The changing workplace

I was motivated on a recent visit to the UK to ponder the changing workplace. This was on the back of a glimpse into the way in which British Airways has changed its physical environment and the way in which we are increasingly rethinking the workspace in our own organisation. Not only the workspace but also where and how people work.

Technology has created the opportunity for an organisation to think in different ways about where and how its workforce is accommodated, but what sits behind this trend: is it applicable to all types of work and all organisations?

Everything from sharing desks and hotelling to telecommuting, more people than ever are working in non-traditional ways, and organisations are deriving the benefits.

However attractive the cost benefits are, this should not be the primary reason for an organisation to embark on this programme.

Clearly organisations are motivated by the cost benefits to be derived from eliminating and consolidating office space and related overhead costs, and improvement of up to 30% have been realised. However attractive the cost benefits are, this should not be the primary reason for an organisation to embark on this programme. Another reason is increased productivity, as people devote less time to the typical office routines, spend much less time in travelling to the office and more time in attending to their primary focus, and this is a valid and powerful reason for doing this.

A key reason, however, is that it provides an additional advantage in keeping the talented people of the organisation, where those individuals prefer the flexibility, for example of working from home or being geography independent.

This notion of the alternative workplace is most powerful in the context of a strategic and transformational process in the organisation.

The very nature of work is changing and the changing workplace is a reflection of that. In the IT industry, for example, the workforce is largely dispersed and working at client sites; more of the processes with clients are collaborative, interactive and knowledge-sharing. Furthermore there is the ongoing need to continuously and aggressively speed up the process and efficiency of communication in the organisation.

Not only has the nature of work changed, but the nature of the workers themselves has changed. We are more focused today on attracting top talent to the organisation.

These people want a different type of interaction with their company and they want different infrastructure and facilities; not everybody is interested in the old-style corner office. They want to belong to and share in an environment conducive to creativity and to communication within the formal and informal knowledge groups which continually form and disband. They want to come to the physical environment to share and learn and they want to be in touch with what is happening! And they want to do this when it best suits their clients, their work schedule and themselves.

A large part of this knowledge acquisition and sharing process is enabled through the use of technologies, such as the Internet and intranet and we need to make it highly accessible and fun for our people to take advantage of this.

But is the alternative workplace right for every organisation? There are some indicators to be considered. The organisation`s commitment to new ways of operating - the alternative workplace is part of a programme, not something that can be done in isolation. Whether the organisation is informational rather than industrial, referring to an organisational mindset rather than a specific industry.

Does the organisation`s cultural and management style lend itself to this way of working? Can the organisation establish the necessary continuity and correlations between the people who do the work, the functions themselves and the element of time? Can the organisation pull its markets and clients into this new model and is the organisation in position to put in place both the physical infrastructure and the organisational change programmes required to make this an efficient way of working in the future?

The key message is that of radical rethinking and then crafting the best model for one`s own organisation, industry and environment.

This rethinking is based on corporate strategy and renewal. It is not based on technology, nor is it based on solving one isolated problem such as cost containment. It is based on pondering questions such as the real purpose of the workplace in each area of the organisation.

Considering what work is performed and who does it, as well as understanding how value is added at each stage of the work. What the crucial needs are of the workplace in each situation, what systems and facilities are needed, what the impact is of geography, time and physical presence at the workplace and how best the organisation can provide against these requirements. Finally, what the impact will be on individuals, their collaboration with others, the culture and nature of the organisation and the social fabric of the organisation.

The topic of the new workplace is powerful in its ability to benefit the major transformations that organisations, industries and people are going through. It also affects people in a fundamental way and it should be carefully approached and adopted.