Search Results for: professionals

May 27, 2014

A third of UK workers would welcome a digital assistant to free up their time

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, News, Technology

A vision of the present. © Pixar Studios

In the 2008 Pixar film WALL-E, humans have fled the planet they have destroyed in an orgy of garbage-generating mass-consumerism and been reduced to morbidly obese, sedentary lumps living vicariously through screens and whose every need is catered for by the machines around them. Well, they say the best science fiction is really about the present day and sure enough, it appears that many of us are perfectly happy with the idea of suckling at the galvanised teat of a robot overlord. A new survey carried out by ClickSoftware claims that a third of UK employees would welcome the idea of having a personal digital assistant to help them carry out everyday tasks. Over half (58 percent) hope that intelligent apps will take on at least a tenth of their workload in the future, especially those tasks considered mundane and repetitive such as administration, work scheduling and planning journeys.

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May 14, 2014

HR and Facilities Management bodies to collaborate on future of workplace

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Workplace

One of the main themes at the ThinkFM conference yesterday was the acknowledgement that facilities management and HR need to break down the silos that often exist between the two disciplines. This was the message of Chris Kane, CEO of BBC Commercial Properties, who explained that the British Institute of Facilities Management will be collaborating with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development on a number of projects to investigate how both communities of professionals are evolving and adapting to the changing workplace. It marked the end of a conference which began the day with a talk by Peter Cheese, the CEO of the CIPD, who remarked that both professions were in the business of getting the most of people in the working environment and why it is vital that those tasked with managing these key resources within organisations need to work together to maximise the value of its workforce. (more…)

May 2, 2014

New report aims to guide future direction of facilities management

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, Knowledge, News

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has published a new report authored by Dr Matthew Tucker of Liverpool John Moores University which aims to help shape the future direction and policy of the facilities management sector in the UK. Balancing the performance scorecard: how to maximise customer feedback in Facilities Management develops a customer performance measurement framework for facilities management based on a range of critical themes which emerged from the vast amounts of qualitative data collected across 23 in-depth interviews with a diverse range of FM professionals. The interview subjects came from both an in-house and outsourced background and across a range of business sectors. The report claims to offer a key set of recommendations to enable facilities managers to maximise their ability to capture customer feedback to improve the provision of space and facilities.

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April 30, 2014

CoreNet issues phase one of road-map to zero energy buildings

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

CoreNet Global and the Rocky Mountain Institute have issued new guidance that lays out a framework for corporations to better manage their energy usage. According to Next Generation Energy Management, corporations have made progress in energy management and performance since 2007 when CoreNet Global and RMI first collaborated on this topic. Over two-thirds of corporations now have a sustainability agenda and staff as well as energy management plans, and nearly half have dedicated energy managers, a position that was only just emerging in 2007. However, research indicates that in many cases, these efforts have plateaued, so the new report is designed as Phase One of a road map toward the goal of net-zero buildings, in which buildings use the same or less energy than they generate through the use of renewables such as solar and wind power. (more…)

April 18, 2014

The latest issue of Insight is now available to view online

by Sara Bean • Architecture, Facilities management, Newsletter, Technology, Workplace, Workplace design

In the latest Insight newsletter, available to view online; read (and watch) a list of some of the greatest songs to deal with the arcane subject of office furniture and discover the six dimensions of wellbeing that can be impacted by the design of the physical environment. Details of the first free and publicly available resource for building professionals to access detailed comparative data on carbon in buildings; and research that shows moderate stress levels can actually help a manager’s performance. Mark Eltringham suggests the real reasons why so many employers champion the open plan office layout and argues the design of trains [pictured] is almost as great an indicator of workplace thinking as the office itself. Finally, our regular contributor Simon Heath defends the much maligned HR function. To automatically receive our weekly newsletter, simply add your email address to the box on the home page.

April 11, 2014

Database of green buildings to help designers reduce carbon emissions

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

The first free and publicly available resource for building professionals to access detailed comparative data on carbon in buildings has been launched today. Commissioned by resource efficiency experts WRAP in collaboration with the UK Green Building Council; the Embodied Carbon Database will allow building professionals to benchmark their designs to a far greater extent and help assist them in identifying where carbon reductions can be made. The database has been created in the context of the joint government and industry ambition to reduce emissions associated with the construction industry by 50 per cent by 2025. It’s intended to help organisations meet this ambition by providing a source of data which people from across the whole supply chain, including engineers, architects and quantity surveyors, can use it to benchmark green building designs and as a result, assist in identifying where carbon reductions can be made.

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April 9, 2014

The Wall Street Journal (and others) are wrong about human resources

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Workplace

Everybody ready? Great. Then it’s time for another round of HR bashing and a tipping point for more existential navel-gazing for everyone’s favourite corporate pantomime villain – the human resources department. Or is it? You can choose your own particular moment at which the crowd boos and hisses at the bad guys in HR, but hot on the heels of the Lucy Adams debacle at the Beeb and a report that finds human resources to be the profession with the most “can’t do” attitude comes an article from, of all places, the Wall Street Journal that looks at what it means to do away with your HR function altogether. The restrictions of the word count being what they are, coupled with the way sweeping generalisations provide the quickest way to guarantee a bump in readership, the WSJ takes the broadest of brushes to add another coat to the painting of HR as an ancillary function that, far from oiling the wheels of commerce, is often a distraction at best and, at worst, an active obstruction.

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March 4, 2014

By 2030 your colleagues could be old enough to be your great-grandparents

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Technology, Workplace

By 2030 four-generation or “4G” workplaces – will become increasingly common as people delay retiring, even into their 80s. Although the role of women in the workplace will strengthen, an increasing divide will mean that while highly-skilled, highly-paid professionals will push for a better work-life balance, others will experience job and income insecurity. Technology will continue to evolve, pervading work environments everywhere, with many routine tasks becoming the domain of the smart algorithm. Multi media “virtual” work presences will become the norm, and as businesses seek additional flexibility, they will decrease the size of their core workforces, instead relying on networks of project-based workers. This is all according to the Future of Work, published this week by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES). (more…)

March 3, 2014

‘Big Data’ is shaping the human experience within buildings

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

As the cost of implementation comes down, the same “Smart” technology that is harnessing the predictive power of “Big Data” to help solve congestion problems in cities is being more routinely deployed in buildings. The Changing Face of Smart Buildings: The Op-Ex Advantage, published by Jones Lang LaSalle, explains how bringing a Big Data analytics-based approach to facilities management can increase employee comfort, engagement and productivity; whether helping organisations adapt more readily to supporting flexible workplace practises or using sustainability as a hook for engaging employees. In one notable example; by adding smart building components to a major Empire State Building energy refit, real-time energy displays enable tenants to better monitor and control their energy consumption, and even compete with other tenants in the landmark building to achieve energy savings. (more…)

February 13, 2014

New BIFM professional standards give FMs yet more career choices

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News

Unlike HR, which is wholly represented by the CIPD, FM continues to offer a choice of professional bodies. RICS boasts it is the only one that gives FMs the opportunity to achieve Chartered Status, something which the British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM) is yet to offer. The BIFM has now announced the launch of a set of standards to “form a global competence model for the profession”. The Facilities Management Professional Standards its says, can be used to benchmark skills, knowledge and competence for those working at all levels in the FM profession. While RICS positions itself as the preferred route for a strategic facilities management career, the BIFM competences are intended to define each level in an FM’s career, from a support role through to a strategic role. FMs then, are still faced with the choice, to follow one or both organisations. (more…)

January 30, 2014

RICS global research charts ways for FMs to prove strategic worth

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

Facilities managers across the globe need to prove the value of FM to board level directors and establish their role as a strategic and essential business function. A new global RICS Research report Raising the Bar: City Roundtables (Phase II), launched in Washington DC this week, calls for innovative new dimensions of measurement to prove FM’s effectiveness and its impact on productivity and profitability. Authored by Occupiers Journal Ltd, the report builds on findings from RICS’ 2012 research Raising the Bar: Enhancing the Strategic Role of Facilities Management (Phase I), which provided robust evidence for high-performing organisations to introduce FM as a strategic management discipline. The research also provided recommendations to support leading FM practitioners in becoming more strategic. (more…)