By Ian Ellison, Workplace Geeks
Listen to episode four now: The science of transforming estates, workplaces and customer experience
As we head towards summer 2024, it’s easy to forget just how different work life was during the pandemic. For those fortunate enough not to have been permanently affected by Covid-19, the sequence of lockdowns created an unexpected silver lining for the workplace sector. The ‘great unplanned home-working experiment’, as some called it, essentially proved what advocates of home and agile working have known for decades: grafting doesn’t stop, and businesses don’t suddenly fail, when people no longer routinely come into work for duties that can be carried out at home.
Some claimed a watershed moment, that work would never be the same again. Others challenged that old habits die hard, demonstrated by both the gradual re-establishment of outlawed and potentially contagious handshakes, plus the now near-absence of face masks in public places. Meanwhile the debate between home versus office work raged in the media, punctuated by political appeals to boost city centre economies, and the occasional, to my mind, ill-judged return to work decree.
Hybrid’s here to stay
While most of us are keen to leave thoughts of the pandemic far behind, in one way its effect lives on. Hybrid working has emerged as the preference of many, with leadership teams grappling with prescriptive versus more permissive approaches to work routines. This prompts many questions…Is it enough to require people to simply return – or does increasingly versatile collaborative technology mean corporate spaces must meet far higher expectations? What are our workspaces for? How well do they perform? And how do they make us feel? In other words, questions around what’s known as ‘workplace experience’.
Which brings me to episode four of The Science of Service Podcast, hosted by the Workplace Geeks: Chris Moriarty and me, Ian Ellison. This time our focus is the very fabric of facilities management: buildings and spaces used by organisations of all kinds. Our mission is to discover how premises are used differently, and the technology and service elements that enable a progressive approach.
A workplace transformed
Cue our case study, the UK-based pensions, investment and life insurance firm, Royal London, which is also a valued Mitie client. Our guides are Head of Estates and Facilities Transformation, Leigh Fyffe, and Mitie Operations Manager, Peter Henderson, who introduce their evolving portfolio and workplace experience innovations.
If you’re wondering what this means in practice for people using Royal London’s office day-to-day, we’re on the same wavelength. Peter showed Chris just a few of the innovations on offer. Need to ensure you have the right workspace bookings sorted before you drop into the Royal London office? Check. Fancy a steaming cup of barista-brewed coffee and a friendly natter when you arrive to collect it? Double check. All through their workplace experience app.
Power to the people
Turning to Mitie’s in-house expertise, we meet Strategic Workplace and Technology Director, Simi Gandhi-Whitaker, and Solutions Director, Richard Anderson. Their suite of technology tools, including two platforms called Aria and Sphere, work together to quite literally put control of workspace experience in the palms of Royal London colleagues’ hands. Mitie Projects Managing Director, Mark Caskey, is an advocate of this approach. He highlights that the transformative value of great service provision is to focus on enabling people, not just managing facilities.
Everyone’s a workplace winner
Finally, we draw on the knowledge of two very different workplace experts. As Founder and Chief Energy Officer of People and Transformational HR, Perry Timms is a respected voice on positive workplace culture and organisational design. He understands how great culture and workspace complement each other, enabled by technology. This concept is echoed by author of The Human-Centric Workplace, Simone Fenton-Jarvis, who explains how happy people at work underpin a healthier and more sustainable society.
As technology advances apace, with promises of AI-enhanced productivity on the horizon, what will offices be most useful for in future? Creativity and togetherness, muses Perry, drawing on Stanford University Economics Professor Nick Bloom’s research on hybrid work. That means the office isn’t going to disappear any time soon. So, to cheekily plagiarise an age-old refrain…The office is dead. Long live the office!