Are you driving change for your business?
All businesses are looking to improve their productivity. For Corporate Real Estate (CRE) professionals this presents an opportunity to drive change through productivity transformation in the workplace and enhance the position and influence of the CRE function and leaders.
We have identified 10 behavioural traits that will deliver more productive workplaces solutions. Each click reveals how a fundamental rethink can lead to enhanced corporate productivity, creativity and well-being of employees.
Click on the individual behaviours for an overview or download the full report.
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 Commit to wholesale change
- Workplace strategies have often been limited in impact or influence due to a narrow starting point (e.g. lease break) or limited vision. Successful workplace transformation is underpinned by thinking big and challenging the orthodoxy
- CRE professionals must step out of their specialist areas and lead a companywide change management initiative from the front
- Embrace and become a champion for change, promoting it as a positive force for your business
- Do not forget that there will be a real estate element to this change management programme and be ready to deliver solutions, but do not make this your starting point as it will lessen the impact of any solution
Build understanding, support and ambition
- Central to acting as a change champion and moving beyond CRE is the bringing together and alignment of all corporate support functions
- These support functions, such as HR, IT, facilities management and finance, typically act in isolation. A broader, holistic approach to corporate change requires socialisation across all support services if cohesive and successful strategies are to emerge
- CRE leaders will need to adjust their leadership remit, expanding it to use their passion and energy to boldly drive a common strategic vision across the corporation which goes beyond pure bricks and mortar
Embrace organisational diversity
- One solution does not fit all. Instead a range of approaches are required that best fit with the varying needs of the business across geography, cultures and functions
- Corporate real estate professionals must understand the variance at work within the business and ensure that this understanding runs through their workplace strategies
- To do so CRE teams must first be aware of the laws and regulations impacting on workplace design as they play out across the globe
- Primary research is also required to understand the cultural and generational diversity across the business and how this impacts on attitudes towards the workplace and workplace change
Influence change in management style
- Unsuccessful workplace strategies most often fail due to limited senior management support or personal commitment to transformation
- CRE leaders must influence senior leaders to move away from a culture of time-based management, towards a task or outcome focused management style
- The "visibility" of employees is no longer the best method of ensuring productivity. Instead "presence" is required - the ability to be connected to the organisation, management, and peer group without necessarily being in the same place
- Influencing behavioural change in senior management is not easy but is crucial to the ultimate success of workplace strategies
Recognise workplace strategy as an ongoing programme
- Too much current practice and thinking perceives and positions workplace strategy as a short-term initiative aimed at achieving a clear and mostly cost savings focused objective
- Workplace strategies must be recognised as programmes of continual cultural change
- This requires a sustained commitment together with regular assessment and potentially reworking of the strategy
- As CRE's seek to lead and implement strategies they must emphasise that they represent a long-term commitment to drive change across the organisation
Establish 'work life' as a starting point
- Despite the rise of the 'barcardi' working culture - anytime, anyplace, anywhere - workplace strategy is still largely focused on the physical, formal workplace. This needs to be addressed
- 75% of a company's cost base is its people, so focussing on their needs and raising their productivity rather than narrowly and immediately focusing on the real estate portfolio would seem logical
- Stronger emphasis must be placed on developing workplaces that embrace and enable workers to deliver on all aspects of their work-life - both personal and corporate
- In reality, few corporations have given sufficient thought or investment to either the range of worker settings at work or in developing settings that enhance the work-life experience
Adopt focus on organisational well-being
- One way to ensure more successful and engaging communication around a strategy is to emphasise enhanced organisational well-being as an outcome
- Leading edge companies are adopting a dual focus on organisational performance and health. The latter is about having the assets today that create the conditions for high performance tomorrow
- Workplace must become the physical (or virtual) expression of the direction, the culture and the values that make the organisation resilient
- By directly linking and aligning any workplace change to the vision and purpose of the organisation it will be a very powerful tool in designing a smarter organisation
Avoid paralysis by analysis
- The global financial crisis has brought stronger analytical power and has made big data a central and essential component of any strategic intent or associated business case
- Effective workplace strategies will be predicated on a greater number of intangibles and softer indicators that could never be generated through traditional real estate metrics
- CRE professionals therefore need to challenge current thinking about data and focus on developing data sets that tackle the real organisational issue
- Identify and deliver a more rounded set of KPIs that demonstrate not only space metrics and financial implications but also illustrate levels of employee engagement, well-being, speed to market and innovation
Drive solutions focused on the future of work not space efficiency
- Most workplace strategies aim to increase the density of occupation but this is perceived negatively. Its about taking something away from workers rather than enhancing work-life
- Workplace strategy needs to be grounded in the future of work and the nature of modern work-life. This creates a more positive perception that enhances buy-in and implementation
- CRE teams must educate their business leaders about the value of solutions based on the future of work and employee needs rather than on a narrow drive for space efficiency
Champion change through positive internal marketing
- Any change champion must be an effective, positive, but honest communicator about the nature of change. From this derives appreciation and acceptance
- Share successes with the entire organisation by show-casing successful pilots. Excitement and participation is best created through site visits and testimonials rather than conceptual floor plans and imagery
- Be open about learnings. By demonstrating that you are focusing on taking what worked and discontinuing what did not, you will be able to built and maintain the trust of employees and management
- Create the business case around the workplace strategy with an emphasis not just costs but more importantly purpose and values
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