Search Results for: benefits

£56m office development planned for Salford’s regeneration area

by • Company news, News, Property, Public Sector

Salford £56m regeneration schemeWork is to start on a £56m Grade A office and car park development in Salford’s Greengate Embankment regeneration area. The joint venture partners behind the development are Carillion, Ask Real Estate and Tristan Capital Partners, with Carillion acting as the main contractor. Work on the site, which was part of the former Manchester Exchange railway station, will start in June, with delivery of the 172,640sq ft office and car park planned for spring 2016. Salford City Council has signed an eight-year pre-lease on the whole of the first office building and Q-Park has agreed a 35 year pre-lease for the 442 space car park. The site, which was acquired from Network Rail, also has planning permission for a second phase which comprises another Grade A office building providing 150,000 sq ft of space. (more…)

Large and small firms demand greater transparency in government procurement

by • Company news, Facilities management

WhitehallThe whole thorny issue of public sector procurement is never far from the news, but this week gained new prominence as one contractor walked out on a £1 billion contract because it felt the Ministry of Justice hadn’t grasped the idea of intellectual property amongst other things, while the Confederation of British Industry raised the stakes overall by claiming that a culture of secrecy in government purchasing continues to foster mistrust and waste taxpayers’ money. The CBI goes so far as to claim that even the most high profile botched contracts over recent years have not deterred the government from its move to inculcate a culture of opacity rather than transparency when procuring goods and services. It called on the Government to move to open book contracts so that all parties are aware of contract terms and margins.

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Insight newsletter is now available to view online

by • Newsletter

Barbarian-Group-SuperdeskIn this week’s Insight newsletter, available to view online; your office building and its interior design could be making you ill; the culture of presenteeism in the UK is hampering its productivity and a strengthening employment market means non-pay related benefits such as an attractive working environment are needed to attract and retain talent. Given the scale of muscular skeletal problems amongst the UK workforce, Sara Bean asks why ergonomic safety guidance has yet to reflect the encroachment of digital devices; Mark Eltringham argues that the HS2 project doesn’t leave many choices for those who have to manage it in the future; and Suzanne McMinn examines the use of personality profiling to help create a more productive workplace. To automatically receive our weekly newsletter, simply add your email address to the box on the home page.

New guidance published to help close the health and safety gap

by • Facilities management, News

Guidance on closing the health and safety gapThere is nothing more welcome to the ‘elf n safety’ hating tabloid press than tales of health and safety over-zealousness. So they must have rejoiced today at the publication of a new survey which reveals the extreme lengths some small firms mistakenly go to trying to comply. This included completing a risk assessment for using a tape measure or introducing written guidelines for walking up stairs. However, these examples were actually uncovered by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), itself, which is encouraging small and medium sized employers to use its free online tools and guidance, specifically designed to help them get their risk management right. The H&S ABC is full of straightforward information to help small firms save time, effort and money by identifying the things they really do and don’t need to do. (more…)

UK Government urged to push ahead with zero carbon commercial buildings

by • Architecture, Environment, Facilities management, Legal news, News, Property

light bulb turbine croppedThe UK’s Green Building Council has fired off its latest salvo in an ongoing battle with the Government over the implementation of environmental legislation for commercial buildings. A new report from the organisation’s Task Group urges the Government to push ahead with plans to ensure that by 2019 all new non domestic buildings will be built to zero carbon standards. The report claims that the implementation of appropriate regulations is hampered by a lack of clarity, including confusion over what zero carbon actually means as well as the government’s own stop-start  approach to the environment. The current 2019 commitment to zero carbon buildings falls a year ahead of the deadline specified in European Law, but a recent focus from the coalition on reducing relevant legislation has added to confusion about the overall approach.

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Not just about the money. Higher wages do not improve employee retention

by • News, Workplace

Money not the motivator, as higher wages does not improve employee retention

Employers that take a broader view of the employee experience beyond pay are more likely to retain talented employees. new research suggests. In a study of European economies by Towers Watson, countries with higher GDP growth tend also to have higher levels of employee attrition, The General Industry Compensation Survey Report findings also show little evidence to suggest that countries with high real-wage growth (i.e. salary increases minus inflation) are able to use that to secure higher levels of employee retention. The research proves that with the emergence of a strengthening employment market means employers will have to work harder to ensure that non-pay related benefits such as an attractive working environment and plenty of opportunities for career advancement are available to attract and retain talent. (more…)

HS2 is a project for today projected into an uncertain future

by • Comment, Facilities management, Flexible working, Technology

Barely a day passes in the media without some new battleground opening up in the debate about the UK’s plan to develop HS2, the high speed line connecting London with Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield and, for some reason, a place nobody’s heard of halfway between Derby and Nottingham called Toton (pop. 7,298). While the debate rages about the cost, the economic benefits, regional rebalancing, environmental impact, route and why the Scots and others are paying for a project that may leave them with worse train services,  one of the fundamental flaws with the case for HS2 goes largely disregarded. It is that this is clearly a project designed for today, but that won’t be complete for another twenty years. The world then will be very different and, unfortunately, time isn’t quite as malleable as the movies would have us believe.

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Virgin Atlantic first airline to apply Google Glass to customer service

by • Company news, Facilities management, Technology

VirginGoogleGLass2

It’s already been predicted that Smart Glasses will be a boon to technicians, engineers and healthcare workers, as well as useful interactive, hands-free devices for office staff. Another obvious application for wearable technology is in customer services. Virgin Atlantic is applying the technology to deliver the airline industry’s most high tech and personalised customer service yet. Working with air-transport specialist SITA, it’s the first airline to test how the technology can best be used to enhance customers’ travel experiences and improve efficiency. During a six week pilot scheme, concierge staff in Virgin Atlantic Upper Class Wing at London Heathrow airport will use wearable technology to greet customers by name and begin the check in process. The benefits to consumers and the business will be evaluated ahead of a potential wider roll-out in the future. (more…)

No pay rise for a while? Get used to it, says the CIPD

by • News, Workplace

Ivor Lott and Tony Broke_96The Chartered Institiute of Personnel and Development has today released a report analysing the most sustained and severe fall in real wages since at least the Second World War, and warns that the decline will not be reversed until there is a substantial improvement in the UK’s productivity.  The report is accompanied by new survey data showing many employees expect pay rises in 2014 to be below inflation – a repeat of their experience in 2013. ‘Have we seen the end of the pay rise?‘, which is the third in a series of four Megatrends surveys exploring the future of work and the economic challenges which lie ahead, examines the effects of average weekly earnings that are now between 7.8 percent and 10.2 percent lower in real terms than they were five years ago, in January 2009, leading to a sustained squeeze on household finances.

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Government BIM target ‘unachievable’, claim construction industry experts

by • Architecture, Facilities management, News, Property

ConstructionThe majority of building industry experts surveyed by law firm Pinsent Masons believe that one of the key UK Government target for the uptake of Building Information Modelling  is now unachievable due to unfit contracts and the lack of a collaborative approach between clients and builders. The Government had hoped that all central Government construction projects would achieve BIM Level 2 by 2016. But according to the new report, nearly two thirds (around 64 percent)of the 70 people surveyed claimed it was impossible for the target to be met. ‘Level 2’ refers to a collaborative 3D setup in which all project information, documents and data are electronic with fully integrated software and interfaces.

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Mental illness costs the UK economy £70 billion each year, claims OECD

by • Knowledge, News, Workplace

DepressionAccording to a new report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), issues related to mental health cost the UK around £70bn every year in lost productivity, benefit payments and spending on healthcare. The OECD’s Mental Health and Work report is an international initiative which has already produced reports over the last year exploring related issues in Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and now the UK. Forthcoming reports are due later this year for Australia, Austria and the Netherlands. The new UK report calls for employers to adopt better policies and practices to help people cope with mental health issues.

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Cities report highlights skewed nature of UK economic recovery

by • News, Property

The Centre for Cities has today published its seventh annual report into the economic conditions in the 64 largest urban areas in the UK. The Cities_Outlook_2014 report paints a picture of a patchy economic recovery across the UK, with many cities such as Edinburgh, Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham, Liverpool and Leeds seeing an upturn in their economies, but one that lags significantly behind that of  London. The capital continues to disproportionately attract investment and people from across the UK and overseas, sometimes to the detriment of other towns and cities. The report argues that more power and finding needs to be devolved away from London to ensure that the UK enjoys a sustainable and balanced economic recovery.

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