So, what does an Enabled Workplace mean?
Place and People = Enabled Workplace.

Congratulations you are on level three of the path to an Experiential Workplace. At Level 3 your workplace is focused on two out of the three environments, which, depending on those combinations, are classified as Engaged, Empowered, or Enabled workplaces. 

This should be seen as an accomplishment and a long way away from being either Non-Experiential or Emergent.

You may notice that the words used to describe these workplaces are all positive because even though many workplaces aren't perfect and are indeed lacking in various areas, they are striving and moving in the right direction. 

Let's look at what it means to be in an Enabled Workplace in more detail.

Employees have been told that they need to be productive but don't always necessarily understand what this means and how it is measured. This misunderstanding has led to a lot of recriminations when staff are faced with statements about lack of productivity when working from home.

With the only one in two employees globally stating that they agree that their workplace allows them to work effectively, business leaders need to be highly concerned with productivity and with workplace performance. In order to provide your people with the correct tools you need to be able to communicate how they are productive and what they contribute to the greater organisations purpose.

As an organisation you may well have engaged in the productivity debate with your staff but there is probably a lack of understanding on how the workplace can improve productivity.

The way in which technology is used whether in-office, home or 3rd place go hand in hand with productivity Yet in many situations, this is not only disappointing but has a direct impact on the performance of staff as well as their resultant satisfaction. In a enabled workspace it is likely that your staff feel as though there is only a bare minimum of technology provided for them to accomplish their tasks.

When it comes to the communication of how your organisation is approaching the new world of work your employees may feel as though they have not been consulted and are consequently potentially resistant to some of the decisions that may have been taken around hybrid working.

There have been many approaches to the return to the office, and in many cases employees have felt rushed and potentially coerced into returning to the office before any detailed plan of action and communication had been provided. Let alone any changes to the way in which work was to be conducted and the workplace adjusted to enable that work to take place.

The pandemic has changed where, when, and how we work.  As hybrid working becomes the preferred way of working it may be that your organisation has not yet fully realised the massive changes this will have on the way the workplace of the future, how it is managed as well as HR processes and leadership practices.

Clear policy procedures and practices on how the workplace is to be used and what all the requirements around remote working is need to be communicated clearly and compassionately.

They may well exist understanding at management level of the need to create memorable employee experiences in the workplace, but the world has changed and if you want your staff to be happy at work then you need to reconsider their and tired workplace journey and desired experience.  Employees expectations have changed. In many instances employees have built a better workplace at home than they had left in March 2020. This is a damning indictment of the quality of the average office space and as such this has added to the resistance in the return to work. Understandably therefore employees are demanding a significantly different environment and experience. You will therefore need to treat your employees in much the same way as you treat your customers. You will need to ensure that in the designing of the workplace experience this is conducted from an employee’s perspective and that it will need to receive the same kind of attention and resources that are probably used when looking at designing services to your customers in order to create a superior customer experience.

The 3 foundational elements of People, Place and Purpose are treated as a holistic construct, and it is recommended that none of the elements be cherry picked or treated in isolation. The last decade has seen incessant effort on driving down occupancy costs, I am sure it is no different in your workplace. Unfortunately, this has culminated in more and more people being squeezed into smaller and smaller space. Whilst this represent greater space efficiency we have seen that this densification has taken a terrible toll on productivity.

A preoccupation with densities and number of staff /m² may lead to an efficient use of the space but efficiency must be handled with care. It can be an important means of justifying the cost of workplace transformation. Indeed, it can even ensure that it is self-funding, but this should not be to the detriment of its twin soul, effectiveness.Smart leaders understand it’s not what a workplace looks like, but how it works, that matters more. Your workplace management team should be making the connection with space utilisation and falling productivity and guiding the conversations you need to be having with those responsible for the workplace.

Along with this conversation you need to encourage your executive and management cohort to challenge their respective teams to seek answers to a broad range of questions, that captures employee feedback on how effectively the workplace supports them and their work. Employees are the key ingredient to the success of your Workplace strategy. It is their input that will guide you in the required changes and will create a sense of ownership and build trust with the Workplace team. However, a word of warning! Trust cannot be built overnight and existing organisational issues or internal politics that lay under the surface can negate both the response and the resulting data.The workspace plays a strategic role in any organisation; it is after all the biggest 3D billboard you're ever likely to construct. It showcases your brand to the world and signals to your employees your values, what you value in others and how much you care for your employees. Your workspace is intimately involved in your ability to recruit and retain the best talent. By improving the employee’s workplace experience and productivity and enhancing engagement and other aspects of corporate success.

An explicit focus on cost which may be reinforced by certain reporting lines can lead to occupancy strategies that support higher densities at the expense of effective performance, productivity, talent retention and workplace experience.

True knowledge work depends less on following a repeated formula or prescription and more on applying theoretical knowledge and learning in an unpredictable culture of collaboration, exploration, autonomy, and initiative. This is a more creative way of working and as such it requires a more flexible approach to facilities, and the spaces that are required to optimally perform different types of work.It is such workers that complain that their offices too noisy and distracting and is disappointed by the lack of different types of workspace including communal and breakout zones for them to work creatively and fulfil their potential. Unfortunately, it is this precise same worker that is infinitely more mobile and in demand and if not satisfied Will simply move to your competitor.

So, the question remains do the average office facility simply provided place to work or do they provide a competitive advantage for the organisation? Workspace as a tool for production has unfortunately been a concept rather than an operating reality.Workplace experience is key to a successful work model (whether that’s hybrid or 100% on-site).  While your employees may not visit the office every day in a hybrid work model, the workplace should offer purpose, opportunity, and space for those who do. Workplace experience can be a great tool for improving employee experience. A January 2022 survey found that 63% of employees feel empowered when they have flexibility to choose when and where they work. That means empowering them with the right tools to choose how they work.

It’s important to build a workplace experience that will keep your employees engaged and empowered to do their best work.  According to Gallup’s meta-analysis, employee engagement is on the decline in 2022, with the least engaged coming from full-time, on-site workers. Hybrid and remote workers are more engaged, and engagement is higher for organisations that focus on culture. Engaged employees are also more likely to remain with their organisation. Collaboration and connection play a big role in creating a great workplace experience.

According to a recent study, the top factors that influence employees to visit the office are to get heads down work done (39%) and connection with other colleagues (37%).

In an Enabled Workplace, work is required in the other foundational element of Purpose, and we would encourage you to address the building blocks for this particular elements as listed in section 5 of this report.