees; while at the same event, Claudia Hamm-Barstow of Jones Lang LaSalle added that the dream workplace is “a place where the company adds value to the employee experience, people feel valued and welcomed, the organisation feels meaningful, the work is rewarding and importantly there are no stupid rules”. According to The Human Givens Institute neither of these statements should be at all surprising. But The Human Givens theory adds that we also need to be respected, to feel in control, to have self-esteem, privacy and community.  And, most crucially of all, we need to have purpose and meaning in our lives. More →

The future belongs to those who leave themselves choices of how to deal with it

unknown-futureEverybody likes to talk and read about the future. It’s one of the reasons we see so many reports about what the ‘office of the future’ will look like. Often these attempts at workplace prognosis are overwhelmingly  rooted in the present which might betray either a degree of timidity or lack of awareness of just how far along their standard list of trends we really are. Even when such reports appear to be bang on the money, they tend to disregard one of the most important factors we need to consider when trying to get a handle on the future, which is the need to leave ourselves choices. This is important because not only will the future be stranger than we think, but stranger than we can imagine, to paraphrase J B S Haldane.

More →

Latest Insight newsletter is now available to view online

Apple 9In the weekly Insight newsletter, available to view online; an inspirational morning spent in the company of Charles Handy at the recent Worktech 13 London conference; a gallery of images [pictured] from Apple’s new $5 billion campus in California and in our exclusive interview, Dave Coplin, Microsoft’s Chief Envisioning Officer, shares his views on the full potential that technology offers a modern, digital society. Mark Eltringham wonders if our growing preference for mobiles over the office landline indicates a willingness to blur the boundaries between our private and working lives; Simon Heath says the answer to the question “How Will We Work In 2020?” is probably “exactly as we do today” and legal expert Adam Hartley explains why Zero hours contracts are not a new phenomenon.

Quality of the place and the pace of work is more important than money

Aol’s new West Coast HQ 395 Page Mill

O+A designed Aol’s new West Coast HQ

In a remarkable session on the future of work at Worktech 13 London this week – Charles Handy declared that organisations need passion, people and profit, in that order. Money isn’t the main motivating factor for individuals either, which is why Handy’s thoughts on the emergence of the portfolio worker should inspire anyone who dreams of quitting their corporate job to do something more interesting instead. Those who don’t have that option would have been cheered to hear the prevailing message at Worktech was that employers are waking up to the fact that the quality of the place and the pace of work (i.e. flexible working) is of equal importance to remuneration in attracting and retaining staff. More →

UK’s fastest growing tech businesses named by Deloitte survey

Infectious Media's offices

Infectious Media’s offices

There is a decided London bias in the latest Deloitte Technology Fast 50, which names the UK’s fastest growing technology companies.  Twenty of the named companies are to be found in the capital and they generate just under half of their £672 million combined revenues over the last year.  The growth rates  used to measure the success of these businesses are jaw-droppingly impressive but can also be partially meaningless for such new companies. The winner grew at a Wonga-esque percentage rate of  just under 10,000 percent and the average for all fifty firms for the past five years was a staggering 1,382 percent. According to Deloitte’s research, the UK’s fastest growing tech company is Clerkenwell based real-time advertising agency Infectious Media.

More →