November 7, 2019

Real estate set to remain an attractive investment despite challenging environment

by Neil Franklin • Cities, News, Property

Europe’s property leaders continue to have faith in real estate as an attractive option for investments, despite a number of significant political and economic challenges, according to the latest Emerging Trends in Real Estate Europe 2020 report. With interest rates set to stay lower for longer and bond yields in many European countries in negative territory, real estate income retains its broad appeal to investors, especially in comparison to other asset classes. Equity and debt are expected to remain plentiful for most real estate sectors. The report, published annually by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and PwC, is based on the opinions of over 900 real estate professionals across Europe, including investors, developers, lenders, and advisers. (more…)

November 4, 2019

Brexit continues to dampen UK commercial property market

by Neil Franklin • News, Property

The Brexit impasse is contributing to perceptions that the UK Commercial Property Market is in the downturn phase of the property cycle, according to the Q3 2019 RICS UK Commercial Property Market Survey. The latest results suggest that the highest proportion of respondents sensing the overall market is in the downturn phase of the property cycle since the series began in 2015 (+62 percent up from +53 percent in Q2), with anecdotal evidence suggesting that Brexit is having an increasingly detrimental impact on market activity. (more…)

October 21, 2019

Business rates and employment costs for small firms need overhaul

by Neil Franklin • Business, News, Property

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) is calling on the Chancellor Sajid Javid to bring forward radical interventions to address an unprecedented long-term slump in small business confidence, slowing economic growth and a widening trade deficit when he publishes the 2019 Autumn Budget on 6 November. In a letter to the Chancellor, the group calls for a major reduction in business rates bills for small firms, as thousands struggle to stay afloat amid spiralling operating costs. (more…)

October 16, 2019

Women still face broken rungs on the career ladder

by Jayne Smith • News, Workplace

More women than ever before occupy senior executive positions, but true gender parity hasn’t yet been reached and women continue to face unique challenges in their careers according to the latest Women in the Workplace Report from LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Company. This year’s study—which is based on data and insights from 329 companies employing over 13 million people and more than 68,500 employees—identifies a key point on the corporate ladder where women lose the most ground: the first step up to manager. If companies fixed this broken rung, it could add one million more women to management in corporate America over the next 5 years. (more…)

October 16, 2019

Business leaders out of touch and failing to inspire, say employees

by Neil Franklin • Business, News

British businesses are facing a crisis of leadership, according to new research from Tiger Recruitment, which claims that 58 percent of employees are rarely or never inspired by the leader of the company they work for. Furthermore, according to British employees, many business leaders are setting a poor example around the issues that matter to them today, including work-life balance (28 percent), managing stress (29 percent), flexible working (21 percent) and staying mentally healthy (21 percent). (more…)

October 2, 2019

The subtle ways managers sabotage their own teams

by Neil Franklin • Business, News

A new survey new research from The Predictive Index found that psychological safety is a leading factor in employee dissatisfaction with management. While there are overt ways managers undermine their own employees’s feelings of safety with practices such as bad-mouthing people or displaying favouritism, the 2019 People Management Report (registration) also reveals the subtle ways managers sabotage their teams, ultimately causing employees to quit or disengage. (more…)

September 6, 2019

Avoiding burnout and losing the workplace blues

by Christine Congdon • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Stressed at work? Feeling blue at this time of year? Take a breath. You are not alone. While the World Health Organisation (WHO) is just now recognising burnout, a result of stress, as an “occupational phenomenon,” the conversation around wellbeing at work is not new. If we learn anything from this newest designation, it’s that wellbeing cannot be ignored because the need to focus on it continues to intensify.

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August 21, 2019

The office is increasingly able to recognise you, but will you recognise it?

by John Comacchio • Comment, Technology, Workplace design

Our lives at work are about to change—again. Just as the addition of PC’s and Wi-Fi re-drew the office blueprint, emerging technologies like robots, virtual agents, artificial intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT) promise to radically revise the form and the function of work and the workplace. In the near future, your office will know who you are (if it doesn’t yet) and will be ready to greet you with your preferred lighting and the array of digital tools you need to do your job.

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August 16, 2019

Knowledge workers feel out of step with their own organisation

by Neil Franklin • News, Technology, Working culture

Many knowledge workers don’t feel they share common goals with their employer and colleagues, according to a study of 17,000 people by Slack. The State of Work Report summarises the findings, including the effect of this feeling of a lack of ‘alignment’ on organisational and personal performance and the role of technology in aligning people around shared goals. (more…)

July 24, 2019

Commercial property sector shifts focus to wellbeing in response to tenant demands

by Mark Eltringham • News

A new report from the Urban Land Institute (ULI), claims that the wave of interest in wellbeing in the UK is expected to translate into significant investment from the commercial property sector over the next three years. The report, Picture of health: the growing role of wellbeing in commercial real estate investment decision-making, has been published by the ULI UK Sustainability Forum to highlight the rise of wellbeing investment in commercial buildings. The report from ULI UK was sponsored by E.ON and addresses questions about the investment case for incorporating wellbeing into buildings and how to measure its impact. (more…)

July 23, 2019

Two million workers miss out on holiday entitlement

by Neil Franklin • Legal news, News, Wellbeing

Around seven percent of UK workers are not getting or taking their legal holiday entitlement, according to a new study from the TUC. The analysis estimates that nearly two million employees (1.960 million) are not getting the minimum paid leave entitlement they are due. And over a million (1.145 million) are not getting any paid leave at all. The analysis shows that women workers (8.3 percent) are worse affected than men (5.9 percent). In addition, the sectors with the highest numbers of staff losing out on their legal holiday paid entitlement are education (341,000), retail (302,000), and health and social care (264,000). (more…)

July 22, 2019

UK could receive £250 billion boost if labour market matched that of Sweden

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

New analysis by economists at PwC claims that, if the UK could match Sweden in terms of its employment rates for women aged 25-54, older workers and the proportion of its young people not in employment, education or training, the potential boost to UK GDP could be as much as 12 percent, or around £250 billion at 2018 values. Although the UK labour market has been strong in recent years – the employment rate is at a record high of over 75 percent and unemployment is at its lowest level since the mid 1970s – new research from PwC indicates that performance is middling compared to other OECD economies. A new composite Labour Market Performance index, combining results from PwC’s Youth Employment, Golden Age and Women in Work indices, finds the UK is 19th overall amongst OECD countries. Iceland and Sweden top the combined index rankings based on the latest available annual data for 2018. (more…)