May 5, 2022

Flat organisations are handing out inflated job titles to hang on to staff

We’ve seen more talk of the glass ceiling in recent years than for some time, and part of the explanation is the way we’re creating false career ladders within businesses which don’t need to be there and don’t really lead anywhere. We are seeing companies trying to retain people in a time of skills shortages and one of the ways they are going about it is to accelerate ‘promotions’ within organisations for individuals to encourage them to stay. And some of these promotions do not involve much more than the creation of inflated job titles. (more…)

May 5, 2022

Retrofit is essential for the UK’s stock of poor performing commercial property

by Neil Franklin • Environment, News, Property

The UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) has published a guide that calls on businesses to retrofit the country’s poorly performing stock of commercial buildings. From 2025, every commercial building in the UK will require an energy performance certificate (EPC) which rates its energy efficiency from grade A to G. The Government is seeking to strengthen these standards and has proposed that all commercial properties being let have a minimum EPC rating of at least ‘B’ by 2030 and is considering a possible interim requirement of level ‘C’ by 2027. Buildings which fail to meet these new standards would require owners and landlords of commercial buildings to upgrade their stock. (more…)

May 4, 2022

Menopausal women being let down by employers

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

A landmark study based on data from the largest ever survey of menopausal and peri-menopausal women in the UK reveals a shocking lack of support for often severe symptoms which mean the needs of menopausal women are being ignored both in the workplace and by healthcare providers. (more…)

May 3, 2022

Get ready for the artificial intelligence revolution

by Reece Akhtar • AI, Comment, Workplace

Behind every successful business strategy is a talented and motivated workforce that is ready to apply itself and achieve great things. A leader may have a flawless strategy, but if they cannot staff their teams with the most talented individuals, their vision will stay just that. A vision. Unfortunately, the tools organizations use to identify and recruit the best talent have not changed much over the last few decades: resumés, interviews, and reference checks continue to be the predominant methods for evaluating potential. Sadly, many studies demonstrate that these methods are unpredictive, biased, and are inefficient. The good news is that innovations in artificial intelligence offer exciting tools that improve the recruitment process for both organizations and candidates. (more…)

May 2, 2022

Why the over 50s are leaving the workforce in huge numbers

by Carlos Carillo-Tudela et al • Features, Wellbeing, Workplace

The UK economy has a problem with its over 50s: following the COVID pandemic, they have been leaving the labour force en masse, causing headaches for businesses and the government. Roughly 300,000 more workers aged between 50 and 65 are now “economically inactive” than before the pandemic, leading a tabloid paper to dub the problem the “silver exodus”. Being economically inactive means that these older workers are neither employed nor looking for a job. Of course, it could simply be that workers saved more during the pandemic and can now afford to retire in comfort earlier than planned. (more…)

May 2, 2022

Five new companies join Urban Land Institute net zero carbon goal

by Jayne Smith • Environment, News

The Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) Greenprint Center for Building Performance announced today that five more of its real estate members have aligned to ULI Greenprint’s net zero carbon operations goal. These real estate leaders join the 25 ULI Greenprint members that have already adopted this goal to reduce the carbon emissions of their collective portfolio under operational control to net zero by the year 2050. (more…)

May 2, 2022

British Council for Offices honours the North’s best workplaces at annual Regional Awards

by Neil Franklin • News, Property, Workplace design

Six workplaces across the North of England and Northern Ireland have been recognised at the annual British Council for Offices (BCO) Regional Awards today. The Northern BCO Awards dinner returned in-person to the Kimpton Clocktower in Manchester, recognising the North’s highest quality developments and setting the standard for excellence in the office sector across the UK. (more…)

April 29, 2022

Working from home can present particular challenges for women

by Rachel King • Comment, Flexible working

The pandemic has brought with it many different trials and tribulations over the course of the past few years. An area that has impacted teams across the country, and the world, has been working from home and other forms of remote work. Once a necessity imposed by the UK government to stop the spread in the early stages of the pandemic, it has now become a part of working life for many people in many different sectors. It has offered many employees the new luxury of time: no commutes resulting in more time to spend with family and friends and creating a better work-life balance. (more…)

April 28, 2022

Demand for office space ‘bounces back’

by Jayne Smith • News, Property

The start of 2022 saw a jump in new tenants looking to rent UK commercial property, with the uplift particularly prevalent in prime office space. Investor enquiries across all UK commercial property also continued to rise, according to the RICS Commercial Property Market Survey, Q1 2022. Respondents to the survey saw a notable increase in UK office demand in Q1 2022 with the net balance improving to +30 percent from a flat picture at the end of 2021. A considerable change in sentiment was also seen in the retail sector, as occupier demand moved into relatively neutral territory (-1% net balance), the first time this reading has been neutral or positive since the beginning of 2017. (more…)

April 28, 2022

We need to seize the chance to make our buildings far more intelligent

by William Poole-Wilson • Comment, Environment, Property, Workplace design

Even before the pandemic, statistics were making the case for workplaces to be made up of more intelligent buildings. This includes the fact that offices generally operate at around 55-60 percent utilisation, and as we return to the office are currently at 45 percent utilisation. From presenteeism to absenteeism and many other factors in between, workplaces have seldom been utilised by entire workforces at the same time. However, the prevailing approach has been for firms to drive an office setup with one-to-one desking – a seat for every employee, even though five in 10 would not be in at any one time. (more…)

April 27, 2022

A third of workers think their jobs are at risk from automation

by Jayne Smith • News, Technology

A new poll claims that one in three (37 percent) employees consider their current job to be at risk from automation and digital transformation. HR software provider CIPHR has compiled a list of the occupations that are the most and least likely to be replaced by technology or machines, based on the results of a survey of more than 1,000 UK workers: www.ciphr.com/jobs-at-risk-from-automation. Survey respondents were asked to rate the likelihood that their own occupation could become automated in the future, due to advances in smart technologies, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, and robotics. (more…)

April 26, 2022

Growing number of firms link increased productivity to home and flexible working

by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News

The number of employers who believe that an increase in homeworking and flexible working has increased their organisation’s productivity or efficiency has jumped significantly over the last year, according to new research from the CIPD. When asked in December 2020, a third (33 percent) of employers said homeworking had increased their organisation’s productivity or efficiency. However, when asked about increased home/hybrid working in October/November 2021, over two-fifths (41 percent) said these new ways of working had increased this. (more…)