Search Results for: environment

Firms downsizing property dramatically as agile working takes hold, claims new report

by • Facilities management, Flexible working, Property, Workplace design

agile workingThe sharp reduction in the amount of office space used by corporate occupiers as they adopt more agile working practices has been confirmed in a new study from facilities management services provider MITIE. The survey, as reported in the British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM) magazine FM World, found that between the years of 2008 and 2014 firms reduced their floorspace by an average of 45 percent. The results of the report, based on interviews with property directors, mirror those of the Occupier Density Survey published last year by the British Council for Offices (BCO) which also found a marked (if smaller) reduction. The authors of the MITIE report conclude, similarly, that the economic downturn has been the main catalyst for the reduction in property used by occupiers and that the main way firms have accommodated the fall is with the uptake of flexible working practices.

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The solution to complex issues like green building is to become more sophisticated

by • Comment, Environment, Facilities management, Workplace design

office designOne of the current preoccupations of the World Green Building Council is to demonstrate how green business is good business. The way it is presenting this argument is intriguing because as well as extolling the most anticipated benefits of green building design, such as lower energy bills, it is linking green building design with human factors such as productivity, wellness and  work-life balance. It has produced a number of reports on this subject, most recently in September with a publication titled Health, Wellbeing and Productivity in Offices which found ‘overwhelming evidence’ of the link between office design and productivity.  What such compelling reports also highlight are the complex challenges we face and the sophisticated approach we must take to environmental issues and corporate social responsibility. Fortunately this is already exhibited by many organisations.

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Awareness of benefits of BIM growing in US and UK, but implementation lags

by • Facilities management, News, Property, Technology

BIM Level 2Building owners on both sides of the Atlantic are increasingly aware of the benefits of Building Information Modelling (BIM), even though they may not yet use it directly, according to a new report published by McGraw Hill Construction in partnership with Autodesk and Skanska. The report, The Business Value of BIM for Owners, suggests that this pent-up demand will be unleashed in the near future with 40 percent of US owners and 38 percent of UK owners predicting that more than 75 percent of their projects will involve BIM in just two years, with a particularly high level of growth in the US. Growth in the UK is being driven by the approaching implementation of a central government mandate requiring use of BIM on all national public projects by 2016, with over two thirds (67 percent) of UK owners reporting that the mandate is already having a high impact on their use of BIM. Owners in the UK are also more generally aware of the benefits of BIM and have more experience of it in practice.

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Employers unready to meet demand for flexible working in UAE, claims report

by • Flexible working, News, Workplace

flexible workingAccording to a new survey from YouGov and Citrix, office workers in the United Arab Emirates are almost universally aware of the benefits of flexible working and increasingly demand it from their employers. Yet under a quarter of organisations ‘encourage and enable’ employees to work away from their main place of work routinely.  The report claims that 94 percent of the 800 UAE office workers who took part in the study say they would feel less stressed, be more productive and achieve better balance between work and family responsibilities if they were given the freedom to work flexibly outside of the office. As a result, demand for flexible working has increased by 20 per cent since an equivalent report in 2013, with many UAE workers also indicating that the ability to work from anywhere would significantly increase their job satisfaction. In contrast, only 23 percent of the businesses surveyed fully ‘encourage and enable’ employees to work from anywhere, using any device.  More →

Work begins on ‘living laboratory’ to test eco-build products

by • Environment, Facilities management, News, Property

Work begins on 'living laboratory' to test eco-build productsAccording to Constructing Excellence, buildings collectively account for around half the UK national output of carbon dioxide. To help address this, work has begun on the construction of a new £1.4 million ‘living laboratory’ at the Eden Project in Cornwall, where new eco-build products can be installed, tested and monitored. The Green Build Hub (GBH), is designed as a training centre that encourages inward investment by specialist green suppliers by enabling them to showcase and test innovative products. The project, by the Cornwall Sustainable Building Trust (CSBT), made possible by an investment of £1.1 million from the European Regional Development Fund Convergence Programme, aims to deliver a BREAAM ‘Outstanding’ building that acts as a resource of specialist green building knowledge. The GBH design team includes Gilbert & Goode Ltd, Ward Williams Associates, PBWC Architects, Hoare Lea, CDEC Ltd and TClarke Ltd; with an expected completion date of June 2015. More →

Generational shift means Gen Y women best suited to take a seat on the board

by • News, Workplace

female-c-suiteOrganisations that persist in appointing all-male boards were named and shamed last week by UK Business Secretary Vince Cable and Lord Davies, who published the ground-breaking Women on Boards report. Now a new piece of research by Hudson has found that Generation Y females – those in their twenties and early thirties – are the natural leaders of the future. Generation Y women top the charts when it comes to being ‘socially confident’, ‘helpful’, ‘organised’ and ‘meticulous’, compared to their Gen Y male counterparts. Far removed from ‘traditional’ leadership skills (persuasion, confidence, extraversion), they bring a completely different, and more relevant, set of skills to the business environment of today – and tomorrow. Interestingly, when compared to Boomer males, (some of whom we’d assume must be well represented on current boards) the difference in skill areas are most acute: Generation Y females ranked 16% higher on people skills, 22% higher on social confidence, 22% higher on altruism, 16% higher on optimism and 21% higher on ambition. More →

Two more major US firms scale back flexible working because people work better together

by • Facilities management, Flexible working, News

flexible workingPerhaps the most talked about workplace issue of 2013 was the decision by Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo to oblige the company’s homeworkers to return to the embrace of the corporate bosom. It was controversial but a lot of businesses clearly prefer people to work together in one place for significant periods of time. Yahoo’s methods only differed from those of companies like Google in using a stick to drive them there rather than the carrot of a gilded and playful tech palace to entice them. The controversy in the Yahoo case seemed to derive from a challenge to the received wisdom about flexible working and the same voice have risen in indignation over the past couple of weeks as two more American companies have made it known it’s best for everybody if they spend more time working together under one roof. Reddit and Bank of America have joined Yahoo and HP in deciding people collaborate better when they are in physical proximity.

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Is workplace management now a core capability for knowledge businesses?

by • Events, Facilities management, News, Workplace design

workplace managementThat’s the key question for delegates coming to this year’s Workplace Week Convention at PWC’s More London office on the 6th November. Entitled ‘The Work/place revolution….taking human performance to new levels’ the convention aims to explore what organisations need to do to get ‘personal best’ performance from every worker on the payroll.For years, the management of Facilities has been viewed by many leaders as ‘non core’, but recent research by AWA (Advanced Workplace Associates),the organisers of Workplace Week, suggests that this may no longer be true for knowledge based businesses. ‘It’s becoming clear that the way the workplace is designed and managed can have a really dramatic impact on the performance of knowledge workers in ways that have not previously considered. Knowledge workers think for a living it’s critical that everything is created to give them the best chance of delivering a great performance.

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Case study: A public sector building that lights the way ahead for others

by • Case studies, Facilities management, Public Sector, Workplace design

The new offices of Wiltshire County Council, Trowbridge

The new offices of Wiltshire County Council, Trowbridge

Last year, I had the pleasure of producing a case study of the new offices of Wiltshire County Council for Mix Interiors magazine. Given that the building was this week shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Better Public Buildings Award and had already won an award from the BCO, we thought this seemed a good time to retread its corridors of power…. The recession has led the UK government to develop a number of new approaches to public sector buildings. But some of the UK’s local authorities are way ahead of the new thinking. Even so, there was a time, not so long ago, when nobody worried too much about the shape of the rooms that led off the corridors of power. But the pressure on UK public finances has politicised the design of the UK’s public buildings, with the government launching a wide range of initiatives to improve the efficiency of the way public sector acquires, designs and runs the places it calls home.

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Winner and shortlist announced for UK Prime Minister’s Better Public Building Award

by • Environment, News, Property, Public Sector

public building awards

Wiltshire County Council Offices

The (rather long) shortlist of nominees for the Prime Minister’s Better Public Building Award 2014 has been announced by the UK Cabinet Office. Hosted as part of The British Construction Industry Awards which aim to ‘recognise all-round excellence in construction, including the overall design, and delivery of buildings and civil engineering projects’ the award’s original nominees were assessed on a range of standards including economic and social value. As well as the rather impressive new headquarters for Wiltshire County Council (above), the Government claims the shortlist includes a college building that is engineered to be one of the quietest buildings in the country as well as a building that will almost entirely be powered by fish oil. Previous winners include Tate Modern and the Velodrome at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The Government, ever keen to be down with the kids, has produced a Buzzfeed feature on the nominated projects.

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Successful employers will shape the future office around the needs of staff

by • Flexible working, News, Workplace

Successful employers will shape the future office around the needs of staffNearly a third (32%) of British workers feel exhausted from juggling career, family, friends and other commitments, and do not think they will want to work later in life. This is contributing to increased levels of stress and a higher likelihood that they will leave their jobs, which – if left unchecked – could cost British businesses £44bn. It’s no wonder then that companies are set to become increasingly employee-centric in the future as, according to the report The Future Workplace, commissioned by financial protection specialist Unum and authored by The Future Laboratory, employers who make changes now to shape their business around the needs of their staff are likely to achieve significant competitive advantage. The report, which investigates the social, cultural, economic and technological influences shaping workplace care over the next fifteen years found four main trends; an ageless workplace that allows ‘returnment’ rather than retirement, the need for a mindful workplace that nurtures mental health and performance, and a workplace that is both intuitive and collaborative. Click here to download the full report.

New property programme supports co-working between tech businesses

by • Facilities management, News, Property, Technology

co-workingOver the next decade, London’s digital tech sector is expected to grow at a rate of 5.1 per cent per annum, creating an additional £12 billion of economic activity and 46,000 new jobs, which in turn is driving change in the commercial property market. Now the rapid rise of the UK property tech market is to get a boost with the announcement of a programme which provides tech companies with access to investment, mentoring and co-working business space. In a strategic partnership with Cushman & Wakefield and Spire Ventures; Pi Labs, Europe’s first property-focused technology accelerator company, will invite start-ups to apply to join the Pi Labs accelerator programme. This will be located within ‘Second Home’, a new iconic 20,000 sq. ft. co-working space in Shoreditch, designed to set new global standards in the provision of stimulating private and social workplace environments supporting collaboration and co-working amongst creative and technology businesses.
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