The issue of designing innovative workplaces is of direct relevance to business decision-makers, because the physical environment of work can be a lever to improve corporate performance - and therefore increase sales, profits and market share
While the work environment is inevitably bound in with other, related factors that influence business performance (such as management cultures, recruitment policies or pay structures), office design can also directly respond to key business objectives in a measurable way.
- If, for example, a key aim is to reduce time to market, certain spatial layouts and designed networks can support faster exchange of information up and down the development chain.
- If an important objective is to reduce staff turnover and recruitment costs, designing in certain social facilities can support that objective.
- If the company needs to make economies to improve business efficiency, design strategies that increase space utilisation and density of occupation can help to trim property costs.
- If the company wants to promote its corporate image as dynamic and innovative, a dynamic and innovative headquarters building helps.
- Evidence also suggests that companies can run out of perks to give highly valued employees once the limits of pay, share options and private medical insurance have been reached. (Company cars now face stiff tax penalties). In this context, the quality of the office environment itself becomes a business perk.
Think about it. In business, staff salaries can account for 85 per cent of a company’s total costs. In a 2003 ICM survey for Management Today, nine out of ten managers said they regarded their place of work as a symbol of whether they were valued or not by their employer. Therefore it makes sense to pay close attention to the mechanics of workplace design.
The public sector
Public sector organisations have faced many of the same structural changes as private sector firms that impact on property strategy - such as decentralisation and downsizing. However there is an additional complication. Public sector salaries generally do not match those found in the private sector, so more innovative 'magnet' workplaces are increasingly seen as a way to help bridge the pay gap.