Alternative Work Styles

Organizations of all types are using location-based social media data and other user-generated information to improve workspace design and functionality. By researching occupancy data, user satisfaction ratings, and other metrics, facility designers are finding smarter ways to lower costs and create efficiencies. While some organizations mine existing trace data automatically generated by mobile devices and building management systems, others are developing customized platforms dedicated to capturing key information.

Leading-edge interdisciplinary facilities like the New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health (IFNH) at Rutgers University, as well as facilities in Wisconsin and Washington, D.C., are transforming academic research culture through the use of open building designs that foster cross-discipline collaborations and “emergent outcomes.” This approach to culture-driven facility design is also being successfully deployed at other universities across the country in an effort to improve the way research institutes operate and compete for grants and contracts.  

Vassar College completed construction in spring of 2016 on the $125 million Integrated Science Commons in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Designed by Ennead Architects, the project features the 82,000-sf Bridge for Laboratory Sciences, a teaching and research building that spans a ravine.

Whether personal or professional, change evokes an emotional response. Workplace change initiatives, especially those relating to space, nudge (or jolt) employees out of their comfort zones and typically entail some modification in routine and behavior. Relationships change, as well, and questions arise about how to continue performing at a high level in the new environment. The fastest, most productive change strategies take these human dimensions into account.  

Ford Motor Company will begin construction in May of 2016 on a comprehensive redevelopment of its real estate portfolio in Dearborn, Mich. The project will include construction of a 700,000-sf design facility as well as the expansion and renovation of Ford's existing headquarters campus. Designed by SmithGroupJJR to promote collaboration and interaction, the updated buildings will feature open workspaces with unassigned seating.

Workspace planners are often asked to design to a 10-to-20-year time horizon, but the more rapidly technology advances, the harder this becomes. And it’s not just the hardware, software, and work tasks that are going to change, says Kay Sargent, director of workplace strategies at Lendlease. It’s also the workers themselves. Science shows that workers’ brains are going to work differently in 20 years, says Sargent, and companies need to start planning for this now, or pay the price.

The Shared Resource Center, which will provide new lab space for four existing core facilities at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute in Tampa, Fla., is nearing completion with substantial buy-in from staff, despite a sometimes challenging consensus-building process, according to Moffitt’s Christine O’Connell, senior director of laboratory research operations and Susan Constable, manager of shared resources.

The phrase “lab of the future” typically refers to a flexible, open floorplan designed to promote collaboration and cross-pollination between researchers. But these buzzwords have been used for decades, with open labs dating back to the mid-’60s and flexible casework to the mid-’80s. So how successful have these features been, and what defines the lab of the future in 2015 and beyond?

Diverse projects in New York, New Jersey, and Maryland demonstrate that integrating flexible infrastructure, collaborative work styles, daylight, and sustainability all contribute to a “health-positive” scientific research environment, a concept derived from neurological and behavioral research indicating that access to natural light and human interaction improve well-being and productivity.

To achieve the most viable, successful workspaces, companies need to look closely at the factors that most directly influence their work culture instead of following the latest design trends, according to Kay Sargent, director of workplace strategies at Lend Lease. No single workplace design fits every company, and a workspace should fit the people using it, as well as the organizational goals.

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center’s Regional Biocontainment Lab (RBL) recently organized and launched a select-agent-based study in just 30 days from inception to conclusion, thanks to the organization’s highly efficient operational framework. Fast tracking of the study—which involved aerosol exposure of 38 immunized mice to Francisella tularensis, the causative agent of tularemia—was made possible through the facility’s strategic management and cross-trained staffing model.

The renovated OB-GYN academic offices at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) eliminate private offices in favor of shared desks and open concept space, to accommodate a planned 20 percent staff increase while decreasing total departmental square footage. The department, which previously housed about 80 people in 14,000 sf, can now accommodate 106 people in 13,000 sf. The gut-and-rebuild also improves ADA compliance for the 1950s building and provides more natural light and collaborative space.

Facility managers can achieve optimal performance by “sweating their assets”—making existing assets work harder—through a careful analysis of what factors contribute to the highest throughput and then undertaking initiatives that will help them reach those goals. Doing so may eliminate the need to create expensive new space but may require facility redesign, says Cyrus Yang, executive director of delivery system planning for Kaiser Permanente.

As health science education becomes increasingly interprofessional, the design of academic medical facilities is changing to reflect this new type of learning. Collaboration is the cornerstone of interprofessional medicine, as health care providers strive to offer the best patient care. Nurturing such collaboration begins in the educational facilities where students from multiple disciplines learn the importance of working together.

With no private offices or assigned seats, not even for top executives, employees at GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) corporate office at the Philadelphia Navy Yard work in a variety of work settings. Work spaces include the atrium, the cafeteria, sit-to-stand workstations, quiet rooms, meeting rooms, and even the rooftop.