November 23, 2020

Focus shifts to refurbishment as new office building in London falls by half

The construction of new offices in central London has declined by half (50 percent) in six months as developers and occupiers shift their focus to refurbishment, according to Deloitte Real Estate’s latest London Office Crane Survey. The crane survey analysed office building data over the six months to 30 September, and included a poll of London’s biggest developers conducted at the end of September. The total office space under construction in central London is now 15.1 million sq ft. This is similar to the level recorded in the previous survey (15.3 million sq ft, the highest since 2002) as developments are now taking longer to complete. (more…)

November 20, 2020

Plan submitted for London`s first net-zero carbon commercial property

by Jayne Smith • Company news, Environment, Property, Workplace design

Climate change has accelerated the urgency to address the way people live and work. With the UK’s aim to become carbon neutral by 2050, CIT and Foster + Partners want to help realise this ambition sooner, submitting a planning application for London’s first ever net-zero carbon workplace and commercial hub at Colechurch House, on the banks of the Thames. (more…)

November 18, 2020

Generation BETA is the latest demographic grouping you need to acknowledge, claims report

by Jayne Smith • News, Technology, Working culture

GlobalWebIndex (GWI), together with LinkedIn’s B2B Institute, has launched “Work in BETA: The Rising B2B Decision Maker”. The new report sets out to examine the ‘changing behaviours and attitudes of “the BETAs” – the first cohort of digital natives (21 to 40 year-olds) to assume positions of seniority in business, at a time of dislocation’. (more…)

November 18, 2020

Missing that spark? The new hybrid working world

by Jayne Smith • News, Working culture

A new survey by Actus, has uncovered a number of prevailing concerns for employees. These centre around lack of opportunities to collaborate, connect and learn as informal face-to-face interactions are restricted due to Covid-19 enforced hybrid working. (more…)

November 16, 2020

Millions will struggle to access the Government’s new Lifetime Skills Guarantee

by Jayne Smith • Business, News, Working lives

New analysis published by the Work Foundation and Totaljobs claims that millions of low paid workers will struggle to access the Government’s new Lifetime Skills Guarantee (LSG) when it is launched next year amidst a growing jobs challenge. (more…)

November 16, 2020

Built environment sector must think in radical ways and act quickly

by Neil Franklin • Cities, Environment, News

The construction sector, the real estate industry and city planners must give high priority to the same goal – to drastically reduce their climate impacts. Powerful, combined efforts across all of the built environment sectors are absolutely crucial for the potential to achieve the UN’s sustainability goals. And what’s more – everything has to happen very quickly. These are the cornerstones to a roadmap presented at the recent Beyond 2020 World Conference. (more…)

November 13, 2020

Green commercial properties prove their worth

by Jayne Smith • Environment, News, Property

Nearly half of respondents in a global survey reported stronger occupier and investor demand for commercial properties with green building certificates. This translates into higher rents according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, RICS, sustainability findings within its global commercial property monitor for the third quarter. (more…)

November 10, 2020

November lockdown reignites concerns about mental health and productivity

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing, Working lives

A vast majority of managers (75 percent) faced challenges with employees when working remotely, causing concerns within businesses preparing for the second UK lockdown. (more…)

November 9, 2020

More stability in sight for employment but three in ten employers still planning redundancies

by Jayne Smith • Business, News, Working lives

The pace of deterioration in UK job prospects is starting to slow this autumn due to very modest improvements in planned recruitment activity and a slight decrease in employers’ intentions to make redundancies. This is according to the latest quarterly CIPD/the Adecco Group Labour Market Outlook (LMO) survey – involving more than 1000 employers and covering all sectors of the economy. (more…)

November 9, 2020

Now is the time for employers to think differently about who they hire

by Jayne Smith • News, Working culture

As COVID-19 has forced businesses to change where and how they work this year, the learning disability charity Mencap is now calling on employers to think differently about WHO they employ. The pandemic has highlighted the invaluable contribution people with a learning disability and/ or autism can make as hardworking and valued employees. (more…)

November 6, 2020

Furlough schemes are leaving isolated staff down in the dumps

by Steven Buck • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace

Since March, Glint has been creating a dataset which now consists of 7 million survey responses from employees around the world and across a broad range of industries. Our aim is to take the pulse of the global workforce to see how it’s faring with our ongoing global health crisis and to understand its effects on work. The recent August report shows that pandemic-related layoffs and furloughs have hit employees hard. 56 percent of respondents report feeling less happy at work after seeing co-workers furloughed or laid off. Half of respondents say their organisation’s layoffs or furlough plans have had a negative impact on their workload (50 percent) and their sense of belonging or community at work (47 percent). (more…)

November 4, 2020

Upskilling opportunities during lockdown: UK employers miss the mark

by Jayne Smith • News, Technology, Working lives

According to new research from Pluralsight, Inc. (NASDAQ: PS), the technology skills and engineering management platform, 43 percent of UK office workers are worried they will be left behind as companies seek new skills to cope with the rapid pace of change. Yet, despite these upskilling concerns, 47 percent have neglected learning any new skills since the lockdown began in the UK on March 23rd. (more…)