Search Results for: office

February 5, 2015

Rural areas overlooked by Government’s broadband rollout

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Technology

The disjointed approach of the UK Government to the rollout of fast broadband is evident with the publication of a new report from the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee. In true The Thick Of It fashion, the report appeared just as the head of the Cabinet Office Francis Maude was speaking at this week’s Slate 15 event praising the Government’s successes in the development of digital services. While progress is being made in many areas, it’s also clear that the patchy roll-out of fast rural broadband is holding back rural businesses and workers. The new report claims that people in rural areas are largely overlooked by the government’s £1bn Broadband Delivery UK project which aims to have broadband in all UK properties by 2017, including superfast broadband in 95 percent.

February 3, 2015

UK Government lays out its plans and hopes for Internet of Things

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, Legal news, News, Technology

Ofcom, the UK Government’s regulatory body for the telecoms industry, has published its strategy to establish the ways in which the UK can have a leading role in the development of the Internet of Things. The technology, which links objects to each other wirelessly, is already installed in some 40 million devices in the UK and Ofcom predicts this number will grow in to the hundreds of millions by 2022 with more than a billion daily transfers of information. The report is calling for a collaborative programme of work led by the private sector and government to create a regulatory and business environment that encourage the uptake of the technology and drives investment and innovation. The report lays out the key criteria needed to make this a reality and presents a range of scenarios in which the technology yields discernible benefits.

February 2, 2015

Staff calling in sick could be a symptom of management malaise

by Sara Bean • Comment, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

If your office seems strangely quiet this morning it might be due to the fact today is ‘national sickie day’. The first Monday in February is the day of the year which traditionally sees the highest number of workers calling in sick. It’s been argued that many of these people could in fact be looking for a new job, but whether your staff are sick or on a job interview, these absences may be indicative of a deeper problem, and it in all probability lies with the quality of their managers. According to recent research, one in seven people (16%) have had to take sick leave due to a bad manager and a fifth of people would turn down a job offer if their new manager had a bad reputation. The research also found that those who find themselves being poorly managed are more likely to take radical action and leave a job than tackle the issue with their HR department.

January 29, 2015

Latest commercial buildings listings illuminate changing world of work

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, News, Property, Workplace design

The latest fourteen buildings to be listed as part of the Post-War Commercial Buildings Project have been announced by the UK Government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The project was initiated by English Heritage in 2011 as a way of recognising the significance and diversity of commercial buildings and acknowledging their unique proneness to change. According to English Heritage the latest fourteen Grade II listed entries (as well as a number of others assessed but deemed of lesser significance) also highlight how the design of commercial buildings reflected the changing world of work up to the cut off point of 1984. Although the projects are predominantly in the South East, there are listings for commercial buildings in Leeds, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Birmingham.

January 29, 2015

Collaborative workspace concept is being embraced in the City

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Property

It looks like the collaborative workspace concept is gaining credence beyond the tech start-up fraternity. British Land has announced it is to partner with Central Working, a members’ club which provides growing businesses with infrastructure, support and tools, to open a new club, Central Working City, at 4 Crown Place, next to Liverpool Street station. The move reflects a growing demand from start-ups and entrepreneurs for more collaborative workspaces in the area.The new club will occupy 11,000 sq ft across three floors of the five storey building. Following an extensive fit out the new club will offer members a mixture of shared working space, break out rooms, permanent offices and outdoor space. Profits from the club will be shared between British Land and Central Working.

January 26, 2015

Latest figures show record last quarter for UK commercial property investment

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Property

Investment in the UK commercial property sector totalled £20.5bn in the final quarter of 2014 – a 26 per cent increase on the previous quarter and the highest quarterly performance on record. The demand for Central London offices was a key driver for this as in the final quarter of the year, investment in this sector more than doubled from the previous quarter. The latest edition of Lambert Smith Hampton’s UK Investment Transactions report reveals that investment in the UK regions increased overall by 41 per cent to £21.1bn for the year as a whole – the second highest figure on record. Overseas investors continue to be the largest buyers of UK commercial property, with investment from the US more than doubling year on year and interest from the Far East also increasing significantly. Click here for more information.

January 26, 2015

Flexible working improves the quality and quantity of sleep

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, Knowledge, News, Wellbeing

Morning Sun by Edward Hopper

Giving employees more control over their work schedules may help curb sleep deficiency, according to health researchers in the US. A team led by Orfeu M. Buxton, associate professor of bio-behavioural health at Penn State University set out to explore the question of whether family-friendly work practices and other forms of flexible working had any impact on the quantity and quality of sleep. They results are published this month in the journal Sleep Health. Of the nearly 500 employees from an IT company surveyed over a period of a year, the researchers found that employees who were able to enjoy more control over their working day also enjoyed an average of eight minutes more sleep per night than those with rigid working hours. The research also found that participants’ perceptions of their sleep quality also improved.

January 23, 2015

Good communication is essential to ensure workplace health and safety

by Mike James • Comment, Facilities management, Legal news, Wellbeing, Workplace

Last week the HSE marked its 40th anniversary with a series of warnings about the continuing importance of maintaining health and safety. While the number of people killed at work has fallen dramatically since the HSE was launched, it’s important employers don’t get complacent. A lack of education among the workforce about the adequate measures to take when considering health and safety can still make a huge difference. Good communication is vital, so provide in depth, yet cohesive and easy to follow Health and Safety guides, including useful information like fire blanket locations, fire exits, what to do in an emergency and emergency phone numbers which are handed out to all employees. Regular talks about the importance of health and safety should be conducted every few months to reiterate health and safety messages.

January 23, 2015

The new weekly issue of Insight is now available to view online

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Newsletter, Workplace design

In this week’s issue: Colin Watson looks back on yet another year of dramatic workplace change and predicts we ain’t seen nothin’ yet; Mark Eltringham explores the complex nature of happiness and motivation; the BBC gets a shoeing from MPs for the running costs of its estate; the world’s taste for skyscrapers shows no signs of abating; bullying at work remains a blind spot for many managers; Paul Goodchild calls for more human centred design in office receptions; London’s thriving property market means available space comes at a premium and Sara Bean finds how flexible working is increasingly important for an aging workforce. Sign up to the newsletter via the subscription form in the right hand sidebar and follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn Group to discuss these and other stories.

January 23, 2015

Study reveals grassroots appeal of flexible working and BYOD

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Technology

The grassroots nature of flexible working and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) practices is revealed in a new study from Intel Security which found that over three quarters (78 percent) of employees use their own electronic devices to work while a similar proportion (79 percent) use their company-issued devices for their personal activities. The survey of 2,500 professionals worldwide also found that 40 percent of people are happy to work ‘wherever’. While firms continue to have concerns about the security implications of BYOD and an itinerant workforce, their employees are rather more confident with the overwhelming majority (77 percent) confident that their employers have taken all appropriate security measures to protect data, even though a third (35 percent) admit that they log onto unsecured public wireless networks.

January 22, 2015

MPs call on BBC to cut ‘staggering’ running costs of its estate

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, News, Public Sector

The body which oversees UK public spending has criticised the way the BBC is running its estate following the publication of a National Audit Office (NAO) report. While the report praises certain aspects of the way the estate is managed, especially its strategy of rationalising space, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is heavily critical of the BBC’s failure to meet its target of costs capped at 6 percent of licence fee income and the way the costs of some buildings are unacceptably high, including at the revamped Broadcasting House in London (above). According to the PAC, the running cost of the building is significantly more than others in the same area and around three times higher than a UK average. The BBC defended itself, highlighting progress in many parts of its estate and claiming that such comparisons did not stand up to scrutiny.

January 22, 2015

How can we leave the open plan behind while desktop work endures?

by Sara Bean • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Workplace design

With all the chatter regarding BYOD and wearable tech, you’d think that the average worker must roam free. Yet worldwide, over three quarters (79 percent) of office workers still use a desktop computer; just over a third (36 percent) have devices that allow for mobility and only 39 percent of office workers can work from alternative places at least once a week. Those were just some of the results of a global survey carried out by Steelcase into levels of satisfaction amongst office workers. And far from encouraging mobile working the survey found that well over half (57 percent) of companies do not have facilities for mobile workers and external suppliers. Such low levels of mobility had led a significant proportion (41 percent) of the 7324 participants from 10 countries, to say they were “not satisfied” with their work environment.