The use of company buildings is not just about square metres. Space allocation strategy is how you provide access to your square metres for employees and occupants. The way we occupy workspace has evolved over time, reflecting cultural and societal habits as well as changes in work modes. Professional practices, the age of employees, and their relationship with work also influence these changes. Coming to the office no longer means the same thing today as it did before (understand, pre-pandemic) or will tomorrow. While some practices remain steadfast, others emerge over time. The "new ways of working" and their translation into the work environment are already shifting. It’s challenging for the Workplace Environment Management to constantly adapt, but it’s indeed a daily challenge they rise to.
Here’s a chronological overview of a Workplace Environment Management mission that continually reinvents itself.
This article covers the following points:
Before the advent of hybrid work, the concept of allocation was seldom questioned, as it was based on a nearly uniform model within companies: permanent allocation.
The expression had a nearly literal meaning.
Each employee had their own office, in the sense of both "furniture" and sometimes even "room."
The permanent allocation strategy is based on a simple principle: 1 person = 1 fixed workstation.
Permanent allocation involves managing three parameters for Workplace Environment Management:
These last two points concern the updating of information and its access by support functions and other employees. In the past, with little turnover and infrequent changes in assignments, once the allocation work was done, even with limited resources, there was no need to revisit it often.
Today, companies experience significant turnover and, for some, frequent changes in employee roles. Even with a traditional, permanent allocation, regular updates to workstation assignments by Workplace Environment Management can become a time-consuming and complex task without dedicated tools.
The open-plan office remains a form of permanent allocation, except that it expands the scope of the "office-room" and concentrates more employees in the same space.
In this context, the tasks of Workplace Environment Management are related to physical decompartmentalization and managing the resulting "nuisances."
The work environment places more emphasis on questions such as:
The question of Quality of Work Life (QWL) is expressed through its physical, measurable characteristics, directly related to health and safety.
The Workplace Environment Management must be able to objectively measure certain health criteria and quickly address unsatisfactory situations. This is where office layout comes into play. Ideally, the DET implements measurement sensors and connects its spaces through IoT. Connected objects also provide an effective solution for managing personal belongings.
Remote work and hybrid work (remote + on-site) existed long before the pandemic. Initially experimented with in the United States, it was common in large companies where the nature of tertiary jobs required frequent travel. Working outside the office was not a novelty for some French employees in 2020.
The COVID-19 crisis merely highlighted a pre-existing reality within companies: workstations are never fully occupied. Vacant spots due to holidays, illness, and business trips have significantly increased with the widespread adoption of remote work.
New challenges for Workplace Environment Management (no longer called General Services) have emerged.
During the crisis:
After the crisis:
Autant de questions qui reposent sur une mesure objective de l'occupation pour une analyse éclairée des usages.
Optimising occupancy ratios can result in reducing the number of workstations in the premises while maintaining the same number of employees. Workstations are shared between two or more employees.
To manage this allocation, the Facilities Management team must consider two additional parameters:
One might consider that access to shared files is more of an interpersonal organization issue but can also be subject to a common protocol established by the Environmental Management.
The use of personal lockers is increasingly seen. Digital solutions for managing lockers allow for adjusting their number based on actual needs, using a reservation system. Otherwise, everyone gets a locker, which can start to take up space.
Certain tertiary companies have opted to push the remote working approach to 100% by adopting a full-remote model. The company no longer has fixed premises. It may occasionally rent meeting spaces to bring all employees together or to meet clients.
Does this mean there is no need for an Environment of Work (EoW) manager under these conditions? Not necessarily! Some employees who prefer not to work from home may rent offices at their convenience or use coworking spaces occasionally. Is this logistical aspect the responsibility of the employee, akin to a freelancer, or should the company play a role in supporting and covering the associated costs? In terms of company attractiveness and talent retention, the role of a 2.0 EoW manager, who manages the work environment outside a physical setting, is worth questioning.
The employee does not have an assigned workstation. They choose their workstation based on their needs. Emerging from the evolution of work patterns in the early 2010s, Flex Office is now experiencing significant growth, boosted by the COVID-19 pandemic which has increased the use of remote work.
Employees within the same organisation (department, division, business unit, or project group) have workstations clustered in a designated area. Within this district, they can set up as they wish. It is often observed that within a territory, natural patterns of workstation placement develop, a sort of "re-sedentarisation".
Each occupant of the building must book their workstation in advance or upon arrival, depending on availability. They can set up wherever they wish, allowing them to choose specific spaces based on their tasks for the day. This flexibility in the work environment is supported by a digital ecosystem tailored to the end user's needs (and their digital skills!).
Undoubtedly, new ways of assigning workspaces will continue to emerge, driven by managerial innovation, advancements in technology, and the creativity of some companies regarding Quality of Work Life (consider Google's offices in Silicon Valley: when will slides become a standard feature?).
In short, we are only at the beginning of the future of work, and what is certain is that the digitalisation of the Work Environment is a crucial step, not just to stay ahead but to simply keep up with new generations of employees.
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