Search Results for: office

Workplace features heavily in latest round of Government cuts and cost reductions

by • Facilities management, News, Property

WhitehallThe workplace features heavily in the latest round of cost savings announced by the UK Government. Of the £14.3 billion of cost reductions, £5.4 billion has been cut in the procurement of goods and services, with the Cabinet Office drawing particular attention to the use of consultants (which is probably the bulk of it), and the use of printer cartridges and paper (which isn’t). In addition, around £600 million was saved with the divestment of unused buildings and an increase in the number of departments sharing offices. The savings are driven by the Efficiency and Reform Group (ERG) which was set up by the Treasury and the Cabinet Office in the wake of the 2010 general election, and works with departments to make savings and address what it considers wasteful spending. This year’s savings follow £10 billion saved for 2012 to 2013, £5.5 billion in 2011 to 2012 and £3.75 billion in 2010 to 2011.

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Silicon Roundabout remains the UK’s foremost location for business startups

by • News, Property

silicon-roundaboutResearch from accountants UHY Hacker Young has revealed the UK’s most popular postcodes for business start-ups. Silicon Roundabout is the most prolific area, generating 15,620 new businesses over the last year. London, unsurprisingly dominates the list with only three zones outside the capital making the top 20. Within London, Silicon Roundabout saw nearly five times as many businesses launched as Canary Wharf (3,180). The Borough, Bankside and Bermondsey areas, covered by the SE1 postcode, saw a rapid expansion in new business creation, with a 13 percent increase in new businesses, from 5,190 to 5,850 in the last year. Outside of London, Hove (BN3), came 10th marked out as a hub for outsourcing, tech and finance businesses, Leeds LS14 which came 12th and Warrington WA1 which both offer a large number of business and technology parks.

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The boardroom knows tech is important but leaves IT decisions to others, claims report

by • News

BoardroomThere is a recognition within the boardroom of the importance of information and communications technology (ICT), but business leaders see tech as something for technology managers to worry about and many are unable to make effective decisions anyway because they are digitally illiterate (and some are proud of the fact). Those are some of the findings of a new report from Sunguard Availability Services, published in partnership with Professor Joe Peppard of the European School of Management and Technology in Berlin. The study claims that the growing strategic role of technology offers chief information officers (CIOs) a chance to elevate their position and drive the wider business agenda. But also that this can be held back by a lack of engagement, or even the boardroom taking no account of ICT whatsoever, with strategic IT alignment remaining an afterthought for many organisations.

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Deloitte increases flexible working rights to attract future female leaders

by • Company news, Facilities management, Flexible working, Workplace

Deloitte increases flexible working rights to attract future female leadersAs employers prepare for new flexible working legislation, which comes into place at the end of this month; Deloitte UK has announced it is to allow its 12,000 employees more say in where, when and how they work. The firm has introduced a range of new and adapted, formal and informal agile working arrangements to incite a change in the day-to-day culture at the UK firm. Deloitte already offers all employees the right to request a formal flexible working arrangement; it will now also enable them to request a block of four weeks unpaid leave each year, without reason or justification. These arrangements support its wider measures that encourage a more agile workplace, including the introduction of collaborative and adaptable working spaces, an environment that supports open conversations about agile working and improvements to technology that make it feasible. More →

The Shard evacuated after smoke spotted in basement of EU’s tallest building

by • Facilities management, News

The Shard fireAround 900 people were evacuated from the Shard this morning, following reports that smoke was coming from the basement of the 1,004ft-high building. Seven fire engines and around 50 firefighters were sent to the building, following the alert at around 10.30. The smoke had begun to dissipate by around 11.45, and this afternoon London Fire Brigade announced it was set to allow tenants to re-enter the premises. No injuries have been reported at the tallest building in Western Europe, winner of the European Award in the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitats (CTBUH) Best Tall Building Worldwide competition; however there were complaints that office workers had to walk down hundreds of steps during the evacuation. Along with retail and hospitality tenants, the Shard has a number of office occupants, including investment bank Duff & Phelps and the venture capital group Foresight. More →

Record uptake of flexible working masks what is really changing about the way we work

by • Comment, Flexible working, Technology

Flexible workingThis week the Office for National Statistics has released new figures which show that flexible working is at a record high in the UK. The headline figure from the ONS is that 14 percent of the UK workforce now either work at home full time (5 percent) or use their home as a base (8.9 percent). This represents a 1.3 million increase over the six years since the onset of the recession. The report shows that those working from home are typically skilled, older (half between the age of 25 and 49 with 40 percent of over 65s classed as homeworkers) and better paid than the average worker (30 percent higher than the national average). The Government is claiming it as a victory for the promotion of flexible working through legislation and the TUC as a sign of the increasingly enlightened approach of bosses in helping employees find a better work life balance. And they’re both wrong.

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Commercial property helps fuel rise in number of new construction projects

by • Facilities management, News, Property

Commercial property fuels growth in construction projectsConstruction growth in the three months to June was at its highest peak since the start of the year, driven by a renewed strengthening of non-residential properties, according to new figures from industry analysts Glenigan. Following reports from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) that the economy is growing at its fastest pace since its records began in 2003,the Glenigan Index, which covers the value of projects starting in the UK over the previous three months, is 20 per cent higher than a year ago. Its non-residential index is up by 24 per cent compared to the same period in 2013, the strongest rate of growth seen since the three months to January of this year; largely fuelled by the private sector, with the industrial, office and hotel and leisure sectors all seeing healthy improvements. More →

What is expense management costing you and your business?

by • Comment, Workplace

Brown envelope cashTime is money.  That’s why organisations are placing an ever-growing emphasis on improving productivity and streamlining administrative processes to encourage employees to focus on value-added activities. So I’m staggered by how many otherwise forward-thinking companies are still reliant on old-fashioned, paper-based expense management processes.  Expenses are an obvious time-sink for claimants themselves and  is often portrayed as a dull task; but badly managed expense processing costs employees and businesses money. A survey conducted by Access aCloud has discovered that employees are losing £45 a year owing to interest charges due to the waiting period of reimbursement – with a collective £2.1 billion lost by 46 million workers each year. In the UK, the average waiting time for expenses to be paid is 3.3 weeks. However, the survey revealed that over 20 per cent of people spend 6.3 weeks chasing their employer for their claims to be paid. More →

Green light (at last) for nine acre Birmingham City Centre mixed use development

by • Architecture, News, Property

commercial propertyThe developer of a major new mixed use project on a 9 acre site in the centre of Birmingham has announced that work will begin soon, after nearly ten years of delays. The £500 million Arena Central scheme was initially announced in 2004, then significantly extended and revised in 2011 to double the amount of commercial property available as part of the development. The first impressions of the finalised plans were published earlier this year and featured open public spaces, an urban meadow, cascading water features, ramps and a pedestrian spine that connects the elements of the site and connects to the main shopping areas in Broad Street and city centre residential areas to the South.  All in all, landscape architect Gillespies has designed four acres of soft landscaping within the development, nearly half of its total footprint. The first office building for the site will be designed by Make Architects. The building, named Arena 1 will be a 144,000 sq. ft. set to complete in 2016.

Flexible working just one factor that can lift the workplace blues

by • Flexible working, News, Workplace

Flexible working happinessNew research commissioned by office supplies firm Viking claims that many people working for small businesses are unhappy, stressed and demotivated in the workplace for much of the time but that their misery can be alleviated with flexible working, training, social events and generally a bit more information and attention from their employers. The research found that a third of the employees surveyed, all of whom work for firms with fewer than 50 employees, claim to be unhappy for more than half of their time at work, with 42 per cent saying they are also stressed and unmotivated. The respondents claim that these issues could be resolved with more flexible working, social events, personal development and business updates. With workers rating such displays of affection more highly than a pay rise, a spend of less than £500 per employee each year on the things they cherish could make them more happy and motivated.

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Workplace design and management of TMT sector aped by other firms

by • Facilities management, Flexible working, Property, Technology, Workplace design

Male midlifeThe publication of a report last week by the British Council for Offices highlights the wider impact of workplace design trends and commercial property arrangements  in the increasingly important Technology, Media and Telecoms (TMT) sector. Not least it suggests that they are having a transformational influence on the way firms in other sectors approach leases, workplace design and the changing nature of work. It is no coincidence that the TMT sector is the one most commonly associated with the employment of the much-talked-about Gen Y demographic, nor that the business practices most commonly associated with this overly-stereotyped group are those that are having the greatest influence in the way we design and manage offices.

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Homeworking has environmental benefits, says Carbon Trust

by • Environment, Facilities management, Flexible working, News

Environmental and cost benefits of homeworking

There have been some doubts cast recently on the environmental benefits of flexible working. At the recent ThinkFM conference, Lord Rupert Redesdale, the CEO Energy Managers Association said that keeping buildings open for longer to accommodate flexible workers could become unfeasible for many businesses. But what if you simply increase the numbers of home workers instead? Homeworking reduces employee commuting, resulting in carbon, money and time savings. If office space is properly rationalised to reflect this, homeworking can also significantly reduce office energy consumption and rental costs. This is according to new research from the Carbon Trust, which found that if adopted and encouraged by employers across the country, homeworking could result in annual savings of over 3 million tonnes of carbon and cut costs by £3 billion.

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