Search Results for: people management

Major new research projects will explore impact of management on productivity

Major new research projects will explore impact of management on productivity

by • News, Wellbeing

A major new project led by the University of East Anglia (UEA) will examine how health and wellbeing practices can improve employee productivity. Working with research institute RAND Europe, based in Cambridge, it will look to identify which combinations of workplace health and wellbeing practices reliably improve worker health, wellbeing, engagement and performance – and deliver the best return on investment. More →

A little local difficulty, treating people as pets, designing for serendipity and some other stuff you might like

A little local difficulty, treating people as pets, designing for serendipity and some other stuff you might like

by • Features

The big news to be on the lookout for this month is the BIFM’s impending name change to the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management. Now the interesting thing about this development is what it might tell us about the changing world of work and the distinction between the physical office and the places we actually work, including in digital space. So that’s what everybody’s focussed on right?

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What is in a name for the UK facilities management sector?

What is in a name for the UK facilities management sector?

by • Comment, Facilities management

Westminster. Home to fiery debate, unwavering scrutiny, calls for change, and cries of “Order! Order!”. Once again, RICS’s HQ, on Parliament Square, was jam-packed with a passionate and feisty crowd, panellists and audience alike, all set on pushing the industry conversation forward. While some were keen to maintain order during FMJ’s most recent RICS-IFMA debate concerning facility management’s place in the 21st century, others were set on redefining FM in order to pinpoint what this yet unestablished definition means for the future of the profession.

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Busy people tend to make healthier choices and enjoy more self-esteem

Busy people tend to make healthier choices and enjoy more self-esteem

by • News, Wellbeing

Busyness is often thought of as a modern day affliction, but it can also help you delay gratification and make decisions that benefit you in the longer-term, according to new research from the global business school INSEAD. In a new paper, Chattopadhyay and his co-authors, Monica Wadhwa, Associate Professor of Marketing and Supply Chain Management, Fox School of Business at Temple University and Jeehye Christine Kim, Assistant Professor of Marketing at HKUST, show that the mere perception of being one of the busy people, or what they call a busy mindset, is a “badge of honour” that can be leveraged to promote better self-control. Their paper, titled “When Busy Is Less Indulging: Impact of a Busy Mindset on Self-Control Behaviours”, has been published in the Journal of Consumer Research.

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When workplace strategy builds bridges between people and place

When workplace strategy builds bridges between people and place

by • Features, Technology, Workplace, Workplace design

The world of work is changing rapidly and profoundly in a way that we haven’t seen since the time of the industrial revolution. Yet even as we stand at a momentous, game-changing inflexion point, the 21st century workplace strategy sector is still dithering about whether to join in the revolution. They are like the industrial mill owners of 19th century England who adopted a ‘make do and mend’ approach to business and failed to invest in new technology only to be forced out of business by foreign competitors who had invested in radical new, state of the art technology.Today the technological game changer is digital technology rather than weaving technology, but the effect is the same. Unless the workplace strategy sector embraces change and builds bridges between the ‘people’ side of the business and the ‘place’ side with other workplace specialists, their industry will become as dead as a dodo.

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New report aims to debunk myth that AI will be intrinsically bad for people at work

New report aims to debunk myth that AI will be intrinsically bad for people at work

by • AI, News, Technology

The latest report that claims to debunk the myths surrounding AI in the workplace arrives from Tata Communications who worked with academics at UC Berkeley to interview 120 business leaders about their attitudes to AI. The report, AI and the Future of Work (registration required) claims to shift ‘the conversation from dystopian fears toward human collaboration and cognitive diversity, the study identifies how AI can diversify human thinking rather than replace it. The study identifies opportunities for businesses and employees based on insights from leaders such as Tony Blair, Executive Chair of the Institute of Global Change and former UK Prime Minister, who predicts that, AI will allow us to do what it is that we are uniquely meant to do: focus on high-level thinking, strategy, and paving the way for innovation.’

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Creating a productive workplace for people is all about context

Creating a productive workplace for people is all about context

by • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace, Workplace design

commercial property innovationThe quest for a proper understanding of the links between the places we work, the things with which we fill them and our wellbeing and productivity has been ongoing for a very long time. It predates our current thinking on productive workplace design and the facilities management discipline as we now know it by decades and has its roots in the design of early landmark offices such as Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin building and research such as that carried out at the Hawthorne Works in Chicago in the late 1920s. Yet the constantly evolving nature of work means that we are forever tantalised by an idea that we can never fully grasp and makes established ideas seem like revelations.

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RICS and IFMA launch Procurement of Facilities Management statement to address “race to the bottom”

RICS and IFMA launch Procurement of Facilities Management statement to address “race to the bottom”

by • Facilities management, News, Property

The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has today launched its first professional statement to ‘reduce risk, increase transparency and further trust’ in procurement in facilities management. The RICS Procurement of facility management, RICS professional statement, UK 1st edition, was worked on in collaboration with IMFA, and also the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS). RICS says it will be looking to make this a global professional statement in due course. All RICS regulated professionals (mandatory from the 1 October 2018) will be expected to follow this guidance, but according to RICS, adoption of the framework would be competitively beneficial for all property professionals involved in the procurement of FM services, including those acting for landlords and occupiers, FM suppliers procuring services from sub-contractors and investors and public and private occupier organisations.

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When it comes to change management, culture sometimes eats strategy for breakfast

When it comes to change management, culture sometimes eats strategy for breakfast

by • Features, Flexible working, Workplace design

21st Century organisations are under constant pressure to evolve. They are beset by a number of forces that demand they change constantly. These include the need to restructure the organisation, adapt to new technologies, respond to competitors and changes in the economy and legislative environment. Inevitably, this constant need to change affects both people and the built environment in very profound ways. However, according to a study of Culture and Change Management published by the Katzenbach Center, only around half of all transformation initiatives meet their objects over time. Among the biggest obstacles to successful change management cited by the study is change fatigue, which is characterised by a lack of empathy and a widespread failure to engage with the change process.

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Women and younger people are transforming the UK’s freelance economy

Women and younger people are transforming the UK’s freelance economy

by • Flexible working, News

The workforce is changing as more people swap the security of a 9-to-5 job for the flexibility of freelancing, with key demographics and industries leading the self-employed sector, according to a new study from Instant Offices. ‘Millennials’ and UK workers facing significant lifestyle changes, such as motherhood, or nearing retirement, and are looking for more flexible ways to work. According to the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed (IPSE), the self-employed sector now includes approximately 4.8 million people, with freelancers comprising 42 percent of that population and 6 percent of the UK workforce as a whole. The IPSE reports that in 2016, freelancers contributed £119 billion to the national economy. This was up from £109 billion in 2015 and experts are predicting that this number will only continue to grow in the years to come.

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Open plan offices make people more image and status conscious

Open plan offices make people more image and status conscious

by • News, Workplace design

Employees may subconsciously act and dress differently in open plan office environments, according to a new study published in the journal Gender, Work and Organization. The research carried out by academics from Anglia Ruskin University and the University of Bedfordshire over the course of three years analysed the behaviour of around 1,000 employees at a UK local authority that moved from six separate departmental buildings into a new shared office building. The design of the building made extensive use of glass and incorporated large, open-plan offices and collective spaces, with the usual aim of eroding hierarchical and departmental boundaries and promoting interactions.

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IFMA finally announces plans for new facilities management chapter in United Kingdom

IFMA finally announces plans for new facilities management chapter in United Kingdom

by • Facilities management, News

The International Facility Management Association (IFMA) has approved a petition for the formation of a regional chapter within the United Kingdom. Talks about the chapter have been ongoing for some time. The people behind the creation of the new chapter claim it will offer facilities management (FM) professionals ‘direct localised support that taps into the global industry in ways not currently available in the UK market’. The formation of the chapter, which joins 136 IFMA chapters across more than 100 countries, comes at a time when IFMA, through its collaboration with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), is driving formation of practice standards via the International Organization for Standardization and working to more tightly integrate FM with the larger built environment industry. Details of the collaboration can be found at define.fm.

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