Search Results for: career

July 9, 2013

BIFM partnership with DWP may prove an ill-advised and short-lived union

by Simon Heath • Comment, Facilities management

Rather like someone who collects friends on Facebook and followers on Twitter with the obsessiveness of the avid lepidopterist completist, news reaches us from the British Institute of Facilities Management concerning yet another partnership. Not content with the recently announced merger with Asset Skills, the Facilities Management Association and the Cleaning and Support Services Association, this time it’s the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) that is the object of BIFM’s affections. Not that BIFM are considering moving in to Caxton House and a run for Parliament in 2015 (at least not that we are aware of). But while BIFM are, understandably, trumpeting the signing of this joint agreement, the DWP are not. In fact, if one searches on www.gov.uk using the search terms “BIFM” or “British Institute of Facilities Management” no results are returned.

July 8, 2013

BIFM and DWP announce facilities management partnership agreement

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, News

The British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM) is building on its recent track record of building new alliances with the announcement that it has signed a partnership agreement with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The partners claim the new agreement will see the BIFM and DWP working in unison to support future growth in the facilities and workplace management sector. The agreement was signed at the end of last week by Mark Hoban MP, Minister of State for Employment, Gareth Tancred, CEO of BIFM and Martin Brown, Work Services Director for Wales and Employers, Department for Work and Pensions. The joint statement from the BIFM and DWP claims that the partnership agreement will drive ‘a shared agenda on increasing routes into and raising skills and professionalism of all those working in the facilities and workplace management industry’.

July 4, 2013

UK workers mistrust more contented home-based colleagues

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

The debate which ensued following the Yahoo ban on home working earlier this year was as much as about the level of trust felt towards home workers as it was about the importance of collaboration within the workplace. The fact is that for the majority of home workers, day to day life is easier. No commuting, work where you please, no irritating colleagues and the freedom to nip out to the dentist, doctors or parents meeting without having to book a half day off. As a result, while home workers enjoy the best mental health and wellbeing of four groups in a survey of contact centre workers, office workers, home workers and mobile professional workers, their distance from the office-based working population breeds suspicion between them and everybody else. More →

July 3, 2013

Hours and pay are not key factors for work-life balance finds survey

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Workplace

The key to a better work-life balance is not simply to work shorter hours or earn more money and working shorter hours does not necessarily make people happier. According to a new survey by recruiter Randstad those in the South East and Yorkshire & The Humber are most happy with their work-life balance, with 64 per cent saying they are content, despite those in the South East having one of the longest average working weeks in the UK. The survey also found that those working in property and construction (88%) were amongst the happiest with their work-life balance, coming third after the utilities and insurance sectors. Those least happy with their work-life balance were the East of England (51 per cent) and South West (55 per cent) – yet those in the South West have a shorter average working week than most of the UK. More →

July 2, 2013

Younger workers’ CSR ethics don’t necessarily extend to older generation

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

Is ageism one of the last bastions of accepted prejudice in the UK? Take the Daily Mail’s “night of the living dead” coverage of the Stones’ Glastonbury performance – deemed acceptable where jokes regarding gender, race or disability are not. A new survey illustrates this attitude. Nearly half of younger workers in a recent poll think older colleagues are in danger of stifling their career prospects by retiring later, that their prolonged presence could damage productivity and that they have very little to teach the younger generation. Yet over half (55 per cent) of Generation Y workers questioned in the poll say the ethical credentials of a company would influence their choice of employer. Since the scrapping of the Default Retirement Age (DRA) the number of over-65s in the labour force has exceeded one million, and the survey, carried out for KPMG by OnePoll warns that tensions could rise as the need for employees to stay in the labour force for longer growing due to social and financial pressures. More →

June 19, 2013

Employers struggling to recruit the right talent finds survey

by Sara Bean • Knowledge, News, Workplace

Employers are having to work harder than ever to find the right talent to fill vacancies, with the proportion of employers reporting an increase in competition for well-qualified talent increasing threefold from 20 per cent in 2009 to 62 per cent in 2013. The annual CIPD/Hays Resourcing and Talent Planning Survey 2013, which examines resourcing and talent planning strategies across private, public and voluntary sector organisations, reveals that six in ten organisations had experienced difficulties filling vacancies in the past year, and although more than half of organisations report that they make use of social media in resourcing, just two fifths have a dedicated strategy. More →

June 13, 2013

Consultation opens on facilities management to ‘enhance organisational performance’

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

Facilities and property managers worldwide are being asked to help shape a ‘Strategic Facilities Management Guidance Note’. Once established, the note – spearheaded by a RICS-led working group – aims to help drive professionalism and enable benchmarking across the sector by creating greater consistency in the delivery of FM services. The guidance forms a key part of RICS’ wider campaign to improve understanding and recognition from businesses for the performance efficiencies that strategic FM can deliver. The call for global feedback follows RICS’ initial UK consultation last year which has resulted in the publication of the draft guidance, ‘Managing facilities to enhance organisational performance’.

June 13, 2013

Gender equality and senior roles where are we now?

by Pam Loch • Legal news, Workplace

Gender equality at senior management and Board level has been and is likely to remain an area of contention. According to recent research by analysts BoardEx into gender inequality in Britain’s top 100 private companies, 73 per cent of companies still have all male teams of executive directors, 51 per cent have only male non-executive directors and there are still 56 per cent of all male Boards. At the end of May a new National Equality Standard was launched by the CBI and the Equality and Human Rights Commission in response to the continued concerns about the issue, which some EU members have argued requires the imposition of mandatory board quotas.

June 12, 2013

Niels Diffrient redefined what we know about ergonomics and office furniture

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Furniture, Workplace design

Niels Diffrient, who passed away over the weekend at the age of 84, did more than any other designer to further the principles of ergonomic design as we now understand them. He is perhaps best known for his work over the last two decades on seating for Humanscale, including the groundbreaking and truly iconic Freedom chair, but his interest in function and comfort predated that by some time. As far back as the 1950s, Diffrient was one of the first people to x-ray a human spine while its owner was sitting and moving in a chair. He discovered that people will generally adapt to whatever they are sitting on without adjusting the seat. To Diffrient this suggested that the chair should be designed to adapt to the person rather than the other way round.

June 11, 2013

Two thirds of UK managers complain of unethical demands by employers

by Sara Bean • Knowledge, Legal news, News, Workplace

Employee’s beliefs can differ from that of their employers, and that can cause them to face an ethical dilemma. Take yesterday’s news reports of an ex-CIA operative who alleges that the data-gathering centre GCHQ circumvented the law to gain information on UK citizens, or the recent (rejected) claims by three British Christians to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg who argued their religious rights where being violated by their employers. Following the banking scandals, public expectations on business ethics have risen over the past few years, but are CSR policies being put into practise? It seems doubtful, as new research by the Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM) and Business in the Community (BITC) reveals that nearly two thirds (63 per cent) of managers have been expected to behave unethically at some point in their career.

June 7, 2013

Roger Sterling of Mad Men’s guide to letting someone go

by Sara Bean • Comment, Legal news, Workplace

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One of the least appealing duties of any employer is breaking bad news to an employee, and the worst of this is, of course, the ‘we’ve had to let you go.’ In an attempt to avoid a costly employment tribunal claim, many organisations fall back on frankly horrible phrases like ‘downsizing’ and ‘rationalisation’. On one memorable occasion I heard a group of shell-shocked staff being assured that the company was planning to give them a ‘soft landing’ by bringing in careers counsellors to help them make the most of ‘fresh opportunities’. Personally, in these situations I think a little more honesty is preferable – but perhaps not with such blatant glee as Roger Sterling of Mad Men when he explains to Burt Peterson just how much pleasure he’s getting from firing him….again. Burt’s response contains some strong language.

June 4, 2013

Time to apply flexible working to harness women’s untapped potential

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Knowledge, News, Public Sector, Workplace

Encouraging flexible working and understanding how best to support working parents in the second stage of their career is just one of the findings of a major report published today by the Women’s Business Council (WBC) on improving women’s contribution to economic growth. The WBC, which is chaired by Ruby McGregor Smith CBE, chief executive of MITIE, is an independent working group established by the government in 2012 to explore the untapped potential of the female workforce. Maximising women’s contribution to future economic growth looks into addressing the obstacles at all stages of women’s careers, such as broadening career choices, helping to access childcare and providing the necessary skills to start new businesses. More →