Embracing Office Transitions, Flexibly Working And The ‘New Norm’
Stephen Edgar, Director of Property at ETL, Donna Fitzpatrick, Project Associate Director at ETL, Maeve Dunne, Programme Associate Director of ETL
How can Trusts embrace the effect of Covid-19? Here we examine the money saving opportunities that are available to Trusts by relocating and optimising office space to reduce journey times, improve wellbeing, adopt new ways of working, all whilst improving connectivity and achieving sustainability targets.
Lack Of Utilisation And Flexibility
Traditionally the Support Services of NHS Trusts are accommodated in large open plan areas, with organically grown workspaces and are generally co-located with the clinical buildings, with large amounts of storage and often decades of accumulated notes, reports and papers. These sites are often owned or leased by a Trust, but are not suitable for clinical activity, ranging from late 20th century office builds, to pre-1945 heritage buildings.
The nature of the services delivered from these facilities, means utilisation rate can be between 45% and 65%. Inefficient working environments are not conducive to productive staff delivering high -class outputs, expected of NHS providers. Office locations can often suffer from a lack of natural light, poor historical maintenance, lack of air conditioning, poor Wi-Fi coverage and limited workspace options. This has been shown to reduce the productivity of employees and reduces wellbeing.
The utilisation of the space and lack of flexibility can lead to further inefficiencies. Staff can be located over several floors that are arranged by function, which reduces opportunities to integrate. Often office geography and physical constraints prevent an organisation’s ability to innovate and introduce new ways of working. For teams to fully integrate with others and improve productivity, most staff should be able to work as flexibly and efficiently from any Wi-Fi enabled office space, home, or another site.
Slow uptake of mobile technology within the sector has had a major influence on the ability to transform support services. To truly realise flexible working, investment is needed in Wi-Fi to support mobile working, a reliable network with ubiquitous connectivity, process automation software, collaboration solutions and software that enables productive working.
The implications of COVID-19 are accelerating the need for office spaces to be revisited, not only to make office spaces safe for staff, but also in the light of changing attitudes to flexible working. The necessity of home working has successfully demonstrated how teams can work remotely and has forced investment in ICT infrastructure. The opportunity for the NHS to take advantage of the ‘new normal’ has never been greater to reduce costs associated with office space whilst improving staff wellbeing and productivity.
The Endless Benefits Of An Office Transition
Vibrant and modern environments have been proven to increase staff happiness and improve productivity. The new workspace should be of a contemporary design with natural light and features, and a clean and uncluttered layout. Studies show that those who work in spaces with natural features reported 15% higher levels of overall wellbeing and were 6% more productive.
Team Integration
Integrating delivery teams will help ensure that service requests are coordinated between teams efficiently by simplifying knowledge sharing. The layout of an office should support the transition to collocate teams who work together regardless of which function they belong to.
Embracing Mobile And Flexible Working
Flexible working, avoiding peak travel times, minimising non-essential travel, and working around people’s lifestyles, brings significant benefits to both the organisation and the wellbeing of the staff. Studies show staff are 5% more productive and 67% of those who have tried flexible working feel it has enhanced their job satisfaction. Staff will increasingly have the option of working away from the office and at different times through hot-desking and accessibility outside of traditional working times.
Support Services often do not have the opportunity to promote or accelerate these aspects due to constraints of old, poorly designed office spaces.
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Case study: Adopting new ways of working in the office space ETL, a specialist healthcare consultancy, have recently helped a major teaching hospital with their office relocation to a modern working space, with improved transport connections, working environments and facilities. Transformation on this scale is a major undertaking for any organisation and requires strong leadership from the top to drive success supported by open and clear dialogue with staff. The Trust wanted to improve the integration of their teams and the way they worked, so there was the vision to move to flexible working and arranging staff by the services they deliver. However, with the onset of COVID-19 that accelerated everything. The space is designed to be adaptable, using technology to support social distancing recommendations now, as well as providing a high-class environment for the future. By providing less desk space, it gave the opportunity to create more collaboration areas. Moreover, bookable desk system has been included, so workspaces can be planned to help social distancing and comply with corona virus guidelines, with the opportunity to be repurposed for truly flexible workspaces for an adaptable workforce. The improvements to the Trust will substantially reduce long-term running costs, enhance staff wellbeing, and foster productivity. Through changes to staff modes of travel, disposing of assets with high energy demand and use of LED lighting, the Trust will benefit from reduced carbon consumption and deliver high quality services in accommodation that meets the needs of their staff for the long term. |
