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:

August 11, 2015

The key to the productivity puzzle may be to give people better jobs ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Knowledge, News, Workplace

Ever since the UK started to emerge from the economic downturn there has been a great deal of brow beating about the so-called productivity puzzle. Although the UK economy grew between 2012 and 2014, productivity fell by 1.15 percent. In addition, the UK has a productivity gap of between 23 and 32 per cent between it and comparable economies such as Germany, France and the Netherlands. When considering the reasons for this, most of the time a finger has been pointed at some old favourites such as working practices, a lack of engagement or – according to this feature published in HR Magazine this week – individual behaviour. Now a new report from the Institute for Public Policy research (IPPR) claims that the problems are far more complex than people typically assume and that one of the major factors is the jobs people are offered.

August 10, 2015

London is leading the way in the global coworking revolution ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Property, Workplace design

Changing attitudes amongst occupiers towards office space and the explosion in the numbers of freelance workers and microbusinesses are driving an upsurge in coworking and other flexible working environments worldwide. That is the key conclusion of a new report from DTZ which claims that the number of dedicated flexible working locations worldwide is likely to hit 50,000 over the next three years, with parts of London leading the way. We reported recently how coworking pioneer WeWork has already announced its plans to dominate London’s commercial property scene in the same way it already does Manhattan’s. Now, the How You Work report from DTZ suggests that this is the shape of things to come for many cities, with London leading the way alongside a tranche of global tech and creative centres such as New York, Berlin and Shanghai.

August 6, 2015

Infographic: The workplace week in numbers, for 7 August ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, Flexible working, Property, Workplace, Workplace design

August 6, 2015

Government publishes details of £118 bn pipeline of construction projects ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, Knowledge, News, Property, Public Sector

The UK Government, in conjunction with construction industry data specialist Barbour ABI, has published a full detailed list of around £118 billion of publicly funded building projects scheduled for the next five years. You can find the pipeline as a spreadsheet here, with the data broken down by sector and including some basic data for each project. The Government has also introduced a dedicated website with details of the projects with updates to the raw data available via both the central government website and at data.gov.uk. The government construction pipeline is now updated twice a year which the Government claims will ‘extend its reach beyond the major construction spending departments and improve the integrity of the data’ and demonstrate its commitment ‘to continuous engagement with industry and government clients on current use and future improvements’.

August 5, 2015

Near universal uptake of flexible working driving increased use of Cloud ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Case studies, Flexible working, News, Technology

One of the consequences of the near universal uptake of flexible working practices amongst smaller businesses is a growth in the use of the technology best suited to make them work such as Cloud based data services. That is one of the key findings of a new study from BT Business and the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC). According to the survey of just over 300 small and medium sized business owners and decision makers, nearly all (91 percent) have at least one member of staff working away from their main place of work for significant periods, and a fifth (19 percent) claim that more than half of their staff have adopted some form of flexible working. The report concludes that this is the main driver in the growth of Cloud data services with 69 percent of firms already using cloud-based applications and more than half (53 percent) saying that they are essential for agile working.

August 5, 2015

Special edition of Ergonomics in Design focuses on sedentary work ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • News, Wellbeing, Workplace design

The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) has published a special edition of its in-house journal dedicated to the much discussed topics of sedentary working and the need for us to get out of our seats. You’ll have to pay for it however, although individual sections are available for a one off cost. HFES claims to be the world’s largest scientific association for human factors and ergonomics professionals, with more than 4,800 members worldwide. The July issue of their journal Ergonomics in Design looks at the range of ailments associated with sedentary working, including obesity, heart disease and diabetes, weighs up what can be done to change the way people work, as well as the benefits and possible downsides to the most commonly suggested solutions, including sit-stand workstations, alternative seating designs and – God help us – treadmill desks.

August 3, 2015

More evidence of people’s growing inability to simply go on holiday ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Public Sector, Technology, Wellbeing

If you’re reading this on holiday this week, don’t. Life’s too short. Go jump in the pool or something…. For everybody else, a slew of surveys have been published over the last few weeks that confirm something that we may already know; we are finding it increasingly hard to forget about work, even during our supposed time off and many people are forgoing holidays altogether, although not necessarily because they’ve forgotten about the off switch on their smartphone. We reported recently on one of these, from the Institute for Leadership and Management, but three more have passed over our desks over recent days. With the usual caveat about vested interests, the studies, from the TUC, alldayPA and public sector members club CSMA all confirm not only how prevalent this form of presenteeism is, but also how harmful it can be to ourselves and employers.

July 31, 2015

The latest type of space adopted as a workplace by British workers? The pub

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Technology

We’re used to the sight of workers colonising coffee shops, parks and hotels as ad hoc workplaces. Now, a growing number of British workers are firing up their laptops in pubs, and are demanding free WiFi and (apparently) a cup of decent coffee while they do so. According to the latest Greene King Leisure Spend Tracker, over a quarter of Brits would like to log on to get some work done from the pub. According to the report, the findings reaffirm the pivotal role pubs continue to play at the heart of the community and their ability to adapt to the changing needs of customers, including those who see the whole world as an untapped place of work. Fiona Gunn, Greene King’s marketing director, said: “With flexible working on the rise, increasing numbers of people are now using the pub as a ‘third space’ establishing the pub as not just a second home but a place of work as well.”

July 29, 2015

Public sector lagging behind in use of technology and flexible working

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Public Sector, Technology

As we reported last week, the UK public sector is embracing some interesting new ideas in the way it uses real estate, especially its commitment to get rid of some of it by adopting flexible working and shared space. However, it’s one thing looking to use space in more flexible ways but without the technological infrastructure, it’s hard to see how they will be able to achieve as much as they could. It is in this regard that they are lagging behind their contemporaries in the private sector, according to a new report from O2 and YouGov. While the report, Redefining selling, serving and working, offers up the usual appeals for us all to make more use of the sorts of things O2 wants us to buy, there is plenty of interesting detail to tease out once the pinch of salt has been applied, not least how business practices and the way people use technology vary across sectors.

July 29, 2015

City firms adopt more flexible working, but it starts from the top

by Mark Eltringham • Cities, Flexible working, News

Employers in the City of London are increasingly open to the idea of flexible working, claims a study of 1,000 workers by recruitment firm Astbury Marsden. According to the study, a third of men working in the City (34 percent) say they now have some flexibility over the hours they work, whether through flexi-time, working a certain number of hours annually or compressed hours. This is up from 28 percent last year. Meanwhile a smaller proportion of female City workers (30 percent) claim they now have the option of flexible working, up from 23 percent in 2014. The research indicates that although women in the City are more likely than men to work part-time or term-time hours or job-share, with over a quarter being able to do so (26 percent), almost one in five men (18 percent) say they also have this option available to them.

July 27, 2015

Coworking juggernaut WeWork announces plans to dominate London

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Property, Workplace design

Earlier this month, US based coworking juggernaut WeWork announced that it had opened the UK’s largest space of its kind in Moorgate in East London. Now, according to a report in the journal CoStar, the firm is looking to become a major tenant in the commercial property market in London in the same way that it has come to dominate Manhattan. According to the report, WeWork is looking to acquire over 1 million sq. ft. of space in the capital over the next 18 months as it seeks to provide coworking space for its growing customer base of young creative and technology businesses and other start ups. If it succeeds in finding the space it wants, the firm will have quadrupled the commercial property it occupies in London to 1.5 million sq. ft. WeWork is already Manhattan’s largest tenant and is now valued at $10 billion, having started in 2010.

July 26, 2015

Insight Weekly on robots at work, agile working, workplace trends and more

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, Newsletter, Workplace, Workplace design

In this week’s issue; how the majority of managers are more than happy to welcome robots into the workplace; a survey reveals how much extra work autonomous workers put in each week; Mark Eltringham argues we need to keep a sense of perspective about how important our work is; a groundbreaking UK public sector estate scheme is rolled out nationwide; a recent series of events draws out the key workplace trends from this year’s NeoCon exhibition; a new OECD report calls for more action on the emerging digital workplace; Sara Bean reports on the calls for the Government not to abandon its pledges on zero carbon buildings; and a survey reveals that the vast majority of women don’t feel they are discriminated against at work. Subscribe for free quarterly issues of Work&Place and weekly news here, follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn Group to discuss these and other stories.