November 15, 2022

Hunt is on for the most influential workplace and facilities leaders

The workplace and facilities sectors are being invited to submit names for a new list that aims to celebrate and acknowledge the individuals that have made an incredible impact and significant contribution to the profession and wider industry. The Workplace Leaders Top 50, launched by the team at The Workplace Event, is designed to bring together the names of the very best leaders, forward thinkers, doers and change-makers that are influencing, shaping and designing the discipline both now and for the future. More →

November 14, 2022

Investment in real estate upgrades stalls in face of economic and business challenges

by Neil Franklin • News, Property

Research by ULI and PwC claims that nearly half of Europe’s real estate leaders are concerned about buildings becoming obsolete in the next five years in the face of long-term upheavals in demographics, climate change, technology and lifestyles. Most of the 900 or so industry leaders that participated are making long-term resources available to address the fit-for-purpose agenda. However, the challenging business environment has reshuffled priorities to financing and high construction costs, and scarcity of resources has made real estate renewal more expensive to achieve, consequently delaying much needed investment. More →

November 14, 2022

Vast majority of unemployed over-50s planning to return to work

by Jayne Smith • News, Workplace

An exclusive survey of over 50s by the UK’s leading independent job board, CV-Library, claims that an overwhelming 91 percent of inactive workers in the age bracket intend to return to work. The Office for National statistics (ONS) recently revealed that the number of people aged 50-64 who are economically inactive has increased by 3.6 million, a rise of 10 percent since before the pandemic and the survey results support this with 41.5 percent reporting that they either left a job or have been out of work since then, but a turnaround looks imminent. More →

November 11, 2022

Problems at Twitter, grease proof chairs, and the trouble with AI

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Workplace design

The level of layoffs at several Big Tech firms has been the main source of news and comment over the past week or two. Around 11,000 people at Facebook and another 7,500 at Twitter are to be made redundant. Elon Musk then ensured the conversation moved on by forbidding remote work completely. More →

November 11, 2022

The networks people build often hold them back rather than help them

by Neil Franklin • Business, News

The networks of ties we build in the workplace are key to our success and performance. Yet, researchers at ESMT Berlin claim in a paper published in the Academy of Management Journal that we often build networks that hamper our performance. Professors Gianluca Carnabuci and Eric Quintane, both from ESMT Berlin, investigated how and when people build networks that allow them to perform at their best. To this end, they conducted a longitudinal field experiment within a business unit of a large semiconductor company, tracing the network and performance of each employee over two and a half years. More →

November 10, 2022

Retrofitting buildings essential to reduce energy costs and combat the global energy crisis

by Neil Franklin • Environment, News, Property

A new report from JLL claims that rising energy costs are expediting the move toward more efficient buildings. JLL’s Retrofitting Buildings to be Future-Fit research suggests that net-zero carbon (NZC) intervention measures directly impact a building’s bottom line and that failing to decarbonise leads to significant financial risk. For many buildings, meeting 2050 decarbonization targets put forward in the Paris Climate Agreement is grounded in retrofitting current spaces, which can also garner higher rents, reduce financial risk and generate higher occupancy rates and tenant satisfaction. More →

November 10, 2022

BDP reports on successful year for the design firm

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Works Magazine

BDP has published its results for the financial year ended 30 June 2022. The practice achieved revenues of £136.6m and an operating profit of £13.2m. The multidisciplinary practice won a number of prestigious projects in the financial year and expanded into new locations by establishing new presences in New York, Lima and Edinburgh to create a network of integrated, collaborative studios with global reach. The organisation’s employee numbers have also returned to pre-pandemic levels as it welcomed talented people back to its workplaces across the globe. More →

November 10, 2022

Plans for largest datacentre in Europe approved by London council

by Jayne Smith • News, Property, Technology

Havering Council has agreed to move forward with the £5.3bn East Havering project, which will bring Europe’s largest datacentre to the borough in Greater London, delivering a major piece of national infrastructure. The Cabinet agreed for the council and its prospective partner, Digital Reef, to continue to develop the proposals to bring forward the site. This decision means the Council in its capacity as Local Planning Authority can begin to take a view on the appropriate planning route for this project. More →

November 10, 2022

Summing up where the office now stands in the scheme of things

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working

The argument about what it takes to encourage people to come into the office more often seems to have boiled down to an equation. It’s now common to hear somebody argue that the office has to be worth the commute it takes to get to it. So, if you want people to spend more time in the building, you need to do the maths. O must be greater than or equal to C More →

November 9, 2022

Disability pay gap rises despite greater awareness and efforts of campaigners

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

Non-disabled employees now earn around 17.2 percent more on average than disabled workers in 2022, an increase from the 16.5 percent disability pay gap last year, according to analysis published by the Trades Union Congress (TUC). The research suggests that the disability pay gap for 2022 was £2.05 an hour, or £3,731 per year for those working a 35-hour week. The pay gap starts at age 20 at 65 pence an hour and increases to a peak of £3.55 an hour, or £6,461 a year, for disabled workers aged 40 to 44. More →

November 8, 2022

Hybrid working driving demand for areas with easier commutes

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Property, Workplace design

A report from Unispace claims that employees’ new preference for hybrid working has created an immediate need for firms to re-think their real estate footprint. Today, with over 60 percent of office-based employees preferring to work remotely or in a more flexible way, rather than commute to city centres five days a week, employers are considering the greater use or addition of satellite offices to their portfolio. According to the study of 3,000 office workers across Europe, 79 percent of the workforce would be happier to return to the office if it was just five to 10 minutes away from their home, suggesting that satellite offices could be a solution to boost collaboration, socialisation, engagement and staff retention. More →

November 8, 2022

Zero carbon tech for building materials gets $12 billion commitment at COP27

by Neil Franklin • Architecture, Environment, Facilities management, News

The World Economic Forum and US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate announced today at COP27, the expansion of a coalition of global companies, to commit $12 billion in 2030 purchase commitments for zero carbon and green technologies to decarbonise the cement and concrete industry and other hard-to-abate sectors. The latest expansion of the First Movers Coalition – made up of 65 companies with a collective market value of approximately $8 trillion – focuses on cleaning up one of the world’s most carbon-intensive industry sectors through purchasing commitments for low-carbon technology. From construction and engineering to real estate and developers, newly announced First Mover companies have committed to purchasing at least 10 percent near-zero cement and concrete per year by 2030. More →