Economic difficulty brings timely opportunities for facilities professionals operating in corporate and institutional structures.
One of the most important actions facilities managers can take is to make the business case for how much money you can save the company when there is a cost reduction effort. For example, in her World Workplace presentation, Managing Change in Turbulent Times, Diane Stegmeier said, “Providing a workspace to an individual employee costs an organization from $8,000 to $14,000 U.S. per year. Eliminating 100 workspaces can save an organization over $1 million per year. These savings are in real estate, energy and operations. None of these savings are attributed to salary, benefits or any other costs associated with the workforce. However, because many companies have already downsized staff due to the economy, the excess real estate becomes a primary target for significant cost savings.”
To bring credibility to the FM organization, she told FMs, “You need baseline ammunition on how you can change the use of space with alternative environments, rather than assigned offices, so you can add employees without increasing the real estate portfolio.” For example, Stegmeier suggests that facilities managers consider:
- increasing the ratio of worker to desk
- determining remote/mobile worker ratios
- demonstrating to HR and senior management how you can save money
Further, Stegmeier indicates businesses must cut costs dramatically in order to survive these turbulent times. The significant reduction of the number of employees remaining following corporate downsizing—coupled with the increasing trend for members of the workforce to spend the majority of their time working anywhere but their dedicated, assigned workspaces—creates the ideal scenario for corporate real estate professionals to demonstrate the true power of place. Organizations that had been uncertain whether they should attempt to break the 1:1 ratio of worker to workspace are ripe for moving forward with pilot programs to explore the impact on worker productivity. However, for many businesses, incrementalism is no longer an option, and now is the time for a wholesale transformation of the workplace.
While facilities and real estate managers become unpopular when they contribute to staff losing space, the issue of concern for employees is the fear of the unknown that creates uncertainty and discomfort. And that is the common thread for all four generations in the workplace, says Stegmeier.
In her book, Innovations in Office Design: The Critical Influence Approach to Effective Work Environments, published in 2008, she explains her research findings over a 10-year time span surrounding the impact of physical space on behavior in the workplace.
