Workplacelaw opens new London base

04 June 2010

Members of the FM community celebrated the opening of Workplacelaw's new Executive Centre in Clerkenwell, London, last week.

The £350,000 fit-out of the 4,000 sq ft space in a newly built mixed use development provides Workplacelaw with its own training facilities for the first time to replace the two venues in London which it has used up to now. Workplacelaw MD, David Sharp has already been holding courses at the venue prior to its official opening, and he and his guests were particulalry impressed by the design and fit out by AGI Interiors.
An opening ceremony of cutting a ribbon was conducted by the founder of Chumpney’s health resorts, Dorothy Purdew.
The facility comprises four training rooms capable of holding from 10 –25 people, but two of them can be opened into one to hold about 60 people, or up 100 for social events. Each room will be fitted with state-of-the-art audio visual and projection facilites, and one room will be fitted out for video conferencing. There are two small rooms for up to three people each, and light and attractive break out spaces.
Sharp commented that this investment in the property which is held on a 125 year lease was a major step forward for the company, and for the first time it has been able to design the facilities to suit its needs of delegates. It is expected to be more cost effective than hiring training venues in London. The facilities are already largely booked through to the end of the year.
Called the Workplacelaw Executive Centre, it is located at 13 Clerkenwell Road, within a few minutes walk of Barbican Underground and Farringdon Underground, Overground and (soon to be CrossRail) stations. Three Workplacelaw employees will be based there including a Centre manager and two training administrators. The fitout has stressed energy efficient equipment and sustainability – the airconditioning system for example uses heat recovery to heat the Centre's water.
Sharp pointed out that Workplacelaw’s training activities now account for nearly half of its business, representing a significant change in direction for a company that started as a publisher. Currently the main focus at Workplacelaw is on its traditional HR/Employment Relations and health & safety, but new this year, is an Environmental Management strand. Sharp appointed Colin Malcolm this month as Principle Consulting Environmental Services to lead a new programmes for ISO140001, BREEAM and IERMA accredited training.
Sharp also explained that Workplacelaw’s consultancy activities were also becoming a significant part of the business. He announced that following the deregulation of the legal profession in the Legal Services Act 2007 – dubbed ‘Tesco law’ – he is considering transforming Workplacelaw into a ‘law firm’ from 2012 that offers legal training and consultancy in HR/employee relations, H&S and environmental law .