Workforce & Workplace Strategy Alignment – Case Study – Westfield Insurance
Workforce & workplace strategy alignment: a case study on the insurance industry
Aligning a workforce strategy with a workplace strategy
Founded in 1848 by a small group of Ohio farmers, the Westfield Group has been in business for more than a century and since has grown to be one of the nation’s leading Property and Casualty companies. Due to existing workplace standards and a lack of flexibility, their 350,000 square foot Home Office campus was effectively at full capacity.
Adding a new building on the Home Office campus to alleviate the company’s capacity challenges would prevent investment in activities with more direct benefit to its business operations. The company wanted to avoid such an investment for the foreseeable future, and decided to pursue a “zero sum real estate strategy” through a new workplace strategy and master plan.
Stegmeier Consulting Group (SCG) was engaged to align the workplace strategy with the workforce strategy by developing a change management approach that would ensure the optimization of Westfield’s real estate portfolio and improve employee engagement in relation to the work environment factors.
The development of a workforce-driven change management strategy
SCG’s engagement included analysis of workforce-related materials and data from a space utilization study to develop the Change Management Strategy for Westfield. A comprehensive series of data gathering exercises commenced in order to assess current working conditions and identify ways to align the workforce and workplace strategy.
As part of this process, SCG administered its proprietary Leadership Change Readiness Assessment and conducted departmental leader interviews to be cognizant of their perception and preparedness for change.
SCG also supported end user advisory group events and created communication content and materials for leader talking points to help articulate to employees the importance of their involvement in the preparation for change.
Westfield employees were given the opportunity to have their voices heard through employee panel surveys that would highlight their thoughts and ideas for workplace improvement. In addition to this, approximately 100 employees were invited to participate in a photo journaling activity to help us gain an understanding of which workspaces employees enjoyed most, along with getting a sense of the overall state of the work environment.
The results of these data gathering exercises were presented to the client’s leadership committee, providing Westfield with a foundation for incorporating data-driven design concepts into the new workplace strategy the insurance company would introduce to employees. And by focusing on its people up front, Westfield ensured that the new workplace strategy was aligned with how employees wanted to work.
Workforce and workplace strategy alignment consulting services
Does this sound like something that could help your company navigate the waters of a workplace change? If you’re interested in strategic planning and change implementation to align your workforce and workplace strategies, take the first step by reaching out to Stegmeier Consulting Group through the form below.
