The workplace as we know it is undergoing a major sociological shift, one fueled by our reliance on technology, employees’ desire for greater control over their time, and companies’ need to reduce overhead costs. This shift is changing how people work and spend their days, and even affects our social relationships in a work setting. Many companies are moving toward an alternative workplace (AWP) design, a design philosophy that is championed by executive leadership, human resources, and facility managers, and lauded by thousands of employees as the new way we want to work.
Alternative workplace design encompasses work practices, settings and locations. The AWP model is also known as high performance workspace, workplace transformation or workplace innovation, as it substantially deviates from traditional offi ce designs and practices. AWP spaces are characterized by open space and fl exible seating arrangements; areas for collaboration, communication and quiet work; and the embrace of technology to tie the offi ce and its employees together. Most companies take the concept further and support work-from-home options that increase employees’ fl exibility as well as their productivity. When the employee is in the offi ce, he or she is there for collaboration and communication with others, not deskwork that can otherwise be done at home. Other companies reduce their real estate burden by employing a sit-where-you-want desk arrangement. With this style of workplace innovation, employees are encouraged to work “their way,” limiting their commute time and managing their own schedules and personal lives.
There’s a legitimate real estate argument for facility managers to consider AWP design. The AWP model reduces the amount of space that is unoccupied on any given day, thus reducing the overall square footage per person by eliminating unused real estate. The design offers a better use of space by taking into consideration employee travel, sick time, and vacation schedules and work arrangements that have employees out of the offi ce one or two days a week. Why pay for real estate when 30 to 50 percent of an employee’s time is spent in places other than the offi ce?
For AWP to be successful, however, facility managers need to work with executive management, human resources, and the IT department to help change how the company works. Company branding and communication become key in an alternative workplace, as companies seek to remind people who they work for and what their shared mission is. While fl exible workspace solutions create opportunities for greater collaboration, communication, and mobility, they don’t work for every employee, department, or company.
Gone are the workplaces of yore with a sea of cubicles and executive offi ces on the perimeter. This old style of offi ce space promoted solitary, individualized work and created a very hierarchical work environment, as only the executive offi ces enjoyed daylight and views to the outside. The AWP model
What Facility Managers Need to Know About Alternative Workplace Design
features an open workplace where daylight and the natural environment are welcomed inside — an easy fi t with another trend toward sustainable, green buildings. Work areas are often clustered into “neighborhoods” that offer work group unity and opportunities for branding and wayfi nding.
The Boston offi ce of global services fi rm Sapient, for example, features a colorful, open fl oor plan of neighborhoods and paths that connect all the departments of this growing company. The primary path features lit gallery walls on one side and plasma screens on the other, serving to inform visitors and showcase the advertising capabilities of the company. Additional paths marked by brightly-colored carpet travel around the neighborhoods, creating an open confi guration rather than confi ned offi ces. The design provides fl exibility for individual workstations with powered spines that allow the workstations to turn 90 degrees to cluster in groups or provide more privacy. A unique color palette was selected for each neighborhood’s cluster of offi ces and meeting rooms, creating greater opportunities for wayfi nding.
AWP design also features smaller workstations with lower panels, or no panels at all, to encourage interaction and communication. A basic workstation could consist of a six-foot desk, or a bench, or a true workstation with lower walls. The
AWP model recognizes that it is not a one-size fi ts-all world; desk sizes are thus based on actual job function. In general, there are fewer private offi ces in AWP settings, and sometimes none. The AWP model also encourages fewer and shorter wall partitions, favoring instead screens or fi ling cabinets to separate clusters of desks from collaborative work areas.
Real Estate Effi ciency
The alternative workplace model also reduces the number of workstations and offers different desking options. What
used to be called “hotelling” or “hot desking” is now referred to as “free addressing” or “touchdown space”: an open desk policy that allows employees to sit wherever they choose on a given day, working from anywhere in the offi ce at anytime. A pillar of alternative workplace design, the free address concept may seem pretty radical at fi rst blush, but there is great effi ciency from a real estate point of view.
With a one person per desk (1:1 ratio) system, the company pays for the space regardless of whether the employee is sitting at his or her desk every day. Most companies promoting a free addressing model expect a 1.3:1 (employee to desk) ratio. For some companies like Sapient, whose consultants travel a great deal, the ratio is closer to 2:1 (100 seats for 200 people), a signifi cant savings in real estate over the term of the lease. While not every department in the company can be confi gured in this way, the savings in real estate costs for the consultant group can then be used to support the technology and benefi ts that the work-from-home employees receive. There is a cost justifi cation to this shift in workplace design and practices.
When Philips, a globally diversifi ed health and well-being company in Andover, Mass., was looking to expand its offi ce space, the company opted to design a new offi ce environment that embraces an alternative workplace strategy, with an open and effi cient fl oor plan promoting collaborative work. With no private offi ces, Philips’ open workspace features 200 individual work settings for 240 employees in a free addressing concept. The fl exibility and adaptability of each work setting also allow employees to migrate from desk to desk depending on workfl ow, projects, and accessibility to other team members in the offi ce. To promote collaboration and interaction, the open workspace is arranged in seven “neighborhoods” that house four clusters of six work settings, with adjacent support spaces that include meeting rooms, fi le areas, and phone booths.
“The design of our new space provides opportunities for interaction and collaboration, while offering our staff the fl exibility and mobility they need to do their jobs,” says Jay Poswolsky, director of workplace innovation at Philips. “Our new
space leverages both technology and dynamic offi ce design to create a livable and workable space. The end result is an effi cient offi ce design that allows employees to work anywhere.
Collaboration and Quiet Work Since AWP design promotes an open work environment — often with no private offi ces — conference centers, collaboration spaces, and meeting rooms become very important. AWP design parallels the
new way companies are working with common areas that support formal and informal communication, interaction and knowledge sharing, and thereby encourage greater collaboration and work in groups. By increasing meeting space, as well as by placing meeting spaces in proximity to work areas and making these meeting spaces less formal, AWP design promotes collaborative work. The design also includes quiet zones for concentration, featuring high walls, fi ling cabinets or screens to provide privacy and decrease distractions. Finally, common spaces can include breakout areas with a variety of seating, centralized cafés/kitchen space, and coffee bars. Many companies embracing AWP design also trending toward corporate conference centers that provide the highest level of technology integration, facility fl exibility, and client amenities.
Forrester Research, an independent business and technology research company based in Cambridge, Mass., has no private offi ces, even for the CEO. The new headquarters features an open workspace with workstations clustered around white board-clad team rooms, creating neighborhoods to foster collaboration. In addition to the team rooms distributed around the space, there are quiet rooms for concentrated work and larger glass-fronted team rooms clustered at the center of each fl oor.
For Forrester, the conference room experience is critical for a company without private offi ces, and a larger conference space with enhanced audiovisual capability was essential for staff to leverage technology while communicating with Forrester offi ces around the world. Forrester’s conference center resides on the fi rst and second fl oors for client convenience and staff privacy, and includes 17 conference rooms of varying sizes outfi tted for videoconferencing and designed to handle future installation of telepresence systems, which will offer an immersive videoconferencing environment, with screens large enough that the remote parties appear to be sitting across the table, full size. The conference center also includes a 4,275 square foot multi-purpose room for client seminars and company-wide meetings. In addition to client conference spaces, Forrester also provided 72 dispersed team rooms for employee interactions.
AWP design promotes the use of technology and reduced use of paper wherever possible. Virtual offi ces and teleworking options, along with technology-enhanced capabilities in employees’ home offi ces, help to connect staff to colleagues and clients. Technology-enhanced conference rooms, and collaboration areas to communicate with remote clients and colleagues working from home, are essential. Acoustics for good listening conditions should also be considered.
The facility manager implementing an alternative workplace would be well served to coordinate with the IT department. In addition to audiovisual-intensive conference rooms and collaboration areas, touchdown work settings are often wireless, with power to re-charge cell phones and laptops. Assigned work desks may still be wired, but the trend is moving toward the “work anywhere” offi ce. Many high-tech savvy companies have embraced AWP design for this reason; some industries, such as consulting and project management, are more compatible with this dynamic than others.
When Interaction Associates, a 42-year provider of collaborative leadership practices, relocated to 11,460 square feet in a former warehouse building in Boston’s Seaport Center, the new space needed to refl ect the fi rm’s unique work style and focus on collaboration. Demetra Anagnostopoulos, chief marketing offi cer at Interaction Associates, says that the design question for the fi rm was, “How can we create a work environment that supports the way we work together and refl ects our brand?” The resulting AWP design draws people into group settings, effortlessly creating collaboration. “The design of our workplace has impacted innovation for us,” she says.
The new offi ce features private cubicles with shared meeting tables, “continuous desks” that offer fl exibility for employees who are frequently in and out of the offi ce, collaborative work areas that feature multiple seating confi gurations, and the prominent placement of technology, such as a series of multimedia-enabled conference rooms, private telephone rooms set up for Skype video calls, and a media:scape table to promote collaboration.
With AWP design, there is also a reduction in support spaces such as mailrooms and copy rooms. At Philips, the design eliminated both rooms altogether since everything is electronic. Instead, a fi le cabinet credenza outside the café serves as the mail station, and each neighborhood offers a tabletop printer/copier. Employees are allocated one drawer in group storage in each neighborhood, encouraging electronic fi ling in lieu of paper.
For free addressing arrangements like Philips’, a clean desk policy and no personal fi le cabinets necessitate storage lockers for coats, personal items, and work supplies. Some companies offer small fi le cabinets on wheels that employees push to their chosen desk each day. The “wheelie” is the only designated space for personal storage.
In Sync on AWP
The openness and fl exibility of AWP design can be implemented in any raw space. However, AWP design is more than a new workspace; it’s also a new work concept — one that inspires employees and clients to work together in a truly collaborative fashion.
Company culture and management should be in sync on what the design of an alternative workplace means for the company. For example, the level of employee satisfaction in a free addressing program is usually very high, but implementing it doesn’t work for all departments. The innovation coming out of a collaborative work environment may also be quantifi ably measured, boosting the argument for an open-plan design. Don’t be motivated, however, to embrace an alternative workplace just for the real estate cost savings. The concept, applied to its fullest, can help a company attract the best talent wherever they may be.
While there is no one way to implement an alternative workplace, the tenets of openness, fl exibility, collaboration and communication remain. Make the space inspirational to encourage creativity, dynamism, and dialogue. In this era of mobility, prompt communication, and information exchange, the alternative workplace concept is fast becoming the norm in interior offi ce design.
