Walsall Council
Engagement:
Workspace Appraisal & Design Brief – a structured programme of work to support the development of a design brief and implementation of an accommodation project to pilot new ways of working.
We carry out projects in all types of environments but some of our clients are surprised when we tell them we also do projects that look at workspace areas of office buildings too. – ‘ What? No customers!’
With an office building project the first task is to get our client to see their environment from a customer perspective by identifying the customer and supplier relationships for the use of the space whether formal or informal. Take a step back to think of all the people working in any building as internal customers of the various facilities management services of that building, and that as customers they have wants and needs to support their work tasks and objectives. From that viewpoint, it is straightforward to see that customer experience principals would apply.
So, our tools and techniques not only work in customer facing spaces such as a retail store or reception area, but also when an environment is off limits to the general public, such as the workspace areas of an office building or the workshop of a garage.
In this project, we were asked to help develop a pilot area for the ‘Office of the Future’ for the council which would test a new format for workspace use and management which could then be rolled out across the wider accommodation portfolio. The project included a change from a tired cellular office environment to a modern open plan workspace, as well as the introduction of new ways of working such as desk and meeting room sharing, centralised printing, copying and other support services, and the adoption of mobile technologies enabling remote and home working.
Challenges:
- Providing practical data on current utilisation of space
- Providing practical data on the effect of the current environment on workspace performance
- Engaging with staff, managers and key stakeholders
- Identifying and base-lining benefit opportunities
- Relating benefit opportunities to design considerations
- Making recommendations on implementation
- Making recommendations on a workspace management process
- Making recommendations on a process to measure and track benefits throughout
Implementation
Outputs:
- Desk and meeting room utilisation study
- Workspace activity study
- Environmental symptom and opinion survey
- Mobilisation, communication and feedback sessions with staff, managers and key stakeholders
- High level Business Case and Risk Log
- Support with the development of an implementation plan
- Recommendations on a process for continuous improvement
Outcomes:
- Mobilised organisation – staff, managers and stakeholders involved throughout the process
- Provided baseline data to measure and track benefits
- Effective delivery – utilised better practices and lessons learnt from similar projects
- Knowledge transfer provided via the development of a ‘Toolkit’ to manage potential roll-out
