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:

Digital infrastructure boost will lead to urban brain drain, claims report

by • Cities, Flexible working, News, Technology

Country_MouseThe tap roots of the digital economy will not spread beneath the concrete of Tech City and other urban enclaves, but in the fertile soil of the UK countryside. That is the finding of a new briefing document from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), which claims that rural areas are set to overtake towns and cities as the main driver of Britain’s digital economy. As a result of improvements in the country’s digital infrastructure and transport links as well as a changing relationship between firms, employees and contractors, there are now more people moving to the countryside from towns and cities than those moving in the opposite direction. The briefing suggests that by 2025, the rural economy will be worth an additional £35 billion and the productivity of rural areas could outstrip urban areas for the first time since the industrial revolution.

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Employers far more positive about flexible working, claims Government report

by • Flexible working, News

thumbs up flexible workingPositive attitudes towards flexible working are increasing amongst UK employers, according to a new survey from the Government. The latest edition of the Work–Life Balance Employer Survey, published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, claims that over half (56 percent) of employers consider flexible working good for their business. The survey reports other major attitudinal shifts since the last edition was published in 2007, including the fact that the proportion of employers who agree with the statement ‘employees should not be able to change patterns if it disrupts the business’ has dropped from 73 percent  to just 49 percent. The survey of just over 2,000 employers also found that the adoption of one particular form of flexible working – job sharing – had decreased in the intervening period while most others had increased markedly.

Latest addition to flexible working locations should be the local library

by • Flexible working, Knowledge, News, Workplace design

flexible working bookThe latest venue to be co-opted as a potential flexible working space is the public library. According to a new report published last week by William Sieghart, based on research into over 150 locations and hundreds of written submissions, the key to saving Britain’s imperilled public libraries is for them to introduce more seating, Wi-Fi connectivity and hot drinks and food. The provision of fast and reliable Wi-Fi access was named as one of the key actions to draw more people away from coffee shops, which often prove popular venues for flexible working, and into libraries. The report, published by the Department for Culture Media and Sport found that a third of libraries currently do not offer visitors Wi-Fi, which is a “shocking” statistic, according to report author, William Sieghart. “So they’re slated for closure while everyone’s in the Costa opposite, where there’s a loo, hot drinks and internet access.”

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Government report highlights radical potential of Internet of Things

by • Facilities management, Knowledge, News, Technology

Internet_of_ThingsAccording to a report published this week by the Government’s Chief Scientific Advisor, by taking the lead in developing the internet of things, the UK could transform the way the country lives and deliver huge benefits to the economy.  The internet of things – in which digital networks are connecting everyday objects so data can be shared – creates enormous opportunities for both the private sector and government. It also has the potential to be applied in many areas of everyday life, transforming the way we use energy, how we travel and maintain a healthy lifestyle. The number of connected devices could potentially reach up to 100 billion globally by 2020 and industry estimates also suggest that these technologies could have a global value of nearly £10 trillion by then.

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Market for smart cities set to triple worldwide over next five years

by • Cities, News, Technology

According to a new report, the global market for smart cities will grow by nearly a factor of three from $411.31 billion in 2014 to $1,135 billion by 2019. The not so snappily titled report, “Smart Cities Market by Smart Home, Intelligent Building Automation, Energy Management, Smart Healthcare, Smart Education, Smart Water, Smart Transportation, Smart Security, & by Services – Worldwide Market Forecasts and Analysis (2014 – 2019)”, has been published by MarketsandMarkets, and claims to define and segment smart cities into various sub-segments of technologies, solutions, services and regions with in-depth analysis and forecasting of revenues. The authors also claim that the report identifies drivers and restraints of this market with insights on trends, opportunities, and challenges.

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Majority of firms lack a coherent approach to employee engagement

by • News, Technology, Workplace

Employee engagementIn spite of the fact that the overwhelming majority of employees worldwide are disengaged at work, most organisations still don’t think they take a strategic approach to the issue. A new study by technology consultancy Altimeter claims that just 41 percent of organisations believe they take a strategic approach to employee engagement, while only 43 percent believe they have an organisational culture of trust and empowerment with many unable to use technology as part of the solution. The authors of the report cite another study published by Gallup in 2013 which found that 87 percent of employees globally are engaged, rising to 70 percent in the US. The report is based on a study of 114 organisations but mirrors the findings of Deloitte in their report from earlier this year which studied 2,500 organisations and found the same mismatch.

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Many firms lack the trust, equipment and policies to offer flexible working

by • Flexible working, News

Businessman lieEven though many staff would forgo a wage increase if offered flexible working, a large number of employers still do not trust their employees to work flexibly, according to new research from Samsung. The survey of 2,000 employees and 200 business owners found that 28 percent of firms remain sceptical that employees are sufficiently trustworthy to work away from their main place of work and outside normal office hours. On a more positive note, over half (52 percent) of employers associate flexible working with greater productivity and more than a quarter of employees (27 percent) would prefer the chance to work flexibly than accept a pay rise. The report also raises serious questions about the preparedness of firms to offer flexible working, even if they believe in the idea, with many lacking the infrastructure and policies to allow them to do so.

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Wearable tech will change the workplace in unexpected ways

by • Comment

diceThe idea that we are all about to be supplanted by a new generation of artificially intelligent robot overlords has been in the news a great deal recently, partly as a result of Stephen Hawking’s recent pessimistic intervention on the subject. Whatever the truth of this apocalyptic musing, a more imminent generation of tech products means we are already testing the law of unintended consequences with regard to the stuff we create to help us. As technology firms clamber over each other in their attempts to be the first to open up the lucrative frontiers of wearable tech, a range of understandable concerns have been raised about some of the more obvious potential problems of security and privacy. But if we have learned one thing about our relationship with technology over many years, it is that whatever we expect from it will usually be wrong, sometimes spectacularly so.

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UK technological infrastructure not meeting demands of businesses

by • Flexible working, News, Technology

infrastructureThe UK’s technological infrastructure is failing to keep pace with the availability of broadband and mobile services and not meeting demands of small businesses and homes, according to Ofcom’s Infrastructure Report 2014. The report outlines the challenges facing the Government as it seeks to deliver appropriate technological infrastructure for both businesses and consumers. The report suggests that  although there is an overall improvement in the availability and quality of broadband services, many remote and rural areas aren’t being connected quickly enough, there are too many urban ‘not-spots’, a lack of superfast broadband for small businesses and no discernible plan for the uptake of the next generation of ultrafast broadband. The report found the average UK household or small business is downloading 53 Gigabytes (GB) of data on their fixed broadband line every month.

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Tech firms’ grip on best place to work lists may be starting to slip

by • News, Workplace, Workplace design

Google best place to workTechnology firms now routinely dominate lists of the best place to work, but there are signs at least that their dominance may be waning slightly. According to a new survey of the best places to work in the US and UK compiled by jobs website Glassdoor, Google tops a list of the 50 best places to work in the US. The survey is restricted to firms with 1,000 or more employees who have received at least 50 reviews based on a 1 to 5 scale over the last 12 months. This methodology inevitably presents a skewed picture. Nevertheless, there may be something to conclude from Apple only making 22nd place, Facebook’s fall from 5th to 13th, LinkedIn’s slip from 3rd to 23rd and Twitter’s fall from 2nd to nowhere. Meanwhile in the UK, John Lewis’s longstanding focus on employees saw it grab one of the top five spots alongside the likes of Microsoft and Google.

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New report uncovers habits and habitats of London’s workplace tribes

by • Cities, News, Workplace

shandyCity workers have been proven to ‘work hard and play hard’ more than those in other areas of Greater London, according to an extensive study of the capital’s office workers. Those in the Square Mile have the longest hours (45.3), spend most nights out drinking (two) and as a consequence suffer from the highest number of hangovers on a weekly basis. The findings are part of a research project by Avanta Serviced Office Group, to reveal the contrasting habits, characteristics and lifestyles of those working in different areas. The study questioned over 1,500 office workers across the city and found: City of London workers are most likely to ‘work hard and play hard’, often snoozing in the workplace at lunchtime to catch up on their sleep; weary West Enders are out-shopped by workers in the City; Islington is the cycling and social media capital of London; and Croydon has the most office romances.

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Barclays converts underutilised offices into free co-working spaces

by • News, Property, Workplace design

co-workingSocial enterprises, business start-ups and community groups will be offered free co-working space by Barclays as part of an initiative called Hatch, developed  in partnership with charity 3Space. The programme aims to transform underutilised Barclays’ properties into office space for social entrepreneurs, early stage local businesses and community groups, charities  and other qualifying organisations. The first Hatch project has opened its doors in Oxford (above), with a further three set to open in 2015. 3Space claim that Hatch will provide for a unique combination of creative, social and community needs, helping more people get their business ideas off the ground, experiment and share ideas as well as access advice on business and technology. The spaces should also provide a central hub for communities, hosting local events and meetings.

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