The average American spends more time at work than on any other activity. But the work space doesn’t meet everyone’s needs. There was a time when the open office was all the rage, as advocates argued breaking down the walls builds up creativity. But employees say it just builds up the noise – making it impossible to get any work done. SCG founder Diane Stegmeier was recently interviewed about the topic everyone seems to have an opinion about–open office plans.
How quickly do the words ‘open office environment’ prompt a strong debate? Give a listen to NPR’s The Sound of Ideas, where radio host Mike McIntyre facilitated a lively discussion on the topic, Where We Work. Thanks to those who called in with great questions & comments regarding the challenges of concentrating in the open workplace.
So you have modernized your office design complete with open layouts, casual working spaces, and new strategies that encourage collaboration and mobility. Great! The problem? The new approach just isn’t catching on in the office, and the investment your company has made in this change doesn’t look poised to yield a promising return.
If this situation has your organization perplexed, you’re not alone. There are several factors (or, Critical Influences as we here at Stegmeier Consulting Group refer to them) that our research shows could have caused this disconnect between the intended results of the workplace change and the actual results. Rest assured, however, that there are a number of things that can still be done to get your workplace initiative back on track.
Whether it is through training, surveys, focus groups, or other forms of employee engagement, Stegmeier can help your organization pinpoint and overcome whatever hurdles may be in the way. Don’t settle for the status quo and assume your endeavor is a lost cause. Contact us to learn more about the 15 Critical Influences that contribute to the success of any workplace initiative, and to learn more about how SCG can assist in making your office a destination that employees can’t wait to visit.
Stegmeier Consulting Group can assist with a wide range of challenges involved in implementing a workplace change initiative. Contact us to find out how our services can help your organization.
Even if members of your workforce do not travel 80% of the time as the individual in this piece does, your organization still maybe able to take advantage of the concept of hoteling.
For instance, if your employees are simply using their desks as “touchdown” spaces where they recover from and prepare for their next conference room meeting, perhaps that dedicated workstation is simply wasting space. The same goes for desks of employees that have the ability to work remotely from a home office. Companies that have moved to a hoteling structure have realized that a 1:1 desk to employee ratio can be inefficient and even costly.
How ready is your organization for a shift to a new, more efficient and less expensive workplace strategy? Contact Stegmeier Consulting Group and let us help you conduct a change-readiness assessment of your company. From there, we can help guide and train your people to successfully adapt to your workplace change.
Stegmeier Consulting Group can assist with a wide range of challenges involved in implementing a workplace change initiative. Contact us to find out how our services can help your organization.
“I feel like I’m being not only demoted, but punished. Every day I walk in and think, I must be being punished for something.”
While so many companies are moving to completely open floor plans, there’s bound to be some discontent, especially among those who previously held offices. I recently experienced this drastic change at my company, the result being that our CEO sits in a cubicle the exact same size as mine. Seriously. Prior to the move, people were undeniably antsy. On the first day in the new office, everyone looked positively shell-shocked.
This article offers some great insight from someone who has had to learn to adapt to a new open-office environment. The shame is that these ideas and suggestions (along with many others) could have been introduced to this workplace long before any kind of change took place.
What is your organization’s plan to avoid employees from being “shell-shocked” when a new workplace layout or strategy takes effect? For many companies, there is little to no plan to transition from a traditional office to the open-office, or to a new culture of team members working remotely.
Reach out to Stegmeier Consulting Group early in your company’s change process and we can help prepare and train your workforce for the new work environment that will be introduced in the upcoming months or years. Let us share our over 18-years of knowledge and experience gained through researching and assisting change initiatives with your project team. Stegmeier Consulting Group will help put your organization in the best possible position to reap the intended benefits of the change to your workplace.
Stegmeier Consulting Group can assist with a wide range of challenges involved in implementing a workplace change initiative. Contact us to find out how our services can help your organization.
New school and office workspace designs created by a group of Penn State engineering students are intended to allow users to share space and materials while maintaining their own work areas—a dual purpose the researchers say has been neglected.
Stegmeier Consulting Group applauds Penn State University and their engineering students for their hard work and years of study on continuous improvement of shared workspace environments.
In 2002, the General Services Administration (GSA) began the Workplace 2020 initiative which was a project that sought to research what workplaces of the future may look like. It was back then when the administration noticed the workplace becoming “increasingly more team-based and collaborative.” Two of the “Hallmarks of the Productive Workplace” they identified were spacial equity and comfort: two areas this Penn State research program has worked hard to master since 2010!
Continuing to push the frontier on how organizations can work more efficiently and collaborate better is a passion we share as well. We have worked with several clients across many industries who have successfully transitioned their employees away from confining and isolated work areas to open, more team-oriented settings.
Stegmeier Consulting Group can assist with a wide range of challenges involved in implementing a workplace change initiative. Contact us to find out how our services can help your organization.
Poorly designed office spaces have been proven to not only have a negative impact on an employees’ mood, but productivity and wellbeing. Extensive international research from Ipsos and the Workspace Futures Team of Steelcase shows 85% of people are dissatisfied with their work environment and can’t concentrate; of those, 95% said working privately was important to them.
However some businesses have incorporated fun in their office design without compromising productivity.
Proof that a workplace does not need to be a dry, bland environment, this article highlights some very interesting workspaces designed to make employees feel comfortable and stimulated! When companies create work environments that their people enjoy, productivity increases, morale improves, and internal relationships strengthen. We’re not suggesting every office needs a ping-pong table, but we do feel it is important organizations reinforce their culture through the design of their physical space!
If your company is considering a drastic, or even a minor, change to the work environment, let the experienced consultants at Stegmeier Consulting Group help make your transition smooth by preparing your workforce for new ways of working.
Stegmeier Consulting Group can assist with a wide range of challenges involved in implementing a workplace change initiative. Contact us to find out how our services can help your organization.
Millennial-oriented workspaces – those wide-open, funky zones designed to foster “collaboration” – have become such a part of the tech office landscape that the hip HBO series “Silicon Valley” has made a running gag out of them.
But a new CBRE study of more than 5,500 office workers shows that Millennial employees don’t actually work that much differently than their more seasoned colleagues. Indeed, Baby Boomers, Generation Xers and Millennials all gravitate toward similar working environments.
Implementing a workplace change strategy does not have to mean a complete elimination of privacy in the office. Instead, a well-designed organizational layout should provide employees and managers alike easy access to a variety of work settings including areas for individual work to take place as well asspaces for collaboration. Even workplaces that have shifted to a more open space environment where everyone is easily visible and accessible can implement policies such as visual cues to indicate when someone is not currently available.
Stegmeier Consulting Group can assist with a wide range of challenges involved in implementing a workplace change initiative. Contact us to find out how our services can help your organization.
It sounds like a gag straight out of a Dilbert cartoon. But for a growing number of companies, taking away assigned desks and turning employees into office nomads has its advantages.
At Citi, executives saw office work space going unused because employees were home sick, out on vacation or on flexible schedules. So the company filled an entire floor of a building in Long Island City with conference rooms, meeting areas and desks — but no assigned desks. In fact, there are only 150 spaces for 200 people, according to Harvard Business Review. Employees put their personal belongings in lockers and simply find a space where they want to work.
The trend of companies seeking a more mobile and “agile” workforce continues to grow as this article documents. Presently, most work environments are set up to maximize productivity. What a redesigned and more team-focused environment does however is inspire collaboration and innovation. The goal? Maximize productivity AND innovation simultaneously. At Stegmeier Consulting Group, we work with organizations in various fields and of all sizes to help with transitions to new office layouts and new ways of thinking about workplace efficiency.
Stegmeier Consulting Group can assist with a wide range of challenges involved in implementing a workplace change initiative. Contact us to find out how our services can help your organization.
How can you spur innovation? Recently, I attended an internal workshop on strategy and growth, and my workgroup was asked to tackle this very question. We quickly came to the conclusion that innovation and learning are closely aligned; that is, creating the condition for innovation requires creating a “learning culture,” or a culture in which new ideas and fresh thinking are welcome.
At Stegmeier Consulting Group, we believe that innovation can come from anywhere at anytime within an organization. Innovation should not just be a responsibility left up to the marketing department or the research and development teams. This article brings to light 5 great suggestions on how to foster a more innovative culture. Here at SCG, we’d like to propose a 6th suggestion: Consider a workplace redesign that allows for more collaboration and efficiency. The changes can range from simply providing employees more space to hold small meetings, to considering a telework program that will allow employees more flexibility and more of the most precious resource of all: time.
Stegmeier Consulting Group can assist with a wide range of challenges involved in implementing a workplace change initiative. Contact us to find out how our services can help your organization.
An event space housed in a basketball court, complimentary snacks and beverages, billiards and darts may seem more at home in a fraternity house than an office. But those amenities fit right in at coworking space Flywheel, which opened this week at the Wake Forest Innovation Quarter.
Flywheel is located in 11,585 square feet of the research park’s 525@vine building. Its flexible, collaborative working space offers a “casual and contemporary” environment for entrepreneurs, independent professionals and innovators to work “on the fly.”
There is a common misconception that the demand for coworking space only lies in the largest cities (think NYC, LA, Chicago). We’re seeing that this is not the case.
Winston-Salem is a great example of a smaller city embracing new ways of working. The city population is a little over 236,000 and it already has two coworking office locations, including the one in this article. These working offices are both around 10,000 square feet and open 7 days a week.
Would you consider working in a coworking office? Why or why not?
Stegmeier Consulting Group can assist with a wide range of challenges involved in implementing a workplace change initiative. Contact us to find out how our services can help your organization.
Changing the way organizations manage workplace change
About SCG
Stegmeier Consulting Group is a 100% woman-owned small business. We’re a team of behavioral change agents & data specialists, with expertise in people & place.
We work with corporations, civic partners, & higher learning institutions to lead data gathering, strategic planning, and change implementation efforts.
SCG feels strongly that every employer should strive to create a respectful workplace for each employee. It’s why we started Project WHEN, a 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to eliminating all forms of workplace harassment.
Our financial support has allowed the organization to grow and begin impacting work communities everywhere. We encourage clients to consider donating or getting involved in the movement with us.
