Step 3: Align the strategy and plan for change management

To implement any changes, we need to carefully consider the X Factor workplace strategy across four key areas. These focus areas, supported by robust change management and communications plans, are exactly what your workplace needs to bring employees along the journey toward the future of work as we know it.

People-first leaders transform hierarchical “command and control” leadership toward an ecosystem based on accountability and trust. Teams are empowered toward high performance with clearly defined goals and measurable outcomes, embrace innovation, leverage futuristic mindsets to embed digital into new opportunities, and communicate frequently, with regular opportunities for 360-degree feedback sessions.

In human-centric teams, consistent, open dialog of “how are you doing?” to reinforce caring, belonging, engagement and team empowerment are commonplace, and individuals are empowered to work in the ways they wish, under an understanding of “I trust you know how and where to get your work done best.”

Though many have effectively worked at home during the pandemic, the office is not dead. Rather, it will transform and adapt to better serve and support a distributed workforce using a dynamic and responsive environment as a tool for driving business. It will bring people together to solidify culture, create social connection, combat loneliness and isolation, support young talent and foster innovation and creativity.

How workplaces interested in embracing this kind of a work environment can get started:

Human-centric business and cultural connectivity could be as simple as leveraging great tools in a smart building and workplace set up, with expert training and space management. Consider the role technology plays in your space today and think on how better use of technology could elevate your workspace to an even more efficient workplace of tomorrow.

A few considerations:

  • Proactively manage your space. Use technology solutions to help manage space and track the metrics around capacity, occupancy, and utilization. With solid space data, real estate teams are empowered to solve short-term occupancy challenges and focus on long-term portfolio strategies.

  • Digitize the office experience. Consider what improvements could be made for more frictionless HVAC, lighting, sound masking controls, environmental sensors set to monitor the essentials (temperature, noise, CO2, light levels, wellness), entry pathways, bathrooms and furniture setups to create a more powerful daily experience for your employees. Consider digital touchless office cards or keys at all workplace sites, shared smart parking for remote workers, and smart personal security cards or readers for quick office set-up communications and compliance. And space reservation applications that facilitate wayfinding and make finding your co-workers or meeting spaces that much simpler.
  • Improve the essentials. Make sure the lights are always on, Wi-Fi is fast, secure, and risk-free throughout the organization, and leverage communications kiosks for easier leadership communications, training, development and quick problem-solving work.
  • Put the right collaboration tools in place. State-of-the-art AV technology, augmented or virtual reality tools, digital collaboration tools that connect in-person and remote employees and company-provided hardware for maximum interface ease can all keep employees feeling empowered and ready for collaboration.

Designing human-centric spaces that support people and people-first cultures, means getting a bit creative with your space. Your goal? Establish high performance workspaces that incorporate a balance of open and closed individual workstations, have a range of small and large team meeting rooms with collaborative technology, and keep health and wellness guiding principals at the forefront of your facility management considerations – especially in a post-COVID 19 world. Foster employee engagement and collaboration through intentional design that builds off the basics:

Together, the right people, culture, workplace and building design, and technology and connectivity enablement, tailored to meet your unique workspace’s needs, create a powerful human-centric workplace strategy.

Thinking about the human experience at work will be a fundamental change we see over the next decade and is set to inform how and where the employees of top workplaces work for years to come.

The future will be defined through the lens of people instead of property - with a look at every aspect of office to create dynamic spaces that are built to help people work smarter and with greater ease and efficiently. Is your business ready to adapt?

Consider how your business can take its operations to a new level with more meaningful use of space, people, processes, and technologies. The right combination can give your company, and its people, a competitive edge, an X Factor, that attracts and retains top talent and clients. Many modern-thinking workplaces are considering their unique X Factor combination – what could be if you considered yours?

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