Search Results for: economic

March 11, 2015

How a big, stupid idea can be more attractive than a small, effective one

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Comment, Property

We’re going to be hearing a lot of big ideas over the next few weeks. Politicians will be sharing their ‘visions’ with us and letting us know exactly how ‘passionate’ they are about them and anything else Twitter tells them we care about. It’s going to be boring and infuriating, but we only have ourselves to blame. We fret when politicians don’t give us a handy label on which we can rest our hopes or lay the blame, depending on whether we agree with whatever the big idea is or not. Of course, David Cameron’s vision of choice when he became Prime Minister in 2010 was The Big Society. I won’t get into the rights and wrongs of that but I think we can all agree that The Big Society has been kicked unceremoniously into The Long Grass and we won’t be hearing much about it in the build up to this year’s General Election. Nor will we be hearing much about another of David Cameron’s pet projects even though that has actually gone on to be something of a success.

March 10, 2015

Some improvement but levels of engagement remain low in US workplaces

by Mark Eltringham • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

According to a new poll from Gallup, the proportion of US workers engaged in their jobs rose from an average 31.7 percent in January to an average 32.9 percent in February. The latest monthly rate of employee engagement is the highest Gallup has recorded in three years and is 1.5 percent higher than for the same period last year. The study is based on Gallup Daily tracking interviews conducted with around 6,000 employees. Gallup categorises workers as more or less engaged or disengaged based on their responses to key workplace metrics that the pollster claims predict important organisational performance outcomes. With a third of US employees engaged at work – a figure that has remained consistent over the last three years – February’s data also showed that half (50.3 percent) of employees are not engaged and 16.8 percent are actively disengaged at work.

March 5, 2015

The financial services sector leads the way in how we think about office design

by Charles Marks • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace design

The office as we know it may continue to change, but that doesn’t mean its vital role at the heart of the organisation will diminish. The recent downturn meant some tough decisions had to be taken by many companies. It certainly focussed more attention on the way firms design and manage their workplace, based on a clear understanding of their economics. It is one of the most commonly cited truisms about office design that after staff, buildings are easily the second highest item of expenditure for the majority of organisations. The conclusion often drawn from this is that there is a compulsion to reduce space through new working practices or more efficient office design and management. Which may be true but the challenge is to take advantage of these opportunities without adversely affecting the company’s most expensive and valuable asset; its staff.

March 3, 2015

Female empowerment within UK workforce on rise but too few in full time jobs

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Workplace

A strengthening economy has helped the UK to rise up to 14^th position out of 27 OECD countries in PwC’s annual Women in Work Index, but it still lags well behind many other countries in overall female economic empowerment. The Nordic countries continue to lead the Index, with Norway maintaining pole position, followed by Denmark and Sweden. These three countries have consistently occupied the top three positions in the Index since 2000 and the reason is that they all have a much fairer balance between genders on managing work and family life. By comparison, although the UK is in the top 10 performing OECD countries on female participation in the labour force, this is negatively impacted due to the low proportion of women in full-time employment; suggesting that flexible working is having a negative impact on many women’s career prospects.

February 25, 2015

Leading role for property sector in promoting ‘green infrastructure’ says UK-GBC

by Sara Bean • Environment, Facilities management, News, Property, Wellbeing

The property industry can play a leading role in protecting and enhancing national features and biodiversity. That is according to a new report by the UK Green Building Council Task Group which presents the business case for “green infrastructure”, the term used to describe natural and semi-natural features ranging from street trees and roof gardens to parks and woodland. Demystifying Green Infrastructure finds that introducing green infrastructure into the built environment offers a range of business opportunities, including an increase in the value of land and property, as well as social and environmental benefits. Aimed primarily at developers and occupiers, the report also identifies risks from failing to incorporate adequate green infrastructure into projects, such as delays in planning, increased costs and reputational damage.

February 25, 2015

The pressing need for more women to forge careers in STEM disciplines

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

One of the most pressing economic challenges facing the UK is producing enough qualified professionals in the key science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) disciplines. And, as a number of new reports make clear, the problem is compounded by the failure of enough women to develop careers in those areas that will define the country’s economic future. It was a point raised in a recent Government report into the UK’s digital future. Writing for the BBC earlier this month Dame Prof Ann Dowling the President of the Royal Academy of Engineering laid out the scale of the problem; by 2022 the UK will need at least 1.82 million new engineering, science and technology professionals. What is also becoming clear is that, while many women are keen to develop STEM careers, they face a series of obstacles at every step.

February 24, 2015

Fit note linked to sharp reduction in long term work absences

by Mark Eltringham • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

The much discussed ‘fit note’ legislation introduced in the UK in 2010 may have resulted in a sharp reduction in the number of people taking long terms absences from work, according to a new study, which also revealed a starkly growing number of people taking time off work to deal with mental health issues. Researchers from the Institute of Psychology, Health and Society at the University of Liverpool claim to have found evidence that the UK ‘fit note,’ which replaced the ‘sick note’ in 2010 in the UK, is linked to fewer people taking long term sick leave of 12 or more weeks. A report based on the same study published in the journal Occupational & Environmental Medicine also found that the proportion of people off sick with depression, anxiety, and stress has increased noticeably.

February 17, 2015

Employment confidence is increasing, but so is the pay divide finds CIPD

by Sara Bean • News, Public Sector, Workplace

The UK workforce is seeing an increasing pay divide between employers that can now afford to increase wages by 2 percent or more and those that are stuck in a pay freeze. According to the latest Labour Market Outlook from the CIPD, almost half of the UK workforce saw either a pay freeze or a pay cut (3% pay cut, 39% pay freeze) in the twelve months to December 2014. In contrast, a similar proportion (40%) have received a pay increase of 2 percent or more and less than a fifth (18%) fall in the middle ground of people who have received a pay increase in the 0.1-1.99 percent corridor. As well as identifying a growing pay divide, the report finds employment confidence is set to remain strong over the next three months with around two thirds of employers (65%) planning to recruit new employees.

February 13, 2015

Our personal choices can tell us a lot about the state of the economy

by Alison Kitchingman • Comment, Products, Workplace design

The announcement by Pantone that its Colour of the Year for 2014 was a muted reddish brown called Marsala was met with the annual carping about the subjectivity of the whole thing. Yet there are two things we know for sure. One is that Pantone puts a lot of time and effort into making its decision and looks at a range of social and economic factors, fashions and tastes before making its decision. The other is that this idea that you can gauge trends by tracking changes in taste has some high profile adherents. One of them is Alan Greenspan, perhaps the world’s most famous living economist, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve and a great believer in the idea that you can get a good idea of the health of the economy by looking at the length of women’s hemlines and heels and the amount of money men invest in underwear and ties.

February 11, 2015

BIFM and CIPD launch Workplace Conversation to discuss future of work

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Workplace, Workplace design

The BIFM and the CIPD have launched a joint initiative that aims to examine the evolution of the working environment and the future of work. The Workplace Conversation, project, which was announced by BIFM Chief Executive, Gareth Tancred, at the Workplace Futures conference yesterday, builds on the agreement made between the two bodies last year to collaborate on ways the ‘custodians of two of the most important drivers of business performance – people and place’ could build bridges between the two disciplines. The project will aim to identify and define the challenges, ideas and opportunities on how work is enabled, both now and in the future, and will explore topics such as the emergence of new technologies, economic forces and flexible working alternatives, and their impact on business performance and the way people work.

February 9, 2015

The open plan remains an important office design element

by Paul Goodchild • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace design

For half a century the default office design model in large parts of the world has been the open plan. Even though that continues to be the case, a growing number of voices are questioning this hegemony and suggesting there may be better ways of designing offices that balance the advantages of the open plan while eliminating or mitigating drawbacks. On the face of it, the case for working in open plan offices is clear cut. Not only are they believed to be more conducive to collaborative work, open plan workstations take up around half the space of cellular offices. As well as taking up less space, a crucial consideration is that fit-out costs are typically around 25 per cent lower, even in eye wateringly expensive commercial property hotspots such as London.

February 5, 2015

Buoyant demand for commercial property across Europe, claims report

by Mark Eltringham • Company news, News, Property

Europe’s commercial property market ‘sizzled’ during 2014, according to a new report by Real Capital Analytics (RCA). Europe saw 213.1 billion euros of commercial real estate transactions in 2014, a rise of 13 percent over 2013. Paris led France to a 31 percent rise, although the French capital accounted for three quarters of demand. In contrast, demand in London fell 3 percent as high prices led investors to British regional markets, with the UK market overall up 16 percent. A similar trend emerged in Germany, where volumes in Berlin, Munich and Hamburg fell, while markets in the Ruhr, Cologne and Stuttgart strengthened. Most improved were commercial property markets in Ireland and Spain, where investment volumes soared 89 percent and 134 percent respectively.