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:

January 19, 2018

You might be surprised at which nations work the longest and shortest hours

by Mark Eltringham • Workplace design

The stereotype of certain nationalities as feckless while others are industrious is upended by new data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which shows that Mexicans work significantly longer hours than anyone else in the world, the Greeks are the Europeans who spend most time at work while the Germans clock up the fewest hours of any of the 35 nations in the survey. In 2016, the average Mexican spent 2,255 hours at work, the equivalent of around 43 hours per week. Greeks worked the longest hours in Europe, at an average 2,035 hours per year with German workers putting in just 1,363 hours per year. The average UK worker, both employed and self-employed, put in an average of 1,676 hours.

January 18, 2018

Occupiers concerned about lack of innovation from commercial property sector

by Mark Eltringham • Coworking, News, Property

The UK’s productivity is lagging behind other G7 countries and property directors are concerned that landlords’ lack of proactivity around commercial property innovation may hamper efforts to move the UK up the productivity league table, according to the newly published results of a survey carried out at the Property Directors Forum in December 2017, hosted by Avison Young. Attendees at the event held at The Royal Society of Chemistry, Piccadilly, were asked to provide their thoughts on property innovation and the role that landlords have in leading the way. The survey revealed that not one of the property directors have been approached by their landlord(s), proactively, to discuss property innovation and, in fact, 40 percent of directors reported their landlord as being reluctant to innovate.

January 18, 2018

Over 50s will come to dominate self-employed workforce by 2024, report claims

by Mark Eltringham • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

The number of over-50s in work is rapidly increasing, so much so that this demographic is set to make up the majority of the UK’s self-employed workforce within the next seven years. The updated research from Hitachi Capital UK and CEBR (Centre for Economics and Business Research) found a rebalancing of the economy away from younger generations, as the 24 million over-50s in the UK become an increasingly important demographic of entrepreneurs and business owners. The data also suggests that an increasing number of 50-64 year olds choose not to retire and instead stay active in the labour market, with the rate of employment rising significantly between 2012 and 2016 from around 65 percent to 71 percent. CEBR projections show that the number of employed 50-64 year-olds will surpass 9 million before the end of 2018, and by 2021 there will be 10 million 50-64 year olds in work.

January 18, 2018

Germany loses favour as corporate real estate investment hotspot

by Mark Eltringham • News, Property

Germany is no longer the most popular global destination for corporate real estate investment, according to BrickVest’s latest commercial property investment barometer. Formerly the most popular location in Q3 2017, Germany has now fallen in favour among investors behind the UK, US and France. Germany saw a drop in popularity from 34 percent to 23 percent in the last quarter, marking its lowest rating since Q2 2016. The UK, however, rose from 27 percent to 29 percent in Q4 2017, managing to sustain its general popularity by consistently ranking above 25 percent.

January 15, 2018

Is there a link between creativity and depression?

by Mark Eltringham • News, Wellbeing

The link between creativity and depression or other mood disorders is something of a cliché, but one explored in a new meta-analysis published in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science. The study from Christa L Taylor set out to discover whether there was any truth to the twin ideas of the tortured genius and of misery as an inspiration for creativity. Based on 36 studies into the relationship between mood disorders and creative thinking involving very high numbers of people, the report concludes that there are often strong correlations but that causation is somewhat harder to pin down. The diagnosis of mental disorders and the incidence of creativity is also complicated by the fact that researchers may often be unable to distinguish between the two.

January 15, 2018

Manchester, Brighton and Edinburgh seen as best places for freelancers to work

by Mark Eltringham • News

A new report from price comparison website MoneySuperMarket published to coincide with Working from Home Week claims that Manchester, Brighton and Edinburgh are the best UK cities in which freelancers can work. The report looks at the number of existing freelancers in 22 UK cities, the average rates they charge and the number of start-ups looking to utilise local freelancers. To assess the work-life balance of freelancers, the research also gauged local property costs, the number of wi-fi hotspots and coffee shops, as well as the general quality of life in the area.

January 12, 2018

The complex relationship between productivity, technology and working anywhere

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

A new report produced by Lancaster University’s Work Foundation and commissioned by Citrix, highlights the complex and often strained relationship between productivity, technology, work and the idea of working anywhere. Despite the march of digital transformation, one in four (24 percent) UK managers questioned for this report believe their organisation is not technologically ‘forward thinking’. With Britain’s productivity slowdown the largest of the G7 economies since the recession, over three in five (63 percent) of knowledge workers polled believe they are no more productive today than they were three years ago, with 17 percent even claiming to be less industrious. The paper – Productivity, technology & working anywhere – shows an undeniably positive link between correctly-implemented technology and workplace productivity. However this progress can soon by marred by poor business planning, a lack of innovation, outdated IT and low uptake of flexible working cultures. The research is supported with survey responses from 1,000 knowledge workers and 500 managerial level employees within medium and large organisations across the UK.

January 12, 2018

The seven must-reads that were on our radar this week

by Mark Eltringham • AI, Features, Flexible working, Property, Technology, Workplace

What to do when you’re feeling distracted at work

The essential truths of management books distilled to 25 words

The past and present future of corporate real estate

A new approach to the design of work

How to tackle impostor syndrome in 2018

Managing an integrated government estate: lessons from the UK

Autonomous car hype is way ahead of reality

Image: Mercedes

January 12, 2018

BSRIA launches urbanisation megatrends report

by Mark Eltringham • Cities, Facilities management, News, Property

The Building Services Research and Information Association (BSRIA) has launched a new report called Megatrends – Urbanisation (registration needed) which claims to look at the major forces that are shaping the ‘world in which we live and do business’. The report cites as inspiration a 2015 McKinsey report called No Ordinary Disruption, which examined ‘The Four Global Forces Breaking all the Trends’. The four key trends which McKinsey pointed to as already impacting on almost every society, or will do soon, are urbanisation, an ageing population, globalisation and the technological revolution. Since 1950 there has been a massive global movement towards urbanisation. In 1950 fewer than 30 per cent of the world’s population lived in urban areas. By 2010 this had reached 50 per cent and by 2050 the share is forecast to exceed two thirds of the world’s population. This represents one of the biggest and fastest human movements in history and the report sets out to explore its implications.

January 10, 2018

Firms suffer an average of 633 cyber attacks each day

by Mark Eltringham • News, Technology

UK businesses were subjected to an average of 231,028 internet-borne cyber attacks each during 2017 according to a report from Internet services provider Beaming. On average, each UK firm with an internet connection experienced 633 attempts a day to breach their corporate firewalls last year, with more than two-thirds (70 per cent) of attacks targeting connected devices such as building control systems and networked security cameras. The volume of cyber attacks increased by 24 per cent in the final quarter of the year, with companies – on average – experiencing 68,212 attacks each between October and December. This extra activity at the end of 2017 ensured the number of cyber attacks last year on UK organisations surpassed 2016 levels, when Beaming recorded 228,659 attacks per business.

January 10, 2018

UK productivity growing at quickest rate for six years

by Mark Eltringham • News

Productivity in Britain is rising at its fastest rate in six years. Output per hour worked rose by 0.9 per cent between July and September of 2017, according to the latest quarterly report from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This was the biggest increase since 2011, when productivity grew by 1 per cent. The UK has a persistent problem with its productivity. Excluding the UK, G7 GDP per hour worked is 18 per cent higher than in Britain, with productivity in the United States 30 per cent higher, France 31 per cent and Germany 36 per cent. High productivity is considered the key to economic prosperity because it allows companies to produce more goods or services with fewer workers or hours worked. This in turn lets companies pay higher wages without having to raise prices. Many theories have been developed to explain the UK’s chronic low productivity, which are summarised by the Financial Times here (subscription or registration needed).