The Biggest & Best Portal to the Professional Property, Workplace and Built Environment Community

Sunday, 19 May

Grapevine

17th May 2019

What a week that was...This week's Grapevine will be available from 1:00pm
Got a story for us? Please send news stories & press releases to: grapevine@twinfm.com

Good GGGGGolly MIss Molly

So both Voadafone and EE will introduce 5G services this summer (with the help of Huawei who lots of people don't like including Donald Trump who thinks they are a danger to the USA's national security - he has banned any US companies from working with them).

Individual users will benefit from the tech and so, it is proposed, will businesses who will be able to use 5G instead of broadband.

So how is 5G different from 4G? I hear you ask. Well Grapevine has checked with the providers and come back with their messages...it will offer 'blazing fast speeds' and an 'ultra-responsive network' according to EE (I think we've all heard that one before - fibre optic isn't always as good as it's cracked up to be).

4G and 5G are fundamentally quite different in the way that the radios work. 5G is based on 'New Radio', a new industry standard that’s based on 4G, we were told by Vodafone...well that's as clear as mud then.

5G will offer higher speeds (we get that). 4G brings 500 Mbps (megabits per second), the potential with 5G is up to ten times faster than that, depending on how you deploy it. Again, this is a message from Vodafone - not the 'up to' - they're still cunning these 5G bods...even though Ofcom have told them to stop being cun....ning!

Now latency is about how responsive the network is - how quickly a web page or YouTube video loads, for example. Apparently if you haven't downloaded a movie before you get on a flight, you'll be able to do so in a matter of seconds.

5G will employ Active Antenna, also known as Massive MiMo. Using Active Antennae, the network will be able to transfer a lot more data. If you think of 4G as a motorway, with cars going backwards and forwards, then what 5G does is bring multiple motorways together at the same time, making it possible to speed up the flow of data traffic.

Wowwee - but if you thought that was cool how about Beamforming. This is apparently your own private bubble of mobile signal around you. As you move around, beams will follow you both vertically and horizontally, so that you get a much better signal than you would with 4G.

I can't wait to try it out from the back seat of my new flying car.

To read more on the 5G thingy - Click Here

Corporate Receptionist of the Year

The inaugural Corporate Receptionist of The Year Award event took place on International Receptionists’ Day, Wednesday May 8.

In total there were ten shortlisted finalists who worked at a range of major law firms, professional services companies, banks, media and high profile landmark city buildings.

The overall winner was Kitija Lace, who works at Bank of America Merrill Lynch on behalf of Rapport Guest Services.

The judging panel also recognised a ‘highly commended’ winner who showed exceptional passion, energy and an extraordinary sense of humour. This was awarded to Dorota Wisniowska, who works at Channel 4 on behalf of Portico.

The event also celebrated the incredible professionalism of all ten finalists by shining a bright light on their critically important roles. Each was shortlisted after a rigorous two stage selection process by a judging panel of fifteen industry leaders, which included a demanding role play, a telephone assessment scenario and formal face-to-face interviews.

In addition to being crowned ‘Corporate Receptionist of the Year’, the winner has been given an all-expenses-paid opportunity to cross-train at up to three leading corporate offices of their choice in New York.

For more on the awards - Click Here

Kingdom Come

The Kingdom Services Group has acquired Xpress Solutions which provides permanent and temp staff for the warehousing, driving and commercial sectors.

Director Sarah Sanderson and the management team will remain with the business. Kingdom CEO Terry Barton said: “Strategic acquisitions have always formed part of our growth strategy. We now employ over 6,000 people, with a turnover of about £100 million."

Catching Mackrell

Graham Mackrell, the Safety Officer for Hillsborough at the time of the disaster has been fined £6,500 this week for not ensuring there were enough turnstiles at the football ground to ensure there was no chance of a build-up of congestion (a factor in a series of events that lead to 96 people losing their lives).

Mackrell was the Secretary of Sheffield Wednesday Football Club - he probably signed the statutory H&S statement but took no control. This is a warning to others who legally take responsibility (often directors) but don't take physical responsibility - you can get fined or even take the rap for corporate manslaughter.

Mackrell, 69 and now living in Hertfordshire is the first person to face any kind of conviction for what happened at Hillsborough. He was also ordered to pay £5,000 towards the prosecution costs. He was found guilty after an 11-week trial under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. He had been accused of not doing everything practicable to prevent unduly large crowds building up on match days.

Mackrell has not been convicted for the sad deaths, he has been convicted of not managing a building correctly. I find it strange. I was familiar with lots of stadiums that didn't have enough turnstiles - I dare say, there are still lots of them that have not been upgraded. So if fair is fair, football clubs up and down the country should now find themselves in front of magistrates for their current - and their past failings.

Lord-Lieutenant Pays A Visit

On Tuesday May 14, Jennifer Tolhurst, Lord-Lieutenant of Essex and representative of Her Majesty the Queen, hosted an exclusive evening event to celebrate business excellence in Essex at Braxted Park, the largest walled private estate in the county.

Cloudfm’s Group Managing Director, Christopher Gallop, joined around 200 other attendees from businesses across Essex to represent the company in their capacity as recent winners of a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the category of Innovation.

Cloudfm’s highly award recognises the organisation’s contribution to the facilities management industry. It is the first time a maintenance company has been honoured for innovation in 10 years. Cloudfm was commended for its transformative technology-led solution, as well as its advanced systems and processes that benefit both clients and suppliers, while also improving service quality, cost control and public safety.

The A Team

Incentive Lynx, the security specialist arm within Incentive FM Group, has set up a dedicated team of ‘relief cover guards’ to ensure that the security and service provided by its core teams is never compromised when someone is off sick or on holiday.

Each member of the team will be fully inducted and trained on the specific sites that they cover. They are CCTV and DS licenced and will undertake training to include: IOSH 3-day first aid; World Host service; conflict resolution; ACT counter terrorism awareness; and fire warden training. All site training will be refreshed every four months.

A premium uniform will be provided to ensure that they fit into any corporate environment and can slip seamlessly into any of the teams. They will be stationed at strategic locations across London on a daily basis to ensure a quick response to any gaps that may occur in the core teams.

Keynote

Climate Change continues to make the news headlines, the political parties making noises and campaign groups beating their important and passionate drum.

BSRIA’s briefing – ‘A climate of change’ is looking at how we can use our resources more wisely and promote carbon reduction while maintaining an efficient productive business outcome.

Keynote speaker is Mark Maslin a professor of climatology, at University College London. Maslin will set the scene at the event including achievements that can be made and the consequences of doing little or nothing. He will stress the importance of carbon reduction.

Best Energy Saving Product

National Ventilation, a manufacturer and supplier, has triumphed at the Electrical Wholesaler Awards 2019.

The company’s Monsoon IntelliSystem Heat Recovery Unit took home the ‘Best Energy Saving Product’ award while the Monsoon Zone 1 Silence Range was also Highly Commended in the ‘Best New Product’ category.

Fight Against Food Waste

Sodexo is to deploy a data-driven food waste prevention programme. WasteWatch will be powered by Leanpath, at 3,000 sites worldwide within a year.

During the Sodexo's Tech for Good summit, Denis Machuel, the company's CEO, reiterated the company’s goal to deploy the programme to all relevant Sodexo sites by 2025, in line with its goal to halve food waste and food losses from its operations by the same year. He said: "We must track how much food is discarded at each and every one of our food service sites – and we are committed to make these figures public to bring a sense of urgency and motivate us to always do better.”

WasteWatch gives clear insights into what is being wasted in kitchens and why. With this new understanding, teams can implement targeted operational and behavioural changes to help end avoidable food waste, whether food waste generated in the kitchen or consumer food waste.

Stop Food Waste Pledge

The Stop Food Waste pledge asks attendees to reduce food waste by setting a target to halve food waste by 2030, in line with UN Sustainable Development Goal 12.3, as well as adopting the Wrap and IGD Food Waste Reduction Roadmap to have half of all 250 of the UK’s largest food businesses measuring, reporting and acting on food waste by 2019, and to embrace a Food Conversation week of action in November 2019.

Chris Garside, Compass Group UK & Ireland MD, said: “We are a signatory of the Government’s Stop Food Wastepledge. We not only have a responsibility but also an opportunity to make a real difference in the fight against food waste. Tackling food waste sits at the forefront of our sustainability agenda.”

Rising Stars

Bartlett Mitchell, caterers, has announced the winners of its inaugural Rising Stars of the Future Awards.

Recognising the top ‘30 under 30’ inspiring team members, the Rising Stars award were created to celebrate the achievements of young talent within the Bartlett Mitchell business.

The Rising Stars of the Future are: Denver Muchemenyi; Sintija Merinets; Maria Takacova; Yesenia Quintal Freitas; Piotr Majewski; Annabel MacLaurin; Jordan Burns; Margit Mark; Katie Frame; Saliou Mbodj; Juraj Majercik; Harry Grey; Will Rose; Eleanor Higgins; Klaudia Sledak; Richard Ogden; Adam Jemal; Petra Camara; Pedro Freitas; Milka Valkanova; Miguel Camara; Laura Floy; Gintare Barkauskaite; Rytis Dambrauskas; Ana Matepiuc; Patricia Cruz; Chris Hughes; Pablo Coves; Tamsyn Peck; Catrin Margareta Rehnstrom.

Serunion Sign

A Spanish contract caterer, Serunion, has signed a five-year deal with Cloudfm.

Cloudfm will manage all planned and reactive activity at Serunion’s multi-site estate of more than 2,000 buildings.

Matthews & Goodman

CNM Estates, the property investment and development company, has appointed Matthews & Goodman’s Property Management team on Sutton Point, a new south London based complex comprising an hotel, residential, retail and office spaces.

Matthews & Goodman’s commercial and residential property specialists will be responsible for managing an estate comprising 21,000sq.ft of retail space; 18,000sq.ft of office space; 332 one and two-bed apartments; a 200-car basement carpark; a150-bed hotel; and 8 penthouse suites.

Health And Wellbeing

Independents by Sodexo has appointed a dedicated Health and Wellbeing Manager.

Paul Quinn, who has a Masters in Applied Human Nutrition, will take on the newly created role to educate staff and pupils about the impact their food choices can have on their academic and sporting performance.

Sales Director - North

John Stewart has joined the Q3 team as Sales Director, North.

Stewart is a well-known and experienced figure in the outsourcing industry and boasts a career spanning over 25 years. His main focus is to strategically grow the Q3 brand in the North - obviously!

Twin Peaks

It may be May, but there’s still snow on summits. Staff from Incentive FM have completed the Twin Peaks Challenge.

The facilities management company walkers overcame aching limbs and painful blisters to raise £7,000 for charity Scotty’s Little Soldiers during the 24-hour challenge.

The team – Bruce McDonnell, Mark Stevens, Glenn Wilson, Claire Rumsey, Steve Alderson, Susan Louwerse, Sheryl Inman, Andy Robbins, Adam Cross, Annie Karastoyanova and Ben Punter – climbed 3,220ft to reach the summit of Scafell Pike in the Lake District. They came down again to drive north to Fort William to scale Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the UK at 4,412ft.

Some Dates For Your Diary:


Facilities & Workplace Networking Club on Thursday 27 June.
A casual and informal evening, aimed at providing a comfortable environment for business people in our industry (or associated with it) to connect, discuss current topics, share ideas and build mutually beneficial commercial relationships.

Facilities Industry Annual Summer River Boat Party on Thursday 11 July.
This is one of the most popular events in the facilities industry’s calendar. Guests will be enchanted with the ever-changing backdrop of London’s famous sights whilst cruising aboard London’s largest entertainment, conference and party boat.


A full list of Diary Dates can be found under the Events drop down menu at the top of every page on ThisWeekinFM.
If you would like your event listed, please email details to dave@twinfm.com.

For further information on any of the listed events please email di.searle@twinfm.com

Visit Our Partners & Sponsors Page
We are proud that these solution providers have chosen ThisWeekinFM to show their support for the site’s mission of informing and educating facilities and workplace professionals. For more information about the benefits of becoming a ThisWeekinFM sponsor, contact di.searle@twinfm.com

4,498 followers on ThisWeekinFM Twitter - thank you.
Remember to request to join the ThisWeekinFM Linkedin group
Follow us on Twitter
Check out all the latest videos here.

10th May 2019

Boxed Clever

I have to say, last night (Thursday May 9) saw some more great sporting endeavour in a week of great sporting endeavour.

Of course I refer to the spectacular ThisWeekinFm Facilities Industry Charity Black Tie Boxing Dinner (try saying that when you've enjoyed a champagne reception, wine with a fab dinner, and a late night bar or after show party).

After Liverpool, City, Liverpool again, then Spurs, then Arsenal and Chelsea (if you are not a footie fan...read the papers) made the week's headlines, the TWinFMFICBTBD (yeah that's not any easier) deserves a special mention here because it is for the industry and made by the industry turning out in huge numbers for social networking in the aid of charity...and having a bloody good time.

The London's Connaught Rooms was right in tune with the event - nice venue. The food was really very, very good (apart from the dodgy veggie starter option) the booze flowed as did the chat and the boxing featured at least two young rising stars over the four bouts...in fact when the those stars rise, our guest will be able to say 'I saw him first fight at the  TWinFMFICBTBD...or words to that effect.

I'd Like to Live Here

Now writing on opulent surrounds, how's this? Opening its doors in July this year, a highly anticipated 21-storey, 705-room development in London’s Canary Wharf will be the world’s largest co-living space.

This will be the first in The Collective's global portfolio to introduces nightly stays to meet the flexibility needs of mobile urban dwellers in the UK and across the globe.

Built from the ground up by architecture firm Skidmore Owings & Merril, the building plays host to East London’s highest swimming pool on the 20th floor with adjoining restaurant and bar offering immense views of the city’s skyline. A spa, 9.2 surround sound cinema and a virtual reality golf simulator are just a few of the other amenities offered to members, short stay guests and the surrounding community.

Membership contracts range from 3 to 12 months.

Landsec £15 Million Contract

Interserve Group has won a £15 million contract extension with Landsec (Land Securities Group) to deliver a range of services at four major retail centres in the UK.

Landsec is the largest commercial property development and investment company in the UK. The one-year contract extension, which can be extended for a further year, involves circa 520 employees providing facilities management, customer service and security services at Landsec’s retail centres in Leeds, Cardiff, London and Oxford.

Fear Of Missing Out

Analysis by Tussell has revealed that facilities management suppliers are missing out on hundreds of opportunities with the public sector because they aren't listed on some of the most important frameworks.

Public buyers are increasingly turning towards the use of frameworks - essentially preferred supplier lists - to award contracts in this sector.

FM stats across the public sector since 2015:

  • Over 400 facilities management frameworks created.
  • More than 250 buyers involved.
  • Not a single firm is named on more than 30 of these frameworks, leaving hundreds of potential opportunities on the table.

With such a complex patchwork of frameworks that companies need to be listed on to address the whole market, it can be difficult to understand how to target these opportunities with limited resources. Tussell has a database of UK public sector contracts.

Innocent

ISS and Innocent Drinks have teamed up to deliver Green Fingers – The Big Grow a week long gardening event that aims to educate pupils about the benefits of home grown food, sustainability and trying new foods.

For the past seven years, ISS has held Green Fingers in the spring to help teach pupils about the seed to plate journey by providing a different educational activity for pupils. The innocent Big Grow encourages children across the UK and Ireland to get growing their own vegetables.

This year every school that takes part in ‘Green Fingers – The Big Grow’ has the opportunity to win one of four gardening experience days with TV Gardener Chris Collins.

Each lunchtime during Green Fingers week, pupils have the chance to win one of 2,500 seed packs, provided by Innocent, which they can grow at home or in class. Pupils also have the opportunity to sample some of the produce they are learning about in the form of daily taster dishes provided by ISS’ kitchen teams, including Beetroot Yoghurt Dip and Butternut Squash Wedges.

Kitchen Works

Sodexo has launched Kitchen Works Co. a new food offer to meet the needs of employees in manufacturing and data centre environments.

The first Kitchen Works Co. restaurant opened this week at Toyota’s Burnaston manufacturing site in Derby, the home of the new Corolla launched in January 2019.

Sodexo’s own research among automotive workers in 2017 revealed that 64% were aware that their performance and productivity was directly related to what and when they eat and 68% regard the quality of food provided as important, but only 32% felt well-catered for by their organisation.

Russell & Bromley

Russell & Bromley have awarded their retail cleaning & soft services facilities management contract to B38 Group.

B38 will undertake daily and periodic cleaning, and provide additional soft service facilities management support in Russell & Bromley stores and staff breakout areas.

In Fast For Fasset

Bellrock has bought Fasset Holdings a company providing a mix of property and facilities management consultancy and delivery services, across southern England and the Midlands.

This acquisition is the tenth over the last two and a half years for Bellrock completed together with investor Horizon Capital LLP.

NHS Open Space Goes Live

NHS Property Services' Open Space programme is now live, after a successful pilot programme. It will be covering 20 locations across England, with plans to rapidly expand across the country in the coming year.

The premise of this programme is using NHS buildings to maximise the range of health and wellbeing services offered to communities, using existing NHS centres instead of requiring expensive external space.

NHS Open Space enables flexible room bookings for both clinical and non-clinical space. This gives both commissioned and third party services more transparency, flexibility and efficiency, helping them to reach new patients and customers, and pay only for the time and space they need.

Darwin Initiative

Wild tulips, food security and coastal and forest habitat conservation are at the heart of the 32 new international conservation projects set to be awarded a share of £8.2 million from the UK government’s Darwin Initiative.

Biodiversity

Monday May 6 saw a UN biodiversity report state that nearly one million species are at risk of becoming extinct because of human actions while current efforts to conserve the earth’s resources will likely fail.

Speaking in Paris at the launch of the Global Assessment study – the first such report since 2005 – UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said that its findings put the world on notice. She said: “Following the adoption of this historic report, no one will be able to claim that they did not know. We can no longer continue to destroy the diversity of life. This is our responsibility towards future generations.”

Highlighting the universal importance of biodiversity, Azoulay said that protecting it 'is as vital as fighting climate change'.

UK Leads On Changing Climate Change

As seen on the BBC - brightening clouds to refreeze the poles, recycling CO2 and greening the oceans are all ideas in the pipeline at a Cambridge research facility given government funding to find ways to reverse climate change.

Greater London Authority Wins

The Greater London Authority has extended a contract  to provide City Hall with office and public area cleaning and porterage services with the incumbent operator - ABM UK.

Greater London Authority Loses

Southwark Crown Court heard how on 25 January 2014 a family of four were hurrying along a pavement to Catford Station to shelter from a storm when a wall and hoarding was blown on to the father, causing him to lose consciousness and end up hospitalised.

A Health and Safety Execitive investigation found that Greater London Authority Land Property LTD (GLAP) employed a company to manage and maintain this site. The investigation found that GLAP failed to oversee the contract properly, resulting in the wall not being maintained. The wall developed a crack which weakened, causing the hoarding to act like a sail in strong winds, eventually leading to its collapse.

GLA Land and Property have been fined a total of £250,000 and ordered to pay £ £14,653 in costs.

Green Rewards

Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust have become the first NHS Trust in the UK to launch Green Rewards, a behaviour change programme aimed at encouraging employees to take actions that improve sustainability and wellbeing.

Green Rewards encourages a range of positive behaviours including recycling, energy saving, sustainable travel and other wellbeing activities such as keeping active and spending time outdoors.

Share