Month: August 2017

Corporate real estate professionals understand agile working benefits: the company stands to cut property costs significantly by optimizing space and reducing footprint. At the same time, this workplace strategy can help to attract and retain talent, boost engagement and productivity, and even increase innovation within a company.

However, at first your employees and managers may not be fully convinced that the move is in their best interest. After all, you are taking away the private offices and desks that many have worked at for years. Even though they may complain about them, people may be emotionally attached to their workspaces and even feel a sense of ownership. That’s especially true of managers who feel they have earned their private offices and worry that their status within the company is being reduced.

That’s why, to achieve all of the touted agile working benefits, your workplace transformation must do more than simply reduce workpoints. One of the biggest mistakes I see companies make in moving to an agile working strategy is failing to reinvest in the workplace to improve the employee experience. When you are taking something away from employees, it’s essential that you give back workplace features that facilitate productivity, collaboration, and employee well-being.

Gaining agile working benefits: how much to invest?

Your business needs to decide what to reinvest back into the workplace and I would recommend 10% at a minimum. Remember the aim isn’t to just reduce costs, it’s to attract, retain and ENABLE the best people. That’s especially true for knowledge-worker driven businesses. It’s your people who will drive your next innovation and big revenue gains.

Moving to a flexible environment provides the agile working benefits mentioned above, and also helps you pay for your modern workplace along with investing in overall business requirements.

Here are some ways that companies are multiplying their agile working benefits by improving the employee experience.

5 ways to increase agile working benefits by investing in employee experience

1. Use technology to get neighborhood designs right

To get the agile working benefits you expect, each neighborhood fit-out needs to accommodate the needs of the teams that will be using it. That means you need to have a deep understanding of how each group works, what they need to accomplish, the types of spaces needed to do their work, and how many people are using which spaces each day. Asking people what they need is a great start, but doing that is not enough to provide the accurate, timely data you need to improve the employee experience in the workplace.

A better way is to invest in utilization tracking technology (such as IP networks) and a modern workplace management system. Various types of IP networks collect data about how and when your employees are using work spaces. A workplace management system designed for agile working aggregates the sensor data along with your occupancy information, and makes it useful for making workplace design decisions that make employees happier and more productive in the new space.

Here’s an example. Imagine being able to pull up a floor plan with a heatmap that shows you exactly how & when spaces are being utilized throughout the day, week or month? You might find that the phone booths people asked for are rarely used, but people are spending a lot of time gathering in the kitchen. You can then take back the under-used phone booths and convert to a team collaboration lounge.

Find out more about utilization tracking technology and how you can use it to maximize agile working benefits and improve your employee experience: Managing Workplace Utilization.

2. Consider investing in flexible furniture

I want to make one point clear: you can definitely move to an agile working strategy in an existing workspace without spending a lot of money on new furniture. However, investing in furniture that’s easily customizable for everyone’s health and safety needs can be helpful for improving employee experience.

When everyone has an assigned desk, they are able to adjust the space to meet their individual needs and preferences. For example, by setting computer monitors at a certain height and adjusting the chair to a comfortable position. When they no longer have an assigned seat, you need to give them the same ability to customize the furniture. The difference is, they will have to adjust it each time they move to a new workpoint. So, be sure to choose height-adjustable desks, monitor mounts and chairs that are quick and easy to adjust to gain the agile working benefits you’re looking for.

While you’re at it, it’s smart to get some flexible, breakout furniture for collaboration spaces as well. That way, the area can accommodate multiple uses as your business needs change (as they certainly will).

3. Personal storage is a must (for a while)

When people are asked to give up their desks, one of their biggest concerns is, what will I do with my stuff? When they are accustomed to relying on lots of paper files and being surrounded by their family photos and other personal items, doing away with that all at once can be a shock. And if you’re expecting this new environment to make people more productive and collaborative, you won’t get those agile working benefits by forcing too much change all at once. People need some personal storage space… for now.

Here’s a secret you don’t have to tell your employees just yet: they won’t always care so much about personal storage space. As your culture matures, people become less dependent on paper files, and they find other ways to express themselves in the workplace without desk clutter. For now, you must invest in locker space or even individual storage bins so people have easy access to some of the things they are used to having around. But rest assured, after a while those bins will never come out as people become comfortable with the new mobile way of working.

4. Add tools to help people find their way in the agile space

Besides wondering where they will keep their things after the move to agile working, the other issue employees worry about is how they will find a desk and how they will find the colleagues they are used to sitting with. Here’s my advice: you need to challenge their ingrained habits on one hand, while also making it easy for them to move around in the new space. It’s essential to make sure agile working benefits your employees as much as the company.

When I first implemented an agile working strategy, we didn’t yet have the advantage of modern desk booking and wayfinding systems. So I invented a manual way to track people’s locations: they used magnets on a white board to record where they were sitting. However, I saw that people still tended to sit in the same area with the same team members. One of our goals was getting different teams to mingle and collaborate more, which would not happen unless people felt comfortable moving around.

So every Friday we changed things up with a game that encouraged people to sit somewhere new, just to get them to feel more comfortable moving around. But that white board was always there to help them choose a desk or to find a colleague.

Today, of course, modern wayfinding technology makes that process much simpler: people can find a desk, a meeting space or a co-worker in seconds using a kiosk or a mobile app.

Watch this video to see how wayfinding tools work: VIDEO: How Can Wayfinding Technology Shape the Employee Experience?.

5. Implement employee health and well-being programs

Which agile working benefits are critical to you? Does your company want fully engaged employees that produce more, collaborate more, and create innovation that drives business success? Accomplishing that goal is not only about attracting and retaining top talent, but also improving their well-being in the workplace.

That’s why so many companies are implementing health and wellness programs that support and nurture employees so they are at their best. In addition to the agile working benefits, these programs also have the added benefit of reducing absenteeism and lowering healthcare expenses. According to CBRE, 91% of companies they surveyed expect to increase their workforce health and wellness programs.

Investing in workforce health is about much more than adding a gym and removing junk food. Read these related articles about how workplace impacts health and well-being:

Workforce Health: Is Your Workplace Helping or Hurting?
11 Active Design Ideas to Improve Wellbeing in the Workplace

Can traditional IWMS meet the requirements of the modern workplace? Download today.

In 2017, giving up assigned seating and moving toward to desk sharing is a workplace strategy that’s gaining ground worldwide. And for good reason: large corporations stand to save tens of millions in property costs (at the very least) by consolidating and maximizing utilization of office space. When implemented as part of a shift to a modern, mobile work environment, desk sharing strategies (also known as agile working) can also do much more:

• Attract top talent in an increasingly competitive climate
• Improve employee experience and engagement in the workplace
• Boost knowledge worker productivity to grow profitability
• Enable collaboration, seen as the key to driving the innovation companies need to be successful in the knowledge economy

As a CRE professional, you are probably becoming more aware of these benefits every time you read an industry publication or attend an event. However, convincing your business leaders to get on board with a move to desk sharing can be more challenging than you might imagine.

Here are 4 proven strategies to help you win leadership buy in and ensure a more effective outcome for your workplace transformation.

Desk sharing: 4 strategies for winning management buy in

1. Use cost savings to get the C-suite on board

When it comes to gaining leadership buy in for a new workplace strategies such as desk sharing and modern work spaces, it’s essential to recognize the differing perspectives of executives at various levels in the company. You’ll probably want to start with the C-suite and senior leadership, because top-level endorsement gets your plan approved, moving forward, and promoted throughout the organization.

For senior executives, one of their primary concerns is the financial impact on the company. So focus your pitch for implementing desk sharing on the cost benefits the company can expect to achieve.

The problem is, how can you develop an accurate business case for desk sharing without resorting to generalities? You need a source of truth that can produce concrete evidence to support your ideas, and show real cost savings projections.

When I implemented desk sharing strategies as part of what we termed “smart environments” at Suncorp, we collected a lot of data to provide that evidence. To begin with, you need to know how many people from each team are actually working in the building each day. You can do this manually, but it’s quite time consuming. A better way is to turn to technology: badge readers, lighting sensors, network sensors and Low Energy Bluetooth gather utilization data automatically. This technology enables you to see which groups are using which types of space and with what frequency. You also need a workplace management system that can aggregate data from multiple sources and make it useful for making decisions.

Learn more about this process from this blog: Activity Based Workplace Design: Why One Size Does Not Fit All

Also, learn more about utilization tracking technologies from this white paper: Managing Workplace Utilization.

Armed with that information, you can easily put together a picture of your current space utilization and how much money is being wasted. Next, develop workplace scenario plans that maximize use of space and allow you to reduce your footprint, significantly reducing spend year after year. Suncorp’s workplace transformation took utilization levels from 50% to 92%, and reduced property costs by millions each year.

Numbers like that will almost certainly convince senior management to approve your desk sharing initiative and promote it to the lower levels as a company mandate. However, a successful outcome for desk sharing also requires winning over managers at lower levels.

2. Managers respond to productivity and engagement benefits

Just getting your desk sharing plan approved is not enough to win acceptance throughout the company. As you well know, many a good plan has failed because of pushback and resistance from the ranks. That’s why it’s in your best interest to help lower level managers understand how this new way of working can work better for them.

Middle managers are responsible for the output of their teams. The way to get their attention is by showing how the modern workplace can improve employee engagement and drive increases in productivity. Time and again, research shows a correlation between availability of workplace options and increased output. Harvard Business Review reports that that 86% of the most highly engaged workers have choices as to how and where they work.

3. Get managers to lead by example

Once managers begin to buy into the desk sharing concept, your next step is to get them to become active role models for their employees. In the process, they experience the benefits first-hand; even those who were unsure initially become fans of the new workplace strategy. Some may even become active evangelists for your cause.

I worked with a manager like this. He was an insurance underwriter who had worked his way up through the company to become a manager of 60 people. He had a large prestigious office, and was mortified when told he would need to give that up and work in a desk sharing neighborhood with his employees as part of the company’s workplace transformation. He felt like he was being stripped of his status in the company. He understood that he needed to lead his team in the new way of working, but he was traumatized at first: he went from a huge office with years of accumulated belongings to one box.

For the first few days, he felt very distracted by all the conversations going on around him, and got little work accomplished. But then he began to participate in those conversations: offering advice and guidance to his employees that improved the outcome of their work. Over time, he grew to see the collaborative benefits of desk sharing and the agile workplace, and became one of the biggest advocates of the program. Today he says he would never go back to the secluded office!

4. Address HR policies for managing dispersed teams

Another challenge with desk sharing is the fact that many managers are used to judging performance by how many hours they see employees sitting at their desks. In an agile environment, they need to adjust their expectations and learn new ways of managing and evaluating the work of their teams.

One practice that may be new and challenging to managers is flexible working, or allowing employees to work at home or elsewhere outside the office. Embracing flexible working is not necessarily required to implement desk sharing. However, many companies are moving toward both at the same time, since the cost benefits can be greater and also help to attract talent.

Here’s some important advice: in the new way of working, don’t use working at home as a reward. It needs to be viewed as an accepted policy across the board. That being said, HR should establish guidelines; for example, each group can set planned days when people are allowed to work off site, with the expectation that if you’re needed in the office at any time, you will be there. Also, the privilege is contingent upon good performance at all times.

Putting formal HR policies into place around flexible working arrangements and desk sharing can go a long way to help managers who may not be experienced with dispersed teams in a mobile work environment.

Learn more: 9 Steps to Implementing Change in the Workplace: Agile Spaces

In our next blog, we’ll discuss how to get even more benefits from an agile working environment by re-investing some of the cost savings back into the workplace. Don’t miss it!

Download Best Practices for the Modern Workplace today.

Strategies for overcoming resistance to adopting agile working practices

In a business climate characterized by constant and accelerating change, dealing with employee resistance to those changes is troublesome at best, and costly in many cases. That’s certainly true when it comes to implementing change in the workplace, especially moving to shared workspaces and adopting agile working practices.

Companies save millions by implementing agile workplaces, and the move is also widely recognized as an effective strategy for attracting talent, improving employee experience and boosting productivity. That’s why Forbes has predicted an increasing demand for more flexible workspaces in 2017.

Download Now: Best Practices for the Modern Workplace Environment

Yet it’s unlikely that all employees will recognize the benefits of agile workspaces beforehand. Many will resist the change, which can result in lower productivity and loss of talent, potentially sabotaging the success of the project. That’s why the right change management program is so essential when implementing change in the workplace.

Implementing change in the workplace: a 12-week change management program

Here’s a proven change management strategy that helped Suncorp successfully implement agile working practices and environments across the company’s entire portfolio in Australia and New Zealand. The move has saved Suncorp millions by reducing property costs, taken the utilization of their portfolio from 50% to 92%, and provided employees with more flexibility, mobility, and a cultural shift toward collaboration.

1. Enlist champions

Research shows that there’s a social aspect to implementing change in the workplace that’s a major factor in employees resisting new initiatives. People worry about the social impacts of the change. For example: will giving up their desks mean they won’t be able to sit with their team members and friends? Will giving up their private office decrease their status within the company?

According to HBR, “the social aspect is what determines the presence or absence of resistance. Just as ignoring this fact is the sure way to trouble, so taking advantage of it can lead to positive results.”

Suncorp used office social networks to improve success with implementing change in the workplace. As their smart environments initiative was implemented floor-by-floor, space champions were recruited from each team that would be impacted by the upcoming move to shared, flexible workspace. Those champions worked as a team to develop a plan that worked for everyone, and they were able to explain the benefits of the change and ease the concerns of their team members.

2. Establish goals

At Suncorp, space champions worked alongside the property team to establish what success would look like for the project. That’s because different teams can adjust to implementing workplace changes at different rates. Here are examples of what the outcome goals might look like:

• Everyone adheres to the clean desk policy
• Everyone moves around within the agile space at least once per week

3. Anticipate obstacles

Once goals are established, the next step for implementing change in the workplace is to identify the potential obstacles that could fuel resistance and possibly derail the project. According to Forbes, “The best way to avoid resistance to change? Seek to uncover potential resistance prior to implementing change.”

That’s why Suncorp’s space champions were tasked with communicating the workplace needs of their teams, and bringing to the table any issues they could foresee. Having that information helped the project team work out a realistic plan to minimize resistance and proactively prevent problems.

4. Develop a plan

Implementing change in your organization is slow, incremental steps helps people to adjust and become comfortable in the new flexible environment a little at a time. That’s one reason Suncorp chose to implement agile working in their existing space. Some companies implement agile working for the first time when moving to new space. However, this practice can make it even more difficult for employees to adjust. A new space adds another big new factor into the equation and forces people into making the shift to a new way of working all at once.

Instead, Suncorp developed a plan for implementing change in the workplace that entailed small shifts over a 2-month period, with the specific changes determined by each project team.

5. Address technology issues

For agile working practices to work for the more mobile workforce, it’s essential that related technology issues are addressed when implementing change in the workplace. For example, will people use desktop workstations or laptops with docking stations? Telephones with login capability are usually needed to help employees move around with ease and still be contactable in an agile space. You may also need to step up IT processes and expectations: it may no longer be acceptable to take days to repair equipment problems in an agile environment.

Also, how will the property team determine the right seat ratios for each neighborhood? The best results come from implementing utilization tracking and workplace management technology to get the facts about how people are using space. You can learn more about that technology from this informative resource: Managing Workplace Utilization.

Also, read this topic to learn more about using data to design the right agile workspace for each business team: Activity-Based Workplace Design: Why One Size Does Not Fit All.

6. Address health and safety issues

When people will be sharing desks, you may need to purchase new furniture to accommodate everyone’s needs, such as height-adjustable desks and chairs, as well as adjustable monitor stands or mounts. Suncorp found that it was helpful to train employees in advance on appropriate etiquette for desk sharing to ensure a sanitary environment, such as not eating at their desk and leaving it clean for the next person’s use.

7. Implement changes week-by-week

With a plan for implementing workplace change agreed upon, that plan was communicated to those involved and implemented week by week. For example, these are some of the steps that might be needed:

Week 1: Clean out the office space to get rid of unnecessary items and paper.
Week 2: Establish central storage for files.
Week 3: Establish personal storage space, such as lockers or bins.
Week 4: Everyone swaps seats with a neighbor, so each person can figure out what they need at their desk to get work done.

By week 8, employees are ready to go live with the agile workplace, and the goals established in step 2 should be met.

8. Make policy changes and train management for agile working practices

Implementing change in the workplace can be especially difficult for middle managers, who may have little experience managing a dispersed team. It takes training to change their longstanding expectations of seeing team members at their desks all day. Managers need to be taught to evaluate team members based on the results they produce. Also, it’s important for them to model agile working practices themselves in order to empower their team to adopt the changes.

More on this issue to come in next week’s blog.

9. Provide post-implementation support

Even when you properly prepare employees in advance for implementing change in the workplace, don’t skimp on adequate post-implementation support. After a move to agile working, it takes a full 12 months for the new way of working to be fully embedded in the culture. Empower your space champions to solve problems that arise within their teams.

The property team should also be monitoring the use of agile space at all times, and jumping in to proactively address and issues that are popping up. Here’s an interesting thing that happens over time as the culture matures: everyone wants to work in the cool new space! That can lead to areas becoming overcrowded, lines for lifts, increased consumables and other problems. Using technology to monitor what’s happening can mitigate issues and keep the space working well for the business.

Outcome achieved by Suncorp

These are some of the impressive results Suncorp has achieved with implementing change in the workplace and providing agile working environments:

• Productivity up 10%
• 91% positive enablement response
• 10% reduction in voluntary turnover
• Expanded access to high quality, diverse talent (4x more applicants)
• 89% would recommend the new workplace

Next week, we’ll address how to gain leadership buy-in for moving to agile working practices. Don’t miss it!

Can traditional IWMS meet the requirements of the modern workplace? Download today.

CRE tech and the digital ecosystem

In a recent report, JLL and Unwork describe the “digital ecosystem” that has emerged in recent years from quantum leaps in computing power, billions of smart devices, pervasive connectivity and seemingly limitless quantities of data. Without question, these technological advances and connectivity will continue to grow exponentially in the years to come, transforming the way businesses work.

That’s why, given the digital ecosystem, workplaces need to provide additional value for organizations that was never anticipated in years past. Pressure to reduce property costs will remain a given, but at the same time CRE organizations must optimize workplaces to enable innovation, attract talent, improve employee wellbeing and workplace experience.

It’s a tall order to say the least. Since technology has been the driver behind these new demands, it’s only natural that organizations are turning to CRE tech to help them re-imagine their workplaces.

Emerging CRE tech is not only changing the way organizations manage space optimization, but also why they are doing it and the wider impact it can have on the business.

Workplace space optimization: it’s not just about cost savings anymore

As technology transforms business operations, what does the modern workplace need to look like? Office spaces are now becoming the venue where people come together (both physically and remotely–again enabled by technology) to collaborate. The old-style cubicle farms with a sea of employees doing their own thing is quickly becoming a thing of the past. Instead, employees along with partners and contingent workers come together to share and combine their talents to create the new products, services and ideas the company needs to remain competitive.

As a result, the goal of space optimization is no longer about cramming as many desks as possible into a space to reduce property costs. As worker mobility increases, as many as 60 percent (or more) of those desks sit empty in the traditional office space. Space optimization, and the CRE tech needed to support it, is now focused on creating dynamic spaces that meet the needs of the modern workforce and match the way they work in the digital ecosystem.

CRE tech drives space optimization with utilization data

Here’s one huge change that’s transforming offices: the rise of agile working spaces. These environments do away with assigned desks in favor of more flexible spaces where workers choose to work based on what they need to accomplish (and the people they need to work with) at any given time. These spaces are increasingly popular because they are designed for new ways of working, while also reducing space costs at the same time.

Learn more: Agile Working Benefits Moving Beyond the Dollars

Planning and implementing agile working spaces requires a significant shift in mindset, along with new CRE tech for capturing and analyzing data.

The mindset shift is moving companies away from tracking occupancy (bodies to seats) and traditional metrics (cost per square foot) to measuring utilization, or how space is actually being used. That data is essential for planning a new agile space fit-out, and for understanding the effectiveness of the new space: how well is it meeting the needs of the workforce?

Here are some emerging CRE tech essentials for meeting modern workplace goals in the digital ecosystem.

CRE TECH: Sensor technology

Creating agile environments requires a deep understanding of your workforce, down to the team level, and what they need in the workplace to meet their objectives. Those needs are going to vary greatly, depending on many factors, including:

• The complexity and diversity of the team’s work
• Need for the team to respond quickly to changing priorities and initiatives
• The amount of collaboration needed and desired
• The makeup of the team: mix of FTE, partners and contingent workers
• Physical locations of team members

Sensors and other types of utilization tracking Technology allows you to track how different teams use space, not only over a month or even a day, but even throughout the course of the day. That data helps you plan fit-outs with the right mix of spaces for each team, and track the effectiveness over time so you can make adjustments as things change.

There’s a wide variety of technology available to collect this data: desk sensors, lighting sensors, beacons, ID badges and network sensors. Deployment of this technology is getting easier all the time: you can now get light-powered sensors that work without wires or batteries.
Learn more about the available technologies: Managing Workplace Utilization

CRE TECH: Business intelligence platforms

If you’ve looked into utilization tracking technology, you may already realize that you’ll need a mix of different technologies to collect all the different types of data you need to make decisions. Then the challenge becomes aggregating data from different sources into one business intelligence tool that makes sense of all of it.

A best-in-class workplace management system provides that central source of truth for all your CRE data, including utilization data from multiple sources. Here are a few essential features to look:

• Ability to aggregate a variety of data sources to provide actionable intelligence reports
• Heatmaps that let you see what’s happening up-to-the-minute in a given area
• Dashboards showing real-time utilization data
• Ability to roll up or drill down as needed to see the required level of granularity

CRE TECH: Next generation space management

Now that you’re powered by utilization data and smart tools to help you make space optimization decisions, you need modern space planning tools to act on those decisions.

Here are a few things that set the leaders apart when it comes to CRE tech for modern space management:

1. Support for neighborhoods and unassigned seating

Many older space planning systems (provided by traditional IWMS providers) are designed to support only occupancy or “bodies to seats.” That severely limits you in a modern flexible environment. Instead, look for modern CRE tech with the ability to assign a team to a neighborhood and manage ratios in an agile environment.

2. Native integration with utilization technologies

Your CRE organization needs to be as agile as your environment (and the teams you support). So if you need to go through a lot of manual data manipulation to get answers from your utilization tracking, that’s going to cost you both in time and money. Modern CRE tech tools are built on standard platforms that can integrate seamlessly with the utilization tracking technology you choose.

3. Features for building business relationships & reducing CRE workload

Imagine if you could get your business units to voluntarily update their team information? Impossible? Not at all with modern CRE tech that makes it quick & easy for business units to update their CRE data. Why would they do so? Because in turn, you can give them tools that make their job easier and improve employee experience.

Learn more: The 8 Superpowers You Need for Office Space Management

The best part? You can use those CRE tech tools to build better working relationships, provide better service to your teams, earn the trust of leaders, and win a seat at the strategic planning table.

Download your copy of Workplace Management Software Buyer’s Guide today.