Workplace Strategy
So, why should you consider requesting a workplace strategy?Improved Efficiency
When doing focused work, people perform at their best with fewer distractions, a quiet area to work, the appropriate technology – in an environment that inspires them to achieve.
Workplace design can have a great impact on these factors. Noting that no two companies’ requirements are exactly alike.
Greater Engagement
There is a resounding increase in productivity when workers collaborate. Having suitable spaces for doing different kinds of work increases engagement. The workplace strategy considers the different spaces needed – such as breakout areas, quiet rooms, and lounges.
Enhanced Creativity
A fun, well-designed workplace nurtures creativity. It encourages lateral thinking, innovation, and unconventional ideas. Design, colours, lighting, features, amenities, and plants – these all influence your team’s perspectives.
Staff Retention
People are more loyal and enjoy coming into a healthy workplace culture. Involving staff in developing the workplace strategy improves the design and, ultimately, your team’s productivity.
Attracting Talent
The impression your workplace makes on prospective team members can have an enormous influence. Candidates are looking for a well-designed workplace with a happy and engaged staff, as well as a suitable salary, location, and position.
Cost Reductions
The design stage is the ideal time to identify cost savings. These can come in many forms, including:
- eliminating offices to increase the area for workstations
- improved layout efficiency which decreases the time required to do tasks
- reducing the overall floor plan to cut down rental fees.
So, why should you consider requesting a workplace strategy?Improved Efficiency
When doing focused work, people perform at their best with fewer distractions, a quiet area to work, the appropriate technology – in an environment that inspires them to achieve.
Workplace design can have a great impact on these factors. Noting that no two companies’ requirements are exactly alike.
Greater Engagement
There is a resounding increase in productivity when workers collaborate. Having suitable spaces for doing different kinds of work increases engagement. The workplace strategy considers the different spaces needed – such as breakout areas, quiet rooms, and lounges.
Enhanced Creativity
A fun, well-designed workplace nurtures creativity. It encourages lateral thinking, innovation, and unconventional ideas. Design, colours, lighting, features, amenities, and plants – these all influence your team’s perspectives.
Staff Retention
People are more loyal and enjoy coming into a healthy workplace culture. Involving staff in developing the workplace strategy improves the design and, ultimately, your team’s productivity.
Attracting Talent
The impression your workplace makes on prospective team members can have an enormous influence. Candidates are looking for a well-designed workplace with a happy and engaged staff, as well as a suitable salary, location, and position.
Cost Reductions
The design stage is the ideal time to identify cost savings. These can come in many forms, including:
- eliminating offices to increase the area for workstations
- improved layout efficiency which decreases the time required to do tasks
- reducing the overall floor plan to cut down rental fees.
How to inspire creativity in the workplace
To inspire creativity in the workplace, it’s critical to understand the types of work done and the ideal spaces to do that work well.
Choices must be made. The workplace strategy identifies essential spaces, desired spaces, and redundant spaces.
Research shows that 40% of workstations are empty more than half the time. And that larger conference rooms (10-20 people) are more often used for 4-6 people meetings.
It’s also important to keep some flexibility as your organisation’s needs and the types of work may change over time.
The workplace strategy uses that knowledge to create physical spaces that enhance creativity and productivity.
The main elements to inspire and support creativity are:
Fostered Collaboration
- Structured: Scheduled meetings in a conference room or boardroom.
- Informal: Unscheduled meetings, held in spaces like cafés and lounges.
- Spontaneous: Session passing-by meetings, held in corridors, lobbies, and kitchenettes.
Mobile Work
- Connected: Hot desk seating or collaboration areas.
- Activity: Location-based depending on type of work being completed.
- Flexible: In the office 2-3 days per week with team members or department.
- Remote: Working from home, at a café, or on a job site.
Quiet Spaces
- Quiet Car: An area to work without disruption or noise
- Villages: Central meetings hubs, with perimeter workstations.
- Dividers: Walls or acoustic dividers between work areas and spaces.
Attract and Retain:
A successful workplace strategy focuses on:
- improving on the past
- achieving in the present, and
- maintaining for the future.
Learning from what hasn’t been working also fosters improvement. While we don’t know exactly what the future holds, we allow for more possibilities by focusing on it now.
Today, people entering the workforce have higher expectations of their employers. They expect better-quality amenities, and more “perks”. We see many more fun and creative workplace designs.
This creative design has to also cater to the length of the lease. This is to make sure that the design remains fresh and current for the planned life of the fit-out.
Workplace wellbeing is also vital to keeping staff and attracting new talent. A well-designed workspace also creates community, supports social interaction, and promotes wellness. There are several types of physical spaces and amenities to achieve this:
Community
- Commune: Purpose-built areas for workers to mingle
- Programs: Childcare, Healthcare, Fitness and Recreation
- Activities: Footy Tipping, Volunteering, Intercompany Sports
Interaction
- Gather: Breakout, Kitchen, Games Room, Reception
- Collaborate: Hot Desks, Open Huddles, Meeting Rooms
- Recharge: Library, Quiet rooms, Lounges, 2pp Phone Booths
Employee Wellness
- Environment: Greenery, Lighting, Aesthetics, Space, Fresh Air
- Care Rooms: Mothers, Multi-Faith, and First-Aid Rooms
- Nutrition: Snack bar, Health foods, Coffee station, Filtered Water
Enhance Mission Engagement:
The Workspace design sets the tone for an enjoyable and appropriate workplace culture.
Compare how you behave in a place of worship compared to a sports stadium, without even having to think about it. The place itself suggests how to act. Workplaces are the same. Some have a quiet and calm culture. Others are fast-paced and lively.
Effective workspace design crafts the energy and feel of each area to match the culture. For example, a sales-focused company may need spaces to:
- entertain clients – e.g. a games table, lounge, bar, and meeting pod
- make private phone calls – e.g. phone booths or audio headsets
- offer secluded work points – e.g. offices or workstations with dividers, away from the entertainment area.
Personalising the design can improve employee engagement. Providing workers with the appropriate areas and tools allows them to shine. It also helps build the workplace culture you seek. There are 3 main elements when considering mission engagement:
Branding
- Display: Company Logos, Wall Graphics, Business Achievements
- Design: Creativity, Company Colours, Custom Amenities
- Space: Reception, Entertainment, Communal Areas
Culture
- Workability: Appropriate Tools, Environment, Training & Support
- Recreation: Amenities, Work Programs, Social Activities
- Community: Shared Mission, Communal Areas, Training
Technology
- Equipment: Digital Displays, Dual Monitors, Portable devices
- Connectivity: AV-Links, Conferences, Phone Booths, Wi-Fi
- Work points: Sit-to-stand Desk Features, Ergonomic Seating
Development
1. Strategy Session
The Strategy Session identifies the specific outcomes and goals you want to achieve. At our session, we put all must-have and nice-to-have options on the table. The session is better done in person but can be online also.
Each workspace strategy has its unique objectives. You might want to achieve things like:
- decreasing floor area while retaining all staff
- creating a workspace with fewer offices
- focusing on recreation and creativity
- merging companies under one banner.
To achieve your outcomes, we need to know your starting point:
- how you are currently operating
- what amenities are available
- how teams work together now
- use and number of offices and meeting rooms
- the current floor plans.
This information helps determine the extent of any redesign or changing of aesthetics. We will also cover the content of the Survey phase where we listen to staff and their insights.
Communication is essential to help staff embrace the changes proposed in the strategy. Change can be hard even when the well-planned and thought-through strategy is positively-received. The strategy session plans the training and updated workplace policies needed. This is so that you will reap the benefit of technology innovations that improve productivity and demonstrate a forward-thinking culture.
2. Staff Survey – Auditing
To achieve the goals and optimise the workplace environment, we need to first audit the current status. We analyse the nature of work, locations, hours, technology, storage, supplies, and activities.
Staff surveys are the usual way to incorporate employee views and feedback. We usually ask all staff and managers to fill out the questionnaire. This provides a baseline for the design requirements and informs the preliminary design concepts.
We review the draft survey with you at the Strategy Session. In this way, we tailor the survey to your specific workplace needs.
3. Synergy Session (Past, Present, Future)
We discuss the staff survey findings and insights with you. This step is crucial to resolve the discrepancies between:
- conflicting staff opinions
- budget allowance
- of finding the right tenancy to cater for these changes.
From that we shape an aesthetic and design that improves on the past, achieves in the present, and maintains for the future. This focus on the Past Present Future ensures that the changes we propose:
- change what is currently not working in your workplace
- protect what is working well
- increase productivity and improve on your current workplace culture.
We will discuss the location, floor plan size, and costs allowance for the fit-out. We segregate the costs for technology upgrades, rent and relocation from the fit-out costs. This is so we can put a design package together within your overall budget.
4. Style (Align, Refine, Design)
At this point we now have:
- goals to achieve
- an aesthetic to stick to
- a budget in place, and
- a tenancy in mind.
Now it’s time to provide sketch plans and other design elements for review and approval. This may take some modification to ensure we have:
- aligned with the workplace strategy
- refined after client review
- designed your new fit-out in line with the strategy.
It’s also the right time to choose colour palettes and select furniture. We can arrange or also attend meetings with Workstation and Furniture suppliers. This helps visualise what products you would like to include in your fit-out.
We can put together 3D renders, visual walkthroughs, and mock-ups. This helps you and your team see what the final fit-out will look like. It helps you review, communicate, and approve the final design.
We will also provide a full set of documentation to:
- perform any building works required
- support the building permit
- provide to trades for quotation.
5. Scheduling the Build
With the final design in hand (subject to any changes you may wish to include later), we can finalise the schedule. Making sure that the fit-out will be ready by the required date . This includes the fit-out program, and the furniture lead times . We can also start planning the Make Good and Relocation of your office.
Typically, the build works take 6-10 weeks. depending on the size and complexity of the fit-out. It is best practice to also allow 4-6 weeks for the Strategy, and 2 weeks for the Building Permit process. The schedule should include some contingency. This is to allow for delay risks, such as tenancy negotiations and acquisition processes.
We recommend allowing at least 3-4 months from Concept to Completion. But it is never too early to start planning. QTC is here to assist you with your Strategy, Design and Build needs, as well as the upkeep maintenance and any future changes that you need for your business.
