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Office design: managing change in the workplace

by Sara White

The work environment is changing and today's office is radically different from the traditional work place dominated by personal desks which were so typical just a few years ago. The idea of the desk as a fixed asset is on the wane as assigned desks with permanent users are being replaced by a much more mobile worker whose priorities are changing. Access to technology and communications, in effect, a high tech hub is the most important consideration when they come to the office, rather than their seat by the window.

Companies are looking for more flexible work configurations with a move away from individual desks to bench workstations. Benching can flex and change to match staffing requirements and respond to mobile working trends. In many companies, up to 20 per cent of desks are unoccupied at any one time as staff work off-site or from home. While benching offers new levels of flexibility it is also much cheaper to implement a bench desk environment, which can be altered and modified quickly, expanding to absorb more staff or contracting if staff numbers are cut. Price is another factor; it is much cheaper to go down the bench route. 

In the current economic climate, many companies are dealing with a rapidly changing workforce. If redundancies are made, it is critical for companies to review the working environment and avoid creating pockets of empty desks or vacant areas. Think about how space can be used; create impromptu meeting areas, reconfigure desks to provide structured work areas and remove surplus furniture.

The open plan conundrum

"There are very clearly limits to what open plan can achieve," said Jeremy Myerson, RCA. "Workers will work in open plan space if they have somewhere to escape to. They need spaces to collaborate" 

The domination of open plan offices in the workplace has created a much more flexible workspace but it has also put pressure on certain workers. For the majority of office workers, the days of tiny partitioned offices and long, gloomy corridors are a thing of the past, thankfully, but there are downsides to the domination of open plan working.

Research conducted by the Helen Hamlyn Centre at the Royal College of Art, London, with academic partners in Japan and Australia, explores two trends in the working world: the ageing of the workforce and the rise of a knowledge-based economy.

Focusing on knowledge workers in pharmaceutical, technology and financial services companies, the Welcoming Workplace report found that key aspects of knowledge work, such as individual concentration, was poorly catered for by the general design of the open plan office. The changing demographic profile means that half of adults in the European Union will be over 50 by 2020, creating pressure to address the issues.

Thinking space 

Current design tends to focus on the need for collaboration and teamwork,
but neglects the fact that knowledge work requires intense periods
of deep concentration and thinking, often undertaken alone.

For older knowledge workers, the need for spaces to concentrate on work was
mirrored by the need for suitable space to contemplate, to think and
physically recuperate during the working day.

Welcoming Workplace

Designing office space for an ageing workforce in the 2st century knowledge economy

The Welcoming Workplace report provides guidance for architects and developers. The key recommendations provde a useful pointer to important issues to consider when planning or reorganising office space:

* changes to office design should be aligned to management strategy for retention of older knowledge workers

* consider lighting, acoustics, ergonomics and in larger premises, signposting, to account for the needs and requirements of older workers

* training, especially in IT, should consider different learning styles - generally older workers prefer face to face interaction opposed to web-based services

* the opportunity to change working positions and environments can be beneficial to general health and wellbeing at work

Source: RCA Helen Hamlyn Centre Welcoming Workplace report

Helen Hamlyn Professor of Design at the Royal College of Art Jeremy Myerson said: "There are very clearly limits to what open plan can achieve. It is more cost-effective as you can get more people into an open space but open plan is not always good for collaboration and it is very bad for concentration because of noise and distractions.

"The reseach showed that older knowledge workers hated hot-desking. As people get older, there are more issues about the working environment - we are talking about why people drop out of corporations when they are in their early 50s.

"Workers will work in open plan space if they have somewhere to escape to. They need spaces to collaborate. Companies call it breakout space; we call it contemplation space. You need to be inclusive in the work place; quiet zones help everybody. Most people work in a quasi-factory environment.

"By redressing the balance between space for collaboration and space for concentration, by promoting the recuperative qualities of space for contemplation, and by recognising the limitations of open plan and hot-desking - office design could address the specific needs of older workers while making the total environment more inclusive and productive for everyone."

Economic pressure

The major furniture and office design specialists are facing a tough year ahead with projects being delayed and companies reviewing expenditure. However, there are different reasons for projects, with a delineation between the companies facing restructuring challenges, perhaps cutting staff or relocating to smaller or regional offices, and those who are upgrading their office and see furniture and interior design as an extension of their brand, an integral part of their customer image and a way to recruit and retain the best workers.

Steelcase vice president Mark Spragg said: "Most of the serious head count projects are going on hold, but a lot of projects are coming up as people are looking to reduce their footprint, say they had 150 on a floor and now they have 100. They need to reconfigure the space in the building.

"There is also a fair amount of lease break activity; companies are considering what if we came out of the centre of the city and moved to a regional location. There is a lot of debate about regionalisation versus the head office.

"People are reacting to the climate in many different ways. There is a real flight to quality at the moment," added Spragg. "The market in general came into a slowdown last June; we did not feel it until October but the banking freeze stopped projects because the banks stopped lending. Big business stopped spending as they wanted to keep all the cash in the bank. But we feel very confident in our business model."

With business finance drying up, the next few months will be difficult for many furniture companies. According to analysts at Plimsoll, almost one in five office furniture companies are selling at a loss.

Creating a better work space

What can you do to improve open plan work spaces? The first areas to review are noise and lighting levels. Choosing the right carpets and fabrics is important as certain products absorb sound much more than others; consider imaginative partitioning, such as low-level panels, shelving dividers and curtain walls.

On the lighting front, review the intensity of lighting in the open plan environment and think about using task lighting to create brighter, focused work areas for detailed work and dimming some of the ceiling lighting.

There are also environmental considerations and a number of lighting systems are available which react to movement. At Epson's head office in Hemel Hempstead all of the lights in the office are connected to movement sensors to save energy when no one is in the area.

Green buildings

The Epson Innovation Center in Japan opened in 2006 and is one of the most environmentally conscious buildings in Japan.

The R&D facility has been designed to produce 60 per cent lower CO2 emissions than a comparable building constructed in the 1990s with optimal use of natural energy sources and energy-saving systems.

Light ducts deflect and divert sunlight for natural lighting while light shelves reflect and block light for indirect lighting inside the building.

The temperature-controlled environment uses geothermal heat and natural ventilation, solar panels for natural energy and glass ducts which transfer warm air from the upper parts of the building to provide under-floor heating in winter.

Chairs are an important investment as this is one area where you can offer flexibility and adjustability for individual users. There are a host of options on the market from high tech ergonomic chairs to vibrant fashion-conscious chairs for the most cutting edge office.

Bench versus desk

The high cost of office space in recent years has pushed companies to pack in more staff per square footage, hence the factory-like feel to so many offices. But the new austerity has reduced rents and the cost of commercial office space is tanking. This means that the high density working space so typical of recent years is not necessarily going to be typical in the future.

"Over the last few years in London we have seen a real drive to high density workspaces, everything is on a bench but it is relatively squeezed," said Spragg.

"We need to get more flexibility into the workplace. Personalisation of work space has been driven out in the last five years by the rise of the bench. But how do you allow people to have their own identity in the space? Overall, the concept of the bench was very good - companies could cram so many people into the floor plate. If you are really honest, benching was aesthetic, it was counter to good ergonomics."

On the desk front, the increasing mobility of workers means that in many cases workers do not need dedicated desks, as they drop in and out of the office armed with laptops and their priority is to be able to connect to the network and access the phone system. With fixed and wireless networks, these mobile workers can log in from flexible workstations, freeing up desk space and reducing the size of offices, a major cost consideration.

"A typical investor wants to maximise the real estate. The office has to reflect the image of a company. Offices are inspirational places for the people who work there," said Mark Bailey, Bene

For workers who are permanently assigned to the office, it is important to consider carefully whether you want to move to a flexible desking environment. Interestingly, many companies that took this route a few years ago are now reconsidering and have accepted that workers like their own space and are more productive in a designated space.

Designated work areas 

Even when a clean desk policy and personal, movable storage pods means staff are not given a designated desk, more often than not, areas of the open plan office are designated for different departments, whether it is marketing, sales or accounts. Each team has different requirements and needs to be physically located in the same area. So in a sense, true hot desking is a pipe dream; there will always be a management and team hierarchy governing the layout of the office.

When considering flexible desking, some of the best products on the market are height adjustable, creating the right ergonomic position for workers. Although these desks offer the best mix of comfort and flexibility, the downside is that they are expensive.

Steelcase's latest bench-style desking is designed for flexibility - Forward Compact (pictured left) comes in a number of configurations and can be height adjusted.

The Compact system has a contemporary design and creates an individual desk that fits all shapes and sizes. Screens can be slotted onto Forward Compact to provide privacy and the feeling of working in an individual office while still interacting with colleagues.

Steelcase says this product has been developed specifically for the UK market in response to customers' demands for more flexibility at an affordable price point.

Austrian furniture company Bene works in three core business areas: office desking and storage; communications zones, such as meeting space and conferencing; and the space and structure of the office with its award-winning range of glass wall systems and flexible partitioning.

Bene managing director Mark Bailey said: "A typical investor wants to maximise the real estate. The office has to reflect the image of a company. The office identity is created by what we do; it is all about shaping interior spaces. Offices are terribly inspirational places for the people who work there."

With a strong December and January under its belt, Bene has just completed one of its biggest ever projects for law firm Reed Smith.

Bene is currently working on a project for Boston Consulting Group at its new six storey office development in Central London. The new offices are set to open in March 2009. BCG has ordered 350 Bene workstations (pictured right) and associated furniture from the T-Platform, AL, chair and T-Meeting ranges to be installed in cellular offices and open plan cluster arrangements over six floors of the building. Sister company B-loose is supplying furniture by Arper and Offecct for reception, lounge areas and meeting rooms to complete the ambitious design scheme devised by FDA architects and Mastercraft Design Interiors.

Planning an office revamp

When you decide to renovate, upgrade or move offices, there are a number of issues to consider before making any decisions about suppliers and designers.

Bailey advised: "It is important to do a full analysis of what people need and how they work; it is not just about space. You need to think about how many staff you need to fit into the office and plan secure conference space and multipurpose space. If you create a vibrant working space, there should be a multitude of different spaces for different needs."

The same principles apply if you are dealing with a company downsizing. "The challenge is to create an environment to motivate the remaining 90 per cent of the workforce and to make that environment as productive as possible. If 10 to 20 per cent of the desks are empty your staff are not going to feel happy about it," said Bailey. "If you look at most modern offices there is plenty of working space and it is very dynamic."

With the domination of open plan offices, invasive noise levels are one of the top complaints from workers. "Acoustics are very important - acoustics in open plan offices are dreadful. You need to use different heights, different substances and different fabrics to keep noise levels down. Sound masking will be the next big thing," added Bailey.

Storage issues

There is a shift away from pedestal storage and the installation of more centralised storage, reflecting the realisation that the paperless office is far from being achieved. "Storage is the biggest play. It is one of the areas where you can really make a difference," said Spragg.

"We didn't want to work in small offices so we went and worked in battery farms," said Mark Spragg, Steelcase

Partitioning is another important factor with flexible wall systems providing necessary dividers within sprawling offices. Products like Steelcase Partito walls and screens can be quickly reconfigured without incurring major labour charges, while FreeWall2 is a free-standing wall element that can act as a room divider, partition or a connection between workstations. These products allow companies to change floor configurations quickly to accommodate new teams or additional staff requirements.

Steelcase has designated 2009 the Year of Smart Space and will be running a series of campaigns and activities to promote better use of office space, as well as launching new Steelcase products.

Without doubt, the typical office will continue to be based on an open plan design for some time to come, but there appears to be an acceptance that working ‘en masse' does not create the most productive working environment. You need to achieve the right balance between work space and breakaway areas for brainstorming and impromptu meetings.

"We didn't want to work in small offices so we went and worked in battery farms," said Spragg. "There are very rarely dedicated offices any more and the question is how do you make departments work more effectively in an open plan office."

Useful links:

Welcoming Workplace Report
Designing office space for an ageing workforce in the 21st century knowledge economy. Guide for architects and developers.
An informative guide to the isues to consider when planning or restructuring office space for today's office workers.

Bene

Steelcase