The recent popularity of flexible spaces doesn’t mean traditional spaces should be abandoned altogether. Indeed, that there isn’t one perfect model for the workplace was the message of AgilQuest’s Jan. 28 webinar Giving People the Right Office and Workplace Choice.
“You can’t offer support for your workers and your organization with just one of these kinds of space,” said Doug Lucy, director of marketing, AgilQuest. “It’s really important to understand the different kinds of spaces that are available, how they work, the benefits and values they have, and then find the right choices for you and your workforce.”
Space types
There are essentially three types of space: traditional, open mixed-use, and third party, said Lucy.
Traditional space is assigned, with a ratio of one person to one desk located in a particular building on a particular floor. The worker has their own resources as well as a dedicated cube that is unlikely to change unless the worker switches roles, departments or jobs.
“Permanently assigned space still has a lot of value,” said Lucy. “There are plenty of jobs out there, or even some situations or functional roles, where an individual still needs to come to the same desk every day of the work week.”
He pointed to accounting staff as an example.
Traditional spaces also include conference rooms of a fixed nature – like those with four walls, a door, a large, inflexible table and audio/visual equipment, said Lucy – which are suited to presentations.
Open space represents the departure from this traditional model. More people are being accommodated within the same footprint through pods and work benches as well as touchdown areas and modular meeting rooms.
The millennial generation is willing to tradeoff enclosed offices for the better work-life balance that comes from flexible work options, said Ray Lindenberg, founder of Winning Workspaces Hospitality Group. The payoff on the corporate side is the savings that come from reduced real estate needs.
Third-place workspaces have existed since the mid-1960s, but have evolved over time, Lindenberg said. The first generation provided common spaces and services to companies working in executive suites, which gave way to business centres. In the 1990s, community-oriented “co-working” spaces arrived on the scene with open plans and desks that encouraged collaboration and networking. The new wave is somewhere in between, referred to as “pro-working” spaces, which is a plug-and-go set-up, such as that found in hotels and airports.
Workplace strategies
The key, said Lucy, is ensuring choices are available and easy to make. Employees now expect to have something called adjacency, he said. In this context, adjacency is defined as the ability to move from one space to the next and continue working. KPMG recently had what is called “pervasive Wi-Fi” expanded in both its locations, allowing for this type of seamless transition to occur.
Right now, said Kyle Hendrickson, operations manager, KPMG, organizations are trying to find the optimal balance between traditional and flexible spaces.
“We have a lot of the fixed function services, so we do allocate a specific set of workspace particularly for them,” said Hendrickson. “Outside of that, we really try to heavily encourage everybody to operate within our hoteling model altogether.”
Under this regime, KPMG categorizes employees as either active or reverse hotelers and, based on utilization data, tries to achieve certain thresholds, he said. In its McLean, Virginia office, KPMG is implementing a Workspace of the Future model, which strives for higher ratios of hoteling stations.
But it depends on the practice group. For example, the tax group has a 1:1 ratio of people to desks, whereas the audit and advisory groups are targeting a 1:7 to 1:9 ratio.
KPMG solicits feedback and measures space utilization by monitoring badge scan activity and visually checking rooms to see whether employees are making their reservations.
“The educational component is what’s most critical about getting the locations on board,” said Hendrickson.
Providing workplace choice isn’t only a matter of ensuring employees having the right space, but also having the right management, said Lindenberg. When management isn’t behind changes in the workplace, employees can sense it, he said.
Lindenberg added that the tension between generations in the workplace is being felt most acutely now, as baby boomers and millennials cohabitate in the workplace amid rapid tech-driven change. That will change, he predicted, as the baby boomers accustomed to traditional spaces leave the workforce, and the next generation, more similar to millennials, enters the workforce.
Asked whether organizations should establish formal policies for third spaces, Lindenberg cited Unilever’s policy of allowing employees to essentially work the way they want, as long as they deliver results, which are measurable.
“When people love where they work, when they feel comfortable where they work, they produce better quality,” he said. “When people have choices, and if they’re responsible, they’re responsible for their choices, and if one place doesn’t work for them, they can go to another place; they don’t have to lock into just one place.”
Michelle Ervin is the editor of Canadian Facility Management & Design.
