Construction Journal April May 2015
Construction Journal April May 2015
Construction Journal April May 2015
Journal
Unlocking life
cycle costing
NRM3 one year on
PG.
Structural strategy
Managing risks
Transforming the
UK construction
landscape
PG.
PG.
11
PG.
18
April/May 2015
rics.org/journals
C O NTENTS
RI CS CONST RU C TIO N
JOUR NAL
Construction
Journal
Unlocking life
cycle costing
NRM3 one year on
PG.
Structural strategy
Managing risks
Transforming the
UK construction
landscape
PG.
PG.
11
PG.
April/May 2015
rics.org/journals
18
Front cover:
Alamy
contents
4
Chairmans column
C ON TACTS
CO N STR UCTI O N J OU R NAL
5
Update
6
Unlocking the 2025 vision
9
Structures for the future
16
No need to panic
17
View from the chair
18
Sky high prices
11
From red tape to risk
management
13
Change of focus
14
Scope for argument
20
Reading the signs
22
Bending to the rules
25
Comparing notes
26
Legal helpline
A P R I L / M AY 2 0 1 5 3
C H A I R M A N S CO L U MN
CHAIRMAN'S COLUMN
David Bucknall examines the chartered quantity surveyors contribution to
delivering the governments Construction 2025 industry strategy
I
It is vital that chartered
quantity surveyors (QSs)
become actively involved in
Construction 2025 both
through RICS, their practices
or as individuals.
I am delighted that this
edition of the Construction
Journal emphasises the
opportunity to embrace and
deliver whole life costing.
This is the key to delivering
the strategy targets.
Having been around in the
late 1950s and early 1960s
when the profession rapidly
emerged from backroom
technician to front end
cost planner, I can see the
governments strategy as an
opportunity for us to make
another quantum leap as a
first phone call profession in
the creation and management
of all built assets.
Back then, elemental cost
planning was the tipping point
that took us from being a
4 A P R I L / M AY 2 0 1 5
Asset data
Historically, the chartered
quantity surveyors systematic
elemental analysis of the
capital costs of projects is
the bedrock of our current
profession but, as we all
know, it is only a small part
of the real cost. This is now
augmented by our ability to
create equivalent data for
every element of the whole life
operation and maintenance of
any construction-related asset.
RICS development of NRM 1,
2 and 3 gives, for the first time,
an international platform for
creating hard data that enables
chartered surveyors to bench
mark improvements in whole
life asset performance.
This, together with
technical developments
such as building information
modelling, gives a unique
opportunity for the QS to lead
the Industry in delivering whole
life cost management and
value management.
It is exactly 10 years to
the 2025 industry strategy
targets. Surely we cannot
just wait for others to get
UPDATE
RI CS CONST RU C TIO N
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UPDATE
Builders Finance Fund
bids to unlock projects
The Builders Finance Fund provides a
525m pot to accelerate or unlock viable
developments that have slowed down
or stalled. Access to the fund is on a
recoverable capital investment basis.
The Homes and Communities Agency
initiative aims to address difficulties in
accessing development finance faced
by some small and medium-sized
housebuilders and developers. For bids
between five and 14 units in size, the fund
will be exclusive available to SMEs.
The scheme focuses on unlocking
deliverable projects that can start or
restart quickly. The fund will make
TRAINING
Membership survey
while overall
satisfaction and
pride in membership
remained high at
68% and 89%
respectively.
68%
6,000
More than
members responded to
RICS December 2014
membership online survey.
rics.org/devappraisals
27 April, London
Open book contract
management for construction
rics.org/openbook
29 April, online
Certificate in building
information modelling
project management
rics.org/bimcertificate
http://bit.ly/1FY2brD
The percentage
likely to renew their
membership increased
to its highest level yet,
22 April, Manchester
Development appraisals:
features and analysis
overall
satisfaction
80%
89%
pride
13 May, London
Working with target
cost contracts
rics.org/costcontracts
14 May, London
JCT design and build contract:
practical training
rics.org/jctdesignandbuild
Conferences
and events
A P R I L / M AY 2 0 1 5 5
L I F E C YC L E CO STI N G
he ground-breaking
New rules of
measurement for
building maintenance
(NRM3) became
effective from 1
January. The volume
is timely because the UK governments
Construction 2025 strategy has
challenged the industry to find a way of
reducing the total whole life costs by up to
33%. This means all public sector project
teams must now get a grip of how to do
life cycle costing.
Following extensive collaboration
with BCIS, the Chartered Institution
of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE)
and the Building & Engineering Services
Association (B&ES) have agreed to
adopt the NRM3 expanded cost
structure, backing the 2025 vision.
This means that the NRM3 elemental
cost structure is now fully aligned with
industry standard planned preventative
maintenance task schedules (the SFG20
specifications), and the economic
reference life expectancy data structure
published by CIBSE Guide M and the
BCIS cost analysis.
This alignment standardises
cost estimating, cost planning and
cost reporting and can unlock the
robust benchmarking of total capital
construction costs and renewals,
operations and the maintenance costs.
This effectively bridges the capital and
revenue divide and will also enable
building information modelling (BIM) life
cycle costs.
Together with NRM1 and 2, NRM3
provides a basis for economic
and financial whole life cycle cost
management. This will have huge benefits
for UK construction and the maintenance
industry, because it will enable all
stakeholders to compare costs on a
like-for-like basis throughout the
key stages of the buildings life cycle
(inception, feasibility, design, construct,
handover and in use, to end of life.
Efficiency agenda
Construction 2025 focuses on
procurement, based on greater cost
6 A P R I L / M AY 2 0 1 5
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NRM
CLIENT CHAMPIONS
Sector initiatives - Railways,
aviation, custodial, education,
health, retail, defence offices
and more
Figure 2: Optimising
IN
E
US
End
of
life
Planning
Renewal
Design
Construction
ON
R
ST
Maintain
LI F
STING IN
E CO
C
LIFE CYL
EC
OS
TI
N
L
CY
TION
UC
WH
OLE
LIFE COSTING
1
Strategic
brief
CAPEX
OPEX
Construction
costs
End of life
Maintenance
Operation
Renewal
2
Concept
design
3
Detailed
design
4
Technical
design
5
Construct
6
Handover
7
In use
A P R I L / M AY 2 0 1 5 7
k
n
L I F E C YC L E CO STI N G
Heathrow has driven whole life value thinking into its asset renewal programme
Client champions
Network Rail has mandated that whole
life costing is undertaken on all projects
from 1 April 2014. To make this happen in
practice, they developed a manual setting
out how to apply whole life and life cycle
costing at each stage of the process,
along with guidance task charts.
Various case studies provide the
evidence of how whole life cycle costing
is making a real difference.
Heathrow airport has driven whole
life value thinking into its Q6 asset
renewal programme. This has resulted,
according to Steve Chambers, Director
of Engineering and Asset Management,
in great creative and lateral thinking, and
Image Shutterstock
More information
>
Future editions will provide worked
examples to demonstrate how clients
and project teams have put whole life
cycle costing into practice
P O LIC Y
RI CS CONST RU C TIO N
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Structures for
the future
A
As the UK prepares for
what is likely to be one of
the most closely contested
general elections in British
political history in May, the
debates about the future
prospects of the national and
global economies are, not
surprisingly, at the forefront.
Although the worst of the
fallout from the financial
crisis appears to be behind
us, the international economy
Industry issues
Last year, RICS launched
the largest consultation
of its membership ever
undertaken. The Property
in Politics influencing report
that emerged from these
conversations with individual
members, member firms,
industry representatives and
other professional bodies is
designed to help facilitate the
governments drive toward a
leaner industry able to reduce
public sector project whole
Image iStock
Armitt commission
The idea for an independent
commission to oversee the
UKs infrastructure needs
was first recommended in
September 2013s The Armitt
Review (http://bit.ly/1unfwTJ)
by distinguished industry
figure Sir John Armitt, who,
among many other things,
chaired the very successful
Olympic Delivery Authority.
Now that the setting up
of such a commission with
statutory independence
forms part of official Labour
Party policy for the coming
election campaign, Armitt
discussed its merits with
a specially invited panel of
guests at RICS Parliament
Square offices on 17 January.
Certainly, few could doubt
that the UKs infrastructure
is in need of renewal and/or
further development. In recent
years, independent reports
by bodies such as the World
P O L I CY
1 0 A P R I L / M AY 2 0 1 5
Image Shutterstock
RI CS CONST RU C TIO N
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Reactive vs
proactive
Central to this reassessment
of health and safety is the
move from it being regarded
as a purely reactive process
to it being used proactively
to manage risk, during
construction and throughout
the life of an asset.
At its best, a proactive
approach to health and safety
Image Shutterstock
Positive models
High hazard industries, such
as oil and gas, have long seen
the value of a rigorous health
and safety regime. Although
originally imposed on them
for obvious reasons through
legislation, they quickly
Step by step
The key point to remember
when seeking to integrate
health and safety into the
construction of a new building,
or even the management of an
existing one, is that it is not a
separate discipline from either
cost or project management.
Rather, it is a powerful means
of achieving better outcomes
in both.
Health and safety can be
implemented as part of a
suite of risk management
processes. These include:
bb Risk profiling: identify and
assess all potential risks from
the likely to the remote, and
devise mitigation strategies
for each.
bb Assurance: undertake
accurate monitoring, rigorous
analysis of performance data
and take prompt action to
control any areas which are
not up to standard.
bb Improvement: where
performance is consistently
below par, identify the
underlying causes and
recommend new working
1 2 A P R I L / M AY 2 0 1 5
H E A LTH A N D S A F E TY
Health and
safety is not
a separate
discipline from
either cost
or project
management
practices to ensure the
problem is not repeated.
On a recent capital works
programme a proactive risk
management approach was
applied, and a robust risk
profiling exercise determined
where best to focus efforts
for the highest levels of
mitigation. Performance
metrics were then designed
to accurately assess the
efforts made to manage these
risks, which subsequently
delivered positive efficiency
and cost outcomes.
Measuring success
Behind some business
leaders view of health and
safety as a necessary evil is
the misguided assumption that
while its costs are immediately
Image iStock
collecting performance
data that drives positive
behaviours. It should also
seek to create measures that
identify the effectiveness
of health and safety
management inputs.
This could involve examining
the detail of the feedback
provided by employee safety
observations, rather than just
the number of observations
submitted. This level of
scrutiny should drive better
quality and higher levels of
feedback in future, and bring
about greater engagement
on health and safety matters
across the workforce.
The threat of sanctions
for those who break the
rules forces all but the most
reckless to meet their basic
health and safety obligations.
But the most mature and
sophisticated clients go much
further and use health and
safety as an effective way to
manage risk. Thereby, they
make their employees happier
and more productive, and
add value throughout their
projects entire life cycle.
The example of the
high hazard industries is
an instructive one. Many
of its leading players
began by regarding their
statutory health and safety
requirements as a duty, but
with time came to regard them
as an opportunity. Given that
all construction projects and
existing buildings must meet
health and safety standards,
why would their owners not
seek to embrace the process
and derive maximum benefit
from it? b
Related
competencies
include Health
and safety
RI CS CONST RU C TIO N
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Change of focus
Measuring
performance
Lost-time injuries or indeed
any form of lag metric, are
now almost the exclusive
means by which health
and safety performance is
measured. These kinds of
metrics have validity as a
complementary role alongside
lead indicators. However,
Incidents are
caused by a
range of factors,
which are not
necessarily
captured using
one single
approach
of injury severity. This is
because it could include
a disproportionately large
number of low consequence
incidents, may not include
others and could fail to
recognise as impairments
those incidents that result
in long-term or permanent
damage but no lost work time.
In short, incidents are
caused by a diverse range
of factors, which are not
necessarily captured using
one single measure and
aggregated approach.
High consequence
incidents can also be
rendered less significant,
e.g. a major explosion with the
potential for multiple fatalities
but results in one person
being seriously burned can
in some cases be recorded
and treated the same way
Common language
As we become a safer
industry we should begin
to challenge whether a
retrospective, reactive and
process heavy approach
alone is good enough.
Perhaps, as we have been
practising for some time, there
exists a whole other possibility
in terms of combining this
focus with a common culture
Related
competencies
include Health
and safety
A P R I L / M AY 2 0 1 5 1 3
LEGAL
Scope for
argument
Principles of interpretation
The overriding principle is to ascertain
the common intention of the parties as
reflected by the contract. The courts
emphasise that this must be done
objectively by determining the natural
meaning of the words in the document.
The courts, therefore, take into account
whether a document forming part of
the contract was prepared specifically
for the project in question. If there is
LEG A L
RI CS CONST RU C TIO N
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Conclusion
It is not surprising that contract
documents regularly contain gaps and
inconsistencies in the way they describe
the works. They are often produced
by a range of individuals, with different
documents produced to fulfil a different
purpose. Contradictions are inevitable,
but those involved in the process need
to be familiar with the rules that a court
or adjudicator will apply when resolving
such conflicts. b
Michael Sergeant is a Partner at Holman
Fenwick Willan and the author of
Construction contract variations
michael.sergeant@hfw.com
A P R I L / M AY 2 0 1 5 1 5
APC
No need to panic
Submission
APC submissions differ from academic writing. There is no
need to use long, complex sentences to convey your ideas. You
are constrained by character and word counts so use short,
simple sentences to demonstrate experience of the many skills
required for each competency.
With the exception of ethics and other mandatory
competencies, you effectively write the syllabus from your
own experience so you have an enormous influence on the
questions you are asked.
Do not necessarily write about the biggest or most
glamorous project you worked on. Keep it simple and write
instead about those that clearly demonstrate you have covered
all competencies, even if you feel the project was unimpressive.
Omit anything that could lead to awkward questions.
When writing the Critical Analysis or Summary of Experience,
do not write a torrent of everything you know. Leave
deliberately under-developed points as hooks that invite the
assessors to ask questions that you then know are coming
and can prepare for. Assessors simply do not have the time to
scrutinise everything.
Revision
Once the submission has been sent, revision begins amid
rising panic. Private study is an important part of preparing
for the APC, but I would suggest that by itself it does not
develop the skills required. It is an oral exam in which you
have to defend decisions and demonstrate points, and you
need to practise.
Do as many proper mock exams with experienced surveyors,
(preferably assessors themselves) as you can. Often, firms
will assess each others graduates so you can experience
being assessed by unfamiliar people. A revision method less
dependent on the goodwill of others is to set up a study group
1 6 A P R I L / M AY 2 0 1 5
Final assessment
Finally you come to the daunting prospect of the final
assessment. Honestly, in my experience, the hour-long
assessment just flies by. The presentation is the most
important part, because you are fully in control. Making
a good impression at this stage stands you in good
stead. If you are unhappy with your presentation, you
will find it hard to recover your confidence for the rest of
the assessment.
The rest of the interview should flow from your templates.
By this point you should know these inside out, and with
your hooks, you should have a fair idea of what is coming.
There will of course be a few questions that nobody asked in
a mock, and there will probably be some that trip you up. Dont
panic. You are not expected to know everything.
An oft-used expression is that they are looking for a
safe pair of hands. Not knowing the answer to a few questions
is acceptable as long as you react appropriately. Do not
guess the answer, instead, treat the situation as if a client
was asking you a question. Explain that you are not sure and
would need to research the subject and suggest where you
would look. Knowing where to find information is a good second
best if you dont have the information to hand.
Contrastingly, ethics, RICS rules and health and safety
do require perfect recall and a wrong answer here can be
disastrous. Luckily, this can simply be learned by rote and is
easily tested in mocks.
One final recommendation: after the APC try not to expect
too much from yourself. Continue to ask questions, be aware of
the limits of your experience and competence and be prepared
to ask for help when you need it. b
Jim Percival is a Chartered Building Surveyor at Savills
jpercival@savills.com
A PC
View from
the chair
With nearly 10 years under his belt as an
assessor, APC chairman, Gary Blackman
describes a typical interview day
RI CS CONST RU C TIO N
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Referral report
If a candidate is referred, the chairman
must compile a report to give general
feedback and guidance, detailing the
areas in which they did not meet the
required level of competence so that
they can seek to learn from any mistakes
and address any areas of weakness
before resitting. With six core and three
optional competencies to cover in
addition to the mandatory competencies,
there is a great deal to cover (hence the
note taking during the assessment), so
compiling a referral report can take quite
some time.
With so much resting on it, the
APC is perhaps the most daunting
experience of any candidates
professional life to date. But they should
take comfort from the fact that everyone
in the assessment room knows exactly
what they are going through.
The process
is a very fair
and open one
structure and ensures that the candidate
is aware that the members will be taking
notes. Throughout, it is the chairmans
responsibility to ensure that the various
sections of the interview are kept
within time.
Following the candidates critical
analysis presentation and once
questioning has come to an end, the
chairman will round off the assessment
with questions about RICS code of
conduct and professional ethics. The
candidate is then given the final word
on anything else they would like to add
or clarify.
Each hour-long assessment is
followed by a half hour break, during
which the panel discusses the
candidates performance. Very often
the two assessors reach a consensus
over success or referral, but, if not, the
chairman has the casting vote having
listened to both assessors, as regards
their particular areas of specialism, to
reach a balanced and fair decision.
Images iStock
A P R I L / M AY 2 0 1 5 1 7
C O ST M A N AG E M E N T
Sky high
prices
ccording to
the latest
Demographia
annual survey,
Hong Kong
has the most
unaffordable
housing market in
the world. The medium home price in the
city is currently running about 15 times
the annual household income.
Meanwhile, a recent CBRE survey
of the commercial sector ranked Hong
Kongs Central Banking District as the
second most expensive market, just
behind Londons West End but well
ahead of Beijing and Moscow. In the
past, the shortage of land supply was
considered the main cause, but recently,
the sharp increase of construction costs
is becoming a major contributing factor in
high property prices.
Hong Kong does not appear to have a
shortage of labour in terms of quantity.
According to the Construction Industry
Councils (CIC) labour registration
figure, there were 220,000 construction
workers in 2007 and more than 320,000
in 2014. However, the skilled workforce
1 8 A P R I L / M AY 2 0 1 5
Working hours
With a serious shortage of skilled labour,
the wages of construction workers
have gone up significantly over the past
Images Shutterstock
C O ST MA NAG EMENT
Pipeline of projects
Multiple major infrastructure
projects are currently underway in
Hong Kong. These include the
Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge,
the Hong Kong section of the
Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong
express rail link, the South Island line
(East), the Sha Tin to central link, advance
works on the Tuen Mun-Chek Lap Kok
link, the Kai Tak development and the
Xiqu Centre of the West Kowloon Cultural
District, among many others.
On top of these public works, the
government also has a very ambitious
public housing target of 470,000
residential units over the next 10 years.
Every project is in one way or another
competing for the same pool of resource.
Many quantity surveying firms believe that
2014 and 2015 will be the busiest time
in Hong Kongs construction industry,
with all public works at their peak of
manpower needs.
Going forward, with major
infrastructure and other projects entering
the construction phase in the next few
years, the estimated annual expenditure
on capital works is expected to exceed
HK$70bn. Although there appears to be
a commitment from the government to
offer a stable pipeline of project and job
opportunities, the Legislative Councils
slow funding approval process when
assessing public works projects is a
genuine concern.
Of the HK$70bn capital works planned,
only 4% have been approved owing to
the differences in policy priority between
the administration and a number of
Legislative Council members. If the
situation does not improve, it is not
difficult to predict that after one or two
years there will be a severe drop in
construction volume, thus affecting the
livelihood of construction workers.
A stable and visible pipeline of
long-term public works will help attract
investment, encourage younger people
to enter the construction workforce and
motivate university graduates to become
professionals in the built environment.
Currently, the growth of demand is driving
up prices, but equally worrying, an abrupt
Every project is
competing for the
same resource pool
decline in public works in the near
future could have an enormous impact
on the sustainable development of
the industry and thus the stability of
construction costs.
Possible solutions
Although the manpower and funding
approval issues are outside outside the
remit of the chartered surveyor, there are
a number of tools and new technologies
to enable projects to be carried out in
a more effective and efficient manner,
with a consequent reduction in overall
construction cost.
New Engineering Contract
For better risk management, employers
and contractors could make more
extensive use of the New Engineering
Contract (NEC) form, which emphasises
mutual trust and cooperation between
the contracting parties. The NEC form
allocates contractual risk to the party
best able to manage it. Moreover, it
provides a collaborative risk management
mechanism to reduce occurrences, as
well as mitigating the consequences
when they arise.
The sharing and management of
risk in the NEC form could help reduce
project costs. Furthermore, the target
cost payment option provides a pain/gain
share mechanism where the employer
and the contractor share the difference
between the actual construction cost and
the final target cost. It encourages the
contracting parties to reach a common
goal of completing the works together
and at a reduced cost and within a
shorter construction period. To limit
financial liability, the employer would only
share the overspending up to a certain
percentage above the final target cost.
Building information modelling
According to a CIC report, projects using
building information modelling (BIM) can
help to:
bb provide multi-dimensional visual
images and timely information related to
construction projects
bb test models and quickly generate
options for better decision-making in
RI CS CONST RU C TIO N
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Conclusion
The cost of construction is not the
only factor affecting property prices.
For a stable and healthy market, the
long-term solution is to engage the
public to develop a vision for Hong
Kongs future. This will enable the
government to take a strategic role
in planning future needs for land,
construction projects, labour, professional
talent and regulatory adjustments.
The government needs to take the
lead in enhancing the delivery capacity
of the construction industry and invest
substantially in manpower resources
to plan and prepare for the projects to
come in five to 10 years time. The ability
to build capacity for the future is crucial
to sustaining the citys economic growth,
and to maintaining Hong Kongs position
as Asias World City. b
Roy Ying is RICS Head of Communications
and External Affairs North Asia
rying@rics.org
A P R I L / M AY 2 0 1 5 1 9
H E A LTH A N D S A F E TY
roject and
site manager
respondents
to my study of
construction
personnel reported
high levels of stress
compared with
site operatives who were, on the whole,
significantly less stressed. Both project
and site managers were more likely to
have a Type A personality (being driven
and competitive) with site operatives
being more Type B (with no drive or
ambition) (see Construction Journal
February/March, p20-21).
The research also showed that
project managers perform on the
whole better under high stress, and
optimally under medium stress. Finally,
the respondents described positive and
negative feelings experienced on the
busiest day of their working life. The
answers showed that feelings such as
fear and nausea were rarely reported,
perhaps because they are perceived as
a sign of weakness.
The majority of respondents in this
study reported being stressed, yet on
construction sites there is no mechanism
for dealing with this. There could be a
number of reasons for this but this study
points to the macho culture that has
been identified in other research.
RI CS CONST RU C TIO N
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HSE approach
While is is known that stress makes up
40% of all work-related illness in the
UK, the problem is not well understood,
and in the construction industry the
issue is woefully under researched.
The HSE has proposed a management
A P R I L / M AY 2 0 1 5 2 1
LEGAL
he
floodgates
officially
opened
on 30
June 2014,
with all
employees now having the
right to request to work
flexibly, and for any reason.
Employers facing a new wave
of applications for lifestyle
reasons must ensure equal
billing is given to all requests,
regardless of whether they
are sought for more traditional
or atypical reasons.
The ability to offer flexible
working is undoubtedly an
attractive recruitment and
retention tool for employers,
and varied working patterns
are seen as the shape of
things to come in these days
of home and remote working.
However, not all organisations
have the infrastructure and
types of work available to
sustain different working
arrangements.
Employers must
nevertheless have in place a
strategy to deal with flexible
working requests, since there
is a greater expectation that
applications will be properly
and reasonably considered.
The new
process affords
employers far
more leeway
in how to deal
with requests
Any choice?
While an employer must
consider any application
reasonably, they can reject
a request on the basis of
one or more of eight
business grounds:
1. planned structural changes
2. burden of additional costs
LEG A L
3. detrimental impact
on quality
4. inability to recruit additional
staff
5. detrimental impact
on performance
6. inability to reorganise work
among existing staff
7. detrimental effect on ability
to meet customer demand
8. lack of work during the
periods the employee
proposes to work.
The law is nevertheless
designed to encourage
employers to make a
concerted effort to consider
how any application can
be accommodated, and
explore any compromises if
the employees preference
cannot be facilitated. This
would be prudent where
there is a likelihood of losing
a valued employee if their
request is declined.
If an employees request
is refused without suitable
reasons, they may have
grounds for discrimination or
constructive dismissal claims,
or a complaint under the
flexible working legislation.
However, even where an
application is legitimately
declined, there is potential for
a grievance/appeal/claim from
an employee, and employers
should protect their positon
by ensuring the reason(s) for
Top tips
The new legislation offers
employers far more freedom
in how they administer
applications, but there is also
an added onus on businesses
to handle requests with care
and consistency. To this end:
bb review as a business how
you plan to manage flexible
working applications going
forward and, if necessary,
adapt or draft a new flexible
working policy to effect this
bb consider all applications
positively and with an open
mind, however inventive the
proposal or reason for it
might be
bb operate a first come first
served system and state in
your policy that applications
will be considered in this way
bb consider the potential for
constructive dismissal claims
where one employee makes
a successful application
but another cannot be
accommodated explain
in your policy why it will not
always be possible to agree
like requests
bb consider whether you
wish to give preference to, or
RI CS CONST RU C TIO N
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Conclusion
The law has rightly moved
to give parity to all employees
who for reasons important
to them, wish to have the
right to ask for variable
hours. The law is however,
fully supportive of employers
whose operations are
incompatible with less
conventional working systems.
As long as the organisation
can demonstrate a willing
and reasoned approach to
considering flexible working
requests it can, for now at
least, be business as usual. b
A P R I L / M AY 2 0 1 5 2 3
A DV E RTI S I N G
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Comparing notes
he Building Cost
Information Service
(BCIS), part of RICS,
has been collecting
data for more than
50 years, and
remains the only truly
independent and unbiased source of
construction information in the UK,
unparalleled in the industry.
The reciprocal service is made possible
by the help of its subscribers and
members of the construction industry
providing real project cost information.
BCIS spends up to two days analysing
each and every project to maintain and
produce the wide range of benchmarking
tools and indices. All providers of data
benefit from this consultancy support.
Now, in addition, all suppliers will receive
a complimentary benchmark report.
Using the comprehensive database,
which currently exceeds 19,000 projects,
industry professionals will be able to
compare the performance of their own
projects against others. The report is
designed to guide strategic decisions
while facilitating best practice and
continual improvement. It also allows
each recipient to view their project in
relation to comparable projects in the
construction industry.
Confidentiality
BCIS guarantees the absolute
confidentiality of your data, and nothing
A P R I L / M AY 2 0 1 5 2 5
LEGAL HELPLINE
Legal
Q&A
Health and safety duty of care
+info
+info
Kevin
Jeremy
Bridges
Ferrisis a
Partner
is SenioratAssociate
Pinsent at
Masons
Furley Page
LLP and
LLP a
Chartered
jcf@furleypage.co.uk
Safety and
Health Practitioner
kevin.bridges@
pinsentmasons.com
A DV ERTISING
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visit rics.org/bcisbenchmarkreport
Submitting more data. By submitting your project data to BCIS, not only do you receive the new BCIS Benchmark Report, you also contribute to raising the quality of benchmark data in the
construction sector and ultimately support the industry to drive efficiency. If you are concerned about commercial sensitivity, the data you provide can be anonymised for use in statistical studies.
View our Confidentiality Policy at rics.org/bcisconfidentiality
Certificate in Construction
Project Management
Gain technical expertise for the practical implementation
of project management.
Learning outcomes:
Book your place on the next course: e training@rics.org t 020 7686 8584 w rics.org/distance
To ad ve rtise con t a c t C h a r l o t te Tu r n e r +4 4( 0 )2 0 7 8 7 1 5 7 3 4 or c harlot te@wearesu nday. c om
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