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:

September 11, 2013

Almost half of UK workers now work remotely for half the time, claims poll

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, Knowledge, News

A new poll of 4,000 UK workers by Regus claims that 42 percent of respondents now work remotely from their main place of work for at least half the week. The proportion is up from 39 percent last year with employers citing improved productivity, increased staff retention and autonomy as well as lower operating costs as their main drivers for encouraging its uptake. However the research also suggests that many firms are slow to address the associated management challenges with half of those polled saying that managers do not trust them to remain focused on work. Only a quarter of firms have a system that allows managers to monitor remote teams while a third of managers now use video calls.

September 11, 2013

Research reveals UK’s shrinking workplace space standards and regional disparities

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

The latest Occupier Density Study from the British Council for Offices reveals that London and the South East of England have some of the most spacious workplaces in the UK, in spite of the fact that London has the most expensive office space on Earth. The BCO research found that the South West has the highest density at 8.6 sq. m. per workstation while London (11.3 sq. m.) and the South East (12.7 sq. m.) have lower densities than all UK regions apart from Wales (11.4 sq. m.). Yet recent research from Cushman and Wakefield has identified London as the world’s most expensive city to rent office space and a report last week from BNP Paribas revealed the large disparities in total occupancy costs between London and the rest of the UK.

September 8, 2013

Full details of programme confirmed for Workplace Week 2013

by Mark Eltringham • News

Details of Workplace Week in November this year have been announced by the event’s organisers. Workplace Week is, as its name suggests, a week-long showcase of workplace and workforce innovation that’s taking place between 4th and 8th of November 2013. As well as giving people the chance to discuss some of the most topical and progressive ideas relating to the modern workplace, it also aims to raise as much money as possible for Children in Need. Participants this year include AWA, Herman Miller and KPMG with convention speakers from IBM, the I-Opener Institute, BDO and Brother. The website can be found here.

September 7, 2013

New report urges UK Government departments to ditch paper completely by 2020

by Mark Eltringham • News, Products, Public Sector, Technology

A new report from the Think Tank Policy Exchange is claiming that UK Government departments should look to stop using paper by moving from process that are ‘digital-by-default to digital, full stop’ by the year 2020. The report, Smaller, Better, Faster, Stronger: Remaking government for the digital age, claims that the move would make the UK public sector 8 percent more effective and save £24 billion a year by eliminating the paper used by Government departments to communicate and switching to digital processes for all services that don’t require face-to-face interaction with suppliers and members of the public.

September 6, 2013

Go ahead for Google HQ and Farringdon developments but Smithfield plans back on hold

by Mark Eltringham • News, Property

Running track at Google’s new Kings Cross HQ

Two landmark developments in London have been given the go ahead at the same time as the troubled plans to develop the iconic Smithfield market are once again put on ice. Google’s plans for a 924,000 sq. ft headquarters building as an anchor of the redevelopment of Kings Cross were waved through by Camden Council, while Islington Council has also granted permission for a 207,000 sq. ft scheme to develop six storeys of office space, with retail units at street level, on the corner of Cowcross Street and Farringdon Road, one of two new office developments located at the new Crossrail station.

September 5, 2013

Most of the world’s supertall buildings rely on a little boost to hit the heights

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Knowledge

Yes, but is it all real?

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitats has produced a new report into the way the developers of the world’s supertall buildings are adding useless spikes, spires and towers on top of their edifices to increase their overall height. CTBUH describes this phenomenon as ‘Vanity Height’ but there are other equally applicable terms. The survey of the world’s supertall (300m+) buildings found that more than half of the 72 worldwide would fail to meet the necessary height criteria if they didn’t have that little something extra added. Unsurprisingly, many are in the UAE but New York is no slouch when it comes to adding a little extra in a bid to impress.

September 4, 2013

Facilities managers should harness information to show the value of what they do

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management

Of the various myths that plague the facilities management profession, the most pernicious may well be that the role of facilities managers is largely to carry out what the early feminists called shit-work – the kind of job that only becomes visible when it is done badly or isn’t done at all. Conversely, when it is done well, nobody seems to notice or even care that much. The proto-feminists of the 50s and 60s applied the term to housework, but the term is equally apposite for the work of many facilities managers who may only come to the attention of their organisation when the air-conditioning stops working, the toilet floods or there is a problem with the car park.

September 3, 2013

New City of London skyscraper melts parked car

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, News, Property

In Philip Kerr’s 1995 novel Gridiron, a smart building which is programmed to function as its own facilities manager goes rogue and starts bumping off its occupants in a number of interesting and spectacularly violent ways. This might sound like the perfect wish fulfilment fantasy of your average FM, but looks prescient with the news that one of the new tranche of landmark buildings in London has become its own death ray. The Walkie Talkie in Fenchurch Street has been blamed for reflecting and magnifying light from the sun, (literally) glaring at the neighbours and melting parts of a car parked in a nearby street.

September 1, 2013

CBI calls on Government to incentivise businesses to invest in energy efficiency

by Mark Eltringham • Environment, Facilities management, Legal news, Property

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has published a new report calling on the Government to adopt a more streamlined and integrated approach to energy efficiency policies, including those relevant for the UK’s commercial buildings. The report also addresses a range of related benefits and obligations for companies to help them cut costs, manage risk and open up commercial opportunities. The report argues that energy efficiency has been neglected for too long, despite the fact that Government figures show a domestic industry that is growing at 4 percent a year, is worth £17.6bn in sales and supports 136,000 jobs.

August 30, 2013

Sometimes health and safety failures can be a laughing matter

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Legal news, Workplace

One of the regular refrains from those involved in health and safety management is that while they aren’t killjoys, protecting people from harm is no laughing matter. Well actually yes, sometimes it is. And if the health and safety profession wants to shake off the po-faced image it claims is unjust, it needs to realise that some of the people it is trying to protect are just bloody idiots. And however much you try to make things idiot-proof, you’re unlikely to make them bloody-idiot-proof. Some people will always come up with something you haven’t thought of and a new way to put themselves in harm’s way.

August 28, 2013

BIFM pulls out of much publicised facilities management trade association merger

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, News

The British Institute of Facilities Management has announced that it is to withdraw with immediate effect from the merger discussions it had entered into in May with its fellow trade associations, Asset Skills, CSSA and FMA. The decision to pull out was taken at a BIFM board meeting last week. According to a BIFM statement, the plans were not felt to be in the best interests of BIFM members. The decision comes as something of a surprise given that the week before the decision, BIFM was saying that it was delighted with progress, although some commentators including our own Simon Heath had already expressed their reservations about the whole thing.

August 27, 2013

Forget Gen Y – the future workplace is multigenerational

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Knowledge, Legal news

There is quite possibly more guff talked about the impact of Gen Y on businesses and the workplace than any other management topic. However, it’s not only wrong to characterise the people of Generation Y as some homogeneous blob with stereotyped attitudes that set them apart from the rest of humanity, but also to miss the point that the workplace is and will remain multigenerational. In fact, according to new data from the Department of Work and Pensions, there have never been more over 50s in work in the UK than there are right now. There are 2 million more over-50s in jobs than there were 15 years ago and they will form a third of the workforce by 2020. And they will want their own say on things just as much as the much talked about millennials.