A workplace strategy is a clear statement of how an organization will support the work being done by employees and contractors wherever and whenever it takes place.
Creating a comprehensive workplace strategy is a major undertaking. There is no formula or “cookie-cutter approach” to developing a workplace strategy. We develop workplace strategies with our clients using a four-phase approach:
- Identifying issues and opportunities
- Making the business case for change
- Defining the transformation process
- Establishing an implementation structure and process
The specific activities within each of these four phases varies from organization to organization, depending on organizational capabilities, the current state of the workplace, and the ambitions of the executive sponsor.
In our experience developing an effective, action-oriented workplace strategy is a 6-12 month exercise. However, we always proceed in phases, with checkpoints and decision reviews at the end of each phase. And we require organizational commitment for only one phase at a time.
If you are ready to take the first step, identifying workplace issues and opportunities for improvement, please contact us for a preliminary conversation about scope, schedule, success measures, and professional fees.
How well prepared is your organization for the future of work? Do you have the talent, the organizational structure, the technology capabilities, and the business processes you need to thrive in the changing economy?
A Futures Audit is a relatively quick (2-4 weeks) review of your current capabilities and your potential future risks. The audits involve executive interviews, discovery workshops, and online workforce surveys. At the end of the Audit we prepare and deliver an action-oriented executive briefing that includes specific recommendations for change.
If you have any doubts about your organization’s ability to survive the future, contact us now to ask for a customized futures audit.
A central component of our Futures Audit process is assessing where you are today, and where you are capable of going. We make extensive use of two proprietary management tools, the Future of Work Workforce Survey and the Organizational Assessment System (OAS).
Future of Work Workforce Survey
The Workforce Survey is an online instrument that captures data about the work patterns, likes, dislikes, preferences, and needs of knowledge workers. The current version of the Workforce Survey includes 28 items that capture data in several major categories:
- the type of work people do
- where people work, and for how many hours each week
- the characteristics of a workplace that people consider desirable
- the mix of work activities in a typical day (meetings, private work, etc.)
- the importance of various technologies and support services
The overall purpose of survey is to gain an understanding of how the workplace is evolving and how individual patterns of work are changing in your organization. The Workforce Survey also provides insight into the types of work activities that predominate within an organization, and therefore the amount of workspace that should be dedicated to different kinds of activities.
We have been using the Workforce Survey in various iterations for almost ten years, so we can provide you with insight not only into your own work patterns, but with comparisons with data from a number of other organizations.
Contact us directly to explore how the Workforce Survey can help you assess the alignment between your current workforce patterns and workplace resources.
Organizational Assessment System
The OAS is designed to provide decision makers with a reliable, quantifiable assessment of a work group’s potential for successfully making a transition to a new way of working.
Our research shows that, in 95% of the cases, workgroups that score more than one standard deviation below national norms on three or more of the five core factors we measure fail to make a successful transition to a new work state.
Contact us directly to discover how the OAS helps prepare an organization for change.