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What impact does your
investment in property and the way you manage it have on
business output and productivity? And has the emergence of new
"information age" technologies rendered obsolete existing models
of property acquisition and workplace design?
These are key questions
facing managers in a rapidly changing world. But unfortunately,
the answer to both questions is that we don't entirely know. Not
in a measured or systematic way, at least.
To shed some light on these
issues is the mission of Occupier.org. Recognising the
piece-meal nature of the research, they are in the process of
pulling together an online knowledge base, gathering together
books, articles and research findings that attempt to deal with
such issues.
According to Occupier.org
Chairman Christopher Hedley:
"The website to a large
extent acts as a portal to the information that's out there. The
idea is to get people thinking about the problems a bit more, so
they can make better decisions on the basis of better knowledge.
"The importance of real
estate and facilities management to the performance of business
is not widely appreciated. It has improved a little over the
past 10 years, but the business understanding of facilities and
workplace issues generally still has a very long way to go. We
hope that the research we gather together will enable Real
Estate and Facilities Managers to do their work in a more
strategic way and to make more informed contributions to
business objectives".
The approach is collaborative. Occupier.org is
supported by a range of sponsors and partners, including
professional bodies in this field, commercial organisations,
government agencies and academic institutions. According to
Christopher Hedley, "It's ambitious, but we want to start
involving the whole sector, bringing the suppliers and consumers
of space and services together to develop a more rigorous
professional approach to the issues involved".
Future plans include the development of a
methodology and tools that will enable occupiers to assess
whether particular buildings are "good" from their business
perspective (as opposed to a developer's), and to measure a
building's performance. The benefits of this would be an
appreciation of the exactly how a workplace can deliver benefits
to individuals in terms of their experience as users, and to
organisations in terms of improved performance.
What's on the website?
There's already a healthy amount of information
posted on the website. This includes
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the initial reports that accompanied the launch
earlier this year, mapping out the research issues and providing
an overview of the literature
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a series of working papers covering the main
issues - including the first in a "Flexibility series"
looking at the impact of flexible working in local authorities
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a selection of published articles
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a searchable database of published works in the
field, incorporating summaries and critiques
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annotated inks to further relevant online
resources.
The result is a unique pulling together of a
substantial set of resources for both practitioners and
researchers in this field.
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