March 11, 2021

BCO offers new guidance on indoor air quality

by Neil Franklin • Facilities management, News, Wellbeing

A new BCO research paper, Thoughts on ventilation design and operation post COVID-19, has called for UK offices to ensure they have adequate ventilation ahead of the return to work. The paper highlights that while most offices that follow good practice guidelines do benefit from indoor air quality, there are also many examples of poorly ventilated offices that fall short of the best practice guidelines set out in the BCO’s 2019 Guide to Specification. Poorly ventilated indoor spaces have been linked to COVID-19 super spreader events and the paper states that ventilation in these offices must be “addressed urgently.” (more…)

March 9, 2021

New guidance for renewable energy procurement and carbon offsetting

by Jayne Smith • Environment, News

The UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) has published Renewable Energy Procurement and Carbon Offsetting Guidance for Net Zero Carbon Buildings. This guidance provides clarity for the property and construction industry on the procurement of high-quality renewable energy and carbon offsets for net zero buildings and organisations in the UK. (more…)

March 9, 2021

Area welcomes Mark Emburey as Strategic Relationship Director

by Freddie Steele • Company news

Area are delighted to announce the key appointment of Mark Emburey as Strategic Relationship Director. With over 20 years of commercial real estate experience, Mark will add his wealth of knowledge to Area’s already undoubted track record in assisting Landlords with their commercial assets. (more…)

February 26, 2021

UKGBC launches framework for defining social value

by Jayne Smith • Environment, News

The UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) has published a Framework for Defining Social Value in the Built Environment, designed to help built environment practitioners define and deliver social value on their projects. Social value is often considered especially hard to define for built environment projects, as each project serves a different community with their own unique set of requirements. (more…)

February 17, 2021

Hybrid working is the new expectation of pressured employees

by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Working culture

The past twelve months have proved to be a watershed year for workplace digital transformation and the urgent shift to remote working has seen the world experience two years of digital transformation in two months. New research from Microsoft Surface claims to examine the impact of this transformation on the UK workforce, suggesting that employees are happier, but under more pressure working from home – despite almost 9 out of 10 (87 percent) of employees reporting their businesses have adapted to ‘hybrid working’. (more…)

February 15, 2021

The best places to live for work-life balance

by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Working lives

As Brits continue to spend an extensive amount of time at home, the importance of maintaining a good work-life balance has never been so vital. For their 2021 Work-Life Balance Index, money.co.uk have delved through ONS data to uncover where in Britain is best situated for its residents to achieve a good work-life balance. (more…)

February 11, 2021

Firms split furniture budgets between home and office

by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Working lives

As lockdown looks set to be extended until mid-March and many business professionals continue to work remotely, a new study by lighting supplier Ultra LEDs claims that only now are workers investing in their home office as they plan for the future. (more…)

February 11, 2021

Nearly half of young people put their career plans on hold due to pandemic

by Jayne Smith • Business, News

More than 40 percent of young people aged 16-24 surveyed in the UK say they are putting their career or education plans on hold until the pandemic is over. The research, commissioned by BAE Systems to mark National Apprenticeship Week (8-12 February), looks at the impact the pandemic has had on the ‘lost generation’ and their career aspirations. (more…)

February 2, 2021

Stress-related absence soars as COVID-19 exacerbates the UK’s mental health crisis

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

‘Stress by Sector’ data released by e-days claims concerning statistics that stress-related appointments are up generally in business by 64 percent over 2019. The data claims that the sectors struggling most with stress-related sickness are unsurprisingly healthcare (0.64 days of stress related absence on average per employee), followed by Government and International Affairs (0.57 days on average per employee) and Human Resources and staffing (0.39 days on average per employee). (more…)

February 1, 2021

Burnt out remote workers need more help than they are getting

by Karen Plum • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing

There’s no question that many people now, feeling the weight of lockdown 3 and with no clear view on the timing of any sort of ‘return to normal’, are finding it tough to stay motivated. Many are burnt out. We can gain some insight into what is going on for many individuals by way of neuroscience, specifically how the brain works and how it copes with changing situations. (more…)

January 12, 2021

Workers feel overworked as a result of the pandemic

by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing, Working lives

Hardworking professionals are feeling the effects of longer working days and unpaid overtime, according to new research by law firm, Wright Hassall. The study claims that on average workers are performing nine or more hours of overtime in a given week, which totals more than one working day, compared to just three or more hours before the start of the pandemic. The research also claims that more than half (52 percent) are actually doing so without being paid for this. (more…)

December 29, 2020

Self-employed sector undermined and diminished by events of 2020

by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News

New research from IPSE, the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed, claims that the number of solo self-employed people in the UK has fallen by 5 per cent compared to last year. The total number of solo self-employed (excluding those who have others working for them) has fallen from 4.6 million in 2019 to 4.4 million. Until now the sector had been growing continuously for 11 years – by a total of 40 per cent. (more…)