Aspire One Newsletter - Issue 66 September 2021

ISSUE 66 : SEPTEMBER 2021

One

The voice of Landsec | Aspire // Bringing our community TogetherAsOne

Animal instincts As Jaguar Building Services prowl the Nova estate in Victoria, we meet the team on the hunt for engineering perfection.

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Cover: Jay Nel from Jaguar Building Services at Nova Victoria.

Right: Yassine Houssain reflects on Jaguar’s recent performance at Nova.

For information regarding the articles in this magazine contact aspire@landsec.com Landsec, 100 Victoria Street, London SW1E 5JL

+44 (0) 20 7413 9000

aspire@landsec.com

One newsletter is keen to welcome points of view from Landsec staff and Service Partners. Therefore, the views expressed in this newsletter are those of the individual contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Landsec. We welcome contributions whether through social media, email, letters or stories. Please forward contributions to aspire@landsec.com

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Nova comprises three buildings: two office blocks and The Nova Building.

David Wickens One Editor-in-Chief david.wickens@landsec.com

Kelly Barlow One Editor kelly.barlow@landsec.com

David Wickens Operations Director & Chair of Landsec | Aspire

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The first week of the new school term saw Landsec offices at their busiest since March 2020, with an increase of just over 60% in the number of people working from our properties compared with the previous week.

office workers get more out of their working week. As well as supporting the local economy, it’s a reminder that office life is about more than simply sitting at a desk. These events tie in with the rising demand for high-quality and well-designed office space that fosters wellbeing, collaboration and innovation.

Despite the move to hybrid working, it’s clear that the office has a vital role to play in the success of companies. The pandemic has caused business leaders to rethink the purpose of the office and the role it plays in their organisations.

In this issue, we meet the Jaguar Building Services team to find out how they keep the infrastructure at the Nova Estate working as it should. Having been the Aspire Service Partner looking after the mechanical, electrical and fabric assets at Nova for six years now, the team operates like a well-oiled machine.

To help encourage people back into central London, Landsec Experience was launched in the summer. Through themed events – from wellbeing workshops to live music – and discounts at local bars and restaurants, Landsec Experience is designed to help

Martin French One Design & Layout martin@tigerbaydesign.co.uk

Heidi Scott One Copywriter heidi@tigerbaydesign.co.uk

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STEPHEN DEWSBURY IS

Security Officer of the Year

Stephen Dewsbury.

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At the Bidvest Noonan Annual Awards ceremony held on 16 September, colleagues from Bidvest Noonan contracts across Great Britain gathered for a gala dinner at the Sheraton Grand on London’s Park Lane. The award winners revealed on the night included familiar faces from not one but two Landsec properties.

Stephen Dewsbury at One New Change scooped the Security Officer

of the Year award. He commented that he was “truly amazed and surprised” to be nominated and win.

The Aspire security staff at Cardinal Place also won an award, picking up the accolade of Best Managed Contract (Large Teams). Although not a winner on the night, Artemis Ayiotis from Nova was shortlisted in the final three for the award of Front of House Colleague of the Year.

Many congratulations to Stephen, the team at Cardinal Place and Artemis for their achievements!

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Keeping a calm head to resolve mechanical and electrical issues seems to come naturally to members of the Jaguar Building Services team at Nova.

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Carl Butcher.

Waste Management Jay Nel. One Magazine 007

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Jamie Boss.

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Unlike other Landsec | Aspire Service Partners, Jaguar Building Services (JBS) works at only one location in the London Portfolio. However, it’s a big one – the JBS team takes care of mechanical, electrical and fabric assets across the Nova estate in Victoria. This includes the two commercial towers of Nova North and Nova South and the common areas of the The Nova Building (the residential development).

The contract with Landsec – which JBS has had since Nova was completed in 2015 – does not cover the retailers at Nova, the residents or the tenanted floors in the office buildings (although some of these tenants have separate

contracts with JBS, which are handled by a separate Jaguar team). The JBS staff at Nova have also been involved in the project to integrate the latest addition to the Nova family, n2. The new development, which is due to be completed in 2023, connects to the existing buildings in the basement.

Responsible for the overall performance of JBS at Nova is Robbie Kitson, Associate Director, with on-site management headed up by Jay Nel, Key Account Manager. Jay is supported by two Technical Services Managers (Carl Butcher and Jamie Boss), an Administrator (Marta Mrowiec), six Shift Engineers, an

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Jaguar’s Administrator, Marta Mrowiec.

Along with the AspireAssist team, Marta has real-time visibility of all issues via the Freshdesk dashboard, as do Jay, Carl and Jamie. The Jaguar staff are working with the AspireAssist team at NJC to develop the system further, with the desire for PPM tasks to be covered by the software in the future too.

The JBS team uses Concept as its PPM system, which is based on the SFG20 paperless maintenance task scheduling system established by the Building Engineering Services Association. JBS has tailored Concept to the precise needs of Nova and the system is used via a smartphone-based app. Soon this way of working will switch over to the Smart Radio devices, which can download the Freshdesk field service app, allowing ticket information to be sent directly to on-site technicians rather than via a

Service Partner’s helpdesk.

The Jaguar Building Services team at Nova are a happy bunch and clearly enjoy great career progression opportunities. Established in 1988, family-owned JBS is focused on commercial rather than residential contracts. The company only serves clients in London, covering a total of 84 buildings from as far west as White City to as far east as Royal Albert Dock.

“Both the hardest thing and the most rewarding is to attract the right staff and then retain them,” explains Robbie Kitson. “It’s really hard at the moment to employ decent engineers.”

JBS has certainly done well when it comes to staff retention in the Nova team. Jay Nel joined 15 years ago as an improver and has worked his way up through roles as an electrician, site supervisor, Technical Services Manager and now Key Account Manager.

Yassine Houssain.

Electrical Engineer, a Fabric Technician and an Improver (Yassine Houssain).

Between them, these team members take care of the mechanical (heating, cooling and ventilation), electrical (low voltage and high voltage) and fabric (fire doors, mostly) infrastructure at Nova.

The work splits into reactive – that is, urgent issues that need to be sorted – and planned preventative maintenance (PPM), with the shift pattern having recently been changed to provide more cover during the day Monday to Friday. This has meant increasing the number of staff during the day, with shifts covering 7am until 7pm, in order to improve response times for reactive work.

The most common tasks relate to the access control systems, CCTV cameras and fire alarms. These issues are raised with the JBS team via the AspireAssist 24/7 HelpDesk and the calls come in to

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Landsec are a breath of fresh air to work with.

Robbie Kitson.

Robbie Kitson

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Marta Mrowiec.

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Similarly, Jamie Boss joined the team 12 years ago as an improver and has been promoted up to his current role as Technical Services Manager. Robbie Kitson himself has been with JBS for 22 years. “When I joined there were 34 staff and now there are 488!” he says.

What has the team’s experience of the pandemic been like? Well, they have extended plant-operating times – to both earlier in the morning and later in the evening – to improve ventilation, with only fresh air coming into the buildings. In addition, they have taken responsibility for increased flushing of the water systems. When properties are largely unoccupied, there is an increased risk of Legionnaires’ disease if the water volume is not replaced in this way so, oddly, the team found they were still busy even though there were fewer people in the building.

Back in March 2020, the construction of n2 required the installation of a pylon in the generator room at Nova, which in turn required that a large piece of

equipment be removed. This work was scheduled for three days – but then lockdown happened! It is testament to the dedication of the JBS team that they and their electrical contractor remained on site for 24 hours to complete the work – as they did not know if they would be able to get back into London if they left – so that the building schedule for n2 was not disrupted.

The team noticed a huge increase in people returning to Nova when the schools went back earlier this month.

At the height of the pandemic there had only been around 50 people a day (mostly Aspire colleagues) at Nova, a figure that crept up gradually to around 600-700 a day and then stayed at that level for some time. In the week that the new school term started, the numbers doubled to around 1500.

What do the team find to be the most challenging part of the contract?

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says Robbie Kitson. “Trying to maintain very fine internal conditions – plus or minus 1˚C – requires huge amounts of energy. What’s really needed is a change in tenant behaviour to accept putting on or taking off a layer of clothing,” he adds.

How does Aspire contribute to the way in which the Jaguar team fulfills its role at Nova? “The whole collaborative working ethos and the Aspire network really works,” says Robbie. He describes Landsec as “a breath of fresh air to work with” because, unlike some companies who want a collaborative approach across Service Partners but do not provide a budget, he believes that Landsec funds the concept properly.

This collaborative approach pays dividends, as demonstrated during major floods a few years ago. With

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massive power outages as sections of busbar were flooded, the team needed to lay cable around the busbar in order to restore power but soon ran out of cable.

Due to connections already established via the Aspire network, NJ Bailey – strictly speaking, a competitor – stepped in to provide some 200 metres of cable to help resolve the issue.

Robbie is on the Aspire Operating Board; Jaguar’s owner and Managing Director, Paul Roberts is on the Aspire Steering Committee; and Jay Nel is a member of Aspire’s Ambassador Group.

“Landsec is also different because it is a developer,” says Robbie, explaining that the company’s development team will speak to JBS for advice and feedback to improve future properties. “Landsec listen – they really do,” he says.

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Yassine Houssain Improver Yassine Houssain joined the JBS team as an Improver four months ago. As well as working at Nova during the day, he is studying two evenings a week at City of Westminster College for a City & Guilds Level 2 qualification in Electrical Installation. This course will take Yassine, who already has a degree in Mechanical Engineering, a year to complete, after which he can progress to an HNC if he wishes. “It sounds a bit nerdy,” says Yassine, “but the thing I like most here is the amount of kit we have to look after. It’s very different to what I’m used to. There’s a lot of interesting stuff going on in the plant rooms and we’ve got a very helpful team backing us up.”

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Anthony Owusu.

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Marta Mrowiec Administrator Marta Mrowiec works closely with the engineers on the PPM tasks and reactive jobs and with the team at the AspireAssist 24/7 HelpDesk. She came to Nova initially on a JBS tenant contract but then joined the Aspire team working on the Landsec contract.

She has been with JBS for three and a half years and is very happy as part of the team at Nova. “It’s quite a challenging place, but I don’t mind challenge,” she says.

She has learned quite a lot about engineering in that time, which helps her to judge the urgency of tasks. Part of Marta’s role is to upload the service reports for planned maintenance to RiskWise, the system Landsec uses for its statutory compliance.

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Both the hardest thing and the most rewarding is to attract the right staff and then retain them.

Robbie Kitson

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Eddie Harknett at New Street Square.

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NEW STREET SQUARE

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The living wall at New Street Square, which brings vital greenery to an urban landscape, has been nominated for an award.

Covering 240m2 of wall area on three aspects – East, South and West – the living wall at New Street Square has been an attractive feature since its installation by specialist firm Biotecture in 2011. Now it has been nominated for an award by the Flowers in the City campaign, promoted by the Worshipful company of Gardeners. The organisation runs summer and winter awards each year, with the prize ceremony taking place in Mansion House.

The living wall at New Street Square is one of five installed and maintained by Biotecture for Landsec over the years.

During the winter months, it is the only bit of urban greening in the area and it offers important benefits all year round.

Over the course of the past 18 months, we have all become more familiar with the positive effect on our wellbeing of connecting with nature. Humans share

an instinctive bond with nature, known as biophilia. Greenery in cities can help to enhance mental health, productivity and creativity. There are also physical health benefits that flow from the ability of plants to improve air quality by removing pollutants from the air we breathe.

The benefits don’t stop there. Living walls can help to reduce urban temperatures, something that can be seen using thermal cameras. With climate change scientists predicting that London will experience similar temperatures to those in Marseilles by 2050, this is an important factor.

A living wall covers the surface of a building with a heat-absorbing canopy and will reduce the energy consumption of the building. It also helps to reduce noise.

Then there are the benefits to the natural world. Living walls not only increase the biodiversity of the urban environment through adding plants, they also offer food and shelter for birds, bees, butterflies, ladybirds and other insects. Special habitat boxes can even be integrated into the walls.

With plants growing vertically instead of horizontally, living walls are not simple to construct. They feature hydroponics, a method of growing plants without soil. Whereas a plant in soil may spend up to 60% of its energy searching for nutrients, plants in a hydroponic system have everything delivered to them in the precise measures they need.

The plants in Biotecture’s walls are grown in a medium that acts like a sponge to retain water and, even when saturated, keeps some air space in its structure to prevent roots from drowning. The success of a living wall depends on the design of the irrigation system and where species are located within it. At New Street Square, for example, more water needs to be applied to the South elevation than the others over the summer. With hydroponic horticulture, a living wall will last for over two weeks without irrigation, if necessary.

Fingers crossed for the team at New Street Square and Biotecture – watch this space for news of the award winners!

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Hi, I’m from Bidvest Noonan, can I report a cleaning issue please?

Yes of course, let me contact the Aspire team for you.

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N A T I O N A L

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UnitedAsOne

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27 Sept to 3 Oct

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As one of our core values, inclusivity is very important to Landsec and integral to the Aspire culture that we are trying to build.

So we embraced National Inclusion Week (27 September – 3 October) for the second time and organised a number of activities.

Now in its ninth year, National Inclusion Week is organised by Inclusive Employers, the organisation for employers who are committed to creating truly inclusive workplaces.

Designed to celebrate inclusion in all its forms, National Inclusion Week brings together organisations from across the world to share best practice and inspire inclusive ideas. This year’s theme was unity, with the hashtag #UnitedForInclusion.

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Our main event this year was a session to raise awareness of Neurodiversity in the Workplace and the benefits of employing a diverse team. This ‘lunch and learn’ workshop, which was also open to our brand partners, took place on Wednesday 29 September at the Pergola in Cardinal Place Roof Garden.

Aimed at all employees and particularly line managers, the session was opened

by Mark Allan, CEO of Landsec, and delivered by Dr Ava Doski, Clinical Psychologist. Dr Ava was joined

by Amanda Bueno de Mesquita, a psychotherapist and Practice Development Lead at the NHS.

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Sunday 10 October is...

Sunday 10

October is...

18 Oct PURPLE TUESDAY WEBINAR

Disability inclusion To mark National Inclusion Week, Purple Tuesday 365 is hosting a webinar on ‘Disability Inclusion in the Workplace’.

Taking place at 12.30pm on Monday 18 October, the webinar will include a selection of short video case studies. Everyone in the Aspire community is welcome to take part, so please speak to your line manager if you would like to book a place.

National Inclusion Week (27 September – 3 October) is designed to celebrate inclusion in all its forms, bringing together organisations from across the world to share best practice.

Landsec | Aspire continues to support #PurpleTuesday in promoting change to enhance the customer experience for disabled people and also subscribes to Purple Tuesday 365, which drives accessibility and equality all year round.

Mind over matter

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World Mental Health Day on Sunday 10 October provides a great opportunity for everyone to check in on their mental health. The objective of #WorldMentalHealthDay is to raise awareness of mental health issues around the world and to mobilise efforts in support of mental health.

The past 18 months have been challenging for many of us in terms of our mental health as we have grappled with the stress of new ways of working, anxiety about our physical health and the emotional challenge of being separated from friends and loved ones.

The theme of this year’s World Mental Health Day is ‘Mental Health in an Unequal World’, recognising that access to mental health support is too often determined by where we live or who we are. Inequalities – whether due to income, social class, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity – have an impact on people’s mental health and whether they are able to access the treatment they need and deserve.

If you are experiencing mental health issues, remember that you can seek support from the Mental Health First Aiders in your workplace.

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Aspire STAFF RECOGNITION AWARDS

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We recognise & reward Landsec | Aspire is always looking for your feedback to help us give praise where it’s due. Whether you’re a team member or a Landsec Customer, let us have your Player of the Month votes and winners will be featured in One Magazine.

What are the Aspire Staff Recognition Awards?

Every month a ‘Player / Team of the Month’ is selected from nominations by you, other Aspire team members and Landsec Customers. Winners receive a certificate and some well-deserved prizes.

It is a credit to everyone that each month lots of nominations are received, illustrating just how good the Aspire team is and how team members are held in such high regard by the people they work with.

How do your workmates excel in the Aspire values?

— Determined — Inclusive — Driven — United Aspire Recognition Awards 2019.

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Aspire PLAYER OF THE MONTH

August ‘21

Each month we salute the people recognised by you for exceptional performance or for simply being a great team member.

Nominations can now be made via AspireAsOne.co.uk

WELL done Ali!

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Team of the month

Congratulations to Ali Agip, Security Supervisor at 140 Aldersgate for winning an Aspire Player of the Month award.

Ali was nominated by Madeleine Velupillai, Senior Workspace Manager, following feedback received from Eight Associates (Landsec’s testing partners for WELL Portfolio, the international health-focused building standard accreditation).

Ali Agip, Security Supervisor at 140 Aldersgate.

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The team from Eight Associates remarked that Ali was incredibly helpful when they visited 140 Aldersgate and they were very grateful for his assistance. He gave them a full health & safety induction, a tour of the property and even printed a document for them. He certainly demonstrated the Aspire value of being driven to provide excellent customer service.

Brilliant stuff, Ali – keep up the good work!

Winners ALI AGIP & FOWZI SULEMAN BIDVEST NOONAN

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This month we have a second winner after Fowzi Suleman, Security Officer at Cardinal Place and 80-100 Victoria Street, helped paramedics attending to a customer.

Jenny Harper, Workspace Manager, nominated Fowzi for his quick reactions in assisting the customer and paramedics attending an incident at 80-100 Victoria Street. Fowzi went above and beyond – including going back to the floor later in the day to check whether the customer was alright – and excellent feedback about him was received.

Thank you, Fowzi, for showing how much you care and for excelling in the Aspire value of being inclusive.

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LET’S MAKE UP FOR LOST TIME & CELEBR ATE ASPIRE STYLE

With Government legislation regularly updated, this event will make every

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COVID SAFETY

HEART OF THE WEST END

effort to comply with any social distancing guidelines in place at the time. Details to be confirmed.

FRIDAY 10.12.2021