Search Results for: environment

December 16, 2013

Book Review: The Emergent Workplace

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace design

Looking for patterns in the mash
© Columbia Pictures

It’s rather refreshing to see a book or report in which the word ‘Workplace’ in the title is prefaced by ‘Emergent’ rather than something misleading like ‘Tomorrow’s’ or ‘Future’. And so the authors Clark Sept and Paul Heath define their vision of the workplace presented in this slim but engaging book as a thing which is ‘in the process of becoming prominent’ to use the dictionary definition of the word emergent. By using this particular epithet, they are describing the consequences of the various forces that drive today’s workplace rather than lapsing into the fallacies most commonly associated with works of this kind; principally those of either assuming there is an evolution of all offices towards an ultimate model, or that already commonplace factors such as technology which frees us to work anywhere and at any time can in any way be associated with ‘the future’.

December 13, 2013

One of the most important things we need at work is shelter from the storm

by Nigel Sikora • Comment, Workplace design

The challenge of providing the optimum level of acoustic performance in an office is one of those issues that everybody accepts is very important, has at least some understanding of and has a degree of awareness of the solutions. Yet it has proved to be one of those intractable issues that suffers both from some important misperceptions and which also has to be balanced against other challenges when it comes to designing offices, not least the most significant trend of the past twenty or thirty years, namely the shift to open plan working. At the same time we have seen a shrinking of workstation footprints and the greater use of mobile phones and other technology. All of these changes have focussed attention on workplace acoustics – currently one of the most talked about issues in the workplace, and visual privacy – one of the least talked about.

December 12, 2013

US employees name top 50 firms to work for in 2014

by Sara Bean • News, Workplace

Consultancy firm Bain & Company has topped the list of the 50 best places to work in the US. The top five companies in the annual Employees’ Choice Awards, compiled by careers specialist Glassdoor includes the three leading social media companies, Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook, which came in fifth, just behind Eastman Chemical. The Employees’ Choice Awards rely solely on the input of employees who elect to provide feedback about their job, work environment and company, via Glassdoor’s anonymous online company review survey. Employees are asked to rate how satisfied they are with their company overall, how they feel their CEO is leading the company, as well as key workplace attributes like career opportunities, compensation and benefits, culture and values, senior management and work-life balance.

December 12, 2013

Staff would “rather have the money” than endure an office Christmas party

by Sara Bean • News, Workplace

The annual office Christmas party is typically viewed as an annual treat that recognises and rewards employees – but for nearly half of the population the events are a chore more associated with drunkenness and often regrettable romantic liaisons than bonding or motivation. In a poll by serviced office provider Business Environment, one in five (20%) find Christmas parties a chore, while one in ten (13.7%) wish there would be no Christmas parties at all. Although roughly a third of people (31.6%) reported that Christmas parties helped them bond with their colleagues, and slightly more than a quarter (27.3%) reported the events make them feel rewarded for hard work, 62.2% of respondents “would rather have the money”.

December 11, 2013

Remarkable resurgence of confidence in the UK commercial property market

by Mark Eltringham • News, Property

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.

December 10, 2013

New guidance on energy management published for facilities managers

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

The British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM) has published new guidance on energy management for facilities managers. The Energy Audits Good Practice Guide presents good practice for some of the important energy management procedures, ranging from developing an energy policy to deciding which improvements to make. It is designed to enable facilities managers to compare the results of an energy audit with good practice in both energy use and energy related procedures in order to manage their organisation’s energy costs. Part of the BIFM’s series of Good Practice Guides providing practical guidance for facilities management professionals the Energy Audits Good Practice Guide, which is supported by Hoare Lea, also includes practical tips and considerations for improving energy use, managing energy costs, and protecting the environment. More →

December 6, 2013

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

by Richenda Oldham • Comment, Facilities management, Knowledge, Property

According 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.

December 5, 2013

New report finds lack of consensus in measurement of social sustainability

by Sara Bean • Environment, Facilities management, News

A lack of consensus on what is to be reported on and measured makes comparison difficult when measuring social sustainability. This is one of the key findings of the first annual Sustainable FM Index report, which examines how sustainability is embedded within facilities management service companies. Compiled by Acclaro Advisory, the University of Reading and Workplace Law; the index provides a comparative assessment of FM providers within the UK market. The results, which can be applied to internal and outsourced organisations, aims to showcase achievement, as well as highlighting areas of weakness to stimulate change and raise the delivery of sustainability. The companies which made the index, including Carillion, CBRE and Vinci facilities, have reported high levels of commitment to sustainability in terms of the governance, social and environmental criteria assessed. More →

December 3, 2013

Meeting the management challenges of caring for home workers

by Pam Loch • Flexible working, Workplace

Flexible working is on the rise. However, as reported today, while employers are happy to equip workers with the facilities required to work away from the office, there is a worrying level of unwillingness amongst many bosses in checking the safety and comfort of home workers. Employers have a duty of care to their home workers under health and safety legislation and the Working Time Regulations 1998. This means that care should be taken by employers to ensure that home workers operate in a safe and appropriate environment. This duty of care goes beyond supplying an ergonomic workstation. Managing home workers requires a varied set of management skills and best practice processes. More →

December 1, 2013

Case study: dPOP’s jaw-dropping new offices light the road ahead for Detroit

by Rob Kirkbride • Case studies, Facilities management, Flooring, Furniture, Workplace design

If you think you know what’s going on in Detroit based on the stories of the city’s financial woes and pictures of some crumbling buildings, it is worth a visit to the offices of dPOP, the two month old design firm with origins in creating the award-winning office spaces for Quicken Loans and its family of companies.The design firm’s space in the basement of a long defunct Detroit bank embodies what being from the Motor City is all about — being tough, but talented; gritty yet glamorous; fun with a funky twist.They design like they don’t care what you think — and that might just be true. Their own offices and those they created for the 11,000 workers that were moved from divergent suburban sites to the center of Detroit are bold, bright and fun. Most of all fun. But the result is spectacular.

November 28, 2013

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

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Flexible working, Technology, Workplace

Everybody 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.

November 25, 2013

How a 70 year old happiness model is still helping us to define wellness

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Workplace

This year marks the seventieth anniversary of Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the model that still introduces most of us to notions of what makes people happy and fulfilled. Maslow first proposed the model in his 1943 paper “A Theory of Human Motivation” in Psychological Review, developing his ideas throughout the rest of his life. His work has been parallelled and built upon by other researchers since, but few have had the influence and longevity. Maslow’s hierarchical characterisation of human needs by category is ingrained into the minds of students all over the world. In the first of two pieces to mark this anniversary, Cathie Sellars of Workspace argues that Maslow continues to offers us the ideal definition of wellness.