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Weekly UpdatesConsequently, because this area is always occupied by staff, facilities services (e.g. electrical, air-conditional, and heat) can be fully provided during the normal working time. For ICT services, an organisation can provide mainly fixed-line-access services, such as fixed workstation, wired telephone, and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
High flexibility workspace
This type of workspace should be assigned to staff spending his/her time in the office area less than 75% of their typical week. In addition, this area may be assigned to part-time staff working on various contracts and working schemes. In general, part-time staff, having their working hours around a half of the typical working week of full-time staff, may spend their time in the office only 50% of general staff. As a result, the maximum desk allocation ratio of this area can be calculated on the condition that all staff in this area spend 50% of the typical working week. Therefore, the maximum desk allocation ratio or this workspace area can be 1 desk: 1.5 FTE (2 desks per 3 people, based on full-time equivalent calculation).
According to the high flexibility of desk occupation in this workspace, staff may work in different locations throughout this workspace area. At any particular time, there may be a group of unoccupied desks. Therefore, the facility services should be operated on the basis of flexible service. For example, lighting and electrical supply may be able to automatically turn on when some part of this area is occupied. Since staff working in this area need to independently and flexibly share desks/workstations, ICT support services, such as wireless LAN, and wireless devices, should be adequately provided to this area.
Ad hoc workspace
This workspace area suits staff spending less than 50% of their typical week in the office. Desk allocation ratio for this workspace area is more than 1 desk: 1.5 FTE. Moreover, facility services can be provided on an ad hoc or on-demand basis. From an operational efficiency point of view, ICT support services should be mainly wireless network and a limited number of fixed-line-access services.
6.1.2. Adapted workspace model for ICT
According to the workspace models proposed by Laing et al. (1998) and Ward and Holtham (2000), some ICT provisions can be added to the model to allocate suitable ICT services in each workspace as below (Figure 10) (Gibson and Luck, 2004):
Common individual working area
Staff working in an open-plan working area should be provided mainly fixed-line-access ICT services, such as local intranet and internet access, and some wireless ICT services for some flexible works. Standardisation of ICT applications, particularly hardware and software, should be completely implemented across this area to support the lowest cost of relocation.
[FIGURE 10 OMITTED]
Concentration working area
This area can be seen as closed room layout. Main ICT services should be a fixed-line-access type, such as individual workstation/ PC. Standardisation of ICT is needed to a normal level because it may not assist in reducing relocation costs within this area. Additional ICT services may be provided on request for particular users.
Group working area
Formal and informal meeting rooms are included in this area. This area is a public area and may be used by anyone in the organisation. Therefore, ICT services should be provided on high flexibility basis. Wireless network and wireless devices are useful for assisting staff working in this area. However, some fixed-line-access services, such as cable connection, can be implemented for a particular circumstance.
Multi-task working area
To support activities in this workspace area, specific ICT equipment, such as large screen monitors and Computer Aided Design tools, may be implemented to support expertise. Standardisation of ICT equipment may not be required for this working area.
6.1.3. Adapted workspace model for workspace management
According to the workspace models proposed by Laing et al. (1998) and Ward and Holtham (2000), some workspace management provisions can be added to the model to introduce workspace management policy in each workspace as below (Figure 11) (Gibson and Luck, 2004; Harris, 1996):
[FIGURE 11 OMITTED]
Common individual working area
Staff working in an open-plan working area should be provided with a high standardisation of office furniture and ICT equipment to support the lowest cost of relocation. Moreover, office layout in this area should be easily adapted to support the future organisation business needs.
Concentration working area
High standardisation of office furniture and equipment may not be necessary for individual/personal working area because any relocation within or from this area may have some furniture/equipment movement costs. Moreover, in particular cases, refurbishment or construction cost may arise when staff have a major relocation.
Group working area
Formal and informal meeting rooms are temporarily used for specific purposes, such as meetings and presentations. Furniture and office equipment are usually different from the normal working area. An office layout of this area may not be easily adapted. Therefore, standardization of furniture is needed to adapt an office layout within this area.
Multi-task working area
Although the team working area contains specific ICT equipment and office furniture, this area is usually an open-plan working area for a small working group. Some standardisation of office furniture provided in this area is required to support relocation.
6.1.4. Combined resources management strategy
The adapted models proposed above are aimed at use in office resource management. As addressed in the literature review, flexible working benefits an individual to work more effectively. It also benefits an organisation to manage its office more effectively. However, the major barrier for adopting flexible working is budget constraint. This section aims to propose a model interpreting flexible working adoption in practice to financial and economic terms. This model may assist an organisation to have a financial/economic perspective of its flexible working practice before taking-up. As shown in Figure 12, there are five stages of a combined resource management strategy.
Each stage is described as below:
STAGE I
Staff in an organisation should be provided adequate flexible working support. For HR policy, staff must be able to apply any flexi ble working contract (e.g. job-sharing, V-time, and term-time contracts) and flexible working scheme (e.g. flexitime, compressed hours, annualised hours, and self-rostering). ICT services for alternative workplaces, such as satellite, home, guest and instant offices, should be provided to an adequate level.
STAGE II
Proportion of staff working hours between office premises (e.g. head-office and satellite office) and alternative workplaces (e.g. home, instant office) should be established to use for allocating a suitable proportion amongst various activity-based workspaces.
[FIGURE 12 OMITTED]
STAGE III
Working area should be arranged for staff on the basis of two concepts. First, the adapted portfolio flexibility model can be used to arrange staff based on time spent in the office. Second, the activity-based workspace model is used to categorise staff into four work activity areas, which are individual, open-plan, group, and multi-task working areas.
STAGE IV
The proportions from the two models above have to be merged to a single model containing the proportion of staff in activity-based working area and flexibility level. The new proportion is expected to be used for allocating suitable ICT services (e.g. fixed line services and wireless network) and suitable workspace management support (e.g. standardisation of office furniture and ICT equipment) to any activity-based workspace. The proportion is also used to review and adjust the current office layout based on the actual proportion of working area needs.
STAGE V
Short-term and long-term financial/economic appraisal of adopting flexible working can be analysed by, for example, Whole-Life Costing approach or Cost-Benefit Analysis. For instance, costs of flexible working implementation can be calculated from the cost of new office equipment and furniture, refurbishment and construction work. Tangible benefits can be evaluated from potential cost savings, including facility service, travel, operational and maintenance costs. Intangible benefits include the higher degree of staff satisfaction, stress reduction, etc.
The combined resource management strategy is proposed to assist SLAB to overcome a problem of budget constraint when trying to take-up flexible working. The main reason is that flexible working does not only affect HR, but also ICT and workspace management (Gibson and Luck, 2004; NAO, 2006a). To evaluate realistically, all costs and benefits occurring from the three components must be reviewed and analysed.
7. CONCLUSIONS
An opportunity to manage working area more tightly has been stated in UK Government reports and research, where the concept of flexible working is proposed. Where staff can work more flexibly, office resources, especially ICT and workspace, should also be managed more efficiently. In general, a proportion between unoccupied and occupied workspace can be used to increase density of desk allocation in an office. As the current results show, the ratio, 1 desk: 1.25 FTE, is possible to adopt in the context of SLA.
As stated in previous research, an inappropriate proportion of workspace may lead to costly relocation, such as high ICT equipment, furniture, and refurbishment/construction. Promoting of activity-based workspace in public offices, like SLA, can be of benefit, in terms of churn cost saving. According to the current survey results, promoting open-plan as a major working area in the modern layout buildings shows the lowest-cost of relocation. However, the traditional layout buildings, having a large area of cellular office, have various costly churn types. This may reflect an inappropriate working area allocation in the current practice.
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