Decisions about work environment need to be as emotional as they are practical – the conclusion drawn by a panel of experts at an event hosted by Lexington, on Tuesday 14th June, at Omnicom, Bankside.
The event focused on how we can release the power of our work environment to supercharge our business and our people. It was chaired by Jo Taylor, Director of Let’s Talk Talent and former senior HR Executive at TalkTalk, and the panel consisted of Tony Phipkin, CFO, and Paul Tilley, Senior Facilities Manager, both at media communications organisation Omnicom, Mike Wingrove, Head of Facilities at the world’s largest law firm, Dentons LLP, Kursty Groves, Workplace Consultant and Author, and Julia Edmonds, Managing Director at Lexington.
Accommodating future workforce
The panel talked about the future workforce. Paul Tilley, Senior Facilities Manager at Omnicom, said one of their main challenges is space and not having enough of it. He pointed out the fact that many young people working for the business want to come into the office, partly because they are not set up to work from home but they also want to come into the office and work with their team.
The panel talked about the fact people connect with their work environment emotionally. Kursty Groves, Workplace Consultant and Author of Spaces for Innovation said, “Research shows productivity increases by over 30% when employees work in an empowered environment, where they have some choice regarding their work environment and are engaged in the process of defining their workspace. Offering your team a little flexibility and the opportunity to work in the way they want to work, when they want to work, can have huge business benefits.”
Julia Edmonds, Managing Director at Lexington agreed. She said, “People are finding their third space – somewhere they can meet and work but away from their desks. The restaurant area works for this and over the years its use has really changed, as has the reception area. We work with clients to create an attractive a space as possible to encourage people to make the most of space available, creating positive experiences in the workplace so they don’t have to go elsewhere.”
Kursty talked about the middle ground. She said, “When you talk about work environment and talent you often hear the words attraction and retention. But if you really want your work environment to succeed in attracting and retaining employees then you need to engage your team – it matters to them how the environment looks and how it is used. It’s those organisations that are really using their work environment to engage with their people that are reaping the benefits.”
It’s also about helping people connect to each other, according to Mike Wingrove, Head of Facilities at Dentons. He said, “Space needs to encourage collaboration, engagement and communication. In Law Firms we have every age group, with Generation X and Y growing up communicating via technology more and face-to-face less, so we need to find ways to help them communicate with each other, creating casual collisions, and assist them in doing their job better.”
The transformation at Omnicom – consolidating over 30 properties
Tony Phipkin, CFO at Omnicom, talked about their journey in consolidating properties and moving over 30 of Omnicom’s competing agencies into Bankside 2 and Bankside 3, which is currently home to over 3,000 employees. The consolidation of agencies under one roof has attracted lots of attention and watchful eyes.
Just over a year into the move and the team still have a long way to go. Not only do they have another 1,000 agency staff to move in by spring 2017 but they need to change the environment. Tony said, “Whilst there are some great examples of agencies coming together to offer clients a full suite of marketing solutions, as a result of the move, we know we have a long way to go yet. It’s a blank canvas with all the essentials for our team the next step is creating an environment that reflects what we do as an organisation, where our team do feel inspired – we have a team of creatives across the agencies to help design a less corporate environment that will meet the collective needs of our team.”
The move represented a massive cultural change. Omnicom has grown by acquiring agencies and each of these came with their own culture, their own building and their own leadership team, who live and breathe their brand.
Tony said, “Bringing everyone under one roof also creates opportunities. The building has started to change people’s working culture and mindset because lots of agencies are under one roof. So instead of just thinking this is ‘my world’, now the team realise there are lots of different parts and people providing lots of different services to clients. As a result we are genuinely starting to offer the full range of marketing services to clients and this is how we see ourselves growing.”
Leaders help drive positive work environment
The panel talked about trust and permission. Many organisations create a work environment where employees can work anywhere – they can pick up their laptop and work from the restaurant or reception, they don’t have to be at their desk to be working,
However, individuals will just work in the same way they have done unless they have a strong, top-down leadership enforcing a culture of permission, empowerment, and trust. Mike said, “In order for a change in space and work environment to become successful it’s got to have buy-in at the top. Law firms tend to be quite hierarchical and therefore any change needs to come from the top down – the senior team can set the tone in terms of how the environment can be used.”
Forming strong relationships with internal clients is key
The event left everyone in agreement that it’s essential for facilities management teams to form strong relationships with clients, across the business, if they are to remain competitive and succeed in creating an environment that supercharges their people.
Paul said, “Building rapport and relationships with clients in the building is essential because we live in a world where things never stand still. By forming strong connections with people you will be able to understand their needs much better and be able to flex and adapt as required.”
Julia agreed; strong relationships and flexibility is key. She says, “For us the work environment is just as much about the customer journey as it is the physical space; everything from the way the team are greeted, whether that be the reception desk or people in cafes and environments our people are working in, to the workspace itself. To do this we need to really understand each of our client’s culture and how we can get the most out of the space that has been provided.”
LexEngage with website from Nina Hollington on Vimeo.
