Search Results for: future of work

December 16, 2015

Lack of childcare common reason for staff absences in small businesses ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

A new survey has found that a lack of childcare is a common reason for employee absence amongst SME employers, many of whom remain none the wiser as their absent member of staff prefers to ring in sick. The survey of 500 UK SME employees conducted by digital group risk insurer Ellipse, found that 22 percent have had to take a day off to look after their sick child, even when they are well themselves. It comes as the top reason for UK employees calling in sick with a further 6 per cent admitting to taking a day off to care for an elderly relative. With 24 per cent of employees believing that their employer doesn’t know about every sick day they’d taken, this suggests that employers are likely to be missing absence traits. This hypothesis is supported by a separate Ellipse survey of 250 SME managers, where 32 percent of employers admitted they don’t have a good enough process for recording absence.

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December 10, 2015

Boardroom now more likely to view offices as strategic asset, claims report ⁰

by Neil Franklin • Facilities management, News, Property

A new research paper claims to reveal changes in the way that UK companies now perceive and evaluate their commercial property portfolios – both as a physical workplace and as a strategic asset that can help them to meet corporate goals. The report, entitled Redefining Commercial Property Performance – The alignment of property and workplace with corporate objectives was written by Insight’s own Sara Bean and was commissioned by managed office solutions provider Portal. As part of the research, interviews were conducted with property professionals, workplace consultants and occupiers including RICS, Leesman UK, TD Wealth International, TSK Group, Cushman & Wakefield and Sheffield Hallam University. The findings of the paper claim to reveal the growing importance of measuring the performance and return from commercial office space and the necessity to more closely align property with corporate goals.

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December 10, 2015

Report claims we will probably all be using at least three devices by 2018 ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • News, Technology, Wellbeing, Work&Place

If you ever feel completely overwhelmed by the sheer amount of technology demanding your time and attention, rest assured that things are only going to get worse. A new report from tech analysts Gartner claims that as each new type of device enters the market, we don’t choose between it and what we already have, we simply add the latest addition to our technological armoury. This challenges the commonly held assumption that people choose between different devices as new ones emerge. The report suggests that by 2018, a typical user in a mature technological market will own and use at least three devices including phones, tablets, PCs and wearable tech. Worryingly, the study also suggests we will use more than two devices per person at any given time. The report suggests that during 2016, the installed base of devices will total 7.8 billion units worldwide and is on track to reach 8.3 billion units in 2018.

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December 9, 2015

Offices and smart cities will drive uptake of the Internet of Things, claims report ⁰

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

A new report from analysts Gartner claims that the roll out of the Internet of Things will be driven by innovation in commercial property and smart cities. The study, Internet of Things — Endpoints and Associated Services, Worldwide, 2015 claims that 1.6 billion connected things will be used by smart cities in 2016, an increase of 39 percent from 2015 (see Table 1). The authors of the report claim that smart commercial buildings, particularly those subject to Building Information Modelling technology will pioneer applications until 2017, after which consumers will become the dominant force as devices migrate to a new generation of smart homes. Commercial real estate benefits greatly from IoT implementation. IoT creates a unified view of facilities management as well as advanced service operations through the collection of data and insights from a multitude of sensors.

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December 7, 2015

Groundbreaking office sharing scheme rolled out to over 100 UK councils ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, News, Property, Public Sector

One of the most intriguing and yet least talked about developments in the UK’s workplace design and management scene over the past couple of years has been the roll out of the One Public Sector Estate scheme, which encourages local authorities to share and divest parts of their vast, messy and under-utilised estate. The Cabinet Office, the central government department behind the scheme, claims that the current programme involving 32 local authorities will yield around £129 million in property sales and savings of £77 million in running costs over a period of five years. Now, more than 100 councils are set to join the scheme including several that are set to acquire greater autonomy through the Government’s plans for devolution. The new regions set to sign up to the programme include Greater Manchester, the City of Liverpool, West Midlands and Sheffield as part of 24 new ‘partnerships’.

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December 2, 2015

Lack of talent will hold back any investment in infrastructure and building ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, News, Property, Workplace

When faced with inconvenient facts, there is always a temptation to just ignore them. It’s a temptation to which the big thinkers of the political class readily succumb, especially when they’re selling an idea. So it was with George Osborne’s Autumn Statement, which maintained the Chancellor’s commitment to using public sector spending on infrastructure to boost the economy. This intriguingly Keynesian way of thinking seems pretty seamless, especially while the memory endures of what happens when you use credit to grow the economy. But it rests on the assumption that there is a limitless supply of the right people to build things in the first place. The flaws in this way of thinking are already becoming evident with HS2, a project that continues to drain talent away from the rail network’s already disastrous investment programme. A growing number of voices are raised to point them out on other issues too.

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December 1, 2015

Despite its drawbacks, LiFi has the potential to revolutionise office design ⁰

by Paul Goodchild • Comment, Facilities management, Technology, Workplace design

During 2016, we can all expect to be hearing a lot more about a new technology called Li-Fi, which uses light to transmit high speed data. Li-Fi has already been trialled extensively in lab conditions and now for the first time it has been installed in an office in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. It may even be substantially quicker than standard Wi-Fi. The people behind it claim it is already able to transmit data at a rate of 1 GB per second, which is around 100 times faster than Wi-Fi. Using light as a medium, however, does mean its main drawback is that it cannot penetrate walls. Designers and managers may also have concerns that the way it transmits data – basically by flickering the light from an individual LED like a massively sped up signal lamp (pictured) – but the developers claim this is completely imperceptible to the human eye and so has no consequences for individuals.

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November 17, 2015

Employers get flexible as retirement age for baby boomers draws closer ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Workplace

Nearly three quarters (74 percent) of finance directors are concerned that the skills gap resulting from widespread retirement of baby boomers will have a negative impact on their organisation over the next two years and an even higher proportion (77 percent) say that the departure of older workers will have a negative impact over the next five years. The new research from Robert Half UK reveals that UK employers are anticipating a significant skills gap when baby boomers retire over the next two to five years and are already taking steps to mitigate the risk. Baby boomers represent a bulge in the workforce that will soon be at retirement age so not only will employers need to consider the impact of the skills shortage that this mass-departure will create, but they will also have to accommodate different demands and expectations from younger Generation X and Y workers coming to replace them.

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November 16, 2015

People and businesses remain unprepared for next wave of technology ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • News, Technology, Workplace

The attitudes of businesses, public sector employers and people to the next wave of technological change remains a tangled and sometimes conflicting mishmash of fear, uncertainty and indifference according to three new reports. According to a new study published by Vodafone and YouGov, while businesses are aware of their need to keep pace with technological developments, around half doubt they will be able to keep up over the next five years. Meanwhile, a study from marketing technology firm Rocket Fuel claims that British people are broadly aware what is meant by artificial intelligence and many feel it will have a positive impact on their lives, especially millennials. However, another study from jobsite Indeed claims that a fifth of young people are unaware of the idea of automation and its potential impact on the jobs market and around half don’t even consider it when making their career choices.

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November 5, 2015

Data transforms the roles of offices and the people who manage them

by Philip Ross • Comment, Facilities management, Technology, Workplace

The modern workplace creates the physical,technological and cultural point of intersection between a number of abstract or movable facets of the business, including people, technology, culture and creativity. That has always been true to a large extent but with the growing complexity of exactly how, when and where we work, this role of the office as the epicentre of it all has been thrown into sharp relief. With that has come a greater understanding of the intersections that exist between disciplines such as IT, FM and HR. In some areas, the roles already appear indistinguishable and I believe this will only become more apparent. The main driver of that growing convergence of roles will be the availability of data to make informed decisions about interrelated aspects of organisational culture, work practices, office design and management and the development and motivation of individuals.

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November 5, 2015

Design for performance study looks to improve energy performance ⁰

by Sara Bean • Architecture, Environment, Facilities management, News

Developers, owners and occupiers of buildings might expect that compliance with regulations will produce a building that is energy efficient in operation and well on its way towards the 2020 nearly-zero energy target mandated by a European Directive. In practice, the actual performance of most buildings falls well short of the design intent – the so-called performance gap. In Australia, this chronic problem has been eliminated for new office building projects in which clients and their teams sign up to – and then follow – a “Commitment Agreement” protocol to design, construct and manage their buildings to achieve agreed levels of actual in-use performance. Now with the backing of the Better Buildings Partnership, a four month study to develop a prototype UK scheme which embraces Australia’s ‘design for performance’ approach has been launched by a team led by Verco and including BSRIA, Arup and UBT.

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November 4, 2015

Commercial property owners not keeping up with changing needs of tenants ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Property, Workplace design

A new study from Northumbria University, sponsored by serviced office provider Citibase, claims that the owners of commercial property in the UK stand to lose out on £4.8 billion over the next decade because they are failing to adapt to the changing needs of tenants for more agile spaces. The study claims that property owners in 27 towns and cities in England, Wales and Scotland are already missing out on £325 million annually and paying out another £170 million on holding cost and there are stark differences between the prime and secondary office sectors. The report, Taking Stock: Secondary opportunities and the agile future, claims that out of all total empty stock calculated, only 10 percent of vacant office space is prime, the other 90 percent is secondary. The secondary sector currently has an estimated 26.4m sq ft of office space vacant compared to just 3m sq ft of empty stock in the prime market.