Search Results for: generation z

August 6, 2018

Government launches challenge to shape future transportation strategies

by Mark Eltringham • Cities, Flexible working, News, Technology

The UK government has begun work on its Future of Mobility Grand Challenge. First announced in May, the government believes the initiative has the potential to make the UK a world leader in strategies for moving people and goods. The announcement includes two calls for evidence, the first focused on improving first mile/last mile transportation connections, with a focus on electric vehicles and microtransit. The second addresses the more general issue of new technology and trends for urban transport. The government also claims the move will address changes in working cultures including lower levels of commuting and flexible working.

July 24, 2018

Facebook confirms 600,000 sq ft Kings Cross office deal

by Neil Franklin • News, Property

Facebook has signed its long-discussed deal to take 600,000 sq ft across three buildings at the Kings Cross regeneration project. The deal will see the social media giant occupy around 15 percent of the total scheme, The new offices will offer up to 6,000 work stations where workers will focus on the creation of artificial intelligence (AI), Virtual reality (VR) and monitoring ‘harmful content’ on the social networking platform. Engineers at the scheme will also work on integrating the Oculus Go virtual reality mobile headset into the platform. Tech giants such as Google and Youtube have already moved into large nearby offices, while Universal Music is set to to move into a new headquarters at Four Pancras Square in September.

July 24, 2018

Barclays to create up to 2,500 jobs at new Glasgow tech hub

by Neil Franklin • News, Property

Barclays has announced plans to develop a new campus at Buchanan Wharf, Glasgow, which will provide what it claims is a state-of-the-art workplace for the bank’s functions, technology and operations teams. The aim is to create a working environment that will ‘help the bank deliver outstanding services to customers and clients by fostering innovation and collaboration’. Barclays has agreed to purchase the campus development from Drum Property Group Ltd and is currently working with them to finalise the design of the new facility as part of the wider Buchanan Wharf development. It is expected that, once completed, the campus will be able to accommodate up to 2,500 additional roles, doubling Barclays’ current workforce in Scotland and making the bank one of Glasgow’s biggest commercial employers.

July 16, 2018

Seven stories you may have missed that will get your week off to a flyer

by Freddie Steele • Features, Property, Technology, Workplace, Workplace design

A bunch of coworking startups saying the same things about how different they are

The agile workspace is pants

Mass incompetency in business: the way we promote people is dead wrong

Want to discover (or re-discover) your sense of purpose at work?

Is stress at work always a bad thing?

Augmented space planning: Using procedural generation to automate desk layouts

A Stanford researcher says we shouldn’t start working full time until age 40

July 13, 2018

Half of girls are unenthusiastic about a career in STEM and technology

by Neil Franklin • News, Technology

New research suggests that whilst young women are increasingly aware of the availability of careers in technology, half hold a belief that they are ‘unexciting’ and more than two-thirds think that roles in tech are predominately linked to gaming and IT consultancy; according to research commissioned by Yoox Net-a-Porter (YNAP) as part of their work to support digital education.

July 11, 2018

A beauty industry veteran makes the case for corporate wellness

by Leena Jain • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Wellness is a term that today transcends the consumer and business worlds, but it is so much more than a buzzword. Today, the wellbeing of employees is essential for organisations to flourish, so much so that the term has in many ways replaced ‘productivity’ as the way to measure the success of an organisation. Both the beauty and workplace design sectors are very personal areas of high emotional involvement. There is a very real and physical contact with these products — in beauty, women are particularly (and increasingly men too) engaged in developing a customised routine because it gives them a sense of happiness, wellbeing and identity.

July 9, 2018

Quarter of British workers have a side hustle as well as their main job

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Workplace

Academics at Henley Business School have revealed a growing trend in ‘side hustles’ which shows that as many as 1 in 4 people in the UK are running at least one business project alongside their main day job, contributing an estimated £72 billion to the UK economy. Henley has published a white paper on the emerging side hustle economy. Its study of over 500 business leaders and 1,100 UK adults found the trend is now happening at an unprecedented pace across the UK. A side hustle is defined as a secondary business or job that brings in, or has potential to bring in, extra income. 73 of people who start a side hustle do so to follow a passion or explore a new challenge, but there are financial benefits too, with side businesses contributing 20 percent to side hustlers’ income.

July 5, 2018

BIFM members vote in favour of change of name

by Neil Franklin • Facilities management, News

Members of the British Institute of Facilities Management have today voted to approve its Board’s recommendation to change the Institute’s name to the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management (IWFM). A Manifesto for Change unveiled by Chairman Steve Roots on 1 March which set out to reframe facilities management by emphasising its ability to make a real contribution to organisations’ performance has been resoundingly supported by members who today voted overwhelmingly to adopt the new name.

June 25, 2018

Younger employees are main source of workplace security breaches

by Mark Eltringham • News, Technology

More than a third of senior executives believe that younger employees are the “main culprits” for workplace security breaches according to a new study into attitudes to security of the workforce, commissioned by Centrify. The study also claims that these same decision makers are doing very little to allay their own fears with over a third of 18-24 year olds able to access any files on their company network and only one in five having to request permission to access specific files. Less than half (43 percent) have access only to the files that are relevant to their work. The study, conducted by Censuswide, sought the views of 1,000 younger workers (18-24 year olds) and 500 decision makers in UK organisations to discover how security, privacy and online behaviour at work impacts the lives of younger employees and the companies that they work for.

June 22, 2018

Organisations are easily distracted from the task of creating a great workplace strategy

by Chris Hood • Comment, Facilities management, Property, Workplace design

Earlier this month The Once Alternative Workplace Strategies 2018 workplace study was published. This study is the only known longitudinal workplace study and it was recently resurfaced by a group of volunteers to maintain a comparative thread of data on the evolution of workplace thought and practice now going back many years. Unfortunately, the results of this global study demonstrate that a high percentage of companies still see once alternative and now modern workplace strategies as a real estate initiative and not the opportunity to reinvent their businesses in deeper and more transformational ways. Workplace innovation is a litmus test for management quality and leadership. This isn’t about real estate, it’s actually about people and business outcomes.

June 21, 2018

Three quarters of employees now expect to work beyond age of 65

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

The proportion of UK employees who say they will work beyond the age of 65 has remained at three-quarters (72 percent) for the second year running, significantly higher than in 2016 (67 percent) and 2015 (61 percent), according to research from Canada Life. Nearly half (47 percent) of those who say they expect to work beyond 65 will be older than 70 before they retire, up from 37 percent in 2017, while almost a fifth (17 percent) expect to be older than 75. Workers aged 35-44 are most likely to say they expect to retire after their 75th birthday (27 percent).

June 20, 2018

Successful EFMC event in Sofia sets its sights next on Dublin

by Beatriz Jiménez • Comment, Events, Facilities management

The Sofia Event Center in Sofia (Bulgaria), hosted from 5 to 8 June the 26th Edition of EFMC, the European Congress of Facility Management. The event, held for the first time in the Bulgarian capital, has brought together world experts of the sector and has served as a platform for communication between Facility Managers, suppliers, universities and associations. In the closing ceremony it was announced that EFMC 2019 will be held in Dublin (Ireland) on 13 and 14 June.