Search Results for: flex

August 21, 2017

Office sector undergoing transformational structural disruption in response to changing supply and demand

Amid varying economic performances and property fundamentals, North American and European office leasing markets are generally performing well as they undergo an important shift in dynamics influenced by trends transforming both occupier demand and the supply of new product. Traditional drivers of demand are being joined by emerging disruptors that will increasingly shape the future of the office-space market and commercial real estate as a whole. These are some of the key trends noted in Avison Young’s Mid-Year 2017 North America and Europe Office Market Report. According to the report, of the 64 office markets tracked in North America and Europe, which comprise almost 6 billion square feet, market-wide vacancy rates decreased in 40 of the markets as nearly 52 million square feet was absorbed. Occupiers’ desire for new products remains strong and developers have responded, according to the report, with more than 62 million sq. ft. of office space was completed during the 12-month period ending June 30, 2017.

August 19, 2017

KI launches new Ruckus seating collection for active learning spaces

by Mark Eltringham • Company news, Products

KI’s new Ruckus seating collection disrupts and redefines the boundaries of learning spaces. It’s not so much an evolution as a revolution. It looks like nothing else, it can be used like nothing else. This game-changing chair optimises student engagement, facilitates a wide range of teaching styles, and adapts to a variety of users and uses. Today’s educational environments are required to support ‘active learning’. Maker-centred and project based learning models are replacing linear, more traditional instructor-based lessons. Innovative curricula and pedagogies can only succeed if students are able to move freely and engage with their teachers, their materials and each other. Ruckus is a unique approach to facilitating this essential movement – it allows the user to rotate 360 degrees within the chair, rather than having to move the chair itself. Regardless of starting position, the user can quickly pivot and reorient themselves to where they need to direct their attention. This has been proven to enhance concentration, retention and engagement with materials, tools, instructors and fellow students.

August 18, 2017

The reason you may not be successful at work could be down to pure blirtatiousness

by Mark Eltringham • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

This may seem obvious, but your personality must fit with your network in order to be trusted and successful, new research from UCL School of Management and Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, claims. Otherwise, your friendships might clash with your job. A common situation at work is to have two sets of friends who are not friends with each other. Both sets demand time, attention, and even favouritism from the person in the middle, known as the friendship broker. These expectations put pressure on the broker who must respond with whatever personality resources he or she has available. Some people are able to call upon personality resources that are well adapted to the goal of maintaining trust among their separate and potentially conflicting sets of friends. Other people find themselves unable to maintain trust as they move between different cliques.

August 15, 2017

Shake up of working culture and practices recommended to reduce pay gaps

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News

All jobs should be advertised as available for flexible working, and greater support should be given to fathers to play more of a role in child care, in a shake-up of culture and working practices to reduce pay gaps, the Equality and Human Rights Commission said today. The call comes as the Commission’s strategy for tackling gender, ethnicity and disability pay gaps is released. A strategy to reduce pay gaps in Britain makes six recommendations outlining the action needed by government, in society and in our businesses to improve equality in earnings for women, ethnic minorities and disabled people. According to the EHRC, offering all jobs as flexible will remove the barriers faced by women and disabled people, who are more likely to have to negotiate flexible working or accept part-time jobs that are often low-paid. Creating work places with flexible cultures will increase opportunities for everyone, giving people greater choice about the role they play both at work and home. More →

August 14, 2017

Google wins approval for new London headquarters

by Mark Eltringham • Cities, News, Property

Google’s much talked about plan to build a new London headquarters in King’s Cross has been approved by Camden Council. The building, designed by Thomas Heatherwick and BIG in collaboration with BDP replicates some of the campus facilities now associated with a tech campus including a garden, 200m jogging track on the roof, swimming pool, massage parlours exercise rooms and facilities for badminton, five-a-side football and basketball. The finished 11-storey building will be more than one million square feet in size of which Google will occupy 650,000 sq ft. Motorised timber blinds on the outside of the building keep direct sunlight out. Solar panels on the roof will deliver an annual output of 20MWh. The main contractor Lendlease will start on site next year on a contract believed to be worth around £350m.

August 10, 2017

Employees rate the best UK companies for work life balance

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing

Jobsite Glassdoor has today identified the UK employers which offer the best work-life balance, according to individuals on the Glassdoor website. Winners are ranked based on their overall work-life balance rating from employees in the UK during the past year. For reporting simplicity, ratings are rounded to one decimal place though actual calculations extend beyond the thousandth to determine rank. According to the rankings, the five best employers in 2017 are Expedia, Lookers, American Express, HomeServe and Peninsula.

August 10, 2017

Could a four-day week help improve UK productivity?

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Workplace

Over half (61 percent) of office workers believe they’d improve their performance levels if they worked a four-day week; and 40 percent believe they would be more productive working remotely. This is according to new research which claims that UK productivity has fallen dramatically, with one in three (31 percent) office workers admitting they are unproductive for a huge two hours every day. The report, commissioned by office products firm Fellowes, argues that despite being the fifth largest economy in the world, the UK sits 15th in the productivity table, lagging behind the likes of Sweden (31 hours p/w), Denmark (27.2 hours p/w) and Norway (27.3 p/w) – who all work, on average, less hours per week than Brits (32 hours p/w). As a third of workers are essentially working a six-hour day, many believe it’s time to look towards Scandinavian countries like Sweden – who recently trialled a 6-hour working day – where employees have more flexibility to choose when and where they work. More →

August 7, 2017

New analysis reveals shrinking pool of younger workers in the UK workforce

by Sara Bean • Legal news, News, Workplace

An increase in the number of UK-born employees leaving the UK’s workforce, either through retirement or emigration is coinciding with a shrinking pool of younger workers, which a fall in immigration can no longer fill, a new report warns. An analysis of the UK’s workforce showed that the UK’s workforce grew in 2016-2017 only because of an increase in EU and non-EU workers. Mercer’s Workforce Monitor showed that retirement, opting out (i.e. due to caring responsibilities) or emigration saw around 143,000 UK-born employees leave the UK workforce with the loss of workers only being offset by the entry of around 147,000 EU-born workers and around 232,000 Non-EU workers. In sum, the UK’s workforce grew by an estimated 234,000 over 2016-2017. From Q1 2016 to Q1 2017, the number of workers over 50 in the UK economy grew by 230,000, the under 35’s grew by 50,000 while the number of workers aged 35-49 shrunk by 48,000. According to the analysis, if net migration into the UK levels off at 100,000 per year from 2020, the number of under 50s in the workforce will fall by 200,000 by 2025; the over 50s would increase by over 1 million while the number of under-25s in the population would fall by 100,000. This means apprentices and graduates numbers will be less.

August 7, 2017

Workplace menopause study claims women need more support from employers

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, Wellbeing, Workplace

A new report from the UK Government and University of Leicester has called for menopause-friendly workplaces and culture change programmes. In what the authors claims is the most comprehensive study of its kind, the report claims that ‘many women tend to feel that they need to cope alone’ – because of ‘a reluctance to speak up at work’. The report ‘The effects of menopause transition on women’s economic participation in the UK’ was funded by the Government’s Equalities Office. The research, published by the Department for Education, was carried out by Joanna Brewis, Andrea Davies and Jesse Matheson of the University of Leicester School of Business and Vanessa Beck of the University of Bristol School of Economics, Finance and Management.

August 2, 2017

Whatever you might be told, this is not the Office of the Future

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

It seems like we don’t have to wait more than a few days at a time before some or other organisation is making its own prognoses about how we will be working in the future, especially at this time of year. The thing these reports about the office of the future all share in common, other than a standardised variant of a title and a common lexicon of agility, empowerment, collaboration and connectivity, is a narrow focus based on several of their key narratives and assumptions. While these are rarely false per se, and often offer some insights of variable worth, they also usually exhibit a desire to look at only one part of the elephant. The more serious reports invariably make excellent points and identify key trends, it has to be said. However, across them there are routine flaws in their thinking that can lead them to make narrow and sometimes incorrect assumptions and so draw similarly flawed conclusions. Here are just a few.

July 31, 2017

Being on a temporary or zero-hours contract is bad for your wellbeing, especially if you’re young

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

Two major new studies claim to show the impact of temporary or insecure work on the wellbeing of people, especially younger workers. Research into the lives of 7,700 people from the UCL Institute of Education (IOE) suggests that young adults who are employed on zero-hours contracts are less likely to be in good health, and are at higher risk of poor mental health than workers with stable jobs. Meanwhile, an analysis from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) and Business in the Community suggests that younger workers (born since 1982) in part-time and temporary work – or who are underemployed and/or overqualified – are more likely to experience poorer mental health and wellbeing, compared to younger workers in more permanent and secure work.

July 28, 2017

Men and women report similar work life balance problems

by Mark Eltringham • News, Wellbeing

Contrary to commonly held perceptions and media narratives, women and men report similar levels of work-family conflicts, both in the form of work interfering with family and family interfering with work, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. The study found men are less likely to complain about or address the issue however. Researchers spent several years examining the findings from more than 350 studies conducted over three decades that included more than 250,000 participants from across the world. The results were surprising, said lead researcher Kristen Shockley, PhD, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Georgia. The research was published online in the Journal of Applied Psychology.