Facilitate in focus

News

What we’ve reported on

One in five UK workers have suffered with mental health struggles. That’s a lot of people. Interestingly, this has spiked by 66% in the last 15 years. Of course, the stigma around mental health is softening so people are speaking more openly about it, but it does also point to the very many stressors working adults face both here and globally. 

Staying with wellbeing, updated guidance from BSI and ISO has been released to support employees through menstruation and menopause, helping to improve productivity and stem the departure of experienced women from the workforce early, and not out of choice.

And another one for workers’ health and autonomy is the news that the cycle to work scheme has recorded strong growth, with more than 54,000 scheme certificates issued between April and June of this year. If you’re one of those pedalling to work, don’t forget your helmet and ride safely. 

What we’re working on

IWFM members will soon receive their hard copy of Facilitate. This edition has been a ‘takeover’ by the Strategic Leaders Forum. The focus is on elevating the profession so that it can occupy a strategic function for organisations. We hope you enjoy it - we’ll certainly be making the wider world aware of it.

It’s been an interesting week for new content activity; we’re working on a piece about how the way buildings perform in operation can be used by town planners when assessing applications. This critical element of FM’s place in the cycle of building commissioning, design, construction and operation – the latter influencing all the former – is a major theme for us in the months ahead.

Of course, as we turn our attention to our November-December edition we’ll be using the IWFM Impact Awards as a catalyst to explore topical themes with the award-winning professionals shaping FM.

If you read one Facilitate piece…

After the government’s announcement that it would change the social value weighting in public sector procurement tenders, Nick Blake, associate director at Gardiner & Theobald LLP, provided his take on the news. 

A key part of his argument is that while this represents a significant opportunity to create employment, develop skills and generate benefits within local communities, we must not allow social value to be a substitute for operational performance.

As ever, you can find us at [email protected] or via LinkedIn for any suggestions you have for us to focus our future Facilitate activity.