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:

UK construction and manufacturing buoyant but mixed picture in global property market

by • Knowledge, News, Products, Property

Construction savingsThere are signs that the UK’s faltering economy is on the road to recovery.  Construction activity in the UK jumped sharply in July to hit its highest level in over three years, according to the latest Markit/CIPS  survey of purchasing managers. This may have been driven primarily by a surge in house building, but even the recently moribund commercial construction sector saw an increase in activity. However a new report from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors has highlighted that while the UK may have reason to smile, the picture of global commercial property markets is very patchy.

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Effective recycling is about good management as much as it is materials and design

by • Comment, Environment, Furniture, Products

We all like to think we are discerning about what we will and won’t put in our trolleys at the supermarket. Not any old salty, fat-saturated gloop will make the cut these days. That’s why the producers of food like to proclaim its healthiness on packaging, regardless of the nature of the product within. ‘Lower fat’ doesn’t mean low fat. Companies in other sectors follow suit. The office products market is one in which some manufacturers don’t mind a splash of green on product labels. This doesn’t do the customer or the buyer any good and can breed cynicism in the market, undermining the efforts of those suppliers who actually take a sophisticated approach to the environmental performance of their products.

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100% Design announces new collaboration with Design Guild Mark

by • Furniture, News, Products, Workplace design

Mir by Mark Gabbertas for Chorus Furniture

Mir by Mark Gabbertas for Chorus Furniture

The UK’s largest and longest running contemporary design event 100% Design has announced a new collaboration with The  Furniture  Makers  Company  to  promote  British  design  excellence through the Design Guild Mark. The Design Guild Mark was introduced by The Furniture  Makers Company  in 2008 to recognises excellence in the design of mass produced furniture in the UK. Ten of the products which earned a Design Guild Mark will be exhibited at 100% Design this year including products from designers such as Barber Osgerby, Terry Hunt, Mark Gabbertas and James Irvine.

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New Government department to focus on FM and office supplies procurement

by • Facilities management, Furniture, News, Public Sector

Whitehall

The UK Government’s latest attempt at developing a centralised public sector procurement department was unveiled by the Cabinet Office yesterday. The  Crown Commercial Service (CCS) has been set an annual budget of up to £12 billion to secure a range of goods and services including facilities management and office supplies. It has a target of saving some £1 billion each year by working across a range of government departments to take advantage of a shared purchasing function. The announcement follows last week’s report from a committee of MPs into the failings of the current procurement setup in Whitehall. (more…)

Government report highlights failings in UK public sector procurement

by • Furniture, Knowledge, News, Public Sector

Cheque signingIn the wake of a number of recent procurement failures including the G4S and Serco overcharging fiasco, the UK Government has published a highly critical report of the way it buys some £227 billion of goods and services annually. The report from the Public Administration Committee (PASC) says that in spite of steps to improve procurement which include using better data, aggregating demand across departments and renegotiating with major suppliers, the number of failures remains conspicuously high. The G4S and Serco contracts with the Ministry of Justice, under which payments were made regardless of the service being delivered, are the most high profile examples but the report indicates that problems are widespread.

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Firms turn to flexible working and BYOD to placate mobile workplace rebels

by • Flexible working, Knowledge, Technology

TantrumA new week and a new raft of surveys. Thankfully some of them throw up some rather interesting juxtapositions. Take the latest from Virgin Media which claims nearly half of UK office workers are now significantly free to choose how and where they work with over two thirds of organisations convinced that offering more technological choices and flexible working results in happier and more productive staff. Meanwhile, another survey from tech firm (what else?) VMware claims that over a third of UK employees would consider leaving their jobs if they couldn’t get their own way over using mobile devices at work.

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Plans to redevelop London’s Smithfield Market are given the green light

by • Architecture, Furniture, News, Property, Workplace design

SmithfieldThe much talked about plans to redevelop Smithfield market have been given the green light by City of London planners. As we reported earlier this year, the development in the heart of a London district renowned for its creative industries, including many of the UK’s leading workplace design studios, has been the subject of a great deal of scrutiny and controversy. Now the City of London’s planning and transport committee has voted to approve the scheme designed by John McAslan + Partners. Most of the objections were made by campaigners based on the heritage of the historic site.

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Smartphone presenteeism gives a whole new meaning to BYOD

by • Flexible working, Knowledge, News, Technology

Phone checkWhile we may have grown accustomed in many ways to the world’s addiction to connectivity, and even expressed our own frustration that people are more interested in the contents of their phones than us, things are clearly going way too far if you believe the news that nearly 1 in 10 Americans have confessed to using their smartphones while having sex. While that may be extreme, the manifestation of this addiction is now routine with nearly three in four smartphone users surveyed by Harris Interactive for the Jumio 2013 Mobile Consumer Habits survey admitting that they are rarely more than five feet away from their devices.

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RSA report claims untapped flexible working benefits of £8bn for the UK

by • Flexible working, Knowledge, Workplace

Flex Work_0000The latest salvo in the battle to get Britain to adopt even more flexible working comes in a report that carries more weight than some because it is not solely the work of a technology company but sponsored by the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA). True, it’s co-sponsored by Vodafone but that is the way of these things. The RSA study estimates that flexible working practices shaped around the personal circumstances of the individual and designed to minimise the routine grind of commuting could give people around 5 more hours per week in which to work.

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UK government falling behind in plans to modernise its workplaces

by • Facilities management, Flexible working, Public Sector

WhitehallThe UK government has conceded that it is falling significantly behind in its plans to create a modern workplace involving a more flexible working environment for public sector employees. The plans were outlined in the Civil Service Reform Plan a year ago with the aim to create a “decent working environment for all staff, with modern workplaces enabling flexible working”. However, a report released this week by Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude confirms that the plans are now rated red, meaning they are significantly delayed or off track and that there is now a great deal of work that needs to be done to meet the stated aims of the plan. While some departments have made good progress, there is little cross-government work to meet the demands of the Government’s commitment.

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Video: world’s largest building opens in China

Video: world’s largest building opens in China

by • Architecture, News, Property

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Dubai will be kicking itself at the news that the world’s largest building, or rather world’s largest standalone man-made structure, has opened in China. The New Century Globe Centre in Sichuan province is a mixed use development housing offices, leisure facilities, hotels, shops, restaurants and even a beach resort warmed by an artificial sun. The 18-storey, glass and steel frame structure, is situated above a new metro station in Chengdu, stands 100 metres high, is 500 metres long and 400 metres wide giving it a floor space of 1.7m sq. m.  making it the world’s largest standalone building, beating the previous record holder Terminal 3 at Dubai International Airport by around 50,000 sq. m. and, as measured according to internationally recognised lazy media shorthand analogies, able to house 20 Sydney Opera Houses.

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NAO confirms £1billion saving through better Government purchasing practices

by • News, Products, Public Sector

NAOWhile it’s always wise to be wary of claims made by government departments, the National Audit Office has continued to display its ongoing love of the sterling work of the Efficiency and Reform Group set up by the Cabinet Office by confirming that the department’s claim that over £1 billion has been saved through better UK government purchasing practices  is perfectly true. The ERG said that savings had been achieved primarily by centralising spend on common goods and services and introducing policies requiring departments to purchase less stuff in the first place. Savings were noted across the board including in civil service departments, local government, the emergency services and National Health Service. As ever the NAO added a caveat to its endorsement. Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, said: ‘While ERG has undoubtedly achieved significant savings for the taxpayer, in future it could spell out more clearly the different types of savings that are included in its claims. Our report makes detailed recommendations which will help ERG to strengthen its assurance of savings claims in future.’

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