Search Results for: air quality

August 11, 2016

Disabled workers continue to face barriers in the workplace ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Legal news, Wellbeing, Workplace

A series of reports published in the past few days highlight the challenges faced by Britain’s disabled workers. The studies claim separately that disabled workers are keen to work but are less likely to be in employment and may be hiding disabilities from employers, are paid less when they are in work and that many employers do not feel they are well equipped to deal with the needs of disabled staff. The first study from Reed in Partnership and Disability Rights UK found that one in ten employers do not feel able to support a disabled employee. Meanwhile research from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) found that employees who experience mental ill-health earn up to 42 per cent less than colleagues. A third report from Citizen’s Advice found that 40 percent of disabled people would like to work but can’t find a job. And finally a report from RIDI claims that many people applying for jobs may be hiding their disability from employers.

June 24, 2016

Property and workplace experts have their say on the Brexit outcome ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Comment, Facilities management, Property, Workplace, Workplace design

Well, the results are in and the UK’s electorate has voted by a narrow margin for the country to leave the EU. There are likely to be other developments but whatever you make of the UK’s decision to vote to leave the EU – and I think it’s fair to say most independent people think it’s inexplicable – there’s no doubt that it will have a profound impact on the UK’s economy, relationship with the world, culture, working conditions and markets. What it will mean in practice won’t be apparent for months or years, of course, but that hasn’t stopped experts who work in the property, workplace, design, legal, HR and architecture sectors having their say on its potential implications. We’ll look at these specific issues in more detail going forward but for now, here’s a round-up of those we have so far, which we’ll keep updated throughout the day as the dust settles on what will prove to be a momentous decision for the UK, Europe and rest of the world.

May 27, 2016

Canary Wharf bucks London’s Brexit office market slow down ⁰

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

Canary Wharf has outperformed the Central London office market during the past 12 months, with rental growth reaching 26.7 percent, ahead of Mayfair and St James’. It seems Canary Wharf’s high quality purpose built space, coupled with its relative affordability when compared to the rest of London, has helped attract significant deals in recent months. The most notable deal during Q1 was Thomson Reuters take up of 300,000sq ft in St Martin’s 5 Canada Square. Faisal Durrani, Cluttons head of research, explained, “It was only a matter of time before the area began to draw in occupiers, particularly from the City and City fringes. It’s a market that has undersold itself and its full potential is yet to be realised but we may be approaching a significant turning point in its attractiveness. In recent months, the Central London market has experienced Brexit nervousness and general settling of the market but Canary Wharf has bucked this trend.”

May 19, 2016

Where is the data for disability on boards – and do businesses care? ⁰

by Neil Barnfather • Comment, Legal news, Workplace

When it comes to diversity on boards, I would confidently say that disability comes in a poor fourth behind gender, age and ethnicity. It’s something I take a great interest in as a blind person, a senior executive who sits on boards and as a start-up champion. While acknowledging a limited perspective, over the years I have noted a lack of disabled representation at board level and when I joined the NonExecutiveDirectors.com recruitment platform, we had a conversation about this. The result was that the organisation and its partners decided to commission some research into the issue. The research involved the Office of National Statistics, EU Equality and Diversity Commission, Department of Business Innovation and Skills, leading academic experts in disability, in social policy and in work and employment, Trade Union Congress (TUC), business surveys, policy documents and more.

May 18, 2016

Younger working mothers bear the brunt of maternity discrimination ⁰

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

As we’ve discussed before, when female workers have children their career prospects and salaries begin to slip. Having kids young and ramping up your career in your late 30s isn’t an option either as many working mothers find it difficult to secure flexible and well paid work with good career prospects while still in the early years of their career. This is one of the reasons why the average age of mothers in this country is now 34 and rather more controversially, why companies such as Apple and Facebook are offering women the chance to have their eggs frozen. More disturbingly though, research by the Equality and Human Rights Commission has found young mothers are significantly more likely to experience pregnancy and maternity discrimination, with six times as many under 25 year olds than average reporting being dismissed from their jobs after they tell their employer they are pregnant.

May 9, 2016

Public neither knows nor cares about the coming era of smart cities ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Cities, News, Technology

The smart city is the poster child for the new era of immersive digital living, but the British public remains ‘clueless or indifferent’ about the nature of smart cities and what they will mean for their lives, according to a new report entitled: Smart Cities – Time to involve the people published by the Institution of Engineering and Technology. The report claims that only 18 per cent of the British public has heard of a ‘smart city’ and many are unaware that city-wide technologies could improve the quality of life in urban areas. One third of respondents were unable to select the correct definition of a smart city from a list of options. Eight per cent of respondents opted for “a city that has a higher than average proportion of universities and colleges and aims to attract the most intellectual”. And a further five per cent saw it as “a city that has a strict cleaning regime for its buildings, roads and public places”.

May 6, 2016

Management needs to improve opportunities for career progression ⁰

by Sara Bean • News, Workplace

Almost a quarter of employees (24 percent) are intending to move, as job satisfaction in the UK drops to its lowest level for over two years finds the latest CIPD/Halogen Employee Outlook report. The survey reveals that almost a fifth (23 percent) of employees believe their organisation’s performance management processes are unfair (an increase from 20 percent in Autumn 2015). Over a quarter (27 percent) are dissatisfied with the opportunity to develop their skills in their job and this is reflected in the number of employees who say they are unlikely to fulfil their career aspirations in their current organisation, which has also increased to 36 percent (32 percent in Autumn 2015). Opportunities for women in senior roles have slipped as well with separate research by the European Women on Boards (EWoB) showing that Britain has a below-average proportion of women on boards; falling from sixth to eighth place among 12 leading economies since 2011.

May 5, 2016

Pregnancy and maternity discrimination has risen over the past year ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, Legal news, News, Workplace

There has been a 25 percent rise in people seeking advice on pregnancy and maternity discrimination over the past year; new figures from Citizens Advice have revealed, and it has growing evidence that pregnant women and new mums have had their working hours cut, been put onto zero-hours contracts, pressured to return to work early from maternity leave and, in extreme cases, have been forced out of their jobs. New figures from the national charity also show there has been a 22 percent increase in people seeking online help, with the charity’s web advice viewed 22,000 times over the last 12 months. Between April 2015 and March 2016 almost 2,000 people turned to Citizens Advice for help with pregnancy and maternity discrimination, up from just over 1,500 in the previous 12 months. In 4 out of 5 cases people were also seeking help with problems at work, a third of which were about redundancy or dismissal.

April 21, 2016

Brexit referendum has not diminished demand for London office property ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Property

Political uncertainty over the Brexit referendum has done little to diminish demand for London office property, despite it causing the commercial property market to experience a nervous start to the year. According to the latest research from Colliers, the number of vacant offices still remains low, with occupiers appearing to be relatively un-phased by external political and economic upheaval. There has been some high profile lettings and a healthy number of new large scale enquiries in the first quarter of this year – but transactions and searches have become protracted and supply shortages are undermining occupier expansion plans. However demand for office space amongst media and tech firms is diminishing in some locations. While Q1 2016 figures show that media and tech accounted for 38 percent of demand for office space across London, in the traditional media enclave of the West End, the figure fell to just 13 percent of demand, down from 45 percent in 2015.

April 6, 2016

Just one percent of men have taken-up UK’s shared parental leave right ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, Legal news, News, Workplace

One year on from its launch and it’s emerged that just 1 percent of men have so far taken up the opportunity of Shared Parental Leave (SPL) while over half (55 percent) of women say they wouldn’t want to share their maternity leave rights. The main reasons why men have chosen not to take up SPL are financial affordability, lack of awareness, and unwillingness from women to share their maternity leave. A combined survey of over 1,000 parents and 200 businesses (HR Directors) from My Family Care and the Women’s Business Council found that taking up SPL was very much dependent on a person’s individual circumstances, particularly on their financial situation and the paternity pay on offer from their employer. It found that 80 percent of both men and women agreed that a decision to share leave would be dependent on their finances and their employer’s enhancement of SPL. More →

March 23, 2016

Is discrimination of women with children the root cause of gender pay gap? ⁰

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

Two reports published this week support the argument that it is when women have children and require more flexible hours, that they really start to feel the sharp end of the gender pay gap. A report by a cross party group of MPs on the Women and Equalities Select Committee, reveals that supporting men and women to share childcare and other forms of unpaid caring more equally would be one of the most effective policy levers in reducing the gender pay gap. Without this support, many women are trapped in low paid, part-time work below their skill level. This contributes to pay disparities and the under-utilisation of women’s skills that costs the UK economy up to 2 percent GDP, around £36 billion. It also found that not enough is being done to support women returning to work if they have had time out of the labour market. Meanwhile a report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission says that three in four working mothers experience maternity discrimination.

March 16, 2016

Hong Kong, London and Beijing most expensive cities for office space ⁰

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

Hong Kong is the world’s most expensive office location, followed by London, Beijing and New York.This is according to JLL’s Premium Office Rent Tracker, which compares like-for-like occupation costs across 24 cities around the world. This ranks Established World Cities such as New York and London, Emerging World Cities like Shanghai, Dubai and Mumbai, and New World Cities such as San Francisco, Boston and Toronto. The latest research shows that six of the top ten most expensive cities for office rentals are in Asia; with Hong Kong the world’s costliest office rental market on a net basis as well as including added costs such as service charges and property tax. The tracker found continued demand prime office space, despite a rise in economic uncertainty; while across the global cities, the technology, media and telecommunications sectors are moving into premium office space – previously dominated by the finance and professional services sector.