1. Work is changing
How we work, where we work and our use of space over time –
these are all changing. Work was once synonomous with the workplace – you went
“to work”. It was (and for some still is) a place. Today work is more commonly
seen as an activity, one which is no longer restricted to a “place of work” but
which can be performed in many different places.
Work is changing from individual and routine-based work to
creative and projectbased. People are working more in groups and teams to solve
complex problems that require many different skills.
As work has changed so have the places where we work. If we
still work in an office, then it is no longer a “paper factory” but more likely
we work in a variety of settings. What are the drivers for these changes? There
are five main ones – technology, demographics, management style, occupancy
costs and sustainability.
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Technology is also making it easier to
collaborate in ways that challenge the conventional view of an organisation.
Telepresence and project software enables people to work more effectively with
colleagues but also with contractors, freelancers and other so-called ‘semi-detached
talent’.
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Demographics - Generation Y (born between 1980
and 2000) is the first to have grown up with computers at home and school.
Those born at the beginning of this period are now entering their 30s and
exerting an influence over the way work is organised. They are not only open to
radical workplace solutions but expect them.
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Management style - Evolving management styles
are both a cause and a consequence of the changing workplace. With people no
longer tied to a particular desk or even to a building, direct supervision and
‘presenteeism’ are less relevant. One leading workplace thinker, Andrew Mawson
of Advanced Workplace Associates, has suggested that the traditional command
and control organisational model is broken. He has proposed a new model – the
Kinetic Organisation, with little or no hierarchy and a cellular structure.
Such an organisation would maintain a flexible cost base so that it can
‘inflate’ and ‘deflate’ its operations without incurring penalty costs.
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Occupancy costs - Supporting someone in a
workplace is a costly business. Global real estate adviser DTZ predicts UK cost
of occupancy to grow at around 1.8 per cent per annum over the next five years,
reaching an average £6,356 a year per workstation by 2017. London remains the
most expensive location, with costs expected to hit £10,000 in the City and
£17,000 in the West End. One estimate of the ‘overhead’ required to allow a
person to be productive is between £12k and £14k per person/per annum in a
capital city. Agile working can drive this cost down.
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Sustainability - Economic pressures not withstanding,
improving sustainability is still a goal for most organisations. Using space
more effectively and intensively reduces the carbon footprint per person.
Cutting commuting and other travel time, through more flexible working and
greater use of videoconferencing for example, will also reduce carbon
emissions.
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Other drivers - ‘Softer’ benefits, such as
productivity, improved morale or greater collaboration, are difficult to
measure but often cited by those who have moved to new ways of working. Several
studies show that those enabled to work more flexibly feel more engaged with
the organisation than those with assigned desks.
2. The language of
flexible working
Terminology has evolved at the same pace as technology.
Teleworking, remote working, hot desking, hoteling - all describe particular
responses to the opportunities to unhook workers from assigned desks. Advocates
of activity-based work have claimed that it typically reduces the amount of
office space required by about 30 per cent, given that more than one-half of
the work stations in a typical office are unoccupied at any given time. Agile
working is a further development of flexible working. The name suggests that,
beyond flexibility, the organisation aims to be responsive to the changing
environment. The agile organisation will use the full range of management and
workplace options to achieve this responsiveness.
3. Implementing agile
working
Agile working should be seen as part of wider business and
organisational trends - from a top-down to a self-organising model; from an
internal focus to a focus on clients; from a directive culture to a
collaborative one. The strategy may encompass drop-in centres or suburban hubs
for peripatetic workers and those living well outside city centres, as well as
flexible office space. Space utilisation is a key measure – typically,
conventional office space is 52-56 per cent occupied across the working week.
Flexible working can push this up to 80 per cent. It’s a good idea to provide
policies and protocols to help people get the most from the new working
environment. Some of these may prove controversial, for example clear desk
policies, minimal personal storage or limited local printing.
4. What all this
means for the workplace
Agile working requires a move from the traditional head
office and back office model to distributed workplaces – closer to where people
live but also located near transport hubs or on strategic road networks. A
major telecomms company for example adopted a strategy of locations around the
M25 for its flexible workforce.
The office then becomes primarily a place to interact, to
induct people and to reinforce culture and brand. It should provide a range of
work “settings” to encourage and support different activities, allowing people
to focus, collaborate, socialise or learn.
