April 30, 2018
IFMA finally announces plans for new facilities management chapter in United Kingdom
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.
Following the deadline for organisations to publish their gender pay this week, it came as little surprise to find that almost 
A third of UK workers (31 percent) say their employer has little or no interest in their mental health, despite the fact that a fifth (20 percent) are stressed out on a daily basis, and for almost a third (33 percent) the issue is so bad that they’re considering looking for a new role. This is according to a new study of nearly 1,300 workers by ADP which found that workplace stress peaks amongst younger employees, with 22 percent of workers under 35 saying they experience stress every day, and 42 percent saying that it is so bad, they’re considering jumping ship. This contrasts with only 19 percent and 26 percent respectively of those over 35 who feel this way, suggesting employees become better at managing stress as they get older. 
Google has been named the Ideal Employer among tech professionals in the 2018 Dice UK Ideal Employer Report. While market leaders including Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Facebook and IBM are placed highly, the report suggests that smaller tech brands can also attract the top talent through benefits including yoga, in-house cafeterias and more. For many technology professionals, Google is the gold standard employer, with a perfect mix of competitive salary, perks, benefits and interesting work, something smaller companies can learn from. The survey of 464 tech professionals found that simple office upgrades including yoga, colourful furniture and other positive innovative cultural perks can help smaller companies attract the best talent, even if smaller in size. Good work/life balances, open communications and manageable working hours also ranked highly. 
A third of workers (32 percent) regularly struggle to be productive in their job, and one in six (16 percent) blame their manager – claims a new survey from ADP. This puts bad management ahead of inefficient systems and processes (15 percent) and staff shortages (13 percent) as the biggest drain on productivity in the UK workplace. The UK has been grappling with low productivity levels for a number of years, consistently placed behind other leading economies, such as Germany and the US in official productivity tables. While recent ONS figures suggested a recovery is underway, reporting 
February 12, 2018
Luther, Marx, Engels and a nailed-on manifesto for workplace change
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace design
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