Our client's organisation had a population of 3400 staff based in London in a number of individual buildings. As part of a consolidation programme, our client wanted to implement Agile Working in two refurbished buildings that would have traditionally accommodated 2700 staff working on a one desk per person basis.
Through a battery of studies, AWA established that on 'day one' the building could accommodate 3,400 staff adopting Advanced or Agile ways of working with growth capacity for a further 400 once the change to the new ways of working had bedded in, which meant our client did not need to take a lease on a further building that would have accommodated a further 1000 people.
Working in an intimate partnership with AWA's client in the property division, AWA's senior consultants met with senior leaders and leadership teams to share the concepts, provide evidence and undertake robust discussions that would convince them to give their support for the application of Advanced Working.
AWA initially undertook detailed studies across the organisation to define a 'Proposition' that included the type of workstyles that would be most appropriate for each sub team, types and proximity of spaces needed, IT constraints and solutions, service requirements for each area, sharing ratios, the location of each unit and the absolute number of spaces each unit would be allocated.
Then working as an integral member of the project team AWA helped the shaping the design, programme and processes ensuring that each workstream met the requirements of the original 'Proposition' and that each workstream team understood how their work would fuse together with other workstreams to provide a fault free work experience for the buildings occupants.
AWA's IT specialists worked with our clients IT function to assist in clarifying requirements and ensuring proposed solutions would enable the mobility that would be needed to support the new way of working.
As change managers, AWA advised on the setting up of a change organization involving steering groups, occupier leadership teams and champions. We designed a four phase change programme supported by video footage, slides, booklets and other supporting materials and delivering 44 Champions Workshops, 11 Occupier Leadership sessions and 16 Lead Champion meetings along with training and support.
AWA have undertaken post-occupancy studies and have advised on tools for managing 'in-flight' implementation such as workplace booking systems and capacity management information systems.
The result was a smooth and lasting transition to Advanced Working with dramatically improved Workplace Utilisation and 83% of staff reporting that Advanced Working had had a neutral or positive effect on their work effectiveness.
