Here is the last of our case studies researched and written by AWA for the BCO's report 'ICT and Offices, practised realities and their business benefits'. Barclays Global Investors (BGI) is today one of the world’s largest fund managers, with headquarters in San Francisco, 10 offices worldwide and a 2,000 strong workforce of which some 700 are based in the London office.
Shortly after BGI moved into its current building (Murray House at Royal Mint Court near Tower Bridge in London), it accommodated some 450 workstations on two floors. In 2000, BGI found it was growing and, to accommodate this growth, recognised that it would need to change the working regime.
The leadership team was faced with three options:
(a) to take another building somewhere else in the City and split the operations;
(b) to move into a new building altogether, with the increased cost and potential risk of holding the space in a downturn; or
(c) to invest in their existing workplace to enable a higher level of usage.
Faced with the relative costs of the three options, the data on existing space usage, and the fact that there was a stockmarket downturn in 2001, the leadership team decided to take the third option. This meant investing in their existing workplace so as to increase its operational capacity by enabling the space to be planned and used more efficiently.
It took approximately 6 months to develop and obtain agreement to the strategy, with a proposal being presented to the Executive at Easter 2001. The strategy was implemented in two phases. Phase 1 took place between July and October 2001; Phase 2 took place between April and August 2002. Approximately 600 people and workstations were moved to the new environment.
In essence, the strategy involved two main elements:
(a) providing smaller desks, without returns, and which were not ‘owned’ by the staff who used them; and
(b) using desk reservation software (integrated with automatic switching of the telephone extension to the booked desk) to enable staff to book their workstation and other spaces up to 18 days ahead, in the most appropriate location for their work. The number of workstations and people which could be accommodated within the same space was thus substantially increased.
To read the full report, please click on the link above right.
