FEATURE
Grant Clarke, Senior Projects Director at Rhino Interiors Group, explains how reorganising your workspace in line with agile principles can reduce running costs, increase employee retention and optimise productivity.
AGILE DESIGN, AGILE NATURE
Unlike the first officially recognised design concept of the early 1900s, which was rigid, linear and hierarchical, today’s layouts consider the people using the space, rather than focusing on the space itself.
Over the last decade or so, the agile design model has taken firm hold. And one of the leading facilities management firms predicts more than two thirds of UK offices will adopt this approach by the end of 2020.
Software, startups and silos Today’s agile office design was largely influenced by the startup culture and a global software engineering methodology of the same name. This approach to developing technology is based on a set of values and principles designed to enable flexibility, creativity and rapid iteration through autonomy and collective ownership. Ultimately, it’s characterised by a move away from the silo-based management philosophy of the factory floor.
As a result, agile offices in firms like Spotify and Google are optimised for collaboration, with adjustable, moveable desks, stand-up meeting spaces, sofas, huddle rooms and writable walls. In a true agile working environment, the small, cross-functional, autonomous teams decide how, where and how they work in order to be most productive.
Autonomy, flexibility, productivity These principles are 100% transferable to other industries, where agile workspace design is still about autonomy, flexibility and productivity. It accounts for different tasks and individual working preferences — think extroverts and introvert; focused tasks and brainstorming. And it focuses on increasing mobility within shared spaces to increase communication, creativity and collaboration.
So, in an agile office we see mixed-use spaces, a variety of settings and different levels (sit-stand desks, low
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sofas, high meeting tables). At Rhino we talk about four zones: focus, collaboration, social and learning/meeting. Each has its own type of furniture — for example, quiet, private pods and booths in focus zones; big tables and shared work areas in collaboration zones; and community elements like sofas, benches and games in social zones.
The benefits (and a few considerations) There are, however, some considerations such as sound, light and traffic flow. As such, agile workspaces feature sound-absorbing wall panels, natural light and careful zone planning.
And it’s vital to front-load the agile design process with a workplace occupancy audit. Why? Because workstation occupancy rates are, on average, as low as 46%; around 80% of short meetings have two-four people, and quite a few areas are just dead spots. We’ve found an agile design can reduce footprint by 15-35%, or increase headcount within the existing space by optimising use of rarely used rooms, desks and areas.
While some benefits of agile workspace design – increased wellbeing, engagement and sense of community – may be hard to measure, the business-critical benefits are hard to contest: a reduction in running costs, an increase in employee retention and optimised productivity.
Time to become more agile? Agile is so successful that, according to facilities group Mitie, more than 70% of UK offices will be agile workplaces by 2020. It adds that the need for commercial office space in the UK will be half that of 2010; that just 40% of office workers will have their ‘own’ desk and 60% of staff will spend more time working out of the office than in it.
https://info.rhinooffice.co.uk/agilereport_download www.rhinooffice.co.uk twitter.com/TomorrowsFM
To understand how to make the most of the agile office design concept, download Rhino’s Agile Working special report.
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