Do you think attaching bonuses to time in the office is the way to go to get people to return to the office? 

If so, would it get you to work from the office more frequently?

Recent media articles reveal that employees at Origin Energy and Suncorp Group risk having their bonuses cut if they do not comply with office attendance rules.

The policies were introduced this year to set clearer expectations for staff and come as organisations try to strike a balance with workers who became used to working more flexibly during the pandemic. 

For example, the Commonwealth Bank has struggled to get a couple of hundred workers to comply with its requirement to come into the office at least 50 per cent of their time each month.

So I think we would all refer to this as the big stick approach….the top down approach…management by stealth…. it cetainly does not help workplace culture.

People all need guard rails to protect themselves form making stupid short term decisions.

I want to float a few ideas - we often discuss how the office is one of the key tools in the kit of parts of getting people to return to work, to become more social, more creative, more productive - knowledge is essential from how to use tools in the workplace but  this should also include an organisations  workplace standards, protocols and policies to assist employees to get the most out of not just the physical office but also now  the organisations flexible working policy.

The workplace standards for many organisations have had to be reviewed for a post pandemic workplace, the years of the rack and stack with little or no consideration to the personal physical space for individuals is now long gone. 

Many progressive clients have looked at their Workplace Standards documents as an education tool to help employees understand the best way to preserve physical distancing and also what the best settings are best used for what activities a person or team may be doing in that part of the office.

Many of these documents were a  standard that was applied globally for multi-national organisations but your local team must be able to relate to the rationale behind the standards. 

So it is even more important now to develop a local or regional version of the workplace standards more so the an over arching global version. The office design and functionality are impacted by local cultural factors and their geographical location.

In Australia, this is even a challenge for national organisations that may have employees working in the capital cities verses regional and country locations.

These standards now also need to take into account the expectations of people working from home or other locations other than the office. It sets out the expectation of how the workplace outside the office needs to be set up or configured to understand the basic requirements to minimise risk to the employee. Remember people need guidance to protect themselves from making stupid decisions.

Once an organisation has bought their standards, protocols and policies document up to date, then it will need a periodic review to see how progress in technology, tools and new furniture options can contribute to changes to the standards.

When you add significant changes that are health driven not economically driven, due to events like the recent pandemic these see a requirement for changes in the protocols and policies part of the workplace guidelines. Look at the COVID numbers in recent weeks in Singapore, lets not assume we are out of the woods on this one.

Now lets have a chat about the protocols. Remember these are the rules or guidelines that explain the best conduct or procedure for a particular situation. They are different to a policy. 

They consider how to deliver best practice using a rationale process. These often have to be changed or modif

The pandemic has certainly changed the way organisations are looking at there office accommodation fitouts. The office now needs to compete with other places to work.

The days of not being spatially aware are over.  The importance on space being functional for quiet work, considered working, project work, meeting spaces for leader meetings or collaborative meetings are all as important as each other depending on the team and its functions.

Just being focused on having collaboration space is not the answer. 

It might at a high level be the solution for today by ill informed leaders believe that is all they need, but they are and will be sadly mistaken.

The mix of the work settings in the office location is key to allow easy sharing of thoughts, knowledge and information by the use of technology no matter if your working independently, in a small group or in a blended project environment where people are attend in person and virtually.

Fitouts need to consider the easy of cleaning, surfaces that prevent to spread of viral infection or "bugs" or other types of infestation. 

The days of finance finding cost savings by cutting the cleaning scope and subsequent costs are also over. If anything this spend will only increase as peoples expectations are now higher and they will not tolerate these reduction in services for health reasons, many people take this position not just to protect themselves but also others around them.

The fitouts are now more spatially aware-1800 long workstations, to comply with tried and tested physical distancing requirements  1 persons per 4 square metres during period of high viral transmission . new fitots are using more physical space -  larger meeting rooms so that if physical distancing restrictions have to be reintroduced at anytime the change is not significant and things basically go alone like usual.

If things go along - same old same old during periods of high viral infection then the change impact on the employees is minimised.

The scoping of the requirements of the business groups using the discovery findings from workplace strategy is still essential to provide the basis of the design brief and what people need from the workplace. 

Many people predicated that post the pandemic the days of desk sharing were over. This certainly has not been the case across the majority of enterprises.

Many organisations are providing community facilities zones for cleaning and antiseptic consumables to allow employees to self clean desks and shared spaces should they wish.  These facilities best work when the coupled of support day cleaning regimes.

One of the reasons why desk sharing remains acceptable is because of the theory of the team "neighbourhood" which became embedded in the way agile working best worked prior to the pandemic.

The neighbourhood is a place of  belonging, the place were people know they can gravitate to, where there will be a familiar face or the people that someone needs to meet with in their team or project.

Don't under-estimate the power of the neighbourhood or the home zone. This also drives the need for workplace
design to be like a lego block" design. 

This allows furniture choices to be swapped out as different business units that have different needs of their space. For example some business groups well require more casual collaboration space, while others will have a higher requirement of project spaces. This modular  design principle provides great flexibility for the workplace to change as the business requirements morph.

Lets not forget the design will morph, the days of set and forget are over. The changes on workplace design and office functionality is now almost continually ongoing as technology solutions are moving so fast and often drives the associated change. 

The new post pandemic office fit

This week lets talk about one of the biggest issues organisations are struggling with, Workplace Culture.

There is a shopping list of things that can easily, that is right easily tip a workplace culture that is operating in equilibrium or powering ahead 

The first two, Workplace Environment and Flexible Working have an impact on the third, Workplace Culture. Post the pandemic many organisations of various sizes are struggling with maintaining or at worst even reinstating either workplace culture.

During and after the pandemic the traditional role or people and the work place was generally handed over to HR. But was it really the right decision. Workplace experience is a large part of the employee experience, which was the traditional HR remit. Our HR partners have a could have a great assets in their "kit of parts" being the office, but without their facilities bed fellows or knowing how to lead the change management in this space, it will be like hammering a nail in with a $3 hammer.

Our HR Partners have been tasked to lead return to the office, or organisational hybrid working or return to the office practices and protocols, even the oversight on what should happen if there was another pandemic wave, that the population was not vaccinated against.

This is often driven by Senior Leadership, as it looks to fit. But the expertise on the building access, its facilities, the commercial relationships with building owners, vendors and suppliers sit with the FM or Corporate Real Estate Team. These experts drive the success of the such directives.

What makes the workplace environment be the winner over working from home, the pub (don’t laugh, you might feel envious, I was envious watching a lady between zoom calls eat a dozen oysters, washed down with a glass of sparkling wine  at 2pm on a Thursday afternoon. (ok so I'm hearing everyone say HR policy, blah blah blah, better than a clients employee I had to pick up some workplace survey data from which was handed to me off the home office desk next to the bong - now I am hearing the ahhs 

There needs to be visible change in the workplace environment. Many workplaces were spatially bastariszed prior to COVID to ensure there was a desk for new starters. The post pandemic workplace needs to resolve these issues. Employees still consider the health considerations and social distancing as more important than prior to the pandemic. It needs to remain front of mind to ensure your people consider the workplace as one of the safest places they can be.

People must be able to see change. They must be able to  understand and appreciate changes that they can't see. The things that are important like increased cleaning commitment, day cleaning, access to the building, end of trip and building facilities such as lobby cafes, communal meeting spaces just to name a few. 

It is also important for management is continue to remind occupiers of the importance of physical distancing, remember physical distancing not social distancing. We need al people to be less distant socially, we need higher level of engagement to assist in maintaining and improving the workplace culture. 

Senior leadership should not under estimate their people, you cant put lipstick on a pig - you can but you may as well save your 10 bucks. The physical workplace environment is one of the most powerful tools in the kit of parts that can keep your workplace culture on track or contribute to the successful power house of an organisation. Any shortcuts will be discovered if you like it or not, there is only room for genuine effort. Often HR also does not understand the true value of a functional, effective and easy to use workplace.

The workplace truly does contribute to workplace culture. Don’t underestimate it , but let’s face it, it’s&

 "is the post occupancy evaluation process dead"? 

It is my opinion that it was dead before the pandemic hit. Why? Well it goes a bit like this. The post occupancy evaluation was never given enough kudos as it identified the short coming of the workplace design and functionality after a new or an existing workplace was occupied. So often project teams are in denial that not everything is right. You add to the fact that the project team is fatigued, know that the project is ending or they have another project to go to and they know they will not be around and therefore - "POE? what?

The POE  traditionally addressed the performance of the built environment with a high focus on  building services, in more recent times  looking at the furniture solutions and workplace settings, the way the workplace facilitate people to do their job and what worked and didn’t work from the workplace design, ITC infrastructure and other facilities.

Only brave senior leaders encourage and support doing a post occupancy evaluation. These leaders  are realists and  provisions for risk mitigation and rectification costs that is such a small part of the overall project budget. 

The majority of leaders are to concerned to ask or investigate with their people about  how much of a success or failure the new workplace is. Their attitude is let sleeping dogs lye. The only problem here is that often sleeping dogs have flees and flees spread and multiply. 

This never resolves the shortcomings or the problems in a new or modified workplace. 

No new workplace is ever prefect so the understanding of what is not working is critical. 

Remember the workplace is a eco-system of its own. It is the built environment, with various work settings, services, the technology and the connectivity.

The workplace eco-system is also now a lot broader with workplace extending out to other locations and settings.


It is often the little things that create the toxicity in the workplace and impacts the workplace culture.  

The post occupancy evaluation should identify and measure the various risks that come from all parts of the workplace that are not working either in terms of functionality, comfort, suitability and utilisation. 

Low utilisation of certain parts of the workplace is often directly associated with one of the forementioned not performing as occupants would expect.

Often the rectifcation work is only tinkering to the solution, where something may have been overlooked or a furniture solution swapped out as it doesn’t meet the needs of the business unit that predominately  occupies the that part of the building..

Now post the pandemic many organisations looking to get  their people back into the office, a detailed post occupancy evaluation will assist management in understanding what is not working in the workplace and for it to create the basis of informed decision making by management on the best way to resolve some of the issues.

The evaluation provides the basis for management to communicate with their staff on the course of action that is being taken in regards to the workplace environment, in particular for issues associated with hard services and soft services or the workplace design and facilities. 

These reports also provide great insight into where the gaps maybe on the people's knowledge on how properly use the services and amenities that are provided in the workplace. This often means people are not maximising the full benefits from the functionality of the facilities. 

The POE also identifies issues that can by managed  by expert change management. This can often include certain organisational workplace standards, policies and protocols associated with the office, working from home or working from public locations, so more broadly the organisations&

As 2023 is drawing to a close lets have a chat this week around the topic on everyone lips this year, Working From Home vs Working From The Office.

For the record, for the bulk of my professional life I have worked from home. It is real art, successful mainly if you work autonomisly or you work in a client facing or sales role and you work from home to do all your admin or concentration work instead of using the office.

But in saying that I don’t necessarly think that working from home 100% of the time is good for anyone. Not just from a professional point of view but also socially and personally. 

The office is a place that fosters creativity, collaboration and a healthy team culture. Often these three outcomes from the being in the office are a by-product of attending office. 

However, we also know that different environments bring out the best work in different individuals. As we have discussed in some of our recent podcasts over the last few weeks the place to work is a competitive market in itself and people do now have real choices between the HQ, home, co-working, cafes, libraries, yachts or in transit. 

Its up to employers to remind their people of the sensitivity that needs to be at front of mind when working in these public spaces and the risks of people overhearing telephone conversations or discussions  when people are meeting face to face. Its even worse when you are on public transport, in the back of an Uber or taxi or even on the bus. 

I was going across town in Sydney on a bus a few weeks ago to hear a woman on a phone discussing with what appeared to be a workmate about one of their peers and her demise from the firm over a transaction that went pear shaped and some personal issues that that contributed her performance at work. The woman on the phone mentioned the lady by name. The only issue was this lady that was the subject of this conversation was a close friend for about 20 years. Not cool, tasteless and disrespectful, not just for my friend but for anyone who knew the landmark asset that was at the centre of the failed transaction. 

A bit of googling would allow anyone interest, healthy or otherwise to join the dots and then it becomes small talk at the bar or the Sunday afternoon barbeque.

Mandating officework isn't the answer. Some CEO's have tackled the return to office that way to find the masses have not returned.  Its all about the messaging, why it is preferred to work from the office a few days a weeks, the benefit for the employee and also for the organisation.

No one likes to work in a dictatorship, but I  hate to say it but getting real results by people returning to the office will mean those days of being in the office may need to be agreed by consensus or set by management. This will ensure that the benefit if collaboration and sharing is powered by having not just a few people in this day or that day, but people's calendars align. 

Lets not also forget that people often need "guard rails" to protect them from short sighted decisions. In times when cost of living is putting the screws into peoples personal budgets, the thought of saving money on travel costs, travel time, child care and other direct costs can be seen to be attractive, but remember out if sight is out of mind and when your out of mind these are the first people to get knocked over by the Redundancy grim reaper. Don't think it cant happen to you. 

Beyond the grim reaper issue I have written an extensive white paper about the workplace and COVID 19 back in November 2020, specifically talking about the impact on your career  development when you work from home all the time . Do not under estimate the career glass ceiling. It effects men and women who are not actively seen at the office or participating as a active member of your team or organisation.

It often means those opportunities fo

In this episode I want to focus on how we can get the workplace to transform post pandemic one dimensional thinking into having three dimensional doers back and engaged not just at work but in society.

Are you wondering were common sense has gone. Where the finishers have gone, the people that physically finish a the project, task or activity they started. Its not just management wondering about this, it is your peers and collogues  as well. 

Where has the thought process come from that your just making up the numbers. That your output is not  critically important to your team and your organisation. It doesnt matter if your an individual contributor or senior manager. In 2024 needs to be the year the make this right. 

Are you aware of what is happening around you?  Sorry to say it but so many people have seem to have lost this three dimensional thinking in many facets of their lives. 

Many people blame the workplace for one dimensional thinking, in some cases this contributes to this problem. It's important that the workplace has a variety of settings. Places that allow focus work, places that allow collaboration, places that allow consideration. 

Don’t underestimate the need to have time for quiet and thoughtful consideration. 

The workplace needs to be flexible, where people are educated and understand the best locations to do a specific tasks, thinking locations, doing locations, sharing locations.

The outcomes of the consideration thinking and how it is shared is also important, no one person has all the answers.
 
It  is concerning that since the pandemic we appear to have lost the understanding of the  importance of people working in a team and developing real business relationships which  are formed by  a personal connection and consideration between people.

Having a 100% virtual relationship does not create that connection. 

A person who you know only virtually often sees people consider that person more like a commodity not a real person with heart beat, feelings and real ability. 

It also has an impact on peoples three dimensional thinking , on the quality of our decisions  and what impact our decisions  have on our peers, management and our employer. 

This also applies to our employers and senior leadership and their decisions have on their employees. It’s a two way street.

No matter if you’re a individual contributor or in a management position, people need to be protected from themselves not thinking three dimensionally when making decisions. People tend to make bad decisions when left to their own devices.  

When I was  flying out of Melbourne at the end of last week, I looked across the tarmac to see an Air New Zealand aircraft,  a new, bright and shining  aircraft - an airline predominately government owned. Reinvestment and business development is not completing as aggressively  with delivering shareholder returns. 

You compare that to embattled Spirit of Australia, which has been raped and pillaged for over a decade in the interest of the shareholder and the shareholder returns. There is little or no meat left on the bones, of the flying skeleton. 

It's  time for organisations to put their people In front of shareholders.

This issue of return on investment also applies to government at all levels local, state and federal government. Don't let your strategic thinking be influenced by click bait articles or social media posts from  world experts. 

The world experts are predominately one dimensional thinkers with no morale compass or expertise. Its all about the now.  They have no idea on how a functional workplace and an engaging environment improves collaboration, productivity, staff retention and better value for money  for rate or tax&

Hello and welcome to TWEP proudly bought to you by Workplace Services Australia, your leading workplace strategy, change management, workplace culture and workplace services partner.
 
My name is Bligh Williams, I am the Director of Strategic Special Projects at WSA and am currently working on a number of workplace and bespoke once in a lifetime projects for our sponsor clients.

One of the biggest challenges we are seeing in the post pandemic world of  project management, asset management and workplace is the changing or developing  skill sets required by the asset, facilities and project managers.

Your old school PM or FM, traditionally has come out of the construction or hard services industries and is now being challenged to manage a diverse portfolio of assets with a far more people centric focus.

I have been working with an Australian State or Territory Government on consolidating three project management contracts into one  that manages the repairs and maintenance of over 500 individual assets of varying types of standards. 

It is truly a very very interesting project.

Working with the client to make the service and the contract more customer centric.

Yes, you heard me our client has customers. There incumbent  supplier never saw them or considered them as a customer, they only classed them as occupier of buildings to their client.  

The discussions have  included generational change of submitting work order requests by QR Code, instead of fax machine. You heard me right, a facsimile machine.  

The introduction of the smartphone in Australia in 2007 saw the start of revolutionary change how people would communicate. You then couple a more robust and reliable satellite WI-FI service for customers in regional areas. 

Then add the hardware and infrastructure with an easy to use app, for the customer to use,  creating a hurdle free smart electronic-workflow that is far easier to use than the fax machine and improves the customer experience and this can be done from anywhere.  The app can also be used by the PM or the FM  when they are out in the field.

It is also not only about the customer experience but also about the client experience where  the back offIce process between the client and the project managers be totally streamlined.

We have seen on a couple of projects now where people can track how their request are actually  progressing.  This allows the customer and the client to be kept up to date with the progression of each specific job. 

It is also about having the people that bring together  the technical skills and the empathy of dealing with the customer into one role. You could say its all about improving the "bedside manner". Maybe some of our medical professionals could take some advise from our emerging FM's and PM's.

You don't need to be 23 years old to ne an emerging PM or FM, its not generational, its about the person and their personality and their ability to adapt and change and cope with the change. 

Its also about the ability of the PM or the FM to take the customer on that change journey as well.

This is not going to work or come easy for everyone, I know a project manager, who came from being a mechanical engineer , technically solid, technically a leader in his field . You speak to him about a customer centric approach and empathy and he looks at you like your speaking Japanese and he has zero interest in speaking Japanese, very much the old school - my way or the highway.

This customer focus shift is really challenging these personalities and they are either getting there or they are leaving the industry. It seems to be either one or the other.

It is also about the customer, all of our clients have customers.  Its about the relationship or customer management. Unfortunately

Over the last twenty years, the baseline on determining the amount of real estate a client required was originally crudely estimated using the formula - Headcount x 10m2. 

Tenant advisors traditionally snubbed the importance of the discoveries made by the  Workplace Strategist which often revealed how their client employees  worked and what parts of the organisation needed  what facilities. 

This has a direct correlation  to the amount of space that was truly required on the go forward by the organisation. 

The physical facilities provided  in the workplace  truly became an enabler or would  disable the clients business, long after the tenant advisor had collected their fee and left the building.

It often meant the crude 10m2 per person was actually 15m2 per person or even as low as 8m2 per person. 

In my two decades in the space of workplace I have seen both outcomes and lucky for my clients I had close to two decades doing the commercial deals with various landlords.  So I do truly understand how the two worlds need to meet and complement each other. It can defiantly now not be us and them. This old school thinking will only see the things end in tears.

This crude back of a TAB ticket method of calculating the required amount of space has often lead to many organisations carrying either a significant amount of surplus real estate and therefore cost for space that is has very low capacity, which creates a sub-lease issue for the organisation often when there was no appetite in the sub-lease market. 

Or on the reverse - the clients have outgrown their space in the first 20% of their total lease term, with no capacity to grow. Therefore creating a problem for expanding businesses on how they can accommodate new headcount. 

Opps, sorry, lets take a step back for anyone who does not know what a TAB ticket is, its a small rectangular piece of paper where you cross the boxes and place your bet on the throughbreds, plate lickers or thieves on wheels - ohh now - ok plate lickers are greyhounds and thieves on wheels - harness racing - 


So now hopefully I have explained any confusion away...back to it.... 

But the new age tenant advisor needs to know your business, your people, its culture and the organisations trajectory for the five to ten years. 

Its not about the tenant advisors opinion of how people work and where they work  in other organisations.

Your people and your business needs will not be the same as  the client that the tenant advisor did the deal with last week.  These opinions, the one size fits all approach is very very dangerous and will lead you into hot water territory.

Tenant reps who are puffing their chest out and spruking they have saved their client on a "make good"  which by the way should be a given is not something that deserves thanks and kudos . Its a small part of their responsibility.

Often the CFO's  don’t really care, as they don’t think they will be around in 5 or 10 years time to take the credit . 

This does not necessary make it right either.

The post pandemic world of the office has changed the role of the tenant advisor for good. Some would say its turned it on its head.  And will lead to renewal within the industry.

Its important that we don't lose the experience out of the industry, that's not good for anyone, but your tenant advisor needs to move with the times often upskilling, with ongoing education to meet the changing needs of the market.

It is more than just the commercial numbers that secure the best lease and best performing workplaces today. It's about the facilities, amenities and the wider neighborhood. Does your tenant advisor get this? If not, get yourself a new one. Leave the dinosaur at the kerb, otherwise you may end up there as wel