September 10, 2018
Network Rail agrees £1.46bn commercial real estate sale to Telereal Trillium and Blackstone Property
Network Rail has agreed terms with Telereal Trillium and Blackstone Property Partners for the sale of its commercial real estate portfolio. Proceeds from the £1.46 billion transaction will help fund the railway upgrade plan, bringing improvements for passengers and reducing the need for taxpayers to fund the railway, according to a statement from Network Rail. Telereal and Blackstone will hold equal ownership stakes and intend to be long-term owners of the estate. Both parties have adopted a ‘tenants first’ approach, cemented in a tenants’ charter, which offers a commitment to engage with all tenants and communities in an open and honest manner. Telereal will oversee the day-to-day property management of the portfolio.
The number of “gig economy” professionals working in organisations is growing and this trend is expected to continue, a survey by Korn Ferry has claimed. More than half (60 percent) of HR professionals say that compared to three years ago, gig workers now make up a larger percentage of their professional workforce, and 42 percent say they plan on hiring more contingent workers in the future. The reasons, according to the survey, include cost savings, access to high-calibre talent and ease of managing gig economy professionals. Despite the fact that many gig professionals work remotely, 67 percent of the HR professionals surveyed say they are confident they know what the gig professionals are doing on a day-to-day basis, and 42 percent say these contingent employees are easier to manage than full-time employees. However, according to Jeanne MacDonald, president of Global Talent Solutions for Korn Ferry’s RPO and Professional Search Business, organisations should proceed cautiously and ensure they continue to cultivate in-house talent.
The new corporate governance code that comes into play early next year includes directives on how companies engage with their staff, but it is a voluntary code which will allow businesses to opt out if they wish. Now a new report suggests there is currently is a high level of mistrust towards senior UK managers, with just 16 percent trusting this group, according to the study. This is despite the fact that according to the research, carried out by Virtual College the majority (95 percent) of senior managers in UK businesses believe that their employees trust them. Employees rated their trust in different roles in the following order; co-workers – 57 percent, managers – 45 percent, team members – 42 percent and senior management – 16 percent. Trust in senior management was found to be considerably lower than trust in other positions such as middle management. The sectors that trusted senior management the least included; utilities (3 percent), legal (8 percent) and government services (8.7 percent).
More SMEs than larger businesses offer flexible working as a way of reducing absences, research from industry body Group Risk Development (GRiD), suggests. The research showed that 35 percent of SMEs with up to 249 employees are actively using flexible working strategies to combat absence compared to just 23 percent of organisations with over 250 employees. Drilling down further into the detail, 38 percent of micro businesses with between 1 and 9 employees use flexible working as a means to reduce absence. Flexible working now means a lot more than allowing an employee to work from home when they are feeling under the weather, and following changes in the law in 2014, it is now an option for everyone with at least 26 weeks continuous employment to request it – not just those with children or carer responsibilities. It also includes part-time working, term-time working, job sharing, compressed hours and flexitime. A greater degree of flexibility can increase productivity and reduce burn out, particularly in stressful occupations.
As we recently 
September 6, 2018
Creating a productive workplace for people is all about context
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace, Workplace design
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