Workplace consultancy: why businesses should optimise their office

Instead, the modern office has evolved into an occasional collaboration hub; a flexible meeting space where predominantly home-based workers come together, every now and then, for ‘creative encounters’ and human contact. Indeed, office utilisation has dropped off considerably since 2020. With occupancy rates impacted by Covid-19, and remote working arrangements still in place, UK office space utilisation has fallen from 80% to 68%. And it’s a picture that’s repeated in other countries around the world.

All of which means, at any one time there is a significant quantum of underutilised office space in our corporate centres. Empty desks and conference rooms, barely occupied spaces. This scenario has serious cost implications for businesses, the majority of whom are failing to sweat their assets or realise the value of their investments.

What these companies need is to reduce waste and cost through workspace optimisation. And this means engaging a workplace consultant, whose job is to reimagine existing space to align with a company’s purpose and working arrangements. Through workplace consultancy, businesses can create effective and efficient working environments that optimise the surrounding real estate – a process which, in the new workplace landscape, can mean the difference between success and failure.

What is workplace consultancy?

Workplace consultancy refers to the process of analysing and evaluating a company’s current workspace. It involves assessing how a business uses its immediate surroundings, looking at occupancy, space and setting, and considering whether the design of key features supports the business’s mission and core activities.

The term ‘workplace consultancy’ is often used interchangeably – but erroneously – with ‘workplace strategy’. And while the consultancy process often helps to shape workplace strategy, they are not the same thing [hyperlink to consultancy vs strategy article]. Workplace consultancy, for example, is concerned with the here and now, focused on the present use of assets and facilities and how these elements can be improved. Workplace strategy, meanwhile, is more about a business’s evolution and future plans, with a view to optimising physical workspace in line with specific objectives.

A deep dive into today’s work environment, workplace consultancy seeks to discover how an occupier can enhance their workspace in the present. It analyses how people work and assesses the adjacencies of teams and facilities, while evaluating the impacts of the environment on workplace productivity. Above all, it aims to identify how design can be leveraged to improve a company’s interaction with its surrounding spaces.

The role of consultancy in the workplace

The role of consultancy in the workplace is to help companies realise the value of the assets they’ve invested in and developed. If office space is being underutilised, the workplace consultant reimagines that space to better serve the business. Whether that means readapting, repurposing or wholesale redevelopment, it’s the consultant’s responsibility to determine the best way forward – but always with the aim of finding a design solution that minimises waste and maximises value.

A robust consultancy service should make clear, concise recommendations about what a business should do with the office space they occupy. Simplification is key. The best consultants are those who avoid multiple and complex design routes, instead giving clients clear, actionable direction on how to optimise their workspace. 

Does your business need workplace consultancy?

There are several clear signs that your business is in need of workplace consultancy. Ask yourself the following: Is your desk space being used? Are your workstations and meeting spaces empty? Is the period of non-utilisation significant? If your answer to the first question is ‘no’, and your answer to the second and third is ‘yes’, then it’s time to optimise your workspace. Which means you need a consultant.

Another clear sign is if your office is designed for peak operation, rather than the mean operation. For example, if your workplace is highly functioning, productive and efficient in the runup to a major annual event (Christmas, Black Friday, Mother’s Day, End of Year), but performs poorly the rest of the year, your business needs workplace consultancy.

Given current office space utilisation rates (see above), it’s clear most companies could benefit from guidance on how to improve their workplace. If you consider that the average life expectancy of an office is ten years, then maybe the typical three, five or seven-year lease break is an opportunity to assess your situation. At these moments, you might consider whether your business is growing as you expected. Are you bursting at the seams? Are your operational costs unmanageable? Or are you still getting value from your real estate?

A good workplace consultant will help you assess your options, whether that’s expanding into another part of your building; relocating altogether; or reconfiguring your current space to better meet your needs. Remember, a business can achieve a 10x return on investment through engaging a consultant – so it’s something every company should consider at some point on their journey.

Considerations of the workplace consultant

How can workplace consultancy improve efficiency

Through smart design solutions, workplace consultancy can improve efficiency by tackling operational constraints linked to real estate waste, underutilisation and dysfunction.

One key efficiency gain involves team adjacencies. The consultancy process should help to map the flow of the product or service a business delivers to market. A business should then be able to see whether its team’s locations align with this journey – whether, in short, its people are in the right place.

For example, where is your Finance function located? Is it as far from your Sales team as possible? Often, companies assume that the quiet, focused discipline of Finance and the exuberance and energy of Sales make these two functions incompatible, requiring acres of floorspace between them. But this can lead to major disconnects, negatively impacting business performance. In reality, Finance and Sales often need to be able to communicate and exchange information easily, at speed. Their physical proximity can therefore lead to significant improvements in operational synergy and efficiency.

Through improvements in layout and location, a consultant can help enhance the connections between teams and ensure all the cogs are turning smoothly – fully synchronised and in sequence. They can also identify inefficient use of space, which often occurs through one-size-fits-all approaches to office design and asset allocation.

Companies that provide every team with the same employee-desk ratio and the same type and quantum of meeting space often run into trouble – essentially because they’ve not thought about the specific needs of specific functions. For instance, whereas one team might simply require a small touchdown space, another might need direct access to formal meeting facilities. Collaborative breakout areas may be vital for one function, private pods for another. Only through bespoke and considered design can companies create an enabling work environment, ensuring people have the space and facilities they need to perform optimally.  

Finally, consultancy can also improve efficiency through the process of reduction. While design implementation will of course require CapEx investment, a good consultant might typically shave 30% off real estate volume, leading to a corresponding reduction in OpEx. In this way, consultancy can help businesses do more with less, increasing their cost and operational efficiencies.

Through improvements in layout and location, a consultant can help enhance the connections between teams and ensure all the cogs are turning smoothly – fully synchronised and in sequence. They can also identify inefficient use of space, which often occurs through one-size-fits-all approaches to office design and asset allocation.

Companies that provide every team with the same employee-desk ratio and the same type and quantum of meeting space often run into trouble – essentially because they’ve not thought about the specific needs of specific functions. For instance, whereas one team might simply require a small touchdown space, another might need direct access to formal meeting facilities. Collaborative breakout areas may be vital for one function, private pods for another. Only through bespoke and considered design can companies create an enabling work environment, ensuring people have the space and facilities they need to perform optimally.  

Finally, consultancy can also improve efficiency through the process of reduction. While design implementation will of course require CapEx investment, a good consultant might typically shave 30% off real estate volume, leading to a corresponding reduction in OpEx. In this way, consultancy can help businesses do more with less, increasing their cost and operational efficiencies.

How is the consultancy process managed?

The workplace consultancy process is built upon four foundational pillars. These pillars represent the four key stages through which a business is guided on the journey to an optimised workspace.

The four pillars are:

1. Research: The consultant gathers critical data about the workplace, including space utilisation, processes and employee sentiment. This data serves as the basis for informed decisions.
2. Analysis: The consultant analyses the company’s structure, management and business goals, identifying gaps and opportunities for improvement.
3. Design: The consultant creates designs that are aligned with a company’s culture, values and operational requirements, helping to create a workspace that is both functional and inspiring.
4. Recommendations: The consultant outlines specific measures designed to drive improvement, either physical and/or strategic; these measures may support a future workplace strategy aligned to organisational objectives.

The four-stage process is typically managed between the workplace consultant and a steering group defined by the occupier. The steering group should include representatives from HR as well as operational and commercial teams to cover a broad spectrum of interests. These representatives will also facilitate access to data sources and engagement with key stakeholders, enabling the consultant to capture vital insights.

What types of insight are captured?

The consultation process generates both quantitative and qualitative insights, enabling the consultant to assess the situation with their head and their heart.

Through workplace data and information, the consultant accumulates fact-based insights. For example, they might leverage heat maps to understand how spaces are used and populated, or camera footage to measure footfall and occupancy traffic. Meanwhile, through face-to-face engagement with employees, the consultant can understand how people feel about the spaces they occupy, and whether these spaces support them in their day-to-day roles and activities.

Crucially, it’s the fusion of quantitative and qualitative insights that enables the consultant to deliver real value. Indeed, it’s essential that the consultancy process incorporates both dimensions. Because this is how good decisions are made, through a balance of intellect and emotion, a grasp of both fact and feeling. Only looking at occupancy data, for instance, or just referring to sentiment surveys, would be a mistake, leading to a biased and imbalanced understanding of the workplace environment. It’s the combination of head and heart that delivers the deepest insight.

Balancing the workplace consultancy data

How data builds insight

Data provides hard facts about a building and the spaces within it. It can reveal how many people are occupying certain areas at specific moments; how many people arrive each day, and where they spend their time. It can also identify the factors influencing spatial occupancy, such as light, noise and ambient temperature, and the nature of tasks being undertaken at workstations – i.e. focused work or collaboration. Put simply, it shows what’s happening where and when, providing factual insights the consultant can then enrich with the softer intel gathered through engagement.

How engagement builds insight

Engagement is about eliciting qualitative information from people to understand how they interact with their work environment. Facilitated through surveys and interviews, engagement enables the consultant to discover whether people think their surrounding spaces, services and facilities help or hinder them in their work. Does their workspace help them connect with colleagues? Do they feel complementary or disruptive to other teams? Does the work environment improve or even optimise their performance? Or does it frustrate and constrain them? Through these insights, the consultant can begin to build a clear picture of the relationships between people, place and productivity within an organisation.

Workplace results and recommendations

Following the research process, the workplace consultant analyses results, leverages key learnings and formulates recommendations. What’s essential is that this process acknowledges and aligns with a client’s preferences. Because from one organisation to another, the weighting of value can change, with greater emphasis placed on results linked to one source of information over another. Generally speaking, businesses tend to express a preference for data, as they feel safer with hard facts and numbers as a foundation for improvement. Equally, there will still be some who operate on gut instinct.

The consultant’s job is to ensure their recommendations reflect these inclinations while gently promoting the notion of balance. Often, it will be possible to use numbers to validate more intuitive leanings, or call on survey responses to back up data points. As mentioned above, what’s important is that the consultant draws on both hard and soft information to ensure well-informed decisions, and well-rounded recommendations, can be achieved.

The recommendations themselves involve measures to drive workplace enhancements and optimisation. But there is no one-size-fits-all approach or format. Some consultants make direct physical recommendations, advocating for the use of specific design products from specific manufacturers – for example, quiet pods or booths for open spaces. Other consultants prefer to delegate such recommendations to an external designer or architect as part of a detailed brief.

And then there are more strategic recommendations that underpin wider plans for a company’s evolution. These recommendations are most notably necessary when an organisation is experiencing unprecedented change or rapid growth. Or when it has multiple KPIs that go beyond the question of whether to stay or go. In the industry, such plans are often referred to as ‘workplace strategy’.

How do your start your consultancy journey?

First, you need to think about what’s not working in your office and what you want to fix. Where are the bottlenecks to productivity? What’s preventing people from achieving optimal performance?

Next, you need to speak to WRKPLC. Of course, there are plenty of design consultancies out there. But very few are as fully committed to the workplace experience as we are. Which means we will provide exactly the consultancy service you require – or, if we think you would be better served by another consultant, we will draw on our trusted network of expert designers and advisers.

Whether it’s a deep dive or a light touch, we provide clear, no-nonsense and bespoke workplace consultancy, connecting the dots and connecting you with the right people. At all times, we retain a strategic overview of every project we take on, committed to building strong and long relationships and delivering exceptional outcomes.

Get in touch to find out how workplace consultancy can benefit your workplace

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