CREJ - Building Dialogue - June 2017
We all know that workplace strategy facilitates the intentional alignment of an organization’s environment with cultural work patterns to amplify peak business performance – all while appropriating cost and increasing innovation to fit both the current condition and future state. As you may have experienced, these two select phrases “cultural work patterns” and “peak business performance” may occasionally be progressing in varying directions. An organization’s behavioral norms must be in alignment with strategic initiatives, as Wayne Gretzky puts it: “Skate to where the puck is going.” Workplace strategy conversations often are sparked when the business at hand is either running out of work space, has too much real estate or wants to introduce organizational evolution through the environment. Peak business performance is uniquely defined by a spectrum of business objectives, ranging from tactical needs like minimize cost and maximize space utilization, to increasingly strategic goals such as support effective collaboration, communicate brand and support innovation. As you may expect, a broad range of diverse disciplines (both internal and external to the organization) contribute to define what “successful criteria” means to them at the time. While it is likely quite clear where an organization is headed through ongoing executive level business planning sessions, another salient factor of work often is amorphic in nature with less controlled measurement and structured prediction efforts: work patterns. There are many tactics for organizations to detangle and analyze their own work patterns to predict a better future. To glean learning from local, national and global organizations, here are some broad ideas to consider when analyzing your own organization’s cultural norms. As a workplace professional, you have valid insights into what is working within your own organization and how the work experience might need to evolve. But beyond your intuition and personal experiences, how do organizations capture an authentic voice of their employee base to better inform their workplace strategy? Workplace assessment methodologies that contribute meaningful data to the conversation can include space observations and in-person interviews, camera journal assignments, employee surveys, utilization studies, change readiness analysis, pre- and post-occupancy surveys, workforce forecasting and organizational analysis. With experienced professionals from real estate, strategy and design consultancies, you can start with creating a “workplace balanced scoreboard” of metrics. These metrics should be relevant to the intentions of the design and the organization’s business objectives that reflect financial, behavioral, work process, health or other outcomes pertinent to the business. Best Practices for a Successful Workplace Assessment “Less is more.” Select the fewest, highest-impact KPI (key performance indicators) possible. Similar to a well-written survey, be prepared to do something with the results. Do not collect data unless you know in advance exactly how you plan to use it. Establish baseline measures. Baseline measures establish a reference point against which you can assess the success of changes made to the workplace over time. Use survey data collection and in-person interviews to measure employees’ perceptions of behaviors related to project goals, such as comfort, degree of collaboration, quality of group decision-making, etc. Gather data in a way that keeps responses confidential, yet can be evaluated by satisfaction level, by teams or departments, new hires vs. tenured staff, etc. Collect objective benchmarks from other sources, such as HR databases for attraction and retention rates, health claims rates and costs, or other metrics that are related to financial outcomes. Collect data on an ongoing basis (quarterly or semiannually). This will provide an ongoing stream of objective information that can keep the workplace design aligned with employee needs and business goals. Keep the reports simple. This will enable everyone to understand the results and thus be able to act on them. Remember to manage the “human side” of the project. A technically successful assessment program can still fail if people don’t buy in to the effort. Ensure that everyone understands the purpose, strategic approach and benefits of the initiatives through a streamlined change management engagement and communication. Overall, think of workplace assessment as a form of risk management. Ongoing assessment reduces the chance of problems with the workplace design and thus protects your organization’s financial investment in the workplace. To learn more about this topic or other research resources Knoll can provide, go to www.knoll.com/research O’Neill, M. (2012). “Managing Workplace Change: A People-Based Perspective.” White Paper, Knoll, Inc., New York, NY. O’Neill, M. (2012). “Adaptable by Design,” White Paper, Knoll, Inc., New York, NY. O’Neill, M. (2008). “Evaluating the Success of Design: Why Measure?,” Topic Brief, Knoll, Inc., New York, NY.