I seem to come across some article or infographic about working at home at least once or twice a week. Work-at-home programs are definitely a hot topic among our client’s facilities and real estate teams as they look for ways to redcuce real estate costs and allow staff to achieve the ever-elusive work/life balance.
As Workplace Strategists, we would love to see all our clients jump on baord and embrace an innovative work-at-home culture. But we would be remiss if we didn’t help our clients explore all sides of this issue. When discussing options with our clients we often talk about the latest technology and the social dynamics of virtual vs. face-to-face collaboration. But one topic that I hear popping up more and more is the issue of TRUST.

Technology moves fast and many companies already have the infrastructure in place to support working at home. But answering the question of “do I actually trust my people to work at home?” is a much larger hurdle to jump before implementing a successful program. It reminds me of taking my dog to obedience classes and the instructor telling us “we’re not so much training the dog as we’re training you to better understand the dog”.
I recently heard an example of a company allocating a large chunk of real estate to training/coaching spaces. Their plan is to use the space to regularly coach their staff on how to work at home (not just on the tools but also the intangible issues of staying productive [...]

In our practice we often consult with clients who are debating whether or not they are ready to take the leap to let their employees work from home. “Are we ready to be THAT company?”, we often hear.
Apparently this is also a hot topic on the internet, as I recently came across this funny infographic trying to track the decision making process for a work at home policy. For as humorous as the infographic is, it does touch on some practical points to consider during the decision making process. In reality, there are not many companies that can allow ALL of their employees to work from home. Rather, it needs to be a more thoughtful, phased out process. And don’t worry, a work at home program doesn’t mean your employees will be sitting at home working in their underwear (at least not all of them).
Organizations can start by indetifying individuals or departments who are early adapters, those who may already have high mobility. Maybe develop a policy for those individuals and ease into the process that way. Tracking progress and success is key to being able to make informed decisions and expand a program going forward. Because  trying to implement a work at home policy overnight without structure can lead to chaos, like a sheep herder who left his gate open overnight.
Let us know what your organization is doing to promote work at home policies

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Lately I can’t seem to escape discussions about wellness in the workplace. In the past few weeks I’ve received several wellness related articles  from colleagues, witnessed real life issues onsite with clients and helped kick off a firm wide wellness initiative in my own firm. There are definitely enough issues surrounding this topic to turn this into a series of posts, but for now I will focus on sitting and walking in the workplace.
A colleague recently sent me these great infographics: Sitting is Killing You, highlighting some interesting statistics on the detriments of sitting for prolonged periods of time, fueling the argument to get up and walk around throughout the day. Personally, I hate the idea of sitting at a desk all day. I jump at any chance to walk across the office to talk with a colleauge. Not only does it add a few extra steps to my day, but often I can be more productive by engaging with a coworker face-to-face as opposed to long email chains which I’ll eventually have to go back and delete when cleaning out my inbox.

Adding to this discussion, HOK recently launced on Facebook what we are hoping to be The World’s Largest Workplace Survey. This is a great open forum to provide input on how well or not-so-well your workplace is performing. Join the dicussion by taking the survey here. The chart below shows some recent realtime survey results, indicating that an overwhelming amount of people complain about some physical discomfort in the workplace.

And in [...]

What happens when a company gets too big to be an exclusively virtual company?
I recently came across an article on inc.com: 4 Tips on Managing a Virtual Workforce, which featured Michael Sappington, CEO of gloStream, a company that provides software solutions for electronic medical records. In the piece, Michael notes some of the obstacles to maintaining a virtual environment as his compnay grows as well as the decision to move to physical office space.
I recently had the opportunity to interview Michael to dive deeper into the pros and cons his company is seeing as they transition from a virtual office to a physical office. Michael was gracious enough to answer my four questions below.
1. As your company grows and you shift your strategy related to flexible work hours and a virtual workforce, have you encountered any personnel issues with new ways of working and, if so, how are you managing this change to keep employees happy and engaged?
Overall, the shift from a virtual electronic medical records company to one operating out of a physical office has gone very, very well. Our team members have welcomed the change and they are much more productive since they can find each other and quickly meet face-to-face, instead of having to spend time tracking each other down before finding a time for a meeting. Our team members are happy to be in an office and really excited about our new work environment.
2. What workplace trends (i.e. technology, furniture, new ways of working) do you feel [...]

I recently had the opportunity to write a guest blog for Virtual Office. The blog focuses on personalization of the workplace, and how new workplace trends could potentially limit our sense of individuality. With more and more mobile work styles emerging, and less and less people “living” at their desks in a traditional 9-to-5, forty hour work week, I question whether the or not people will also start ditching all of their personal knick-knacks in favor of  more streamlined, flexible work environments. 
Check out the full blog post here: A Home Away From Home Away From Home. The blog even makes a brief Office Space reference. Enjoy.

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Last year the HOK Chicago Interiors Group completed an office relocation project for Millward Brown, a leading global research agency. One of the main goals of the project was to make sure the branding of the space worked with the overall brand values of the company but also maintained a local identity to the Chicago market and their specific location. Millward Brown is a very youthful, creative and highly collaborative organization, and the physical space, amenities and branding all needed to reflect that culture.
The final workplace soultion is a very open plan with a variety of collaboration spaces,  reduced amount of materials,  youthful, energizing graphics and several areas for employees to kick back and relax, including a fully loaded Wii Rock Band area. It’s a great mix of a laid back, jeans-wearing culture with some very slick, sophisticated amenities for clients and visitors of all varieties.
The project was recently featured in an article in Interiors & Sources Magazine. Check out the article here.

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With more than $290 billion in assets and approximately 55,000 employees, PNC is one of the largest financial services companies in the country. Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, PNC also has more LEED certified buildings than any other company on Earth. When it opened in 2001, PNC’s Firstside Center in downtown Pittsburgh was the nation’s largest corporate green building at 650,000 square feet. And with the recent opening of PNC Place in Washington, D.C., PNC currently has over 100 LEED certified projects in its real estate portfolio. Gary Saulson, Director of Corporate Real Estate for the PNC Financial Services Group, is responsible for the direction of PNC’s sustainable strategies. Overseeing approximately 30 million square feet of commercial real estate, Saulson has impressively helped transform PNC into an industry leader in corporate sustainability. I recently had the opportunity to speak with Mr. Saulson about PNC’s sustainable and workplace strategies.  
“Our simple task is to build environments where employees can thrive and customers can do their business”, says Saulson, who explains that PNC has an internal Product Review Committee that tests and reviews all products that go into their offices. The Product Review Committee is represented by people from across the bank: including people involved in Operations, Energy, Sustainability and Finance. They also work with manufacturers to beta test products, including conference tables, chairs, light fixtures, restroom faucets and hand dryers.   
Saulson believes it makes good business sense to “do our homework” on the products they purchase and implement into their workplace standards. He explained to [...]

I recently met some representatives from SERVCORP, a company that rents office space to individuals and organizations that are looking for an office presence but do not want to commit to their own costly lease. Having a strong personal interest in workplace trends, I decided to check them out. SERVCORP is an Australian company that recently broke into the U.S. market by setting up shop in a few cities, including two suites in high profile, class A buildings in downtown Chicago. Recently I had the chance to tour one of their suites and I have to say their operation is very well put together. They offer rentals of both Executive Office and Virtual Office space. Their tagline “Everything But The Office” seems to sum up a growing trend in where the future of physical office space is headed. I found this succinct promo video for the company which highlights the idea of having a “big business infrastructure, without the associated costs”.
Two of the more prominent workplace trends these days are the continued growth of a mobile workforce (less people in offices) as well as companies reducing their overall real estate portfolios (less space being rented). This recent Wall Street Journal article is just one of dozens of recent articles reporting the reduction in office footprints in this country.

That being said, what will eventually become of all the corporate real estate out there? Will the soaring skyscrapers, the greatest of corporate status symbols, be reduced to nothing but ghost towns? In ten years will my corporate headquarters simply be [...]

Just saw this article in the Chicago Tribune and think it’s a great example of schools trying to leverage the use of cell phones in the classroom instead of trying to stifle the natural progression of technology. The mention of cell phones in the classroom typically brings about negative commentary; they’re a distraction, kids will use them to cheat on tests, it potentially infringes on teachers and students privacy, etc. But this article highlights a few schools in Illinois that are refreshingly trying to embrace the inevitable, realizing that cell phones can in fact prove to be very useful education tools.
In Elmhurst, IL, York Community High School Principal Diana Smith plans to sit down this week with students to talk about the possibility of their using cell phones for academic purposes. The Elmhurst school currently requires that phones remain off during the day.
“What we know about kids now is they are used to having so many sources of technology available to them,” Smith said. “I think we need to be in step with them on it.”

The discussion of these policies in schools got me thinking about how this relates to technology policies in the workplace. While many policies are borne out of necessity, it is also no secret that the new generation entering the workforce is accustomed to having the best technology at their fingertips and will expect their future employers to either match or even exceed that expectation. I foresee more and more high schools and even elementary schools adopting policies for cell phone use in [...]

Don’t just work from home. Creep out your employees from a distance!
I saw this article recently about the robot that visits your cubicle. Advertised as a “telepresence robot”, Anybots aim to connect workers more seamlessly through the use of video cameras, still camera and a microphone. The basic concept is that, working anywhere from a laptop, you can log into one of these robots which reside in your office and the robot essentially becomes your “avatar”. Your Anybot can zip around the workplace interacting with coworkers; stopping by your desk, sitting in on meetings or impromptu collaboration sessions, heading over to the factory to see what’s coming off the production line, etc. The video demonstration on their website gives you the idea.
While I do see some of the fundamental advantages of “Robot Boss”, I still can’t help but think of all the hilarious and awkward scenarios that could play out in our workplace culture:

It looks like a Segway had a one night stand with a vacuum cleaner. I hope the cleaning staff doesn’t try to use Robot Boss to buff the floors.
People will definitely dress up Robot Boss in embarrassing clothing. Mine would have a handlebar mustache and dress accordingly for the seasons and holidays. 
If you put a piece of paper over the sensors, can you laugh as Robot Boss crashes into walls because it can’t see straight?
Will people eventually prefer Robot Ross to in-person boss? If in-person boss wears cheap cologne, then yes.
I’d like to see Robot Boss take a client out to lunch. Good luck catching a cab, Robot Boss!
I’d be freaked out if [...]