Search Results for: business

Government framework win for BW includes HMRC contract

Government framework win for BW includes HMRC contract

by • Company news, Workplace design

Fit out and refurbishment firm BW has been awarded a position on the government framework agreement for the Southern lot of the UK Government Hubs Fit-Out Framework. One government department to use the framework will be HMRC; their current estate of 140 offices will be re-orientated into 13 modern regional centres. This is a 4-year framework that covers the South of the UK (South of Peterborough and Birmingham inclusive) for projects with a construction value of under £25m. Anthony Brown, Sales and Marketing Director at BW, says: “Alongside the City University framework, this appointment further underpins our determination to secure several significant formal frameworks, taking the BW business to the next level.”

Putting people at the centre of building design could provide large boost to the economy

Putting people at the centre of building design could provide large boost to the economy

by • News, Workplace design

More thoughtfully designed workplaces, centred around people’s needs, could improve performance and help tackle the UK’s productivity gap, according to a new report. Applying design thinking to boost workplace productivity by 5-8 per cent could contribute up to £20 billion to GDP. The potential gain in productivity, equivalent to twice the annual contribution to UK GDP made by the aerospace industry, is revealed in research conducted by researchers from Imperial College London in partnership with Atkins. Atkins commissioned the research to better understand and quantify the economic benefit from human centred design. The research claims to examine the ripple down effect on productivity brought about by an human centred focus on health and wellbeing. This in turn has a benefit for future business growth and can enhance the position of the national economy, according to the report. The research claims to support the importance of employees’ experience of the building in which they work and confirms that steps to create the right working environment can have a material impact on staff productivity and wellbeing.

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Higher than average absenteeism rates are impacting on SME’s profitability

Higher than average absenteeism rates are impacting on SME’s profitability

by • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Nearly three quarters (71 percent) of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) say that staff absenteeism is having a big impact on profitability suggests a new survey from Moorepay. The research found that many UK SMEs are experiencing higher than average absenteeism in their business. According to the Office for National Statistics, the average number of sick days for a UK employee is 4.3 days a year and yet almost half (49 percent) of small business owners said staff take more than five days off each year. For 14 percent this figure rises to seven days or more. Yet despite higher than average sick days and the impact on profitability, few firms are taking positive action to reduce absenteeism in their business. This is despite the fact that many feel introducing policies around absences, flexible working, time off for family or medical reasons and return to work programmes can have a positive impact on reducing absenteeism. Almost three-quarters (72 percent) believe the use of such policies could reduce the rate by 11 percent or more.

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Employees accessing workplace IT systems from holiday may be cyber security risk

Employees accessing workplace IT systems from holiday may be cyber security risk

by • Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Technology, Workplace

Employees remote working while on holiday may pose a Cyber Security riskOrganisations are taking serious security risks by allowing employees to access workplace IT systems remotely while on their summer holiday, a telecoms company has warned. According to research by the corporate IT and cyber-security arm of Deutsche Telekom, nearly a third of employees (31 percent) use free Wi-Fi hotspots, and nearly a quarter (24 percent) use them for work-related emails and documents.  These are a big danger area as they are insecure and easy for hackers to clone (getting access to all email and web traffic, including any work documents and passwords). It also warns that 28 percent of employees email work documents to and from their personal email, despite this creating numerous security problems.  Ten percent use free USB charging points at airports and stations; and these ports can be used to transfer viruses and malware to unsuspecting users. The blame cannot solely be placed on the employees though, as just 28 percent of employees have never in their working career had any cyber security training to protect themselves and their employer.

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Japan introduces new teleworking laws to change work culture in run up to Olympics

Japan introduces new teleworking laws to change work culture in run up to Olympics

by • Cities, Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

It’s not just the UK that took time yesterday to reconsider its relationship with work. Japan launched a scheme to promote teleworking in an effort to address the country’s notoriously poor working culture and ease congestion in the build up to the Tokyo Olympics of 2020. Over 900 companies are claimed to have participated in Telework Day, which will be held on July 24 each year from now until the Olympics opening ceremony on July 24, 2020. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government has already introduced laws to address Japan’s notorious problems with overwork, raise contract workers’ pay, and curb a general abuse of labour laws. Earlier this year, the Japanese government announced plans to impose a cap on overtime of 100 hours a month to reduce the number of cases of “karoshi”, or death from overwork, among its people. The idea is to restrict overtime to an average of 60 hours a month, with a 100-hour limit in busy periods.

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Other UK cities must rebalance London-centric commercial property market

Other UK cities must rebalance London-centric commercial property market

by • Cities, News, Property

It is up to the UK’s other cities to rebalance the country’s London focussed commercial property market according to a new report, ‘What investors want: a guide for cities’, published by the think tank Centre for Cities with support from Capita. It examines the top priorities for investors when choosing which places to invest in, and offers practical advice for cities on how to make their places as attractive as possible for investors. The report shows that just over half of all investment in Britain’s commercial property market in 2016 – worth over £43bn in total – was spent in London. This was significantly more than the South East, the second most successful region, which secured nearly £5bn of investment, equivalent to 11% of the total share across Britain.

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Employers have a growing responsibility to provide staff with cycling facilities

Employers have a growing responsibility to provide staff with cycling facilities

by • Cities, Comment, Property, Wellbeing

This month, the British Council for Offices (BCO) launched a new report looking at the importance of offering better workplace facilities for cyclists in order to support the Government’s ambitious cycling growth targets. The Department for Transport’s £1.2bn cycling and walking investment strategy, published in April, aims to make cycling “the norm” by 2040. It plans to do this by improving cycling infrastructure and expanding cycle routes between city centres, local communities and key employment and retail sites, making improvements to 200 sections of roads for cyclists and providing funding for councils to invest in cycling schemes. In addition, city councils across the UK are making improvements to their cycling infrastructure. Last year, Sadiq Khan announced plans to spend £770m on cycling initiatives in London over the course of his term, in order to make riding a bike “the safe and obvious” transport choice for all Londoners. Birmingham City Council has pledged to invest more than £11m in creating two-way cycle paths, resurfacing canal towpaths, and even offering free bikes, with the aim of doubling the number of trips in the city made by bike from 5 percent to 10 percent by 2033, in order to make the city healthier, greener, safer and less congested.

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Over 200,000 British workers will aim for smarter working on Monday as the Summer holiday season begins

Over 200,000 British workers will aim for smarter working on Monday as the Summer holiday season begins

by • Flexible working, News

On Monday, 24th July, over 200,000 British office workers from 200 different companies will be given the option to work flexibly as part of the Smarter Working Initiative. The campaign claims to encourages companies to give their staff the opportunity to spend one day working from a location that suits them, to show organisations the positive impact of smarter working. Businesses including Purplebricks, RED Driving School, MediaCom and Farfetch are signed up, with Timberyard, Haus and NearDesk offering free coffee and access to over 40 cafes and co-working spaces across London and the UK. The campaign’s own research claims that nearly half of employers (48 percent) do not encourage flexible working, despite 70 percent of workers saying the option would make a job more attractive to them. Over half of workers (53 percent) stated they would be more productive if they could spend some time working out of the office, and the campaign aims to demonstrate how flexible working results in improved wellbeing, increased productivity and faster business growth.

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Link between offices and wellbeing is too important for landlords and occupiers to ignore

Link between offices and wellbeing is too important for landlords and occupiers to ignore

by • Facilities management, News, Property, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Developers and landlords who invest to create offices that embody the occupier-driven focus on wellbeing will reap their rewards commercially while those that don’t face diminishing returns, according to a new report from Cushman & Wakefield. The Well Workplace report claims to map out the major trends, opportunities and challenges of the future facing owners and occupiers of commercial office space due to the growing emphasis on employee health and vitality as part of the work environment.  Improved lighting, layout and use of plants are all known to benefit wellbeing and can increase employee performance. Gains through boosting performance far outweigh potential cost savings through real estate efficiencies – making the imperative for occupiers clear, according to the report’s authors.

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UK government publishes update on physical and digital infrastructure spending

UK government publishes update on physical and digital infrastructure spending

by • News, Public Sector, Technology

The UK Government’s Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) has published its 2016 to 17 annual report on major projects, reporting 143 major projects on the Government’s Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP), worth £455.5 billion and spread across 17 government departments. The report is in support of the IPA’s ongoing purpose ‘to improve the way infrastructure and major projects are delivered and the government’s commitment to transparency and delivering public services effectively and efficiently’. Projects currently on the GMPP reflect the government’s priorities; ‘making our infrastructure fit for the 21st Century, maintaining the security of the realm and modernising and digitising our public services’. The spending also updates progress on spending on faster broadband and connectivity as the UK continues to play catch up on digital infrastructure.

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Top performing organisations build six elements into their design

Top performing organisations build six elements into their design

by • Flexible working, News, Technology, Workplace design

Adopting agile ways of working makes a company five times more likely than competitors to be a top performer, with faster growth and higher profits, according to a new report from The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), “Boosting Performance Through Organization Design”. The report describes agile as ‘a concept borrowed from software development, describes workplace processes that emphasise speed, autonomy, and teamwork to get products to market faster’. It is one of six key factors of organisation design that set top performers apart from rivals, according to results of a BCG survey included in the report.

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BCO predicts how Brexit might impact on demand for office space to 2022

BCO predicts how Brexit might impact on demand for office space to 2022

by • Facilities management, Legal news, News, Property, Workplace

Commercial property occupiers remain cautious about the future, and hard data indicates that demand has, so far, been largely unaffected by Brexit, claims a new report from the British Council for Offices (BCO) . ‘Brexit and its Potential Impact on Office Demand’, examines how Brexit might impact on demand for office space on a national and regional basis through to 2022. According to the report, almost one year on from the Brexit vote the situation is one of uncertainty, feeding through to slower growth, with ‘an almost palpable sense that choppy waters lie ahead, particularly with regard to trade and movement of labour’. However, businesses continue to make long-term investments in the national economy and even in the City, some large investment banks have committed to large new office buildings. There is much variation in the relative performance of the UK’s major office centres, though, with some expanding and others apparently in decline.

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