Workplace Planning Guide

Develop a structured change management and communications plan to guide employees through the transition. Explain why changes are being made, outline the timeline, and provide resources to help staff adjust to hybrid or flexible work models. Given that the hybrid office is people-centric, the transition should involve the participation of employees throughout the space planning process. Change management goes hand in hand with design and will promote an informed design solution. The role of change management is to help facilitate communication with all stakeholders and to draw out resistance so that issues can be resolved at the beginning of the space planning process, thereby avoiding costly mid-design changes.

Engage employees early in the planning process to ensure workplace design decisions reflect real work practices. Gather input, test concepts, and build employee support for the new office environment through broad, inclusive engagement and feedback activities. Because the hybrid office will be a different way of working and a tailored solution for your organization, it is important to go through a discovery period to better understand departmental goals, culture, and structure. Initially, it may be challenging for employees to see beyond the current workplace, so discussing how work has evolved can help guide future decisions about setting up a hybrid workplace.

Analyze how employees work on a daily basis to identify space needs and improvement opportunities. Document collaboration levels, mobility, and technology use to align workplace design with operational requirements. To understand functional needs, the assessment should evaluate your current space and office layout. The team should clearly understand how your space has been set up to accomplish work and identify space requirements unique to your organization. This process will give a clear picture of how your office has operated and the changes needed for the future.

Use the results of the work pattern assessment to develop a detailed program of requirements for the workplace. Create an itemized list of the space types needed today and in the future, including sizes, quantities, and adjacency requirements. Space programming draws on the needs analysis findings to develop a detailed list of the spaces needed by your department as well as the quantity and size of the space overall. Space programming also assesses which components of your department need to be located together to promote efficiency.

Create conceptual design alternatives to visualize workplace strategies. Develop layouts and diagrams that test options for space allocation and compare alternatives against agency needs. Instead of planning for hallways and walls, the hybrid office should be more open. Furniture pods and demountable partitions offer more flexibility than constructed enclosed spaces, both now and when planning for the future. Though the solution for each office will be unique, an overall objective is to keep the furniture and fixtures as adaptable and flexible as possible.

Apply a space utilization model to measure how effectively office space is being used. Collect and analyze data to identify underutilized areas, set performance benchmarks, and highlight opportunities for optimization. Understanding how employees are currently using space, any issues your department has had with utilization, and your plans for the future is critical. New technologies may be needed to enhance space management, including applications for scheduling shared workstations and conferencing facilities, tracking space utilization, and managing visitors.

Use the telework readiness model to score how well the agency supports hybrid and remote work. Evaluate infrastructure, policies, and practices to pinpoint strengths and gaps in remote operations. The hybrid office thrives on technology that supports both in-office and remote work. Communication, workflow, task management, file storage, and data security technology should be considered. It is important to understand how employees are currently using technology and any issues your department has had with remote work capabilities.

Conduct a financial analysis to compare the cost and value of workplace strategies. Evaluate alternatives using cost-benefit ratios, long-term savings projections, and phased implementation scenarios. Once you know your requirements, it's time to develop alternatives. These could include modifying your existing space or relocating to a new space. Applying project costs to the square feet identified in your program of requirements allows you to generate cost estimates for comparing alternatives.