Search Results for: pension

January 15, 2014

Legal update – Employment Law changes ahead in 2014

by Pam Loch • Facilities management, Flexible working, Legal news, Workplace

Some of the most hotly debated employment law issues from last year; including flexible working, workplace wellbeing and the contractual rights of employees look set to make more headlines this year, because 2014 is shaping up to be another year of significant change in UK employment law. While the timetable is subject to amendment, currently the Government is intending to introduce a number of revisions. The key employment law events and cases to watch out for in 2014 will include changes to TUPE, flexible working, flexible parental leave, employment tribunal procedures, redundancy consultation, Acas conciliation, calculation of holiday pay and post-employment victimisation; which we list below in the date order in which they are proposed. More →

December 3, 2013

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

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Property

Six 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 →

October 22, 2013

What happens in a designer’s mind and Mac can be very different to reality

by Simon Heath • Architecture, Comment, Facilities management, Furniture, Workplace design

Social media is inarguably closing the gap between organisations and consumers of their services. Advances in the way we interrogate the opinions of building users are lifting the veil on some sharp practices in management and the negative impacts of poorly thought out design or badly executed installation of designs into the built environment. The positive impacts of this new, more open world are evident in changing attitudes to mental health and other wellness issues that affect us in the workplace. And it is becoming ever more evident in the response to a clear disconnect between what happens inside the designer or architect’s MacBook and its effect on the physical spaces with, and within which, we interact.

October 21, 2013

Job satisfaction keeps employees motivated more than bonuses

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Workplace

The reported levels of stress felt by banking employees already suggests that generous bonuses do not necessarily equate loving the job. Now a new study published today by the Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM) confirms that across the business sector, the single most effective motivator is job satisfaction (59%), with just 13 per cent saying the prospect of receiving a bonus or other financial incentive motivates them to work harder in their role. The survey of over 1,000 employees found that a competitive salary and a good pension are highly effective motivators (49%) but getting on with colleagues (42%) is nearly as important. The report also highlights how important good managers are to ensuring happy and motivated staff. More →

October 11, 2013

Highest take up of regional office space for five years

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Property

Increasing occupier confidence is leading to the highest take up of regional office space for five years. According to property consultants GVA’s latest quarterly review of the “big nine” regional office occupier markets, total take-up in the third quarter of 2013 was 7 per cent above the five-year quarterly average at 1,737,000 sq ft. Particularly encouraging, say the analysts, has been a recovery in markets that have been subdued for some years. Carl Potter, GVA’S National Head of Offices commented: “In general many are now gearing up for the next phase of activity, although there still remains a real prospect that a lack of appetite for new speculative development will lead in some markets very quickly to a shortage in Grade A supply.” More →

September 30, 2013

Don’t let the sofas fool you; work can still be red in tooth and claw

by Twyla Howse • Comment, Flexible working, Furniture

Herbert James Draper: Ulysses and the sirens

We keep filling our workplaces with sofas, coffee shops and other lifestyle touches while our homes are being slowly eroded by the trappings of work. First it was the fax machine. Then the mobile phone. Then working from home. The places available for us to work is seemingly more diverse than ever. But does this acknowledged trend towards domesticity make the workplace a kinder, gentler place? Maybe on the surface but beware to those who dare succumb to the siren song of these things. Using them could mean the end of your career.A recent conversation I had with an executive highlighted the problems inherent in the mixed messages this “softening” of the work environment brings.

September 4, 2013

EU Governments urged to maximise the potential of older workers

by Sara Bean • Legal news, News, Workplace

The rise in the number of older workers in the UK has been well documented, and the reason is clear, they are a much needed resource. Over the next ten years there are 13.5 million job vacancies which need to be filled, but only seven million young people predicted to join the job market in that time. And the UK is not alone; the EU faces significant skills gaps due to demographic change. But according to a new International Longevity Centre –UK (ILC-UK) report, Working Longer: An EU perspective, supported by Prudential, EU countries urgently need to skill up the older workforce, support more older women in work and address the particular health issues associated with employing older workers. More →

August 27, 2013

Forget Gen Y – the future workplace is multigenerational

by Mark Eltringham • 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 the point that the workplace is and will remain multigenerational. In fact, according to new data from the Department of Work and Pensions, there have never been more over 50s in work in the UK than there are right now. There are 2 million more over-50s in jobs than there were 15 years ago and they will form a third of the workforce by 2020. And they will want their own say on things just as much as the much talked about millennials.

July 12, 2013

New joint venture formed to capitalise on booming London Office market

by Sara Bean • Company news, News, Property

A 50:50 joint venture partnership to capitalise on the thriving London office market has been formed by Hermes Real Estate Investment Management Ltd and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. CPPIB is investing £173.9 million to acquire a 50 per cent interest from Hermes’ BT Pension Scheme’s (BTPS) existing portfolio, which comprises 550,000 sq ft of high quality offices, retail and ancillary accommodation, primarily located in London’s West End. Graeme Eadie, Senior Vice-President and Head of Real Estate Investments for CPPIB, said: “We are pleased to be partnering with BTPS and Hermes on this unique opportunity to invest in a high quality, well-diversified portfolio of office properties in prime Central London locations.”

July 9, 2013

BIFM partnership with DWP may prove an ill-advised and short-lived union

by Simon Heath • Comment, Facilities management

Rather like someone who collects friends on Facebook and followers on Twitter with the obsessiveness of the avid lepidopterist completist, news reaches us from the British Institute of Facilities Management concerning yet another partnership. Not content with the recently announced merger with Asset Skills, the Facilities Management Association and the Cleaning and Support Services Association, this time it’s the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) that is the object of BIFM’s affections. Not that BIFM are considering moving in to Caxton House and a run for Parliament in 2015 (at least not that we are aware of). But while BIFM are, understandably, trumpeting the signing of this joint agreement, the DWP are not. In fact, if one searches on www.gov.uk using the search terms “BIFM” or “British Institute of Facilities Management” no results are returned.

July 8, 2013

BIFM and DWP announce facilities management partnership agreement

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, News

The British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM) is building on its recent track record of building new alliances with the announcement that it has signed a partnership agreement with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The partners claim the new agreement will see the BIFM and DWP working in unison to support future growth in the facilities and workplace management sector. The agreement was signed at the end of last week by Mark Hoban MP, Minister of State for Employment, Gareth Tancred, CEO of BIFM and Martin Brown, Work Services Director for Wales and Employers, Department for Work and Pensions. The joint statement from the BIFM and DWP claims that the partnership agreement will drive ‘a shared agenda on increasing routes into and raising skills and professionalism of all those working in the facilities and workplace management industry’.

July 2, 2013

Younger workers’ CSR ethics don’t necessarily extend to older generation

by Sara Bean • Comment, Legal news, News, Workplace

Is ageism one of the last bastions of accepted prejudice in the UK? Take the Daily Mail’s “night of the living dead” coverage of the Stones’ Glastonbury performance – deemed acceptable where jokes regarding gender, race or disability are not. A new survey illustrates this attitude. Nearly half of younger workers in a recent poll think older colleagues are in danger of stifling their career prospects by retiring later, that their prolonged presence could damage productivity and that they have very little to teach the younger generation. Yet over half (55 per cent) of Generation Y workers questioned in the poll say the ethical credentials of a company would influence their choice of employer. Since the scrapping of the Default Retirement Age (DRA) the number of over-65s in the labour force has exceeded one million, and the survey, carried out for KPMG by OnePoll warns that tensions could rise as the need for employees to stay in the labour force for longer growing due to social and financial pressures. More →