Search Results for: Mark Eltringham

The business of workplace design and management; new issue of Insight is now available

Flexible workingIn the latest Insight newsletter, available to view online; Mark Eltringham lists just seven of the ways in which flexible working may have actually made our lives more rigid; expectations for rising rents as demand for commercial property reaches the highest level since before the financial crisis; ‘Walkie Talkie’ skyscraper signs up two new tenants; and the BCO names London and the South East’s best recently refurbished examples of workplace design. The idea that staff find greater job satisfaction when they work in environmentally friendly surroundings is challenged by a new study; while another report claims that wearable technology could be a boast to productivity; and the CIPD warns that rigid organisational hierarchies hamper the development of management and leadership skills within the workplace. To automatically receive our weekly newsletter, simply add your email address to the box on the home page.

The latest issue of Insight is now available to view online

firstclassIn the latest Insight newsletter, available to view online; read (and watch) a list of some of the greatest songs to deal with the arcane subject of office furniture and discover the six dimensions of wellbeing that can be impacted by the design of the physical environment. Details of the first free and publicly available resource for building professionals to access detailed comparative data on carbon in buildings; and research that shows moderate stress levels can actually help a manager’s performance.  Mark Eltringham suggests the real reasons why so many employers champion the open plan office layout and argues the design of trains [pictured] is almost as great an indicator of workplace thinking as the office itself. Finally, our regular contributor Simon Heath defends the much maligned HR function.  To automatically receive our weekly newsletter, simply add your email address to the box on the home page.

Insight newsletter is now available to view online

2.Insight_twitter_logo smIn this week’s Insight newsletter, available to view online; new research from the Economist Intelligence Unit reveals organisations and business leaders are not very good at judging how responsive they are to change; while Deloitte research suggests the more firms strive to engage with the people who work for them, the less engaged they become. CIBSE designs its brand new website around an iconic new London building and RICS unveils plans for additional office space. Mark Eltringham on what lifts tell us about life; why the urban environment is an increasingly important part of the ‘virtual’ workplace; and to mark the United Nation’s International Day of Happiness, Jessica Pryce-Jones and Julia Lindsay explain why work should be a key focus of improving happiness.  To automatically receive our weekly newsletter, simply add your email address to the box on the home page.

Public sector purchasing doesn’t need this kind of lightbulb moment

lightbulb1The latest of the weekly kickings reserved for the UK’s public sector purchasing community comes in the shape of a BBC Panorama documentary alleging that a range of frauds and cock-ups cost the National Health Service around £7 billion a year. The NHS denies these figures but there are clearly obvious and serious deficiencies in the way goods and services are procured across the public sector, as we have reported. Yet there is a flipside to such reports which tap in to (and sometimes pander to) a widespread scepticism of the way the public sector goes about its business. So we must first ask whether an equivalent private sector organisation with a budget of £109 billion a year would not also be open to a wide range of eye-wateringly expensive failures, inefficiencies and frauds. And secondly we must question whether the great British public, along with some businesses, are generally able to grasp the issues involved.

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Insight newsletter is now available to view online

Barbarian-Group-SuperdeskIn this week’s Insight newsletter, available to view online; your office building and its interior design could be making you ill; the culture of presenteeism in the UK is hampering its productivity and a strengthening employment market means non-pay related benefits such as an attractive working environment are needed to attract and retain talent. Given the scale of muscular skeletal problems amongst the UK workforce, Sara Bean asks why ergonomic safety guidance has yet to reflect the encroachment of digital devices; Mark Eltringham argues that the HS2 project doesn’t leave many choices for those who have to manage it in the future; and Suzanne McMinn examines the use of personality profiling to help create a more productive workplace. To automatically receive our weekly newsletter, simply add your email address to the box on the home page.

Latest issue of Insight now available to view online

 

General Motors Technical Center designed by Eero Saarinen in 1956

General Motors Technical Center designed by Eero Saarinen in 1956

In this week’s issue of Insight: we question why so many people still bother going to work given that the costs associated with it keep rising dramatically at a time when pay is standing still; Sara Bean reports from the Workplace Futures conference; we discover why so many construction industry leaders feel the UK Government will fail to meet one of its key targets for the uptake of BIM; Mark Eltringham applauds a Silicon Valley office that takes its design cues from the Jetsons and modernism (and not a slide to be seen); how Google Glass is making its mark at work; and we report on the BIFM’s latest attempts to carve out a more significant role with the launch of new professional standards.

Insight newsletter is now available to view online

The-Fountainhead-newsletter

Gary Cooper as architect in the 1949 adaptation of The Fountainhead

In this week’s Insight newsletter, available to view online; Mark Eltringham on why architects are not the only people entitled to have an opinion on buildings [pictured]; the Carbon Trust warns future environmental constraints will actually go way beyond carbon; the total cost to the European economy of corruption is some €120 billion; and (GCHQ) advises that all public sector staff who are still using Windows XP at home should be denied access to networks. News of the introduction of the first working 3D pizza printer; how the influx of tech firms is leading to an unprecedented rise in London office rents and the construction industry records its best month for almost six-and-a-half years.  To automatically receive our weekly newsletter, simply add your email address to the box on the home page.

This week’s Insight is now available to view online

Living up to iconic office furnitureIn this week’s Insight, available to view online; signs that the recovering UK economy is putting pressure on the availability of both skilled employees and Grade A office space; the disparities that exist in flexible working arrangements across the country; and the Green Building Council criticises Prime Minister David Cameron’s decision to slash 80,000 pages of environmental guidance. RICS publishes a report by Occupiers Journal on how to prove the value of FM to board level directors; Pam Loch provides some legal guidance on managing employees embroiled in an office romance and Mark Eltringham wonders when modern office furniture design will begin to live up to the iconic pieces of yesteryear [pictured]. To automatically receive our weekly newsletter, simply add your email address to the box on the home page.

Latest issue of Insight now available to view online

2.Insight_twitter_logo smThe latest issue of our weekly newsletter is now available to view online here. This week: Ilkka Kakko argues that designing for serendipity is about more than facilitating chance meetings; Mark Eltringham looks for the missing link between offices and avocados; we report on the ongoing recovery in the construction and property markets; raise questions about what happiness at work really means; and Sara Bean argues that we should never assume that working from home is the best way for an individual to work. If you don’t already subscribe, please do by adding your email in the box on the home page and we’ll make sure you see the freshest thinking on workplace design and management each week.

Insight newsletter is now available to view online

2.Insight_twitter_logo smIn this week’s Insight newsletter, available to view online; Mark Eltringham reflects on the need to be aware of the wider world when we are at work; and wonders where we will all fit into an increasingly automated workplace. News that strict controls could undermine the successful implementation of many BYOD programmes; confirmation that BIM technology is helping construction professionals improve productivity, efficiency, quality and safety and why the commercial property sector needs to take a city scale view of retrofit projects. A new survey predicts big changes to come in the way we manage an increasingly flexible workforce and legal expert Pam Loch provides an essential guide to the key pieces of employment law which will come into force over the coming year.

Latest Insight newsletter is now available to view online

2.Insight_twitter_logo smIn this week’s Insight newsletter, available to view online; Nigel Oseland makes a plea not to kill off the open plan office just because it has been misinterpreted; Cathie Sellars explains why Maslow continues to offer us the ideal definition of wellness and Annie Gurton says the ability to find meaning and purpose in our lives trumps financial rewards. Mark Eltringham writes: what Robert Frost can teach us about how we discuss the changing workplace and why he believes attempts to predict the workplace of the future are overwhelmingly rooted in the present. In the news; employers who struggle with “doing mobile”; high tech sector contributes to highest level of commercial real estate activity in over six years and zero-hours contracts are not the evil they’ve been portrayed.

Latest Insight newsletter is now available to view online

Apple 9In the weekly Insight newsletter, available to view online; an inspirational morning spent in the company of Charles Handy at the recent Worktech 13 London conference; a gallery of images [pictured] from Apple’s new $5 billion campus in California and in our exclusive interview, Dave Coplin, Microsoft’s Chief Envisioning Officer, shares his views on the full potential that technology offers a modern, digital society. Mark Eltringham wonders if our growing preference for mobiles over the office landline indicates a willingness to blur the boundaries between our private and working lives; Simon Heath says the answer to the question “How Will We Work In 2020?” is probably “exactly as we do today” and legal expert Adam Hartley explains why Zero hours contracts are not a new phenomenon.