Workplace Environment: ‘The Challenge of Change’

Top tips on how to save money and increase efficiency for your organisation

by Jayne Magowan and Deirdre Corser
Associate Designers, TPS

The workplace environment is currently in a state of change, not only due to the current marketplace and its shifting goalposts for staffing projections, but with the long established model of one worker to one desk working 9-to-5 no longer being appropriate.

As operational and organisational aspects of a business change, requirements for space standards, technology, types of equipment used and support facilities also change. Flexible working with an ageing population (leading to extended working lives), and the emergence of a multigenerational / multinational workforce, with rapid development of IT (and the diverse routes to access it), are creating vibrant transformations to the design of the 21st century workplace environment.

More and more companies are recognizing the need to create efficient working environments, and as such are bringing in workplace solutions companies like TPS to help create effective solutions and save costs.

To maximise business efficiency, new designs and space strategies need to reflect the changes mentioned, creating a responsive workplace that supports business growth whilst maximising flexibility. This not only creates effective team working, but cost efficiencies with minimal alteration expenditure.

Stimulating and supportive workplace

In today’s workplace, people are looking for a style of leadership that includes integrity, an inspiring vision and a compelling business strategy. Innovative workspaces can have a direct and beneficial effect on staff productivity and creativity.

Companies such as TPS are helping businesses of all sizes maximize efficiency through looking at their use of workspace, technology, furniture and protocols. In order to do this it is necessary to not only understand how a business works both now and in the future, but to understand the individuals who will ultimately be the users of the spaces created. It is important to design offices as not only places to work in but somewhere to grow, develop and expand knowledge. As part of this you can look at combining workspace with public/social space.

Multi-generational workforce

Patterns of work are changing. New technology is leading to more flexible working lives, with less emphasis on working from 9-to-5. Population ageing is leading to extended working lives and the emergence of a multi-generational workforce. New legislation is curbing discrimination at work on the grounds on age or disability, leading to a more diverse workforce. Most workplaces, however, still adhere to an outdated model of management efficiency for the young and fit. The challenge is to make our future workplaces more effective, comfortable and sustainable for people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities.

Individual/concentrated workspace

The ability to concentrate to a degree that allows deep uninterrupted thinking is essential to productive knowledge work. Productivity is impaired, errors increase and creativity and mental processing may diminish without the suitable space and environment for concentrated work. Open office environment may not always be considered as ideal spaces to do concentrated work. Private and quiet areas can overcome this - bookable meeting rooms can also be a solution - but do we want to revert back to the numerous cellular offices of the 70s? The key is a flexible approach to your work from the top to the bottom of the organisation and to lead by example.

Work/life balance

Many people are assessing the way they use their time and energy. They want a better balance between their work lives and personal lives. More workers leave jobs in search of a simpler and more fulfilling way of life. Many are looking for different options including self-employment, more relaxed work environments, or flexible situations. Organisations need to look at ways to retain their best employees, providing working environments that make people actually want to come to work, so be flexible with the space.

Top tips and advice

If you’re considering enlisting a company to help increase your workplace productivity and ultimately save you money, our top 5 tips to managing office change and getting real results are as follows:

1. Ways of working

Recognise that you and your staff are “experts” of your own environment, and as such should have a voice in any design and its operation.

Close co-operation and co-ordination of design team activities will play an important part in a project’s successful delivery, so effective communication is key throughout design development, the allocation of funds, construction and eventual operation and maintenance of the building.

As it is important that a client gets as much value from a project as possible (value does not mean low cost), this means a “fit” building, not a “fat” building!

We therefore recommend that the facilities manager is involved as part of the design team, since being built to last is only one aspect of design to be considered, while being easy to maintain and manage involves an on-going cost.

2. Programme and planning

Ensure that a thorough understanding of the business’s requirements and objectives are fully met, as a clear, comprehensive and agreed project brief is fundamental to the success of any project. (This can also act as a yardstick to measure any changes to the programme).

We recommend that accurate and detailed planning and programme is completed before the design start, which will help identify any pitfalls which may occur, allowing the right people to be brought together to resolve issues before they are encountered.

3. Design innovation

Innovation is more than just a great idea - it is a concept that is thoroughly thought through, cleverly structured and entirely practical, creating spaces and environments that imaginatively reflect the life that goes on within.

Designs should offer open, contemporary, quality working environments with numerous spaces of various functions to promote flexible working and therefore fulfil all the needs within the office - a place to go to, to be in, and to have been to - enhancing productivity and brand recognition and helping to attract and retain key talents.

We recommend that each project is approached as a blank canvas in order to arrive at a bespoke solution tailored to the individual needs of each particular client.

4. Designing to cost

The success of good cost management stems from the use of rigorous systems, coupled with team effort to give a clear understanding of all influencing factors.

With an early base cost plan in place which balances Budgets / Aspirations / Design / Specifications and Environmental Considerations, develop the scheme design - cost checking whilst challenging the emerging design.

Work closely with cost consultants to provide help and advice to ensure that budgets are achieved and that monies are spent in the most appropriate place.

The best advice TPS would give would be to “spec for what you want to do”.

5. Sustainable solutions

Make sustainability very high on the agenda and central to the design approach and from the outset.

Agree environmental design constraints, targets, objectives and criteria for the future of the business, and set out in a sustainability Action Plan. This should be done in conjunction with the design team, who can offer solutions for delivering different BREEAM ratings by early consideration rather than expensive remedial design. BREEAM ratings stands for “BRE Environmental Assessment Method” which sets the standards for best practice in sustainable design; it has become the de facto measure used to describe a building's environmental performance and addresses wide-ranging environmental and sustainability issues. This enables developers and designers to prove the environmental credentials of their buildings to both planners and clients.

We recommend that a holistic approach is undertaken (not using a bolt on technology), offering solutions that can be constructed as well as operated sustainably, and which can be adapted to suit changing future needs.

About the authors

Deidre Corser, Associate Designer (left), and Jayne Magowan, Associate Director within TPS and TPS Interiors (part of Carillion plc), aim to create environments that enrich people’s lives and to enhance workplace accommodation.

With nearly 30 years of experience between them (new build, refurbishment, space planning, estate rationalisation, interior design and project management), they design concepts that perform as business solutions for their clients, providing designs that are flexible, technologically responsive, and quickly delivered at the right place and appropriate quality levels.

Jayne Magowan, Design Leader for the Commercial Sector, says: “We help our clients understand the concepts behind the ‘alternative workplace’ jargon. Our international experience brings an extra dimension to our approach and way of thinking in delivering designs for ‘A Better Tomorrow’, as we recognise that our work has a significant impact on the quality of people’s lives.”

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