About Mark Eltringham

Mark is the publisher of Workplace Insight, IN magazine, Works magazine and is the European Director of Work&Place journal. He has worked in the office design and management sector for over thirty years as a journalist, marketing professional, editor and consultant.

Posts by Mark Eltringham:

October 7, 2015

Why Jeremy Hunt is wrong about the need to work long hours ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing, Workplace

This week the UK’s Health Secretary found himself at the centre of a storm because of some comments he’d made suggesting that eroding one of the UK’s welfare platforms would encourage people to work as hard as the ‘Chinese and Americans’. Most of the backlash against these comments was political, so make your own mind up on that score, but they don’t stack up from a practical point of view either. The British already work some of the longest hours in Europe so encouraging people to work more will do little or nothing to resolve the productivity puzzle, as a 2014 report from the Bank of England confirms. Of course, we should all have worked out by now that long hours and productivity are not the same thing. It’s been a longstanding issue in the UK where people manage to combine some of the longest working hours in Europe with levels of productivity that fall habitually behind those of our partners on the mainland.

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October 6, 2015

Apple agrees deal for new tech palace and campus in California ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, News, Property, Technology

According to a report published in the Silicon Valley Business Journal, Apple is planning to add another tech palace to run alongside its Norman Foster designed campus in California. This time Apple is not commissioning a purpose made building but is buying one off the shelf, albeit one marked ‘exactly the sort of place Apple would occupy’. The HOK designed Central and Wolfe campus in Sunnyvale will house 3,000 employees in three connected six storey offices set in landscaped grounds that include walks, bike paths and retail and leisure facilities. The campus is designed to achieve a LEED Platinum accreditation so includes green roofs, solar panelling and water reclamation technology. According to the report: “The campus promises to dramatically alter a neighborhood dominated by single-storey industrial and R&D buildings. While Apple has been snapping up existing buildings all over the neighborhood, the massive new campus could become a new icon for the region.”

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October 6, 2015

Commercial property markets in world cities are evolving rapidly ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Cities, News, Property

The commercial property markets in the world’s major cities are evolving against a backdrop of ongoing economic and political uncertainty, according to the new 12 Cities Report from Savills. The authors suggest that the main consequence of this since 2008 has been for investors to switch their focus from paper assets to property. This in turn has led to a number of developments in local commercial property markets including global investors looking for alternatives to the major cities within key national economies. One of the key developments is that major tech firms are now willing to spend as much on their real estate as the previously dominant financial giants. One other interesting issue raised in the report is the growing inability of people to afford to live and work in the same place, especially in cities with restrictions on the amount of space available for development.

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October 2, 2015

For once and for all, please stop with this ‘death of the office’ stuff ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Furniture, Property, Technology, Workplace design

I was involved in a meeting with an office fit-out company this week which involved a discussion of how their clients can develop misconceptions about the extent to which their contemporaries are introducing new office design and management models based on agile working, shared space, mobile technology and all that other good stuff. This presents a particular challenge for firms in the sector because their day to day experiences of what clients talk about and ask from them can be pretty removed from the things talked about in the media. If you were to judge the state of the office solely on the basis of what you read and hear and see at shows, it would be easy to conclude that the office is indeed dying and dragging down with it the markets for office furniture, commercial property and traditional technology. The problem is that the facts don’t support that notion at all.

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September 29, 2015

Generation Z is the smart generation that will redefine work, claims report ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, Knowledge, Property, Wellbeing

The trade association BSRIA has launched a White Paper called Products and Systems for Generation Z in Reduced Carbon Buildings to explore the future needs of buildings designed for what it calls the ‘smart generation’. It considers ways in which the value of buildings might be improved in order to raise productivity and wellbeing for occupiers and at the same time generate new revenue streams for suppliers. Authored by Jeremy Towler and based on data collected in March of this year, it suggests that Generation Z are the “first tribe of true digital natives” and are ‘smarter and more prudent than Generation Y. They are empowered, have more job choices, seek freedom of movement and flexible working policies. They are the ‘see it – want it’, ‘touch it – get it now’ generation.’ The report claims this will define their relationship with work and drive demand for flexible working and on-demand offices.

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September 29, 2015

Changing behaviour and fidgeting reduce problems linked to sedentary work ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Furniture, Knowledge, Wellbeing, Workplace

There are a number of well established strategies for reducing the incidence of the back problems associated with sedentary worker. Two new studies have identified important ways that can be used to address the challenges. One will be familiar – training and encouraging people to be aware of and modify their behaviour; the other less so- fidgeting. The first study, published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, found that combining sound ergonomic practice with behaviour modification strategies led to a 60 percent reduction lower back pain compared to ergonomics in isolation. The second study, published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, found that fidgeting may also reduce the harmful effects of sedentary working across a range of health issues, with the authors concluding that “fidgeting may reduce the risk of all-cause mortality associated with excessive sitting time”.

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September 23, 2015

European commercial property markets set to hit eight year high ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Cities, News, Property

Activity in Europe’s commercial property markets is at its highest level since 2007, according to a new report from Knight Frank. Transaction volumes hit €104.9 billion in the first half of 2015, an increase of nearly a third on the previous year, while investment for the whole of 2015 is forecast to exceed €230 billion. The study claims that these increases are being felt in local markets across Europe, with the two largest markets in the UK and Germany performing especially strongly, accounting for around a half of total investment. There were also major improvements in levels of investment Italy and Portugal as well as more activity in both Spain and Ireland (above). However, the report concedes that rental growth remain ‘patchy’ across the continent but forecasts that this will improve as pressure grows on the availability of space in major cities like Paris.

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September 22, 2015

The worldwide demographic timebomb is transforming the workplace ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

There are a number of reasons why we shouldn’t be drawn into blindly accepting the narrative about Generation Y’s impact on the workplace. It seems the most important is also the least talked about. It is that the workforce is actually ageing in the world’s leading economies. While it may be true that 27 is middle -aged for employees at technology companies, for pretty much everybody else, shifting demographics, longer lives, improving health, falling pensions and changing personal preferences are likely to mean they stay in the workforce for longer. This is true in both the UK and US, where Millennials may make up the largest demographic grouping in the workplace but are still in a minority within an increasingly diverse workforce. The dynamics of these changes are playing out in different ways in different countries, but the forces are essentially universal.

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September 21, 2015

New study highlights the key roles of real estate at UK’s top law firms ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Case studies, Facilities management, News, Property, Workplace design

The UK’s top law firms are spending more on their real estate and allocating more space to staff, following years of reductions. Those are two of the key findings of a new report from The Lawyer magazine and property consultants JLL. Around half of the UK’s Top 200 law firms shared detailed data with the study, which also incorporates publicly available information on transactions. The study also takes into account the links between real estate strategy and broader strategic, management and human resources issues. While the report says the amount of space dedicated to each lawyer has risen by 7 percent over the last two years and the costs of owning real estate have also risen markedly, it also describes how many firms are now actively using flexible working to reduce real estate costs.The report concludes with a speculative look at future trends, including the uptake of coworking space.

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September 18, 2015

What Robert Frost can teach us about the changing workplace

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Flexible working, Technology

The great Twentieth Century American poet Robert Frost is arguably best known these days for two quotations that have – usually in bastardised versions – entered into common usage. The first is the final verse of his poem The Road Not Taken, and especially the final three lines: “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I /I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference.” The second is a quotation: “The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office”; which should be pinned up in every reception area and is usually rendered as something like ‘when you get to work, don’t leave your brain at the door.’ Both come to mind when you read something like the report entitled ‘Next Generation Working Life’ from Ericsson’s Networked Society Lab.

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September 17, 2015

Growth of on demand economy is transforming work and workplaces ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, News, Technology, Workplace design

Some of the key characteristics of the workplace of the near future are starting to crystallise pretty rapidly. In many ways, employees are aware of this to a greater extent than employers, legislators and politicians. For example, this week and over recent weeks Uber has been arguing in courts around the world that its drivers are not employees but are in fact self-employed. This is the shape of things to come. In the UK, around a fifth of the workforce is already freelance or self-employed, something which politicians like to misinterpret as small business, possibly because it makes them look better because they associate it with entrepreneurialism and the prospects of these firms employing other people. The idea this is simply not the case is supported by a new report from software provider Intuit which claims that just 13 percent of British workers think they will be in traditional employment in 2025.

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September 16, 2015

Many SMEs know how staff contribute to growth but still ignore their wellbeing ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • News, Wellbeing

The owners and managers of British small businesses understand that employees are critical to their success but a surprisingly large proportion believe that their health and wellbeing is not something that should be a concern for the firm. That is the main claim of a new survey from healthcare provider Bupa. According to its study of 500 small business owners and directors, two thirds (63 percent) agree that employing the right people is critical to the growth of the business in its early stages. Yet, less than half (46 percent) believe employee health and wellbeing will play a key role in their future growth strategy. This is in spite of the fact that three quarters (76 percent) of SMEs who have had an employee take a long sickness absence reported a significant impact on the growth of their business. Meanwhile, nearly half (46 percent) believe even an early short-term absence would have had an adverse effect.