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:

May 28, 2013

Wellness programmes largely a waste of time, claims US report

by Mark Eltringham • Knowledge, News, Workplace

According to press agency Reuters, a long-awaited report on workplace wellness programmes, which has yet to be published, delivers a blow to the increasingly popular efforts by employers to address the waistline of employees as well as the bottom line of their businesses. According to a report by researchers at RAND Corp in the US, the now commonplace corporate sanctioned wellness programmes that encourage employees to become healthier and reduce absenteeism and medical costs only have a modest effect. RAND delivered the analysis to the U.S. Department of Labor and the Department of Health and Human Services last Autumn as part of a Government review ahead of new legislation.

May 28, 2013

Are these the world’s most spectacular corporate buildings?

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Comment

BMW Welt

Building data provider Emporis has issued a list of 16 of what it calls the World’s Most Spectacular Corporate Buildings. The list is intended to show how firms use architecture to convey their identity and to impress anybody viewing their supposedly imposing corporate edifices. The Germany based firm claims the list was compiled by a jury of buildings experts from around the world who considered a range of factors and included buildings from all kinds of industries. Even so, the list is far from subtle with not even an attempt at lip service paid to the esoteric or surprising. It is dominated instead by glamorous blue chip businesses and buildings that are tall, designed by renowned architects or literal reflections of each company’s business. More →

May 26, 2013

Interiors Group wins new projects in MIddle East

by Mark Eltringham • Company news, News, Workplace design

Abdul Latif Jameel, a Saudi Arabia based distributor for Toyota has appointed The Interiors Group to fit out 22,000 sq feet of space in their new corporate headquarters in Dubai. The Interiors Group will work alongside the UAE based operations of BDP and Whitby Mohajer to deliver the project. The contract is the latest success for the company in the region following its recent win of a contract to fit out the new Middle East Headquarters of OiLibya. The project, based in the Jumeirah Lake Towers, Dubai, covers some 11,000 sq feet and is due for completion in June. The project was architecturally designed by Artillery with services by Whitby Mohajer Engineering Consultants. The Interiors Group have also been awarded a 3500 sq feet contract for Optasense in Dubai, in the Jumeirah Business Centre.

May 24, 2013

Artists sing about office furniture. Part 3 – Arctic Monkeys

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Furniture

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Something for the weekend. Or at least something for those of you who might be moving office this weekend. The Arctic Monkeys sing not only about office furniture, but create the great rock anthem for the facilities manager – not to mention all those who on Monday will arrive into their offices following this weekend’s refurbishment or office relocation to find things are not quite as they once were or they wanted them to be. This is a topic we will return to in detail in Monday following this week’s Clerkenwell Design Week, which amongst other things saw the inaugural event of the BIFM Workplace Special Interest Group, of which great things are expected.

May 23, 2013

New report offers latest evidence of link between office design and productivity

by Mark Eltringham • Briefing, Knowledge, Workplace, Workplace design

So, does workplace design have any impact on productivity and business performance? Well duh. So why are we still trying to convince managers when there is so much evidence and experience to prove it. The latest study to demonstrate the link builds on decades of research and adds further compelling evidence in a debate that should have been over a long time ago. In this report, workplace strategist Nigel Oseland and the Atomic Weapons Establishment’s estate masterplanner Adrian Burton describe their research quantifying the effect on worker performance of improvements to the office environment. The question these reports always beg is why the argument still has to be made.

May 22, 2013

Flexible working going into reverse in parts of UK public sector

by Mark Eltringham • Knowledge, Public Sector, Technology, Workplace

A briefing from the Society of IT Management claims that while nearly all UK public sector organisations have adopted some form of flexible working, the practice remains far from universal and is going into reverse in some departments. The report found that around 97 percent of UK public sector organisations have now adopted the practice in the form of home working, desk sharing and mobile working in four of the public sector functions surveyed. While while there have been large increases in adoption the adoption of flexible working in the revenues and benefits functions and some in education, four other services show a significant decline with others appearing to be static.

May 19, 2013

Artists sing about office furniture. Part 1 – Harry Nilsson

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Furniture

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Given the complete and utter failure of the world’s artists to draw inspiration from office furniture, this is likely to be the shortest series we’ve ever run. It will start and end here. I’d love to be proved wrong but there cannot be many artists prepared to use something as mundane as a desk to express their feelings about the lack of solidity in their lives. In this case the desk can be interpreted as God or – well – a desk. Nilsson was no sap of course. He was one of the most commercially successful artists of his era without extensive touring and counted amongst his drinking buddies both John Lennon and Keith Moon.

May 16, 2013

HS2 – still a train that symbolises the clash of old and new ways of working

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Technology, Workplace

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We’ve said this before but given the recent round of agonising over HS2 and today’s news that it will already cost £10 bn more than planned, there is no end yet to us hearing more and more about the plans for the Government’s flagship construction project and all-round Keynesian boot in the pants for the UK economy. Most of what passes for debate involves some light class warfare about the route through Tory constituencies, seasoned with a dash of NIMBYism, some chest beating from Labour who started the whole thing but can’t be seen to support it fully and various other bits of pointless to-ing and fro-ing. But what is most remarkable about the scheme as far as we are concerned, has always been how its business case completely and deliberately ignores the way we now work. Something bleedin’ obvious that the NAO has now pointed out.

May 15, 2013

Long term investment in infrastructure needed to boost UK economy

by Mark Eltringham • Knowledge, News, Property

The UK government should reverse the long term slump in infrastructure investment to boost the economy, according to a new report from the Centre for Economic and Business Research and the Civil Engineering Contractors Association. The report, Securing Our Economy: The Case For Infrastructure, calls for the government to address the decade long £13bn infrastructure construction shortfall and lays out a series of recommendations to reverse the situation. The report claims the UK endures a £78bn GDP ‘black hole’ each year due to the lack of investment and that by investing at the level of other developed economies, the economy could enjoy an additional £100 billion each year by 2026.

May 14, 2013

Will the Great Trade Association Merger have any impact on office design?

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Property, Workplace design

Anybody who has been working in and around the facilities management sector for any length of time will know that the FM profession/discipline (delete as appropriate) regularly undergoes protracted periods of existential angst about its role. It strikes me however that this is actually quite an easy question to deal with because the answer is the same as it is for similarly amorphous professions such as marketing. It all seems to depend on who you are and what you are trying to do. That’s the twist. The average facilities manager, like the Urban Spaceman, doesn’t exist. I might think that but it won’t stop the associations and institutes currently working together to establish a new super-body for FM in the UK having to continue the debate.