January 8, 2024

Focus should shift to reducing energy demand, WEF report suggests

by Neil Franklin • Environment, Facilities management, News

A set of business actions aimed at reducing the intensity of energy demand could unlock annual savings of at least $2 trillion for the global economy if measures are taken by the end of this decade. This would boost growth, save companies cash and deliver competitive advantage while also reducing emissions. These are the findings of the World Economic Forum’s Transforming Energy Demand initiative – and a new report – launched in collaboration with PwC and supported by over 120 global CEOs who are members of the International Business Council (IBC), a group representing 3 percent of global energy use. More →

December 18, 2023

A bit of alien thinking on coffee and some other BS

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, Features, Technology, Wellbeing, Workplace design

I’ve sometimes highlighted how our perceptions of the workplace are subject to an apex fallacy. The daily consumption of narratives about campuses, tech palaces and ‘cool’ design can obscure the fact that most people don’t experience this stuff in their daily lives. They work in adequate or possibly nice offices. Some in shabby offices or horrible offices. Many travel into work at the same time each day and sit with roughly the same people and do roughly the same things. They may work from home more frequently now, but they have a routine there too. Most will work in a mundane or nice home that mirrors the mundane office that awaits at the other end of the commute. More →

November 29, 2023

Demand for sustainable buildings and tight regulations drive business case for investment

by Neil Franklin • Environment, News, Property

The current economic environment is creating challenges for investors and occupiers to make the case for investing in retrofitting and futureproofing their real estate. JLL’s new The Commercial Case for Making Buildings More Sustainable report outlines three key factors that should be prioritized in occupiers’ and owners’ decision-making to create a more resilient and sustainable built environment. More →

November 10, 2023

The challenge for fit-out firms is to deliver best value despite supply chain challenges

by Kevin P'ng • Comment, Facilities management, Property, Workplace design

The past year has been a challenging one for London’s commercial fit-out market. Whilst industry supply and demand dynamics may have found a level of equilibrium since the pandemic, geopolitical tensions, economic disruptions, and an unstable domestic policy environment continue to have an impact. In tandem with this, the commercial fit-out market is adapting to changing needs; from accommodating hybrid working models to growing demands for sustainability and reuse, the workplaces of today are ever changing. More →

November 9, 2023

Inadequate provision for menopause and menstrual health driving women away from jobs

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

The workforce could lose millions of female employees unless more is done by employers to support women with menopausal and menstrual health symptoms, according to a new poll from workplace health provider Simplyhealth.? The research suggests almost a quarter (23 percent) of women have considered quitting due to the impact of menopause or menstrual symptoms at work, and over one in ten (14 percent) are actively planning to quit. More →

November 7, 2023

Angry, stressed and worried. The utter state of the UK workforce in 2023

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing

Gallup has published its 2023 Gallup Global Emotions report [registration] – a study of employee sentiment in the UK workforce. According to the report’s Negative Experience Index, which tracks how many people experience daily sadness, anger, stress, worry, and physical pain, full-time UK employees are experiencing historically high levels of daily negative experiences. This latest Gallup data claims that full-time UK employees scored a 32 on Gallup’s Negative Experience Index. This is up substantially from 23 in 2020. Full-time employees in the UK are now some of the most emotionally distressed in Europe, second only to employees in Malta. More →

September 5, 2023

From ego to eco – a universal approach to workplace transformation

by Eugenia Anastassiou • Comment, Environment, Everything Omni

You might quite rightly be thinking about the relevance of such a ‘hippy, dippy’ soundbite on the hard-hitting world of work and the workplace, especially in this climate of uncertainty with a myriad of challenges facing business, the workforce and commercial real estate globally. I first heard the phrase ‘going from ego to eco’ at a series of presentations cum incubator events EverythingOmni ran with participants of all ages/backgrounds/career levels representing 18 countries on the Uncertainty of Work.

July 21, 2023

Cost of living crisis incentivises people to work from home

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

A new report claims that rising numbers of the people in the UK are choosing to shop and work from home to make every penny count as the cost-of-living crisis continues. These insights mark the launch of the second Virgin Media O2 Business Movers Index – a quarterly barometer that combines anonymised and aggregated UK movement data from O2 Motion, with national polling findings to reveal key trends relating to the behaviour of 2,000 British businesses and 1,000 UK consumers. Together, the data paints a picture of movement patterns and the trends behind them. The second quarter of this year reveals a more cash-conscious image of Britain as more of the UK public change their behaviours to cope with a tough economic backdrop. More →

May 24, 2023

Europe not on track to deliver carbon neutral built environment by 2050

by Jayne Smith • Environment, News, Property

It has been one year today (24 May 2023), since the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) launched a new policy called the EU Policy Whole Life Carbon Roadmap, to help the European Union accelerate total decarbonisation of buildings and construction — the most heavily emitting sector in the world. Now WorldGBC and 12 European Green Building Councils (GBCs) are imploring the EU to implement the Roadmap’s principles at the scale and speed required through the announcement of BuildingLife2, a new project driving what it claims is greater transparency and accountability across the sector as it seeks to achieve the goal of a carbon neutral built environment. More →

May 3, 2023

Around a quarter of jobs will shift over the next five years, WEF report claims

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

Almost a quarter of jobs are expected to switch in the next five years according to a new report from the World Economic Forum. Its Future of Jobs Report for 2023 suggests that employers anticipate 69 million new jobs to be created and 83 million eliminated among the 673 million jobs corresponding to the dataset, a net decrease of 14 million jobs, or 2 percent of current employment. The data is an extrapolation of data from 803 employers employing around 11 million people. More →

April 10, 2023

The allure of workplace bullshit

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Although the legend of Faust is one of the Germanic world’s foundational narratives, its archetypes and themes were already established by the time Goethe codified them in his 1808 play. They have since become universal. The idea that somebody would sell their soul to the Devil to gain something or rid themselves of unhappiness is as resonant now as it was in Renaissance Europe. It has inspired books films and artists to such an extent that its derivatives now have their own Wikipedia page.

March 15, 2023

The UK workplace sector reacts to the Spring Budget 2023

by Jayne Smith • Environment, News, Property, Workplace

Today the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt presented his Spring Budget to the House of Commons. In it he announced what her referred to as his ‘four pillars’ of industrial and productivity strategy, namely: ‘Enterprise’, ‘Employment’, ‘Education’, and ‘Everywhere’. Perhaps the headline element of this announcement was the creation of twelve new investment zones across the UK as well as incentives for older workers to return to the country’s patchy workforce. This includes£63m for programmes to encourage retirees over 50 back to work, “returnerships” and ‘skills boot camps’. Another headline for the workplace sector was the offer of improved childcare arrangements, especially for the parents of very young children, who will see 30 hours of free childcare expanded to include one and two-year-olds. More →