Communication is the key to make people feel at home in their workspace, says Paul Statham
The 20th century office layout is now irrelevant, suggested a recent blog post for People Management. In our own research we’ve certainly seen that the way people are choosing to work no longer matches up with traditional workplace design, but the practicalities of taking the office to the next level of modern should not be ignored.
There are several clear reasons that a business would want to make their office space better reflect the working habits of its employees. Besides expensive real estate costs, people can easily become disengaged in an office that is only half full – we’ve found that average desk utilisation in the UK is as low as 40 per cent – or that doesn’t provide the right tools and spaces for collaboration.
The case for change may be obvious, but the realities of achieving it are not always so clear-cut. Making the move towards more flexible working practices might include reducing the number of desks or creating more breakout areas for informal conversations and meetings. Such introductions can become an HR and management headache, both in terms of engaging employees and in actually making the spaces work. You want to avoid the kind of situation where two people turn up to work at the same desk at the same time, or where an individual avoids coming into the office for fear of not being able to find a desk.
It’s this feeling of homelessness that HR departments must work to minimise. The usefulness of practical technology tools should not be underestimated. For example, the ability to book desk or meeting space in the office – remotely through a web application, or with a mobile app while on the move – puts control back into the hands of the individual.
It’s also vital to make the workplace easily navigable. When you encourage employees to work in different spaces inside and outside the office, it’s important to accompany this change with some kind of system that enables colleagues to locate each other.
As with any major change, communication is at the heart of successful people management. Updating the workplace layout design should have the central goal of reflecting and supporting working behaviours. This makes a thorough preparatory stage essential. A good study will collect clear office utilisation data to reflect the true – but anonymised – habits of employees, helping to pinpoint the optimal office layout, as well as ensuring that staff have the chance to be heard.
Some organisations find that single occupants use large meeting rooms for the whole day – indicating the shortage of small private offices – or that half their desks are simply never used. Creating an ongoing open conversation around the research process, the proposed changes and the use of the technology shows employees that the central desire is to make their workplace more relevant and engaging for the 21st century, not just to change for the sake of change.
Paul Statham is founder and CEO of Condeco