Interserve, the international support service and construction group, has formulated a two-year research project that identifies the steps to optimise team productivity and maximise value in a physical working environment. Following a huge trend on ways to design a healthier and happier workplace, the study, taken in partnership with Advanced Workplace Associates (AWA), concludes that businesses need to re-envisage their workplace for effective working.
Findings from the report, titled Optimising performance: defining, designing, maintaining and evolving workplace experiences, conclude that traditional silos, ranging from IT to HR, need to be broken down to integrate the management of the workplace into a ‘one-team’ approach. Interserve and AWA argue that this will ensure that companies can deliver a streamlined workplace experience that also supports employee productivity.
The report also advises companies to “shape workplace design and management strategies around employee productivity”, according to the company’s press release. This means that companies need to recognise the workplace as an integral place for delivering commercial strategy and to “treat employees as ‘workplace consumers’ – creating ‘frictionless’ experiences and environments that help them perform to their best ability”.
Andrew Mawson, founder of Advanced Workplace Associates, says: “What’s clear from our research is that we have to stop thinking about the workplace as a necessary ‘commodity’ cost which needs to be constantly driven down. We have to think about the workplace experience as a value-adding resource designed to help people work at peak levels and reflect organisational personality. This means having real estate and facilities management leaders driving the requirements for experience-related service contracts with their procurement colleagues providing a service (and not the other way round).”