August 20, 2020
For most of us the experience of working from home this year has, on balance, been positive – enough that it may well become the norm after the COVID-19 crisis ends. But modelling by Victoria University’s Centre of Policy Studies shows there will be costs alongside the personal benefits, with more urban sprawl, job clusters with a flight to the biggest cities and greater economic disparities between regions. (more…)
August 18, 2020
The world is going through some painful changes at breakneck speed. As a result, the word unprecedented has reached number one spot on our ‘words to avoid’ list. What’s the big deal with unprecedented anyway? Our obsession with all things unprecedented taps into our fear of the unknown. But life itself is an unknown: Life is beta. Nothing is permanent. Every single day things happen that are unprecedented. Damn, said it again. (more…)
August 13, 2020
The British Council for Offices (BCO) has published new guidance for the safe use of escalators and lifts, as the country begins to return to the office. The safe use of lifts and escalators has been a priority for the industry, with 90 percent of decision-makers and influencers in the commercial office sector saying they were worried about their safe use. To help solve these headaches, the guidance emphasises the importance of social distancing and strict hygiene measures. (more…)
August 10, 2020
According to research from DeVono Cresa, the second quarter of 2020 saw 1.2 million sq. ft of office space leased across central London – a drop of 57 percent on the previous quarter. With the market feeling the full effects of the COVID-19 lockdown, demand, availability and rents in central London all trended as predicted, but with the pace somewhat subdued. Q1 2009, at the time of the Global Financial Crisis (921,000 sq. ft leased), remains the lowest quarter of take-up. (more…)
August 7, 2020
Once upon a time. Not so long ago. We used to get ideas for stories on lots of different topics. These included those I often dismissed at the time as quaint, such as somebody’s thoughts on why you should bring your dog to work. Now I often hanker for such whimsy, faced with day 127 of an inbox stuffed with nothing much more than ‘how to return to the office after lockdown’. (more…)
July 29, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic changed numerous aspects of how we live and work and led to a massive remote work experiment. A JLL survey of more than 3,000 employees working in multi-national companies across the globe claims that 71 percent of people have worked from home during the pandemic, and that 58 percent missed the office and 44 percent missed human interaction and socialising with colleagues. The largest cohort who missed the office was the under 35s, or millennials, with 65 percent citing poor home-office environments and missing support from their managers.
July 28, 2020
As companies transition back to the office and set out on the road to economic recovery, business leaders are focussed on developing resilient and sustainable strategies. Faced with a new business environment, companies are looking for opportunities to contain office costs, both in the short-term and in the future. Some who have been immune from cost pressures in the past are looking to contain if not reduce costs for the first time. And, after a forced trial of remote working, many are viewing their property portfolio in a new light and questioning whether they are paying for more space than they need. (more…)
July 22, 2020
The latest edition of the annual Age Research by Engaging Works claims that the happiest people in the workplace are those beyond middle age. By comparison, young employees don’t feel rewarded or recognised and feel that their views are not heard at work. They are also more likely to suffer anxiety in the workplace. However, it’s middle aged employees who are struggling the most at work, admitting that they feel the least developed. They also feel that they have a poor feeling of wellbeing at work and that they don’t have enough information to do their job. (more…)
July 15, 2020
UK commercial investment activity rose 42 percent in June compared to May, up from £755m to £1.3bn, taking total volumes for H1 2020 to £15.6bn, according to the latest market update from Savills. With the all-sector prime commercial property yield remaining stable at 5.21 percent in June, Savills says that together this may signal some stability is now returning to the UK investment market. (more…)
July 5, 2020
However much we know about the forces we expect to come into play in our time and however much we understand the various social, commercial, legislative, cultural and economic parameters we expect to direct them, most predictions of the future tend to come out as refractions or extrapolations of the present. This is a fact tacitly acknowledged by George Orwell’s title for Nineteen Eighty-Four, written in 1948, and is always the pinch of salt we can apply to science fiction and most of the predictions we come across. (more…)
June 24, 2020
A majority of corporate real estate professionals (58 percent) in a recent survey say that the traditional nine to five, Monday to Friday work pattern is a thing of the past. The survey was conducted by CoreNet Global, the professional association for corporate real estate professionals – those who have responsibility for managing the real estate, including workplace configuration and locations, at large corporations globally. The survey was conducted among “end-users” only from May 27 – June 16. (more…)
August 20, 2020
Working from home and the future of work. How quaint
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Technology
(more…)