Search Results for: london

October 9, 2015

Civic centre named best workplace in the UK by the BCO ⁰

by Sara Bean • Architecture, Facilities management, News, Public Sector, Workplace design

Keynsham Civic Centre & One Stop Shop in Keynsham, near Bath, has been named the Best of the Best workplace in the country at the British Council for Offices’ (BCO) annual Awards. The office was recognised as the Best Corporate Workplace in the UK, topping a list of six other award winners recognised for excellence in office space. The building provides an environmentally sustainable, low maintenance and flexible workspace, whilst acting as a catalyst for the regeneration of the town. As a workplace for the local council, the judges praised the building’s impressive use of natural light to create an ‘uplifting workspace’ as well as the design of the office floors which lend themselves toward flexibility and encourage collaborative working. The team behind the building was also commended for conducting a thorough and impressive stakeholder engagement process, from the inception of the project through to completion.

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October 7, 2015

Technology and Trends 15 events offer vision of the future of work ⁰

by Neil Franklin • Events, Facilities management, Insight promotion, Technology, Workplace, Workplace design

A series of executive briefings taking place next week in Central London offers you the chance to learn about the next generation of technologies and their impact on the workplace, working practices and office design. Insight readers can enjoy a 15 percent discount by using this link. Tickets are going fast with some sessions already sold out, so we’d encourage you to book as soon as possible. Technology & Trends 2015 offers an expert analysis on new technologies such as the Internet of Things, Bluetooth Low Energy, iBeacons, smart buildings, wayfinding apps and collaboration tools such as Skype for Business and Surface Hub. Aimed at facilities managers, corporate real estate managers, architects and designers, IT managers and HR professionals, the event takes place at Herman Miller’s National Design Centre. Full details of the event can be found here.

October 7, 2015

Why Jeremy Hunt is wrong about the need to work long hours ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing, Workplace

This week the UK’s Health Secretary found himself at the centre of a storm because of some comments he’d made suggesting that eroding one of the UK’s welfare platforms would encourage people to work as hard as the ‘Chinese and Americans’. Most of the backlash against these comments was political, so make your own mind up on that score, but they don’t stack up from a practical point of view either. The British already work some of the longest hours in Europe so encouraging people to work more will do little or nothing to resolve the productivity puzzle, as a 2014 report from the Bank of England confirms. Of course, we should all have worked out by now that long hours and productivity are not the same thing. It’s been a longstanding issue in the UK where people manage to combine some of the longest working hours in Europe with levels of productivity that fall habitually behind those of our partners on the mainland.

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October 6, 2015

Commercial property markets in world cities are evolving rapidly ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Cities, News, Property

The commercial property markets in the world’s major cities are evolving against a backdrop of ongoing economic and political uncertainty, according to the new 12 Cities Report from Savills. The authors suggest that the main consequence of this since 2008 has been for investors to switch their focus from paper assets to property. This in turn has led to a number of developments in local commercial property markets including global investors looking for alternatives to the major cities within key national economies. One of the key developments is that major tech firms are now willing to spend as much on their real estate as the previously dominant financial giants. One other interesting issue raised in the report is the growing inability of people to afford to live and work in the same place, especially in cities with restrictions on the amount of space available for development.

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October 2, 2015

For once and for all, please stop with this ‘death of the office’ stuff ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Furniture, Property, Technology, Workplace design

I was involved in a meeting with an office fit-out company this week which involved a discussion of how their clients can develop misconceptions about the extent to which their contemporaries are introducing new office design and management models based on agile working, shared space, mobile technology and all that other good stuff. This presents a particular challenge for firms in the sector because their day to day experiences of what clients talk about and ask from them can be pretty removed from the things talked about in the media. If you were to judge the state of the office solely on the basis of what you read and hear and see at shows, it would be easy to conclude that the office is indeed dying and dragging down with it the markets for office furniture, commercial property and traditional technology. The problem is that the facts don’t support that notion at all.

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September 28, 2015

A review of the CIFF office design show 2015 in Shanghai ⁰

by John Sacks • Comment, Events, Furniture, Workplace design

Shanghai’s population is reported to be in the region of twenty six million, more than double that of London, and the city continues to creep outwards inexorably, attracting even greater numbers. For the casual visitor however, its vast size does somehow seem to be manageable, just. The traffic is very heavy of course, but it does move, albeit slowly. There are few commercial vehicles on the city’s roads during the day and, in an effort to control the rampant pollution, almost all of the private cars and scooters are either electric or hybrids. This means that there is an eerie near-silence from the massive volume of traffic, interrupted only by the occasional police siren or outbreak of hooting from an impatient motorist. After dark, on poorly-lit streets, pedestrians are at real risk of getting run over by the silent cars or scooters that rarely use their lights – an economy measure?

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September 28, 2015

More people are working from home, but they can end up feeling lonely ⁰

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Workplace

More and more British workers are working remotely, from home and other locations, but they are growing increasingly disconnected from their colleagues. Those are the findings of two studies into new ways of working conducted independently by Plantronics and Regus. According to the Plantronics survey of 2,500 staff, flexible working was given another boost over this Summer in response to the (intermittent) good weather and industrial action by London public transport staff. During August, more than half (55 percent) of the workforce chose to work from home or remotely more convenient to them, the audio communications firm’s study found. On the flipside, the survey of 4,000 workers by serviced office provider Regus claims that almost two-thirds of employees who work from home miss mixing with colleagues and can feel lonely as a result.

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September 25, 2015

Nearly half of UK workers complain of wasted time in office meetings ⁰

by Sara Bean • News, Technology, Workplace, Workplace design

If you’ve sat through meetings where half the participants pay more attention to their phone than the people in the room you’re not alone. A recent YouGov study commissioned by arvato UK found an ‘always on’ culture and raft of distractions at people’s fingertips mean an average 33 percent of workers confess to checking personal emails, social media or sending personal SMS messages during meetings. An astounding six percent of workers find it such a struggle to stay focused they even take naps during meetings. And despite new technology causing a distraction, old technology also plays a role in meeting efficiency, with almost half of workers (45 percent) experiencing delays and interruptions due to IT issues. A lack of discipline and poor adherence to best practice processes is another challenge, with 43 percent of UK employees regularly experiencing meetings that start late or overrun.

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September 23, 2015

Commission welcomes appointment of new diversity champions ⁰

by Sara Bean • News, Public Sector, Workplace

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has welcomed the announcement of four new Whitehall diversity champions to help the Civil Service become more representative of modern Britain. In a National Audit Office report earlier this year, the NAO said that although Whitehall had made some progress on promoting diversity, it needed to place greater emphasis on departments’ valuing and maximising the contribution of every member of their staff. The report by the watchdog also concluded that the Cabinet Office was not using the data it holds on staff to manage workforce changes and hold departments to account. The new advisers, who include Paralympic swimming hero Chris Holmes, Director of Paralympic Integration for London 2012, will work to challenge policies and advise ministers and Civil Service leaders on increasing the numbers of people in the workforce from under-represented groups.

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September 22, 2015

John Fogarty reflects on a career in office furniture spanning five decades ⁰

by John Fogarty • Comment, Furniture, Workplace design

I was lucky to enter the office furniture industry in 1971, at the beginning of a decade shaped by the explosive advent of new office technology. What had gone before would not have looked that different to anyone who’d worked a corporate office in the 1890s: serried ranks of desks occupied by clerical staff bashing away on manual typewriters and comptometers (calculating machines). Although electric typewriters had been around for most of the century, decades of global conflict had constrained their development. The first major advance came with the launch of the IBM Selectric golf-ball in 1961. Although a beautiful object – I recall this being the first item associated in my mind with the term ‘product design’ by a named designer (Eliot Noyes) – it remained expensive and rare until the price reductions driven by the multi-licensing in 1972 of the Diablo daisy-wheel print head.

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September 22, 2015

Top employers for working families praised for flexible approach ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, Legal news, News, Workplace

The financial sector is well represented in this year’s annual list of Top Employers for Working Families as announced by charity Working Families. American Express, Barclays Bank, Citibank, Deloitte and Lloyds all made the list, while just two public sector organisations Ministry of Justice and Southdown Housing Association were in the top ten. Employers with up to 250 employees that reached the Small Employer’s Benchmark – ranged from law firm Sacker & Partners LLP to Bristol Students’ Union. To enter the awards, which are sponsored by Computershare, organisations must complete a benchmark survey which examines in detail their flexible and family friendly working policies and practices. As flexible working becomes embedded in more organisations, Working Families is calling on employers to ‘adopt a ‘flexible by default’ approach, to continue the rise in flexible working and help everyone to achieve a work life balance that works for them.’

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September 21, 2015

New study highlights the key roles of real estate at UK’s top law firms ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Case studies, Facilities management, News, Property, Workplace design

The UK’s top law firms are spending more on their real estate and allocating more space to staff, following years of reductions. Those are two of the key findings of a new report from The Lawyer magazine and property consultants JLL. Around half of the UK’s Top 200 law firms shared detailed data with the study, which also incorporates publicly available information on transactions. The study also takes into account the links between real estate strategy and broader strategic, management and human resources issues. While the report says the amount of space dedicated to each lawyer has risen by 7 percent over the last two years and the costs of owning real estate have also risen markedly, it also describes how many firms are now actively using flexible working to reduce real estate costs.The report concludes with a speculative look at future trends, including the uptake of coworking space.