transforming the workplace and the workforce

Capita Symonds’ Dave Cordy looks at how companies must embrace behaviour change to realise the full potential of a transformed workplace…

Organisations are busy ‘right sizing’ their workplaces based on a property strategy that delivers cost reductions.

The old, dull, gloomy and cluttered offices have been washed away and in their place we have created new workplaces, making more efficient use of space incorporating a range of formal and informal meeting spaces, shared desking solutions, alternative worksettings and vivid colour pallets. These new work spaces now portray the values and aspirations of the 21^st Century organisation they aspire to represent.

But a month or so after the move, look around and what do you see?  The bright, light, pristine workplace is cluttered with half-empty storage boxes, a range of fan heaters, desk lamps, half-dead pot-plants and coffee cups, complete with the mouldy dregs of the last drink. Filing has now re-appeared on top of storage units, window sills and desks, uncollected prints pile up next to the printers and desk ownership is clearly visible. The environment had been changed, but the people using the space have changed very little.

Providing a bright clean space on the assumption that people will use it as envisaged, adopt new agile or flexible work practices and reap the potential productivity benefits that reflect the investment in changes made to their physical environment, fails to take into account that as humans, we are shaped by our behaviours and habits and not logic.

Implementing behavioural change in the workplace is not straightforward. The models that reflect why people behave as they do are, by their nature, complex because simple ‘linear models’ are inadequate to describe the intricate interplay of internal and external factors that determine human behaviours – why do many car drivers continue to speed, when they know it’s dangerous, illegal and costly? Simply put, it is easy to apply rules, sanctions and penalties, but harder to change people’s behaviour.

Interesting comparisons can be drawn with delivery of IT projects. Although providing different ‘end products’, a survey of 1500 change executives (IBM 2008) reported that the biggest barrier to success were people factors, of which 58% were noted as being changing mindsets and attitudes. 

Securing lasting behavioural change that exploits the physical transformation to the office environment will deliver operational benefits that only providing a new workplace cannot deliver in isolation - the new workplace should be a catalyst for teams and individuals to first recognise then modify old habits and behaviours.

Having initially reflected on the positive changes to the working environment (as compared to their old workspace), and created and awareness of the potential benefits of working in the new space, teams can, through adopting behavioural change techniques develop activities and actions that, when embedded, deliver greater productivity.

Dave Cordy (dave.cordy@capita.co.uk) is Senior Consultant, Strategic Property & Workplace Projects, Capita Symonds