A pioneering work environment – at home

An investment bank has made significant real estate savings, reduced IT energy consumption and increased employee satisfaction by partnering with Johnson Controls Global WorkPlace Solutions’ (GWS) Workplace Strategy team to deliver an innovative workplace program.

 

The Johnson Controls GWS team worked with the investment bank’s real estate, technology and human resources departments to introduce home working and desk sharing for a department with 1,000 employees.

 

The department needed to provide capacity for an additional 140 employees, as well as accommodate future headcount growth within two existing office floors of 7,000M² (approximately 75,000ft²). The move was planned so the bank could vacate six floors in other buildings as part of a wider office rationalization program.

 

The flexible working project has delivered both savings and increased employee satisfaction.

 

Key results included:

  • One million euro annual saving on real estate expenditure
  • 73 percent reduction in energy consumption by computer equipment
  • 80 percent reduction in time spent moving furniture, computers, phones etc.
  • 95 percent of employees supported the workplace transformation
  • 70 percent of staff said it improved their work-life balance

 

Challenge: Accomodate more people in less space

The introduction of home working and desk sharing would enable more people to work within the same amount of floor-space. However, because most of the employees were based from the office, desk sharing alone would not create the capacity required.

 

Active support for home working was identified as something that would provide added flexibility and benefits for staff while allowing for a more comfortable uptake of desk sharing.

 

Therefore the bank needed to implement a successful flexible working program to meet its ongoing accommodation challenges.

 

Solution: Flexible working environments

The GWS Workplace Strategy team designed a home working and desk sharing program to enable a greater number of employees to use less space, with capacity for future growth. The program included:

 

  • Collaboration with IT, HR and legal representatives to develop the concepts, policy and guidance of the program and ensure all stakeholder requirements were met
  • Space utilization studies and manager consultations identified an achievable desk sharing ratio and the likely adoption of home working by employees

 

Communicate and manage change

Johnson Controls GWS’ change management program helped employees to embrace their new working environments both at home and office. Engagement activities included an all staff meeting, manager and team briefing sessions, and workplace orientation sessions. The team kept employees informed throughout the program with regular newsletters, poster campaigns and through a network of program champions.  

 

Communication continued long after ‘go live’ to embed new behaviors and measure feedback, including a six week ‘health check’ and staff survey.

 

Transform the workspace

To effectively accommodate the additional headcount and desk sharing concept both the office environment and infrastructure had to change.

 

Johnson Controls GWS wrote a brief for a fully flexible environment that would support the concept and transform the 7,000M² of space into a brighter, more attractive place to work. It introduced a rich mix of new furniture, technology and work settings including break-out rooms, meeting places, collaboration and quiet areas.

 

The team worked with architects to ensure the vision for the workspace was realized, and with the bank’s IT team, agree a strategy that would enable flexible working. Fixed PCs were also replaced by thin, portable computers.

 

Results and benefits

The project has been a great success and is being used as a blueprint for a key part of the bank’s workplace strategy. It has enabled the bank to meet its immediate accommodation challenge as well as optimize real estate, achieve cost and energy savings, and create fully flexible, supportive work environment for more than 1,000 people.

 

Ken Raisbeck, Vice President Global Workplace Strategy, Johnson Controls GWS, said: “Home working is a growing trend we are seeing across our customer base, either as a standalone initiative or as part of a wider workplace strategy change program. Our experience allows us to support customers rolling out programs of this nature from developing the solution, implementing the change and educating the business to manage remote working."

 

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