Let’s put offices to work

Boosting UK productivity is a complex problem to solve, but the real estate sector can provide one piece of the puzzle – through our workplace expertise. As businesses manage rising costs, corporate occupiers will no doubt be looking at how they can make their office investment go further, using it to inspire their teams to innovate and achieve more. Government on the other hand has made efficiency and productivity drives a priority to maximise the impact of public spending and improve outcomes for communities.

At the Government Property Agency, we’re at the vanguard of this effort – with a mandate to rationalise the government office estate and create great places to work for civil servants so that they can focus on delivering the national missions.

We’ve got first hand experience of what it takes to design and deliver spaces that truly work for those who use them. With over £2bn worth of assets under management, we’re delivering one of the largest office transformation programmes in the UK. We’re already ahead of our 10-year savings target and we’ve had strong user feedback too, with our Birmingham hub at 23 Stephenson Street, (the GPA’s headquarters) recognised by Leesman as the best employee workplace experience in the UK public sector.

So, what lessons can we share about designing workplaces that inspire productivity and deliver real value for money?

Making it work on a human scale

It sounds obvious, but the space has to be tailored for the people using it and the devil is often in the detail. At the GPA, we try to look beyond broad stereotypes associated with demographic categories like age and instead try to delve deeper, shaping our approach around different people’s needs and how they prefer to work.

One of the advantages we have at the GPA is our ability to collect and use data gathered from our occupiers – government departments. We can mould our designs around the requirements of the civil service and track trends over time. We know data isn’t always readily available for private developers, but there are some broad principles they can follow.

Sensory inputs like air temperature, smells and paint colours all contribute to the performance of employees, so nailing this first time around will prevent expensive mistakes in the future. Flexibility, inclusivity and accessibility should also be front and centre.

In our experience, it’s about planning spaces that allow for futureproofing. One way to do this is through purposeful selection and placement of furniture to support effective workspace zoning, supporting the development of a ‘sensory’ floor plan whereby high activity spaces are separated thoughtfully from low activity, do not disturb areas. Creating boundaries and separation between these spaces through furnishings rather than walls and doors will mean the office is not only more inclusive now, but also more adaptable for the future.

In all the hubs we have delivered so far, we’ve installed rise and fall desks, that allow colleagues to sit or stand. These provide a line-of-sight view when standing, creating interest and excitement while balancing the need for focus and interaction.

Creating these productive spaces is at the heart of office design, but it’s important not to forget to have comfortable, neutral spaces too, such as the wellbeing room at our Birmingham hub. This is a quiet and private area to aid rest or have a moment of calm, away from busy work. These rooms typically have thick carpeting to provide soundproofing, a mid-tone colour scheme that has neither bright nor dark shades to avoid overstimulation and neutral wall paint to give a clean, uncluttered backdrop and reflect light to make the room feel airy. While the traditional water cooler may no longer be a staple of modern offices, we design our refreshment hubs to provide the same opportunity of impromptu catchups and conversations with colleagues.

While the makeup of a workforce may change over time and preferences with it, by designing spaces that involve limited reworking down the line, the offices of today can last generations.

Design that lasts

Focusing on design that improves productivity and fosters an engaged workforce is the key to unlocking untapped potential and supporting the workforce of years to come. Using our rich library of data is important to help us meet our government partners’ needs of today. But balancing this with creating workspaces that have adaptable design at their core affords us the option to make changes down the line. We don’t have a crystal ball to predict upcoming office trends. So, creating flexible, accessible spaces gives us the best chance of being adaptable to whatever the workforce of tomorrow might need.