Search Results for: change

China dominates a record breaking year for the world’s tall buildings

by • Architecture, Cities, News

one-world-trade-center tall buildingsThe world’s taste for skyscrapers continues unabated according to a new report from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. While the numbers of new tall buildings in Europe, the US and Australia remains relatively subdued, those in the Middle East and Asia continue to grow, making up the overwhelming majority of the 97 new skyscrapers completed in 2014, a new record. The report also highlights large differences in the scale of buildings across the world. While Europe’s largest completed tall building the Leadenhall Building (or Cheesegrater) at 224m was only marginally above the cut-off height of 200m, China completed no fewer than 58, the tallest of which was the mixed-use Wharf Times building in Wuxi at 339m.

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Nearly two-thirds of over 50s say flexible working is best route to retirement

by • Flexible working, News, Workplace

Nearly two-thirds of over 50s say part time working is the best way to retireAround half of over 50s would like to carry on working part time after 65, while 39 per cent of feel that working part time or flexible hours before stopping work altogether would be the best way to retire. According to new research, one in four over 50s said they would be interested in taking a few months off and then returning to work as an alternative to retirement. Meanwhile 36 percent of retirees say their advice to others would be to consider switching to flexible or part time work for a period first before retiring and 33 per cent of over 70s still working said they did so because they enjoyed it. However the poll also reveals some discrimination, with 23 percent of over 50s believing they are viewed ‘less favourably than younger workers’ and 15 per cent experiencing age-based discrimination in the workplace.

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Lack of flexible working options is distorting the job market for women

by • Flexible working, News, Workplace

flexible working womanUK employers and their female employees are missing out on a range of opportunities because of their failure to implement better flexible working arrangements, according to a report from The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR). The report examined flexible working across Europe and found that while significant progress had been made in the UK, nearly two thirds (64 percent) of working women are unable to vary their working hours and a quarter (25 percent) claim it is difficult to take one or two hours from their day at short notice. The report claims the pent up demand for such working arrangements restricts employment opportunities for women compared to men, means more women are working in jobs below their skill level and creates the conditions for extensive underemployment.

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Aging workforce driving uptake of flexible working in UK firms

by • Flexible working, News, Workplace

older UK workforce flexible workingA growing number of employers see flexible working arrangements as an important tool for meeting the needs of their aging workforce, according to a new report from insurance industry trade association Group Risk Development (GRiD). The report highlights how changing attitudes, demographics, longer life expectancy and the abolition of the UK’s Default Retirement Age three years ago have encouraged employers to look at how to foster the wellbeing and meet the needs of older employees. Over a quarter (27 percent) of the 500 UK businesses who took part in the study had introduced flexible working specifically to meet the needs of their ageing workforce and many (22 percent) of employers said dealing with an ageing workforce was among their top three wellbeing issues.

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We all need to embrace the opportunities presented by BIM

by • Architecture, Comment, Technology, Workplace design

contemporary-reception-desk-66059-2171731Described as ‘key to growth in the sector’ by chief construction adviser, Peter Hansford and increasingly recognised as a much more collaborative and efficient way of working, Building Information Modelling (BIM) continues to gather supporters from across the industry, yet there is a percentage of people who are still keeping their heads down and hoping it will all just go away. Maybe it’s the required element of investment or maybe it’s the small matter of change itself – always a difficult one for the construction industry – but there is still an amount of SMEs who are shrinking away from BIM, despite the fact that it is destined to become the established way.

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Government should accept that self employment is the new normal for many

by • Flexible working, News, Workplace

self employmentThe Government should develop more policies that meet the needs of the growing numbers of self-employed in the UK and across Europe. That is the message of a new report from think tank The Institute for Public Policy Research which points out that while 40 percent of the rise in job levels since 2010 has been in self-employment, the Government should accept this is not a blip but a structural change in the way many people work and develop appropriate policies to meet their needs. The report argues that self-employment is already the new normal for some 4 million UK workers and the Government should take steps to ensure their pensions, training and earnings are in step with the rest of the workforce.

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Smartphone use is rewiring our brains, claims new research

by • News, Technology, Wellbeing

Smartphone brainWe may be finding out a lot more about the way smartphones shape our behaviour, but a new study from Swiss researchers at the University of Zürich and Fribourg claims that any changes may go a little deeper than the obsessive need to peer at them. It suggests that while repeated and regular use of smartphones improves how quickly and dextrously we use screens and keystrokes, the cortex of our brains is also adapting to cope with the new demands we place on it. Touchscreen usage appears to actually change the way our fingers, thumbs and brains work, according to the report published in the journal Current Biology. The study appears to show that the increased use of touchscreens in the recent past has resulted in an instinctive increase in brain activity when our fingertips are touched.

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CIPD claims 2015 should be a ‘rollover year’ for workplace productivity

by • News

workplace productivityThe UK labour market will continue to expand at a strong rate in 2015 but there are unresolved issues relating to levels of pay and how best to increase workplace productivity to drive further growth, according to Mark Beatson, chief economist for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) in a new report. While the report argues that the ongoing economic recovery and improvements in the labour market are good news for jobseekers and good news for businesses, it also considers it unlikely that we’ll see any real increase in wage growth until 2016. The author also warns that the UK’s steady growth remains vulnerable to developments in Europe and that the UK’s ‘workplace productivity puzzle’ is an urgent issue for policy makers and businesses to address in order to sustain growth.

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Report finds that tech increases productivity, but also the hours we work

by • Flexible working, News, Technology

Flexible workingA report published at the end of December by the non-profit Pew Research Center claims that while nearly half of US workers believe that new technology helps them to be more productive, it also means they are working significantly longer hours. The study of 535 people claims that 46 per cent of US workers believe that the internet, email, and mobile phones have upped their productivity, while only 7 per cent think they have led to a fall in their productivity. Over a third (39 percent) of those surveyed say that they now have more flexible working hours, and a similar number (35 percent) believe that new technology has increased the number of hours they work. For office based workers the changes are even more pronounced with nearly half (47 percent) seeing an increase in their working hours.

Employers far more positive about flexible working, claims Government report

by • Flexible working, News

thumbs up flexible workingPositive attitudes towards flexible working are increasing amongst UK employers, according to a new survey from the Government. The latest edition of the Work–Life Balance Employer Survey, published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, claims that over half (56 percent) of employers consider flexible working good for their business. The survey reports other major attitudinal shifts since the last edition was published in 2007, including the fact that the proportion of employers who agree with the statement ‘employees should not be able to change patterns if it disrupts the business’ has dropped from 73 percent  to just 49 percent. The survey of just over 2,000 employers also found that the adoption of one particular form of flexible working – job sharing – had decreased in the intervening period while most others had increased markedly.

Revised plans approved for development of iconic BBC Television Centre

by • Facilities management, News, Property

Revised plans for former BBC television centre buildings approvedNew office space aimed at occupiers in the creative sector is included in Stanhope and Mitsui Fudosan’s planned redevelopment of the former BBC Television Centre in west London. The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham have granted planning permission for the revised plans for the mixed use development of the iconic building; to include the demolition of the existing Stage 4 and 5 office buildings and their replacement with a more sustainable and efficient new ten storey office building with improved facades, designed by architects AHMM. A change in use from residential to commercial has also been approved for a new nine storey office building fronting Hammersmith Park on the site of the old BBC restaurant block, with an overall increase in office accommodation across the site from 350,000 sq ft to 519,000 sq ft.

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Only a third of staff trust their senior management, finds CIPD

by • News, Workplace

Only a third of staff trust their senior management, finds CIPDThere is little evidence of improvement in the quality of management in the UK over the last decade – and it is one of the reasons behind the UK’s long-standing productivity weakness compared to the likes of the US and Germany. According to the CIPD report ‘Are UK organisations getting better at managing their people?’ while 65 percent of employees are generally satisfied with their line manager and largely trust them and value their honesty, only 33 percent say they trust their senior management. It found that management processes are not always applied consistently or fairly and this is one reason why there is a lack of trust in senior leadership. These are deep-rooted problems and the solutions are largely down to organisations, says the CIPD, which is urging the Government to consider ways in which it can raise awareness of the challenges and potential approaches to tackling them, not least in its capacity as an employer.

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