New Work Directions: Creative Environments for the Future In my dentist's office, there is a sign that reads: "You don't have to floss all your teeth, only the ones you want to keep." With a little re-working, this would be an excellent directive for the future of work: "You don't have to trust all your employees to work where, when and how they are most productive, only the ones you want to keep." TRUST is the key to optimizing creativity and performance and there are two sides to the equation: 1. If you (as management) do not trust employees to make wise decisions regarding freedom to work where, when, and how they are most productive Ü why are you employing them? 2. If you (as an employee) do not trust that your organization will provide the tools and encouragement to work where, when, and how you are most productive, why are you working there? Before reading further, please take a moment to close your eyes and visualize what it would mean for you to have the freedom to choose the context for your work. What do you see? Are you working on a laptop on your sailboat? talking on a cellular phone at the beach? putting work aside to spend some time with your daughter when she comes home from school? video-conferencing with colleagues around the world? Whatever you envision the future of work to be, it is likely that it involves three concepts: 1) performing work from outside the traditional office (telework); 2) working in a setting that is not the traditional office; and, 3) using technology that, for the most part, already exists today but is not being used to its fullest potential. Let's examine each future trend more closely. 1) Remote Work Is on the Rise Why will we be performing more work remotely? The answer is simple: because we can. Technology (mobile computing with communications capabilities) now gives us the ability to collaborate while working in different places and at the same time or different times. It also gives us the luxury of re-thinking the quality of face-time and, therefore, the place where we work. Today, we place a high priority on being available to clients and colleagues for face-to-face meetings and find it acceptable to have an electronic connection to our families, friends, and communities. As a result, we commute to a central site for a prescribed number of hours per day and when we have to stay late to finish a report or attend a meeting, we phone home to "kiss" our children goodnight. This arrangement is becoming less and less tolerable for employees, and the stress and dissatisfaction are resulting in high turnover rates for employers. Pressure is coming from two-career baby boomer families as well as from Generation X to find an alternative. Virtual office and telecommuting programs give workers the flexibility and capability to collaborate electronically with colleagues while being available to read a bedtime story to their children in person. That doesn't mean that, in the future, we will all spend five days a week glued to a computer terminal in a dark, isolated office in our basement; it does mean, however, that we will think more carefully about when it makes sense to travel to a central work place versus when that is counter-productive. It also means we will be more available for face-time with members of our community, if we so choose. There are at least five different types of remote work or off-premise arrangements currently in use: Off-Premise Option Definition Work-at-Home (Full-time Telecommuting) Home-based workers who are self-employed or part of a larger organization. In effect, telecommunications brings the work to the employee, eliminating the need to commute to the work site. Telecommuting Work from home at least one day a week and have workspace available at another site for the remaining days of the week. Virtual Office (a.k.a. Road Warrior) Employee is equipped to work anywhere, anytime (e.g. client site, airport, home, hotel, golf course, etc.) Telework Center Alternate work site located closer to employees' homes that provides all office services. May be used on a full-time or part-time basis by those who want to shorten their commute but can not work from home, or by telecommuters as a support site for copying, faxing, etc. These centers can be single-employer (Satellite Office) or multiple-employer (Telecommuting Center). Virtual Corporation The company is where employees are (staff is not bound to a corporate headquarters) and consultants are hired on an as-needed basis to supplement the core skill sets. These off-premise arrangements are designed to allow employees to work somewhere other than the traditional on-site office and have the following benefits: reduced commuting time and associated air pollution and energy consumption, improved client relations, enhanced productivity and quality of life, better balance of work and family responsibilities, improved ability to attract and retain a high-quality workforce (regardless of geographic preference), avoidance of costly relocation expenses, and improved disaster recovery options. To determine which employees would be good candidates for telework, answer the following questions: Who is already mobile? Who could benefit from increased mobility? Who could benefit from increased flexibility in time and place of work? 2) The Traditional Office Environment Is Outdated The fact is, the way we work has changed dramatically in the last decade, but change in the workplace has been slow to follow. Organizationally, the hierarchy has been flattening, which puts new emphasis on teamwork, autonomy, and empowerment. Rightsizing has added pressure to do more with less while improving quality. Corporate culture is emphasizing personal responsibility, cross-functional communication, egalitarianism, and entrepreneurialism. And the organization with the competitive edge gets new products to market faster and valuable information into client's hands sooner. Meanwhile, many organizations still provide one workspace per person and assign space by rank. So that the Vice President who spends a lot of time on the road has a 250 sf private office with a window and the analyst working with a team of eight colleagues has a 64 sf workstation and can't find a conference room for a project meeting. For many organizations, the most radical change in the office environment has been to migrate to open plan and to consider the use of a universal standard (one size workspace for all). Recently, there have been successful efforts to challenge the old paradigms in office design, including the following options: On-Premise Option Definition Non-Territorial Office Umbrella term used to describe any space assignment methodology where there is not a one office/workstation per employee ratio. Activity Setting A variety of work settings designed for team or individual activities are available on an as-needed basis. Users typically change their work place throughout the day (from library, to meeting room, to lounge area, to private phone call room, for example) to suit their work activity requirements. Free Address Multiple offices or workstations shared by individuals on a first-come, first-served basis. Shared Assigned Two or more employees are assigned to use a single workstation or office at different times. Hoteling Employees reserve workspace in advance at the corporate office where there are fewer workspaces than staff (the ratio of staff to offices can be anywhere from 2:1 to 10:1 or higher). Cave and Commons Designed to accommodate need for concentration (by assigning small, enclosed workspace for each individual) and team communication (by providing shared common area). Universal Standard Planning for flexibility by assigning the same size workstation or private office to all employees. These on-premise options are based on the recognition that one office/workstation for one person is no longer an appropriate solution for all types of functions. In some cases, people are in off-premise arrangements and no longer need the on-premise space full-time. In others, more teamwork or varied settings are needed to get the work done. These arrangements improve productivity, maximize space efficiency, and reduce real estate and operations costs. Workspace is viewed as a strategic resource, not an entitlement. 3) Technology Is Changing Faster than Corporate Culture The tools are available now to work anytime, anyplace with total connectivity. Why isn't this mobility being used to its fullest advantage? One legitimate reason is that the initial investment is often prohibitive. This will change over time. Corporate culture can not keep up with technological change. Look at the level of resistance raised by middle management to almost any kind of change (including re-engineering, new technology, telework, and new office designs) to see why culture changes so slowly. One reason for the opposition to telework is the realization that remote management requires a significant change in the way productivity is measured. In the white-collar world, it is rare to have such specific objectives that, when accomplished, employees know they have completed their work. But, it is not an impossible goal. Remember in college when it took you two hours to write the same term paper that required three days of your roommate's time? And you both got an "A"? Most of us have had this kind of glimpse into what it is like to be given a goal and the freedom to accomplish it in any way we choose. Back then, our performance was measured by the quality of the result, not by whether we had spent ten hours at the library or one hour. This is how productivity will be discussed in the future. The reward for being more efficient and effective in your work will be that you have more leisure time for yourself. In today's environment, the high performing, very efficient worker gets "rewarded" by having more work dumped on them which, in turn, fuels higher levels of stress and burnout. In fact, the number one concern regarding telework is that employees are overworking. The new task for managers is to set clear goals and advise their staffs on when to turn off the technology tools that allow them to be accessible all the time, everywhere. Productivity improvement from telework is attributable to several factors: fewer distractions, more hours per day to work (previously spent commuting), better access to technology and information needed to do their job, improved time management, more appropriate communication with colleagues and clients, freedom and tools to work at your peak performance times, and reduced absenteeism and turnover. The pay-off is significant and can often off-set the initial investment in technology. Technology enables remote work, but cultural change will determine its success. Address the issue directly and early in the process. Keep in mind that implementing change is an iterative process requiring educating, listening, responding, refining, and constant communication. Six Levels of Management Resistance and the Productivity Questionƒ We have come to think of management resistance as the biggest obstacle to telework and view any objection to its implementation as unfounded. This is not always the case. Change management is a process that requires careful attention and a lot of understanding. Yes, fear of change and lack of willingness to re-think how performance is measured account for much of the resistance, but there are other reasons that should be examined more closely. First of all, some managers resist implementation of telecommuting for legitimate reasons and these should not be ignored. An excellent point one executive made to me recently was that she was in the process of radically changing the corporate culture from "show up at 9:00 am, perform assigned tasks, and go home at 5" to one that encouraged thinking outside the box and collaborating with colleagues. She liked the idea of telecommuting, but wanted to give the staff a year or two to integrate their work with others' and felt this transition would be better accomplished with everyone together in an office environment. Some may argue that telecommuting and virtual office applications could catalyze a paradigm shift, but, in this case, I agreed with her that face-to-face contact would be important in this transition. The point is that there are good reasons for what some people interpret as inappropriate resistance. There certainly are, though, reasons behind inappropriate, unfounded resistance to telecommuting that should be addressed. There are six major levels (see diagram below): The Six Layers of Management Resistance 1. Misunderstanding Telework: Many managers jump to the conclusion that telecommuters would work from home five days a week and never show their faces in the office again. They also think that implementing telework means that everyone in the organization will participate. This issue is resolved easily by explaining the various types of telework options (full-time work at home, telecommuting one to four days a week, remote telecenter, etc.) and citing figures about percentage of the work force who would probably be involved (15-20% on average for voluntary programs). 2. Lack of Awareness About Current Work Patterns: The perception is that because the stated work hours are 9 to 5, all employees are present and available for impromptu discussions for eight hours a day. Teamwork is viewed as being effective only when all team members are physically in the same place, at the same time. Through focus groups and activity logging exercises, it becomes evident that performance goals are met in the current environment even though people travel, spend time in meetings, take sick days and vacation days, take lunch breaks at different times, and do some of their work on overtime when teammates are not around. Once it is understood how much time employees spend on tasks that could be performed outside the office, inappropriate resistance can usually be diffused. Typical Results of Job Activities Analysis for Managers 3. Changing Workload: Recognize that implementing telework adds to an already heavy workload for managers. They may be asked to work on the implementation task force, be required to take part in training courses, and, in some cases, change their performance measurement system to be more results-oriented. The manager takes on responsibilities for evaluating whether employees should be allowed to participate or not and advising employees of the decision. This all takes time and effort. Acknowledging the increased demands is a good start; compensating managers in some way and relieving the strain through additional support will help alleviate resistance. Managers have a legitimate concern about being the "guinea pig." Will the manager be blamed for failure? Will upper management stand behind the effort even if there are a few glitches? There needs to be an incentive for taking the risk to embrace these new ways of working. Again, a reward system that recognizes the extra effort and risk is essential to a successful and sustainable program. 4. Lack of Trust: When it is clear that telework would be beneficial to an organization and its employees, but middle managers don't agree, look a little closer. Inability to believe that staff members could be trusted to work when and where they are most productive may be at the heart of the problem. Most managers don't want to admit to themselves or to their management that they have hired individuals who would not be effective if they were not monitored closely throughout the work day. When managers are trained to measure results rather than attendance, the ineffective workers become apparent and can be addressed responsibly. In today's environment, there is no excuse for hiring or retaining untrustworthy knowledge workers. 5. Unwillingness to Admit Personal Issues: There are a variety of concerns that are individual in nature and have no correlation to job function or level and, therefore, often go unsaid. People now seem to feel comfortable admitting that they do not have workspace at home or that their young children would be a distraction or even that they need the work environment to get motivated, but these can be resolved by offering a telework center option. There are three other personal issues that are sometimes the root of the resistance: 1) In this era of downsizing and outsourcing, few employees openly acknowledge that they are unwilling to learn computer skills and would not feel comfortable working at home without a secretary at hand. 2) For some managers; in their own eyes showing up for work every day equates to productivity; the managers themselves do not want to be measured by results. 3) Lastly, there are employees who use work and the workplace to avoid family or other problems at home. For them, the idea balancing work and family life (a primary benefit of telecommuting) is not only irrelevant, it is a very scary thought. Marital problems, difficulties with children or elderly parents, or lack of satisfaction with life in general may be behind a tendency to work after hours and on weekends "at the office." Since workaholism is typically rewarded by our culture, it is not viewed as a problem to be confronted by employers as substance abuse has been. It can be just as damaging, though. 6 Corporate Culture Underlying all these levels of resistance is the corporate culture. If rewards and promotions are based, in part, on face-time at the office (how often you are seen, by whom, at what times, in which locations), then remote work will be difficult to accept. How work is viewed and rewarded needs to change to reflect emphasis on these new ways of working. In some sales and consulting organizations, for instance, there is a strong message that time in the office means time away from clients and potential clients and is interpreted negatively. Corporate culture is rarely written down. Through observation and listening, the unstated rules about who is considered a "devoted employee," "a high performer," "a team player" can be deciphered. What is the attitude toward employees who utilize "family friendly" policies? Are risk-takers/change agents rewarded? (See Readiness Checklist that follows for more extensive list of questions.) Change management efforts are an important part of telework integration projects. Through participative processes, dialogue, and knowledge-sharing, these obstacles can be overcome. Productivity??? Resistance Levels 1 and 2, Misunderstanding Telework and Unawareness of Work Patterns, are easy to detect and can be overcome through educational programs and surveys of work patterns. The other four levels are rarely recognized or discussed openly in focus groups or interviews, but deter progress nonetheless. Often, an overemphasis on "productivity measurement" will arise at this point in the process. Managers will ask for productivity improvement data from identical organizations that implemented telework programs with the exactly the same types of employees. These results can certainly be provided, but the uneasiness is not usually relieved. Resistance levels 3, 4, 5, and 6 are lying beneath the surface and need to be discussed openly to achieve resolution. One approach is for the facilitator of a focus group to list the various reasons (Items 1 through 6) others have cited for not supporting a telework program. Humor usually relieves the tension and allows participants to discuss their concerns. Then the real fears can be dealt with directly and solutions can be developed. Why Should Facilities Managers and Design Professionals Be Concerned About New Work Directions? In my research and project experience, I have observed that Facilities Managers and Corporate Real Estate professionals (FM/CRE) are leading the efforts to bring ideas like virtual office and telecommuting to their organizations. At companies like AT&T, Compaq, and Northern Telecom it was the FM/CRE leader who initiated cross-functional task forces with human resources, information technology, and business unit representatives to strategize new solutions. Organizations like IFMA and IDRC have educated their professional members about these new options and helped them stay ahead of the curve. Even though FM/CRE has the most to offer in terms of cost reductions from real estate savings, they have used their visibility to shift management's attention to the productivity improvements and enhanced employee morale that are made possible by these new arrangements. Design professionals need to be prepared to incorporate these ideas into design and strategic facilities planning projects. And, together, we need to push the envelope by exploring more options and monitoring their effects. Would This Work for Your Organization? One size does not fit all. For some organizations, off-premise options are not yet feasible alternatives to the traditional work environment because of the corporate culture. For others, the sales force may already be working in a virtual office mode and the question is which options will work for other members of the staff. In both cases, and all other variations in between, it is important to understand that each organization should be analyzed individually to determine whether some of the new work directions described above would be valuable to offer to employees. If you are thinking of approaching your management about implementing some of these options, review the following questions first. Think about how innovative your company has been or wants to be perceived on these issues. This is not a quiz with scores that can predict how successful an organization would be in implementing new work directions. It is a tool designed to encourage analysis of an existing situation in order to judge the readiness of that organization for new ways of working. New Work Directions Organizational Readiness Assessment Tool 1. What is (are) your organization's core competency (ies)? 1 Manufacturing a product 1 Designing a product 2 Providing a service 3 Researching new products 2. Corporate Culture 4 Does management encourage risk-taking and innovation? 5 Is the mission/vision of the organization clearly understood by all employees? 6 Are staff members encouraged to participate in decision-making? 7 Have there been significant efforts to communicate a new corporate culture recently? 8 What is rewarded in your organization? What are the unstated assumptions? 3. Organizational/Re-Engineering 9 How many levels of management are there between an entry-level employee and the CEO? Is this expected to change significantly in the short-term? in the long-term? 10 Has your organization been reorganized within the last two years? Is it expected to be reorganized in the near future? 11 Does your organization sell products and/or services to the teleworker market? 12 How has globalization affected your organization? 13 Are you currently or were you recently involved in a re-engineering process? 14 Was it successful? Were there any obstacles? 4. Performance/Effectiveness 15 Is improved productivity/creativity one of the top three goals of the organization? 16 Is getting a product to market faster a primary concern? 17 Is getting better information to clients faster an important competitive advantage? 18 Is face-time with clients an important issue? 19 Has an emphasis been placed on increasing teamwork/collaboration? 20 Is there a well-established performance measurement system? 21 Are people familiar with managing remote workers? 22 Are managers expected to oversee performance of outsourced staff? 5. Staffing 23 Has headcount been growing or shrinking in the last 3 years? 24 Are recruiting or relocation costs high? 25 Are you having problems attracting high quality staff to your locations? 26 Have there been any changes in the required qualifications of new applicants? Will there be in the future? What are the expected changes? 27 Are some job types more difficult to fill than others? 28 Are unfilled jobs considered detrimental to the performance of certain business units? 29 Have people left the company because the work is not flexible enough to accommodate parental responsibility, short-term or long-term disability, other personal crises? 30 Are your competitors for employees offering flexibility of time and place of work? 31 Is turnover or absenteeism considered a significant cost to the company? 32 Are there represented/unionized employees within your organization? 33 How large is the sales force of your organization? New Work Directions Organizational Readiness Assessment Tool (page 2) 6. Flexible Arrangements 34 Does your organization offer any kind of flexible work arrangement currently? 35 Are there any cases within your organization of employees working from home, at a client's, or in some other remote way currently? 36 Does your office have casual dress days? summer hours? 37 Are amenities such as child care or fitness center provided? 7. Technology Integration Level: What percent of employees are familiar with the following hardware/software? 38 Computers 39 Word Processing/Spreadsheet Applications 40 Fax/Modem 41 Multi-Media Software 42 Beepers/Cellular phones 43 Remote access to network 44 E-mail 45 Voice Mail 46 Laptops 47 Groupware 48 Video-Conferencing 49 Internet/Intranet 8. Travel/Commuting 50 What is the average commuting time for employees? 51 How do employees commute to work (car, train)? 52 Does the commute to work negatively affect some employees' perception of quality of life? 53 Do employees travel frequently for their work? 54 Is travel a significant cost to the company? 9. Environmental 55 Does your organization promote recycling? 56 Is there strong commitment to green/sustainable architecture? 57 Is there interest in reducing energy consumption? air pollution? 58 Is your organization affected by state or local Clean Air Act legislation? 10. Facilities Management/Real Estate 59 Is there an incentive for business units to be concerned about amount of space occupied or cost of real estate? 60 What are the three most common facilities complaints? 61 Are offices frequently unoccupied for more than 50% of the day? 62 Is space assigned by rank or by function? 63 Is there often a shortage of conference or meeting spaces? 64 Is the real estate market strong in your current locations? A Few Final Words of Advice Don't underestimate the value of up-front user involvement at all levels and on-going training and dialogue with participants. Don't overemphasize cost savings from real estate reductions. Do challenge all preconceptions about the nature of work and work environments. Do provide the tools and encouragement for your employees to work when and where they are most productive. Do provide a range of off-premise and on-premise options to suit different needs. Do focus on attracting and retaining the employees you want to keep. (And, oh, by the way, do floss all your teeth.) About the Author: Cynthia C. Froggatt has more than fourteen years experience consulting on new work directions and strategic facilities planning with clients such as Prudential, Mercedes-Benz, AT&T, The New York Times, The News Corporation Ltd, NBC, and Dun & Bradstreet. Her approach to projects emphasizes employee involvement and non-traditional solutions to leverage human resources and optimize capital investments. She has a master's degree from Cornell University's Facilities Planning and Management program and has taught programming methods and environmental psychology courses at Cornell University. Ms. Froggatt teaches half-day and full-day seminars on the virtual office and other new work directions for IFMA and other groups. She leads focus groups and roundtable discussions with user groups to facilitate the change management process. She can be reached at her virtual office in New York City. Cynthia can be reached at c.froggatt@worldnet.att.net or 212.749.4989 phone or 212.749.4319 fax. Parts of this text have been published previously in Canadian Interiors, Telecommuting Review, and FM Journal.