Top Tips for a great Office Refurb in 2020
We’ve spent a combined 100+ years on planning, procuring and executing £1bn worth of office refurb projects for our clients.
The way people work has evolved dramatically over the years. Today’s workforce is valued more for thinking than processing, so collaboration, creativity and wellbeing is the heart of a functional, productive organisation.
Your office must support your organisation’s priorities and the only way to do this is by getting a really deep understanding of your people’s priorities, and then ensure the office design supports these priorities.
Do this, and you’ll keep people happy, your costs down, and your own sanity intact. Our top tips for your next office refurb are:
1. Understand why
2. Talk to your stakeholders
3. Make a high level plan
4. Communicate and inform your stakeholders – and listen to their ideas
5. Review your plan
6. Consult with a wider group
7. Design
8. Implement
9. Review and close the project.
Read our top tips for a great office refurb
SECR – What is it? Do you need to prepare for it? and How?
SECR is yet another deeply un-catchy government acronym. But before your eyes glaze over, does your organisation meet two of these three criteria?
- More than 250 employees?
- Over £36m in annual turnover?
- Over £18m in your balance sheet?
If so, pay attention: this is important!
SECR is a Government scheme which aims to further incentivise energy efficiency and carbon emissions reduction. Annual energy use must be included in the annual Director’s Report and is subject to the same external auditing as the company’s financial statement.
Find out how to prepare, and respond to SECR
Good News: UK Higher Education is in rude health!
But how can estates and facilities teams help keep it there?
No matter how you look at it, all measures suggest UK Higher Education is in very good health.
But to sustain this success, HEIs must respond robustly to risks and storm clouds on the horizon (outlined here).
How to respond? In brief:
1:Build an estates masterplan and strategy
2:Work out how you’ll deliver great experiences
3:Identify where to save and where to invest
4:Plan for the likely future
John O’Brien delivered a keynote presentation on this topic at the University Estates and Facilities Conference in June. Please click below to read on.
Find out how Estates can help sustain HE success
What makes a building Exceptional?
(Hint – less is more.. much more).
John O’Brien recently spoke at Oxfordshire Greentech’s event: ‘Exceptional buildings – Showcasing the future of innovative, sustainable building projects’.
John described some of the innovative solutions available to organisations seeking to improve workplace productivity, performance and staff wellbeing.
The talk outlined some of our groundbreaking research which identifies (among other findings) that by lowering CO2 levels in buildings, people’s cognitive speed increases by 62% and cognitive accuracy improves by 12%. Furthermore, a small and entirely achievable 2.5% improvement in staff productivity will cover the total costs of running a building.
Sometimes it’s the small well-researched interventions that pay huge dividends – not necessarily the ones you see!
See the Slides from the presentation
Read about how Co2 decreases cognitive ability
Guest blog: Relocation – how to do it right
Sarah Cole, MD of Universal Commercial Relocation outlines how to plan and deliver your workplace relocation to secure your benefits and improve performance.
A workplace relocation can be an unknown, daunting and a stressful prospect, but if planned and managed effectively, it can be an extremely transformative move for a business.
When the decision is made to relocate, advance and detailed planning is key to ensuring it is a positive and productive step for all stakeholders in the organisation. It is an opportunity to not only transform the physical space and working environment but also review and improve many other critical areas of the organisation such as…
Read the full article on relocation
LCMB News
We’re recruiting!
Thanks to continued growth, LCMB have a vacancy for a Senior Project Management Consultant.
We are looking to recruit a dynamic and innovative person to join our team.
We offer a competitive package, excellent benefits and the chance to make a real difference in the workplace. The role will be based in our Bloxham office with opportunities to work from home, or from our client’s premises as the projects require.
Click here for more details.
In the News
Young people call for urgent action on the climate emergency, but universities lag behind.
While young people call for urgent action on the climate emergency, universities are lagging behind, with two-thirds likely to fail their 2020 targets for the reduction of carbon emissions. And academic conferences are partly to blame.
Read what The Guardian says here.
If you’re one of the 66% of universities that are set to miss your targets, talk to us now – we can make your buildings more energy efficient and make the best use of your space across campus.
Talk to us about hitting your environmental targets
Last month most popular article
LCMB blogs cover a range of building performance and related issues.
Our most popular item in June was: High CO2 decreases cognitive capability
