Search Results for: performance

September 27, 2023

Act now on retrofitting if you want to boost commercial property values, new report argues

For European real estate owners and investors already on a journey to net-zero-carbon through retrofitting, upfront spending has the potential for long-term rent and capital-value accumulation, according to a new report from Colliers. Europe’s Renovation Wave [registration] explores the regulatory and societal pressures the authors claim is now driving an era of accelerated asset renovation, and the proactive actions investors, owners and occupiers can take to make sure their assets are not ‘left behind and stranded’ in the race to decarbonise the built environment by 2050. Retrofitting is also the subject of a special supplement published in the new issue of IN Magazine. (more…)

September 27, 2023

Half of landlords now planning a flexible working offer

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Property

Over half of UK landlords are planning to independently develop an offering for the growing flexible working market across their portfolios, according to the annual report on the flexible workspace sector by The Instant Group. The 2023 UK State of the Flex Market report [registration] polled more than 200 flex operators and landlords for insights into the sector. Findings also suggest that two-thirds (61 percent) of flex operators intend to increase their footprint in the next two years, while market imbalances in regional hubs, enduring occupancy rates, and surging demand for sustainable buildings all featured prominently in the report. (more…)

September 25, 2023

The workation is taking off – but it needs the right tech to make it effective

by Eamon O'Doherty • Company news, Technology

The trend for semi-nomadic working has grown in the past few months, and with it the ‘workation’, as people have looked for last minute sunny getaways after a somewhat disappointing UK summer. For the unfamiliar, a ‘workation’ is essentially taking advantage of remote working to blend work and a holiday. This could involve taking a summer holiday, and then working from the destination for a further week or two. Some may plan a visit to stay with friends or family, building some days of work into the trip, so they still get the enjoy the evenings with their loved ones. Or they may simply plan a normal working week undertaken remotely from a different location for a change of scene – anywhere from a mountain lodge to city break. (more…)

September 18, 2023

Smart technology needs to start with people if it wants to get smarter

by David Sharp • Features, Technology, Wellbeing

“My engineering students had come to class with technology on their minds.” So says artist and design researcher Sara Hendren, author of What a Body Can Do: How we Meet the Built World. It’s a fascinating book in which she consciously pushes back against the prevailing narrative that so-called smart technology has a fix for every problem. As a professor teaching design for disability at Olin College of Engineering, Massachusetts, Hendren draws attention to the assumptions that drive normative behaviours to define what is a ‘problem’ in the first place. (more…)

September 13, 2023

Half of firms won’t meet 2030 decarbonisation target, report claims

by Jayne Smith • Environment, Facilities management, News, Property

A new report from Siemens Infrastructure claims that there is limited agreement amongst businesses on how best to progress towards a decarbonised and resource-efficient world and under half expect to meet their net zero targets based on current thinking. According to the Transition Monitor 2023: The Great Divide on The Path to Net Zero report, whilst more than half of those surveyed believe the infrastructure transition is accelerating in their region, a quarter of senior executives said that progress on decarbonisation is “too slow”, while 29 percent believe progress is “coordinated”, and 31 percent describe it as “on target”. (more…)

September 12, 2023

Is there ever a genuinely good or bad time for change?

by Jennifer Bryan • Business, Comment, JB

There are two questions, regarding change, that seem to plague quite a lot of people: “is there a good or bad time for change and is there a good or bad change?” Now it may seem the answers would be quite straight forward, but probably as no surprise the actual answer is “it all depends”. That is because change is about people and we all know there is no formula for people, so it is impossible to give a formulaic, straight forward answer. (more…)

September 11, 2023

Is the workplace experience shaped more by maintenance or by design?

by Andrew Brown • Facilities management, Features, Workplace design

What has resilience got to do with the workplace experience? It is a word that has been used a lot recently as the great British public has demonstrated massive amounts of resilience in coping with Covid-19, fuel shortages, worries about food availability and a massive shift in how we work. So what is it? The dictionary gives two meanings: firstly the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties, i.e. toughness. And then secondly, the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity – like nylon for example. (more…)

August 30, 2023

A surprising number of employees wouldn’t mind having an AI as their ‘boss’

by Jayne Smith • News, Technology

According to a new poll from the Asana Work Innovation Lab, nearly two-thirds of executives of executives think that artificial intelligence will help their companies reach their objectives. The report also suggests that 36 percent of employees in the United States and United Kingdom already use AI at work at least weekly. And a perhaps surprising number of people wouldn’t mind having their work graded by artificial intelligence or even having a robot as their ‘boss’. (more…)

August 24, 2023

Passionate firms make more progress in teamwork, research finds

by Neil Franklin • Business, News

Passionate firms perform higher in terms of team progress, regardless of whether that passion is focused on one or multiple team activities, finds new research from Aalto University School of Business. According to Associate Professor Ewald Kibler, Head of the Entrepreneurship Unit at Aalto, and postdoctoral researcher Bernadetta A. Ginting-Szczesny, team entrepreneurial passion (TEP) plays an important role in business ventures as it can positively impact team outcomes and venture performance. Analysing survey data on 326 individuals from 107 teams at Finnish SMEs, they suggest having a shared passion helps teams work together toward a common goal while maintaining focus and motivation. (more…)

July 26, 2023

One-third of hybrid working managers feel they need to prove their worth when working from home

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

A poll of 3,000 workers in Europe and North America from Insights Learning & Development claims that managers of hybrid working teams see multiple benefits to a new working arrangement. These include improved team performance, improved team agility and increased ability to deliver on objectives. However, on a personal level, many managers highlighted the need for more support. Almost one-third (30 percent) of these managers feel they need to prove their worth when working from home – significantly higher than the non-management population. (more…)

July 21, 2023

It is possible to balance the positives and negatives of stress at work

by Lisa Gunn • Comment, Wellbeing

Stress is an inevitable part of everyday life, and our bodies are hard-wired to respond to it. However, it’s clear stress takes a regular, negative toll on organisations across the country. Last year, 17 million days were lost due to stress, depression or anxiety, which accounted for 51 percent of all work-related ill health cases and 55 percent of all working days lost due to ill health. Poor mental health costs employers between £1,205 and £1,560 per employee, per year. Some of the main causes of stress in the workplace include mounting workload pressures, increased responsibilities, and a perceived lack of support from senior management. (more…)

July 18, 2023

We need better evidence to help protect people at work

by Sarah Cumbers • Comment, Workplace

We make decisions at work every day and for those in complex roles or in fast-changing situations, it can feel like a continuous process. In business, of course, the choices we make can have a significant impact on the bottom line and, more importantly, our people, the environment and the communities we’re operating in. With so much riding on what we choose to do, our decision-making processes must be designed to maximise our chances of successful outcomes. This is especially so when our decisions involve how to protect people at work so can be literally a matter of life or death. (more…)