Search Results for: tech

November 19, 2015

Dubai office market shows signs of cooling down over the next year ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Property

The Dubai office market is showing signs of cooling, following a strong growth period, with average rents remaining unchanged during the first three quarters of 2015 across all the city’s major submarkets and free zones. Clutton’s Winter 2015/16 Dubai Commercial Market Outlook report revealed prime, secondary and tertiary office rents stand at AED 250 psf, AED 130 psf and AED 70 psf, respectively. However, micro-markets, which are often as small as specific buildings, buck wider trends, such as Emirates Towers (AED 310 psf) and The Gate District (AED 225 psf). Banks, financial institutions, law firms, construction companies and technology-media-telecoms (TMT) firms are the most active occupiers, with the city’s free zones remaining the primary target. This is because the free zones continue to be dominated by multinational organisations, with take-up activity intrinsically linked to business performance in their home markets.

November 18, 2015

Women earn less than men because they make different choices, report confirms ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, News, Workplace

In spite of its own attempts to link it to the gender pay gap a new report, Opportunities and outcomes in education and work: Gender effects, released yesterday by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES), merely confirms that the key factors that determine how much people earn are the jobs they do and the hours they work. The report shows that male workers are paid on average 19 percent more than female workers. However, a report this year from the ONS confirmed that women now earn slightly more than men in like for like jobs up to the age of 35 and the UKCES report shows that it is career and personal choices that explain the gap in incomes across the whole economy. This confirms that the keys to closing the overall pay gap are for women to enter higher paying fields such as STEM and construction as well as employers offering flexible working arrangements and greater support for parents in their careers.

November 17, 2015

Best tall building in the world winner announced at Chicago event ⁰

by Neil Franklin • Architecture, Cities, Environment, News

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) Awards Jury has announced that Bosco Verticale, Milan, is the overall “2015 Best Tall Building Worldwide” at the 14th Annual CTBUH International Best Tall Building Awards Symposium, Ceremony & Dinner, held last week at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. In July, the CTBUH Awards Jury named a winner from each of the four competing regions in the world: Americas, Asia & Australasia, Europe, and Middle East & Africa. The Regional Winners were One World Trade Center, New York City, United States; CapitaGreen, Singapore; Bosco Verticale, Milan, Italy; Burj Mohammed Bin Rashid Tower, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Although the overall winner was primarily a residential tower, offices were well represented in the regional winners thanks to the inclusion of One World Trade Center and Capita Green.

November 17, 2015

Office politics, heavy workloads and poor managers create anxious workers ⁰

by Sara Bean • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

A third (33 percent) of UK workers cite office politics as a major contributing factor to feelings of unhappiness in the workplace. According to new research from recruiter Adecco over half (57 percent) of workers name a heavy workload as the cause of stress and anxiety, whilst 33 percent cite a lack of managerial support. The research revealed that negative feelings are having a significant impact on people’s working lives with nearly a third (29 percent) of UK workers spending every Sunday dreading the coming working week. A third (33 percent) of workers described their workplace as unhappy and a worrying 28 percent of workers admit that they fear going into work so much that they have called in sick. An additional third (36 percent) would now consider leaving their employer due to such severe anxiety and more worryingly, one in ten (9%) have already taken that step due to such overwhelming feelings of unhappiness.

November 13, 2015

Study claims the Internet of Things will connect 6.4 billion objects next year ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, News, Technology

According to a new report from technology research organisation Gartner, 6.4 billion connected things will be in use worldwide in 2016, up around a third (30 percent) from 2015, and will reach 20.8 billion by 2020. The study claims that in 2016, 5.5 million new things will become connected each day. Gartner estimates that the Internet of Things (IoT) will support total services spending globally of around US$235 billion in 2016, up nearly a quarter (22 percent) from 2015. Although the report claims that the technology will make significant inroads in consumer markets, services are dominated by the professional category defined by Gartner (in which businesses contract with external providers in order to design, install and operate IoT systems). However connectivity services (through communications service providers) and consumer services will grow at a faster pace, according to the report.

November 13, 2015

Remote workers endure poor communications and working practices ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Workplace

Poor communication and working practices among remote teams is widespread, a new report by the Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM) claims. Organisations are failing to capitalise on the potential for remote working to improve performance and efficiency with 88 percent of remote workers struggling with inconsistent working practices and miscommunication, while 83 percent feel overwhelmed by emails. Although 84 percent of remote workers report improvements to their work-life balance, a lack of team identity can cause isolation and loneliness. The study with over 1,000 remote workers highlighted a range of potential benefits for organisations with a remote or geographically-dispersed workforce, including increased business reach, improved productivity, cost and time savings, and access to a more diverse set of skills and experience.

November 12, 2015

The three workplace professions need to face up to a new reality ⁰

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

The modern workplace consists of an often unholy trinity of people, place and technology and each of these facets has its own associated profession; HR. IT. FM. Six letters. Three disciplines. One big mess. When life was simple, with people generally going to work in the same place and at the same time, each of these professions could operate in its own bubble, with a clear sphere of influence and control. Sure, they could behave in interdisciplinary ways, they could have their intersections, but at the end of each encounter they could each go their separate ways. That is no longer true. The workplace is no longer primarily physical, but digital and cultural too. The boundaries of space and time have slipped and taken with them the clear demarcations between the three main workplace professions. All of this is bound to provoke as big an existential crisis for the professions as it does for the workplace itself.

November 11, 2015

Record construction of London office space, but supply shortfall remains ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Property

Demand for office space in London continues to overwhelm its availability and in spite of record levels of construction, according to two new reports. The latest CBRE Monthly Index claims that rents in Central London’s booming office market grew by 10.3 percent in the year to October 2015, the first time annual growth has hit double digits since April 2008. Despite rapidly rising rents, take-up of offices in Central London continues to outpace the 10 year average. The capital saw 1.1 percent growth in October, with 3.6m sq ft of space snapped up by businesses in the third quarter of 2015, with a further 3.8m sq ft currently under offer and expected to complete before the end of the year. Change could be on the way however as the latest biannnual London crane survey from Deloitte claims that the amount of office space being built in central London has risen by a fifth in six months, the highest level for seven years.

November 6, 2015

Shortage of German office space as demand in Europe reaches record high ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Property

The demand for office space in Europe grew over the third quarter of 2015 with total take up of over 3 million sq metres, on a par with the previous third quarter peak seen in 2007, according to new figures from property consultancy JLL. Take-up over the third quarter of 2015 is the highest on record – up 29 percent year-on-year and full year volumes are forecast to reach 11.5 million square metres, an increase of 8 percent on 2014. Across the continent, demand for office space is being driven by multiple markets recovering, albeit at varying speeds. Germany demonstrated some of the strongest results in Europe. Four of the five largest markets improved on Q3 2014 and Berlin, Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich reported a combined take-up of 775,000 sq m, as the strong employment market in Germany pushes up demand for office space even further.

November 5, 2015

Data transforms the roles of offices and the people who manage them

by Philip Ross • Comment, Facilities management, Technology, Workplace

The modern workplace creates the physical,technological and cultural point of intersection between a number of abstract or movable facets of the business, including people, technology, culture and creativity. That has always been true to a large extent but with the growing complexity of exactly how, when and where we work, this role of the office as the epicentre of it all has been thrown into sharp relief. With that has come a greater understanding of the intersections that exist between disciplines such as IT, FM and HR. In some areas, the roles already appear indistinguishable and I believe this will only become more apparent. The main driver of that growing convergence of roles will be the availability of data to make informed decisions about interrelated aspects of organisational culture, work practices, office design and management and the development and motivation of individuals.

November 5, 2015

Design for performance study looks to improve energy performance ⁰

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

Developers, owners and occupiers of buildings might expect that compliance with regulations will produce a building that is energy efficient in operation and well on its way towards the 2020 nearly-zero energy target mandated by a European Directive. In practice, the actual performance of most buildings falls well short of the design intent – the so-called performance gap. In Australia, this chronic problem has been eliminated for new office building projects in which clients and their teams sign up to – and then follow – a “Commitment Agreement” protocol to design, construct and manage their buildings to achieve agreed levels of actual in-use performance. Now with the backing of the Better Buildings Partnership, a four month study to develop a prototype UK scheme which embraces Australia’s ‘design for performance’ approach has been launched by a team led by Verco and including BSRIA, Arup and UBT.

November 3, 2015

Less than one year’s supply of office space now available in Central London ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Property

Office occupiers are being forced to search further afield from traditional London commercial property centres as the vacancy rate of office space in Central London falls to a 15 year low. According to research from BNP Paribas Real Estate, at just 4.68 percent of total stock, the level of supply during the third quarter of the year was just 10.29m sq ft; equivalent to less than one years’ supply at current levels. Take-up to the end of September reached 10.78m sq ft, 18 percent above the long term trend, whilst the investment volume of £11.91bn is 28 percent ahead of the average. The West End’s office market was boosted by several large transactions involving Media Tech firms and take-up in Q3 2015 reached 1m sq ft, making the third quarter the busiest so far in 2015. The City is still attracting media tech companies, but there’s been a resurgence in traditional City occupiers from the professional sector.