Search Results for: change

November 11, 2015

Record construction of London office space, but supply shortfall remains ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Property

Demand for office space in London continues to overwhelm its availability and in spite of record levels of construction, according to two new reports. The latest CBRE Monthly Index claims that rents in Central London’s booming office market grew by 10.3 percent in the year to October 2015, the first time annual growth has hit double digits since April 2008. Despite rapidly rising rents, take-up of offices in Central London continues to outpace the 10 year average. The capital saw 1.1 percent growth in October, with 3.6m sq ft of space snapped up by businesses in the third quarter of 2015, with a further 3.8m sq ft currently under offer and expected to complete before the end of the year. Change could be on the way however as the latest biannnual London crane survey from Deloitte claims that the amount of office space being built in central London has risen by a fifth in six months, the highest level for seven years.

November 9, 2015

Business success is progressively less related to employment levels ⁰

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

If you want to understand exactly how the economy has changed over the last few decades, one of the most important statistics is also one of the least remarked upon. It is the growing disconnect between a firm’s earnings and the number of people it employs, a statistic that puts paid to the lie that people are an organisation’s greatest asset. Once upon a time, of course, there was a direct correlation of one sort or another between the a firm’s revenue and the number of people it employed and consequently the amount of space that it took up. This was especially true for the world’s great manufacturers and other industries engaged in what was once proper work; moving, creating, destroying and maintaining things. Growth and success meant more employment and more space. There were economies of scale but the upshot was more or less an arithmetic progression in employment based on earnings.

November 5, 2015

Data transforms the roles of offices and the people who manage them

by Philip Ross • Comment, Facilities management, Technology, Workplace

The modern workplace creates the physical,technological and cultural point of intersection between a number of abstract or movable facets of the business, including people, technology, culture and creativity. That has always been true to a large extent but with the growing complexity of exactly how, when and where we work, this role of the office as the epicentre of it all has been thrown into sharp relief. With that has come a greater understanding of the intersections that exist between disciplines such as IT, FM and HR. In some areas, the roles already appear indistinguishable and I believe this will only become more apparent. The main driver of that growing convergence of roles will be the availability of data to make informed decisions about interrelated aspects of organisational culture, work practices, office design and management and the development and motivation of individuals.

November 5, 2015

Lacklustre recruitment processes can lead workers to turn down jobs ⁰

by Sara Bean • News, Workplace

A third (34 percent) of UK workers have changed their mind in the last two years after accepting a job offer, choosing not to go ahead with the new role. Research from Office Angels, analysing the effectiveness of recruitment processes in the post-recession economy, found that nearly half (48 percent) of workers have received multiple job offers at the same time in the last 24 months. At the point of resignation, half (50 percent) received a counter offer from their existing employer. The research asked both hiring managers and job seekers their views on what makes an effective recruitment process. Almost all (96 percent) of workers view the speed of a job offer as a decisive factor when choosing between job opportunities at competing companies, two-fifths (41 percent) stated the most important part of being successfully recruited was a clearly defined recruitment process and 28 percent of workers consider cultural fit in making a decision.

November 4, 2015

Commercial property owners not keeping up with changing needs of tenants ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Property, Workplace design

A new study from Northumbria University, sponsored by serviced office provider Citibase, claims that the owners of commercial property in the UK stand to lose out on £4.8 billion over the next decade because they are failing to adapt to the changing needs of tenants for more agile spaces. The study claims that property owners in 27 towns and cities in England, Wales and Scotland are already missing out on £325 million annually and paying out another £170 million on holding cost and there are stark differences between the prime and secondary office sectors. The report, Taking Stock: Secondary opportunities and the agile future, claims that out of all total empty stock calculated, only 10 percent of vacant office space is prime, the other 90 percent is secondary. The secondary sector currently has an estimated 26.4m sq ft of office space vacant compared to just 3m sq ft of empty stock in the prime market.

November 2, 2015

Women should sit on third of all FTSE boards by 2020, says Davies report ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, Legal news, News, Workplace

All FTSE 350 boards should have 33 percent female representation by 2020, a five year investigation of gender equality has concluded. The recommendations were made by Lord Davies in his final report on Women on Boards which began looking into the obstacles preventing many women from reaching senior positions back in February 2011. Earlier this year the UK’s FTSE 100 reached a milestone of 25 percent of board positions being filled by women – the target set by Lord Davies in 2011. Although there are more women on FTSE 350 boards than ever before, with representation of women more than doubling since 2011 – the latest report proposes a series of recommendations including the voluntary target of 33 percent representation of women on FSTE 350 boards, and the creation of an independent steering body to help create momentum to ensure a voluntary business-led approach is continued for a further five year period.

November 2, 2015

Insight Briefing: the growth of agile workplaces in the UK public sector ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, Insight Briefings, Premium Content, Public Sector, Workplace design

The process of transforming the UK’s public sector estate may have begun under the last Labour administration but it’s fair to say that change really began to kick in as a consequence of the austerity programme initiated by the current administration. Central Government departments and local authorities had already started exploring new ways of owning and occupying their property in the same way as their private sector contemporaries. Now they were incentivised to respond to an administration that was not only prepared to cut their budgets but was introducing frameworks and legislation that encouraged them to innovate and pioneer a new generation of agile workplaces. In our first Insight Briefing, produced in partnership with Connection, we look at how these forces for change have catalysed a new approach and challenged the idea that innovation in workplace design and management is primarily the preserve of the private sector.

November 1, 2015

Firms use workplace improvements to invest in their human capital ⁰

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace, Workplace design

A survey by CoreNet Global and Cushman & Wakefield claims that 88 percent of EMEA corporate real estate professionals are actively investing in workplace improvements, and 95 percent are addressing workplace technology as part of those upgrades. The results emphasise the importance of human capital, suggesting that factors such as office environment, flexible working and company culture continue to be seen as critical to attracting and retaining talent. The global Talent Agenda Survey, completed by 250 respondents, addresses how occupiers are managing their talent pool against an ever-changing and unpredictable business environment. The survey focused on categories such as the cost of human capital and its value; the key challenges relating to talent access, assembly and retention and the critical role that real estate plays in workplace innovation, efficiency and talent retention.

October 27, 2015

OECD report urges firms to use Big Data analytics for growth and wellbeing ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, News, Technology, Wellbeing, Workplace

A new OECD report claims that organisations could be doing far more to use the data they and their employees generate to deliver a wide range of social, economic, commercial and personal benefits. In Data-driven innovation for growth and wellbeing, it suggests that governments do more to encourage investment in Big Data and promote data sharing. The report urges countries to act to train more data scientists, reduce barriers to cross-border data flows and encourage investment in business processes to incorporate data analytics. It also claims that few companies outside the ICT sector are changing internal procedures to take advantage of data. This is particularly the case for small and medium-sized companies who face barriers to the adoption of data-related technologies such as The Cloud, partly because they have difficulty implementing organisational change due to limited resources.

October 27, 2015

Seven ways your choice of new office may boost business performance ⁰

by Darren Bilsborough • Comment, Facilities management, Property

There are generally four main reasons why a business considers changing to new office space: your business is growing and your existing office can’t be expanded to accommodate that growth; your need for office space is reducing due to a change in business circumstances; your office lease is nearing expiration: you are prepared to explore whether a change in office could improve your current business performance. It is the last of these four reasons that sits at the heart of this article, but that does not detract from the validity of the other motivations for investigating options for new office space. Changing office space requirements and/or the fact your lease is expiring do not preclude searching for new ways to improve business performance. In fact, they provide a compelling excuse to explore alternatives and often organisations choose to move for a number of good reasons.

October 26, 2015

An updated green building standard designed to meet wider business objectives ⁰

by Sue Gregson • Comment, Facilities management, Legal news, Property

The publication in September 2015 of the revised ISO 14001 Global Environmental Management Standard has been heralded as a move that will “shift business focus on the environment from compliance with regulations and direct operations, to placing the environment at the heart of thinking and strategy.” This will assist businesses around the world to respond to increasing global sustainability challenges and ensure long-term business success. Currently there are over 300,000 organisations worldwide that are certified to the ISO 14001 Standard, first published in 1996. According to the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment, (IEMA) ISO 14001 is the second most used standard companies employ to manage their performance globally, with 171 countries now represented. Its popularity as a management tool has been linked to both improved financial and environmental performance.

October 22, 2015

Seven ways to make your office work for different workstyles ⁰

by Brittney Herrera • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing, Workplace design

The conversation around office space is shifting. Baby Boomers brought us cubicles, and as millennials joined the workforce, so did the trend of a collaborative, open office. Now, as Generation Z begins to make its way into the workforce, it’s more important than ever to make sure that your office appeals to all generations, and more importantly, all work styles. This trend is taking off in companies of all sizes and types. To begin, study the culture, brand, demographics and interactions of employees and you’ll find that people want to move throughout the day and change their work setting based on tasks. This can be applied to all organizations on different scales. Providing the right environment for unique tasks has the power to energize teams, reinforce the culture and allow for serendipitous interactions all at once.