Houston,
we have a solution
Accenture’s new Houston office launches the company’s innovative global workplace strategy.
Planning Research Design Corporation, Houston, TX McCoy Workplace Solutions, Houston, TX
Steelcase Applied Research and Consulting
The nature of their work was changing, becoming more collaborative and mobile, and Accenture consultants were working just about everywhere it seemed, except in their office. “In our previous location, you would see people reserve an office, and there would never be a person in the office. And the briefcase, and the PC, and the coat had one of the best views in town,”
says Bill Mearse, Houston location managing director.
Like other companies, Accenture wanted to address the empty office issue, but they wanted to do more. The workplace, they reasoned, should exemplify the high performance the company is known for, and actually help people attain higher levels of performance. So they developed a global strategy, and rolled it out in a reinvigorated Houston office. It’s a workplace that’s dramatically boosted communication, collaboration, networking, and mentoring, as well as productivity. Improving an already well functioning office started with a strategic view of the company’s business.
“When most organizations pull a workplace strategy together, it really has a real estate focus. We aligned our overall business strategy, our human capital, real estate, and technology strategies very closely and pulled all of those together into a comprehensive
strategy, grounded on what we call the 4 Es:
efficiency, effectiveness, engagement of our people, and environmental responsibility,”
says Dan Johnson, Accenture’s global director, corporate real estate workplace.
Accenture prides itself on its efficient use of real estate – it started hotelling more than a dozen years ago – but what sets their workplace strategy apart is its holistic approach. Instead of simply using smaller workstation footprints and other typical approaches to increase density, the Houston workplace is both smaller and harder working, providing new spaces and new ways for workers to use them.
Accenture engaged Steelcase Applied Research and Consulting (ARC) to help align their business and real estate strategies, assess their existing work environment, and
provide recommendations for optimizing the work experience for Accenture staff. ARC worked closely with the design team, led by Lauri Goodman Lampson, principal, Planning Design Research Corporation (PDRC). “We worked simultaneously, so while we were digging into the existing data and space utilization figures, the ARC consultants were having detailed interviews with a cross section of senior executives and others on the staff,” she recalls.
“ARC helped build a very strategic approach early on in the process. They conducted workshops with our executives and others in the workforce, did a lot of observation studies. It’s more valuable to get an external point of view than to rely on our own eye or maybe survey data that tends to be not always quite as accurate as an external point of view,” says Johnson.
Houston, we have a solution
PDRC’s Lampson concurs. “It’s difficult to articulate how you work. That’s why it’s important that ARC had in-depth interviews, took observation photos, and watched how people work, in order to validate work processes and the ways people really get their work done.”
ARC uncovered what Johnson calls “a significant mismatch between how people were working in our offices and how they wanted to work. Our space was focused on individual work, when in fact people wanted to work together much more collaboratively.”
ARC suggested ways to increase collabora- tion and knowledge sharing, and how to build community among the Houston-based workforce, strategies that were used in the programming process to help develop the design of the space.
The new Houston office is a transformed workplace. Three floors of real estate have been reduced to just one. A work environment that primarily supported individual work is now a workplace of open, semi-enclosed and enclosed collaborative workspaces and, acknowledging a highly mobile workforce that spends many days on the road with clients, there is one seat for every eight workers.
To make the most of Accenture workers’ time together in the office, the furniture, tools, technology, and space are flexible by design.
“Every space is multi-functional,” notes Lampson, “and will accommodate one to two or more individuals working together. It’s a pretty progressive shift that Accenture embraced.”
The shift was driven in part by a workforce that itself is changing. “About 55% of our workforce is Gen Y, about 40% is Gen X, and the rest are baby boomers. So we’re a very young organization, technologically aware, and people come to the organization expecting to leverage the best tools and technology. There’s a different expectation about how they work,” says Johnson. “We want to make sure it’s a very engaging experience, and that people learn something by being here that they wouldn’t know by not being here.”
Given those parameters –open and collaborative, multi-functional, leveraging the best tools and technology, a learning environment– Accenture uses c:scape to create open workstations, including benching applications, “because of the efficient footprint. It allowed us to get a fair number of seats into a relatively small area,” says Josey Duke, director of facilities & services.
Lampson likes c:scape’s versatility. “The bench application enables a group of people working together, as well as individuals working autonomously.” Accenture’s smaller, non-dedicated workspaces are made possible because workers usually need different spaces during their time in the office. They move from bench to enclosed space to café to lounge area. Their work weaves between meetings, informal collaborations, quick asides, and focused, personal work sessions.
“ Our brand is about high performance...
being smart, innovative, collaborative, flexible, and pragmatic. This office encourages those kinds of behaviors.”
— Dan Johnson
Global Director, Corporate Real Estate Accenture
Accenture consultants are highly mobile and shift easily between focused individual work and collaboration.
c:scape furniture in a benching application supports both workstyles in a minimum footprint. Nearby glass front rooms offer privacy for calls, conferences, etc.
Then 800 workers 3 floors 66,000 ft
2surplus space that allowed space
“ownership”
90% individual workspace
The Accenture Workplace Strategy
Now 800 workers 1 floor 25,000 ft
21 seat / 8 workers
90% shared,
unassigned, and
collaborative spaces
Space that works at least twice as hard
Collaboration spaces abound. From casual lounge areas to reservable small rooms for groups and a café with a variety of collaborative spaces, Accenture workers are never far from a place to create, share, and evaluate information and ideas.
media:scape is a key tool for knowledge sharing. Workers simply plug a cable into their laptops and press a Puck to share information on the screen. “In order to facilitate really engaging collaborations, we needed a technology solution that would bring people together in small groups and allow them to share information. This really transforms collaboration into a more interactive and true working session,” says Duke.
The entire workplace is a shift, a new office built for new ways of working. Since this office would test strategies that Accenture would use in other office around the world, the stakes were high. Accenture recognized the gravitas the change would have on the company, and measured the impact on the organizational culture. “We did a lot of work
to look at what was happening not only here in Houston but also in many offices around the world, to make sure we had our finger on the pulse of what the real workplace issues and opportunities were,” says Johnson.
“We wanted to dramatically increase connec- tion and collaboration between our teams, to positively impact productivity, and to actually change the culture. We were successful on all counts, and more importantly, this was accomplished in an office that was performing very well in the old workplace,” notes Johnson.
“To see increases in collaboration and com- munication of more than 25% is astounding”
says Johnson. What pleases him even more is that Accenture staffers feel that leadership is more visible and approachable than before. “And not just a little more visible, but substantially more so. This metric increased by 41%, and that’s huge because, in an organization that’s more than half Gen Y workers, we want to encourage mentoring and knowledge sharing between senior and younger staff.”
Glass walled offices complete with storage, integrated technology, and movable furniture are used on a scheduled or drop-in basis by small groups or by workers who need a place to call their own.
Accenture’s Houston office shows marked increases in communication and collaboration, surpassing leadership expectations. An Accenture consulting executive says
“the new environment promotes a more positive atmosphere, which is conducive to collaboration and sharing of ideas. The technology is very helpful in working together. The client interest in what we have done has been astonishing. The office is really a tool now.”
Collaboration and Communication Category
5.91
5.98 6.02 6.06 5.99
5.92
7.82 7.75 7.71 7.55
+17%
+31%
+29%
+27%
+26%
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Interaction with Clients and Customers Networking and Mentoring Impromptu Collaboration Collaboration with Team members Overall Results
Previous New
The Houston office “certainly exceeded my optimistic expectations,” says Johnson. “The Accenture brand is something that’s always been represented by high performance.
We think about our personality being smart, innovative, collaborative, flexible, and pragmatic. And I think this office really encourages those kinds of behaviors.”
Managing director Bill Mearse says Accenture’s clients will benefit, too. “We can be more productive, thus we can give our clients better service at a lower cost, and we all become high performance organizations as a result.”
PRODUCTS
Steelcase
®c:scape
®freestanding system, media:scape™
collaborative furniture and technology
cobi
®and i2i™ collaborative seating, Think
®task seating Duo™ storage, and RoomWizard
®room scheduling system Coalesse Bix™ workbooths and Circa™ modular seating Details Walkstation and SOTO LED lighting
Designtex surface materials
A popular spot for informal work sessions, quiet talks, and consultations, a Bix workbooth is a comfortable space for two to four people. “A lot of those people are consultants, so they’re not in the office all the time. This is really a destination for them and we want to make sure it provides a mix of work settings and allows them to have experiences when they come here that they wouldn’t have in a traditional office,” says Johnson.
An Accenture staffer uses a Walkstation while working on his laptop. Younger workers were the first to take to it; now all ages enjoy an energizing stroll while doing the same work they would do while seated. Only the footwear changes.
“It’s a great, flexible space to work and engage with coworkers,” says an Accenture consulting executive of the new office. Big increases in how well the workplace reflects the company’s cultural and core values, promotes a sense of community, and makes leadership more visible and approachable, plus improve- ments in productivity and quality of work, demonstrate how the new Accenture workplace works harder than the previous one —and in nearly two-thirds less real estate.
Productivity and Quality of Work: Category
6.42 6.58
7.09 6.70
7.16 7.4 7.6 7.3
+12%
+13%
+7%
+10%
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Facilitate Continuous Learning Develop Innovative Solution s Produce Quality Work Overall Result s
Previous New
Design and Expression: Category
6.28 6.98 6.58 5.65
6.12 8.00 7.73
7.5 7.96 7.74
+27%
+29%
+14%
+41%
+27%
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Culture and Core Values Sense of Communit y Balance of Spac e Visible and Approachable Leadership Overall Result s
Previous New
