Search Results for: workplace

December 2, 2015

RICS issues new international property measurement statement ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Property

From 1 January 2016, all property measurements undertaken or commissioned by RICS’ professionals will need to comply with its new Property Measurement Professional Statement, which incorporates the new International Property Measurement Standard (IPMS), that changes the way office buildings are measured worldwide. The IPMS was developed by the independent Standards Setting Committee to address how different measurements create inconsistencies between regions. According to RICS, the change represents a major advance and will be welcomed by investors, occupiers and governments. RICS is making the new Property Measurement Professional Statement (incorporating IPMS) mandatory for all its professionals that undertake or commission property measurements in order to assure clients of surveyors that they will benefit from international best practice as the norm when working with RICS professionals.

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December 1, 2015

How our preconceptions can lead us to fail the office design bench test

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Furniture, Workplace design

The office furniture design scene certainly came alive in the early 1990s. New ideas and new technologies wove themselves into the grand narrative of new ways of working. Everything was possible and there was no longer one best way of doing things. In New York, Chiat Day’s offices featured touch-down desks, garish crimson floors and walls and a reception framed by a huge pair of plastic, glistening lips. In Helsinki, Sol Cleaning Services did away completely with ideas as outmoded as desks and working hours. In the UK, British Airways gave their staff olive groves and indoor streams to work alongside. And in London a small media company called Michaelides and Bednash had offices that consisted of a room furnished with a single 20m long serviced table for its 20 staff to share. Such workplaces were surely one-offs, mere footnotes to the grand narrative.

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December 1, 2015

Despite its drawbacks, LiFi has the potential to revolutionise office design ⁰

by Paul Goodchild • Comment, Facilities management, Technology, Workplace design

During 2016, we can all expect to be hearing a lot more about a new technology called Li-Fi, which uses light to transmit high speed data. Li-Fi has already been trialled extensively in lab conditions and now for the first time it has been installed in an office in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. It may even be substantially quicker than standard Wi-Fi. The people behind it claim it is already able to transmit data at a rate of 1 GB per second, which is around 100 times faster than Wi-Fi. Using light as a medium, however, does mean its main drawback is that it cannot penetrate walls. Designers and managers may also have concerns that the way it transmits data – basically by flickering the light from an individual LED like a massively sped up signal lamp (pictured) – but the developers claim this is completely imperceptible to the human eye and so has no consequences for individuals.

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November 30, 2015

BRE acquires rival green building scheme to create new accreditation ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Environment, Facilities management, News, Property

Those bewildered by the confusion of acronyms that surrounds building environmental standards will be pleased to hear that BRE has acquired a rival standard to merge with itsBREEAM accreditation. BRE claims that the acquisition of CEEQUAL, a sustainability scheme for civil engineering, allows it to ‘create a single, science based standard and certification tool for civil engineering and infrastructure projects’. As a result of the acquisition, CEEQUAL will transfer its operations to BRE Global after which CEEQUAL will then be delivered by the BREEAM certification team with support from a CEEQUAL management team. The move is supported by the Institution of Civil Engineers and has been prompted by ‘the industry’s desire for a single sustainability rating scheme that addresses the challenges that infrastructure clients, professions and contractors currently face in delivering more sustainable and resilient infrastructure.’

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November 30, 2015

Six hour working day + WeWork London plans + Megacities & COP21 ⁰

by Sara Bean • Environment, Facilities management, Public Sector, Technology, Workplace design

In this week’s newsletter; Mark Eltringham argues the six hour working day is a deeply conservative idea, dressed up in radical clothing; Matias Rodsevic says it’s important to understand what employee engagement actually means and Darren Bilsborough identifies seven separate layers or “skins” of workplace productivity. As COP21 gets underway, there’s evidence that Megacities are taking the lead in climate action, WeWork unveils its latest plans to dominate London; three new reports reveal technological confusion in the workplace; and a study says the Government’s challenge is how best to match its commitments with its resources. You can also download the new issue of Work&Place and access our first Insight Briefing, produced in partnership with Connection, which looks at agile working in the public sector. Visit our new events page, follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn Group to discuss these and other stories.

November 27, 2015

Built environment crucial to attaining emissions targets say RICS of COP21 ⁰

by Sara Bean • Environment, Facilities management, News, Property

The built environment has a vital role to play in helping governments meet their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions targets says RICS – ahead of the 21st Conference of the Parties or COP21. This begins on Monday, when 196 governments meet in Paris for the climate change summit hosted by the United Nations. Buildings are some of the biggest emitters of CO2 accounting for one-third of global greenhouse gasses. Commercial and residential buildings also account for 40 percent of the world’s energy consumption. RICs is working with members in the land, real estate and construction sectors to find solutions across the property lifecycle to support more sustainable business practices, and will be in Paris to join stakeholders from governments, industry and civil society to support efforts to reach an agreement. The commitments made at the summit could have far-reaching repercussions for the built environment, and the global economy more generally.

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November 27, 2015

Over a third of UK workers are miserable at work and most plan to leave ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Workplace

Only 35 percent of UK workers are happy with their job, and over a third (39 percent) admit that they feel miserable at work. In a new survey by Workwear Express of over 1,000 people, just 14 percent said they planned to stay in their current job for the next year. This appears to be reflected in the amount of sickness they take, with 25 percent admitting that they’ve taken sick leave from work due to being so unhappy. Poor management was seen as the biggest contributor to an employee’s low sense of satisfaction at work, as just over 31 percent of those polled agreed that being badly managed was their biggest issue in the workplace. However, having a heavy workload was a close second, with 29 percent of people citing this as the reason for their unhappiness. A third (35 percent) of those polled said that Monday was the most miserable day of the week to work.

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November 26, 2015

Megacities are leading the way on climate change, claims action group ⁰

by Sara Bean • Cities, Environment, Facilities management, News

Ahead of COP21 next week, a new report ‘Climate Action in Megacities 3.0’, published by the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40) and research partner Arup states that since COP15 cities have taken the lead in climate action by forging a collaborative pathway to low carbon and climate resilient development. Mayors have scaled-up action- with 51 percent of schemes now delivered city-wide, as opposed to 14 percent in 2011. Since the last major COP in Copenhagen, C40 cities have taken 10,000 climate actions – a doubling of actions in just six years – and have committed to reduce their CO2 emissions by 3 Gt CO2 by 2030, equivalent to the annual carbon output of India. Furthermore, decisions taken by global cities to invest in low carbon development over the next 15 years have the potential to avoid locking in a total of 45 Gt of CO2, or eight times the total current annual emissions of the United States.

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November 25, 2015

This might be the reason why firms are failing to fully engage their employees ⁰

by Matias Rodsevich • Comment, Knowledge, Technology, Workplace

One of the enduring quests organisations continue to undertake is that for the fully engaged employee. They do this for very good business reasons. Managers who understand the benefits of employee engagement can expect to reap the substantial benefits of a more collaborative work environment. In turn, this will lead to an engaging and productive workspace. However, in a majority of organisations, employee engagement remains lower than 35 percent. In light of this principle, Impraise has conducted a study based on over 30 000 feedback interactions between hundreds of managers and employees to see how they would differ from each other when asking for feedback. The results that were found resulted to be interesting and gave a better understanding of the how engaged employees are, and what firms can do to address the chronic levels of disengagement.

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November 25, 2015

Northern Powerhouse office market showing strong performance levels ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Property

When the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne announces the Spending Review today, he’s likely to mention the Northern Powerhouse, the programme to rebalance the UK economy by pushing growth in England’s northern cities. His vision of this form of one nation conservatism may have helped to increase occupier and investor confidence across the Northern Powerhouse office markets, as illustrated by the Northern Powerhouse Office Market Report 2015/16, published by Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH). It shows strong performance across the eight key markets so far in 2015 – with combined take-up expected to reach 5.2m sq ft by the end of the year compared with 4.6m sq ft in 2014. Manchester city centre is leading the way and is on track for a record year, with almost 1.4m sq ft of office space expected to be let or sold by the end of 2015 – well above the 10-year annual average of 966,000 sq ft.

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November 24, 2015

WeWork announces latest plans to dominate London’s commercial property scene ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Property, Workplace design

Coworking giant WeWork has announced three new deals as it seeks to become the major player in London’s commercial property market. The firm, founded by Adam Neumann in New York in 2010, has made no secret of its plans for London as we reported earlier this year. The office space provider already has six London locations which it lets out to members (not tenants) who have access to the network of 57 locations in 17 countries on flexible terms via an app. According to a report published this week in Estates Gazette it is now set to add another 1 million sq. ft. to its portfolio in the capital with locations on City Road, Waterhouse Square and Docklands. The plans were announced to coincide with the launch of its largest London centre at Moor Square designed by Oktra. The company has also announced that it intends to launch its WeLive residential property concept in London in the near future following its successful launch in New York.

November 24, 2015

Many staff are planning to bunk off or shop online at work this Black Friday ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Workplace

Whatever you make of Black Friday, and we see it quite clearly as an alien intrusion that taps into the worst instincts of some people, there is no doubt that it has quickly captured the imaginations of pretty large parts of the UK population. Although only on these shores for a couple of years, its influence is such that the media has already begun what promises to be an annual hand-wringing over this coming Friday’s outpouring of consumerism. Meanwhile logistics companies are dusting off their mothballed depots to cope with demand and gum up the roads while retailers continue to ponder whether they want to associate themselves with the whole wretched exercise in the first place. It’s also a growing problem for employers as two new surveys show that a significant number of their employees are planning to spend at least some part of their day shopping online, throwing sickies or taking the day off work.