**INNOVATIVE WORKPLACE STRATEGIES**

**U.S. General Services Administration**

**GSA Office of Governmentwide Policy**

**Office of Real Property**

**September 2003**

**FOREWORD**

The Office of Governmentwide Policy is pleased to issue "Innovative
Workplace Strategies." The purpose of this publication is to provide
tools and solutions for meeting the challenges in creating today's
productive workplaces.

A workplace is more than just real estate. It represents a merging of
the disciplines of human resources, facilities design and management,
and information technology. Properly understood and applied, it also can
be a strategic tool for attracting and retaining skilled employees to
the Federal Government. Our task in the Federal Government is to create
the best work environment and provide the right tools for today's
knowledge-based workforce.

From its inception, the Office of Governmentwide Policy has shared
information throughout the Federal community on best practices
concerning high-performance workplaces. I would like to recognize David
Bibb, whose Office of Real Property has been instrumental in bringing
new perspectives and approaches to the workplace.

This publication was produced under the leadership of Stan Kaczmarczyk,
Director of the Innovative Workplaces Division, whose staff provided the
articles highlighting the cutting-edge work in which the Division is
involved, and edited by Joanne Shore and Jonathan Herz. In addition, we
would like to recognize the contributors from the private sector, the
Federal Government and the academic community. Without their
participation, this publication would not have been possible.

G. Martin Wagner\
Associate Administrator\
Office of Governmentwide Policy\
U.S. General Services Administration

**Innovative Workplace Strategies**

Table of Contents

Preface

by Kay Coles James

Executive Summary

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Section I: The Virtual Workplace

> Leveraging the Virtual Workplace
>
> by Cynthia Froggatt
>
> Virtual Teams: A Conversation with Michael Bell
>
> by Joanne Shore

Section II: The Sustainable Workplace

> The Sustainable Office: Links to Worker Health, Well Being and
> Productivity
>
> by Dr. Judy Heerwagon
>
> The Sustainable Workplace: An Overview
>
> by Jonathan Herz, AIA
>
> "Feel Good Facilities"
>
> by Craig Miller

Section III: Case Studies

> The Office of Real Property Integrated Workplace Pilot
>
> by Rob Obenreder, AIA

Sun Microsystems iWork Program

> by Crawford Beveridge and Al Riske

Section IV: Follow up to "Productivity and the Workplace"

> by Drs. Gina Vega and Martin Hanlon

Section V: Observations and Recommendations

Appendix: Contact Information

**PREFACE**

The President has outlined a bold agenda for transforming the way we
manage Federal agencies and assuring we have the best talent to deliver
service to the American people. As his strategic advisor for human
capital management, I am keenly aware of the challenges we face in
making the Federal Government an employer of choice. The competition
among employers for the best and the brightest of this new generation is
intense, and the Federal Government must be able to compete
energetically for a high-quality workforce.

In order to attract and retain a skilled government workforce, we need
to offer a workplace that provides the type of environment where people
can be most productive. Technological advancements, electronic
government, flexible workplace arrangements, and security issues require
new ways of thinking about the workplace. Given the volume of work and
complexity of issues facing us today, we must use every strategy and
tool available to make the Federal Government an attractive and exciting
place to work. By incorporating the strategies described in this
publication, we can help to create such workplaces.

Of course, recognizing the workplace as a strategic tool requires a
paradigm shift in the way we think of the traditional office. However, I
see this not as a challenge but as an opportunity -- an opportunity to
reshape the federal workplace into one that can help us compete
effectively as an "employer of choice." 

Kay Coles James

Director\
U.S. Office of Personnel Management

*Director James is the President's principal advisor in matters of
personnel administration for the 1.8 million members of the Federal
civil service.*

**EXECUTIVE SUMMARY**

**The Importance of the Workplace**

Today's Federal Government is seeking ways to remain competitive and
stay ahead of the rapid changes caused by reorganization, technological
advancements, and workforce attrition. The workplace is a strategic tool
that the Federal government can use in dealing with change,
accomplishing business objectives, and attracting and retaining a
skilled workforce. Research has shown that an integrated approach to
developing workspace and workplace services may result in improved
productivity for your organization, improved employee job satisfaction
and well-being, better management of limited resources, and even
increased customer satisfaction. However, many agencies are still
unaware of strategies that can address these objectives, let alone
guidelines for developing such innovative workplaces.

**The Value of This Publication**

In "Innovative Workplace Strategies," we present new approaches and
alternatives that the Federal Government can use to improve the quality
of its workspace. As you will see, resistance to new ways of working and
developing space must be overcome. And, both employees and managers need
to be made aware of the ways in which their workspace can be a factor in
increasing satisfaction and productivity. This report describes ways in
which agencies can plan more effective and productive workplaces that
support their workforce and business objectives.

**The Integrated Workplace** is one such strategy, addressing the
Government's need to provide better and more cost-effective workspace.
Rather than using traditional guidelines for office space design, the
Integrated Workplace considers how three elements of the workplace --
People (human resources, work processes, and organizational culture),
Places (work locations), and Tools (information technology,
connectivity) - act together to support business goals. The Integrated
Workplace is a multidisciplinary approach that involves management,
information systems, the workplace occupants, organizational and human
behavior experts, facility managers, and design professionals. This
approach can result in such benefits as increased productivity, improved
job satisfaction, and better use of limited resources --people, space,
time, and money. The Integrated Workplace allows organizations to:

-   Address strategic business goals.

-   Quickly and inexpensively, adjust to changing requirements.

-   Promote healthy, high-performance environments, using
    environmentally responsible materials, methods and principles.

-   Allow employees to work wherever and whenever they can be most
    effective.

The Integrated Workplace centers on the people and the ways in which
they work -- the work processes -- in order to achieve the
organization's mission and objectives. These work processes can often
take place in different locations, and it is important to identify which
locations and strategies will best support particular processes.

Some workplace strategies may make use of existing office space while
applying alternative work strategies, such as desk-sharing. Other
options may not require that employees come into the office on a daily
basis, instead working from home, a satellite center, customer site or
even on the road. We call this **the Virtual Workplace**. Technology has
provided the means for people to work anywhere, anytime; however, core
business processes remain the same no matter where one works. In the
Virtual Workplace, work is what you do and not a place you go to.

The Integrated Workplace addresses the need for a workplace that
supports the health and comfort of its occupants. Research has shown
that people must be able to rely on having good indoor quality to avoid
illness and fatigue. In addition, they must have control of their
environment and space in order to maintain personal comfort and avoid
injury. Applying the principles of sustainable design can result in a
workplace that improves occupant health and performance, improves the
environment, maximizes human capital investment, and creates a more
efficient organization. We call this **the Sustainable Workplace**.

In our publication, "The Integrated Workplace: A Comprehensive Approach
to Developing Workspace," we provided a framework to assist in
developing Federal workplaces that best support the mission and goals of
the people using them. In "Innovative Workplace Strategies," we present
two of the newest techniques that Federal agencies can use to create
innovative workplaces -- The Virtual Workplace and The Sustainable
Workplace.

**Who We Are:**

The Innovative Workplaces Division in the Office of Real Property,
Office of Governmentwide Policy, seeks to encourage development of
Federal workplaces that embrace innovative design, operation and
management by developing innovative strategies to mainstream integrated
design, sustainability, telework and performance measurement in the
Federal workplace.

**ACKNOWLEDGMENTS**

The publication that follows represents the efforts of individuals
within the Federal Government, academia, and the private sector. We
appreciate everyone's contribution in providing innovative workplace
strategies that can be used to create a supportive environment for an
organization's most important asset -- its people.

We would like to specifically acknowledge the following individuals and
organizations for providing their insights in promoting new approaches
concerning today's workplace.

Dr. Gina Vega Merrimack College

Dr. Martin Hanlon Queens College/CUNY

Cynthia Froggatt Froggatt Consulting

Michael Bell Gartner, Inc.

Dr. Judy Heerwagen J.H. Heerwagen & Associates, Inc.

Crawford Beveridge Sun Microsystems

Rob Obenreder, AIA U.S. General Services Administration

Jonathan Herz, AIA U.S. General Services Administration

Joanne Shore Federal Acquisition Institute

We would also like to thank the publishers of "Facilities Design &
Management" magazine for their permission to reprint the article, "Feel
Good Facilities."

Our appreciation is given to the members of GSA's Office of
Governmentwide Policy. Without their contribution, this publication
would not have been possible.

Mike Atkinson, AIA Integrated Workplace Team

Cherie McClam Integrated Workplace Team

Shirley Morris Team Leader, Performance Measurement

Dr. Wendell Joice Team Leader, Telework

Theresa Noll Telework Team

Glenn Woodley Telework Team

**INTRODUCTION**

> *"Strategic planning for the agency's mission or core business and
> planning for administrative services are tied together."*
>
> *U.S. General Services Administration: Strategic Planning: Aligning
> Workplace Services Creates Value*

Innovative workplaces are those that integrate business processes and
individual work practices with work strategies and office space,
resulting in healthy, high-performance workplace solutions. New ways of
thinking can tie together the facilities, information technology and
human resources components of the workplace to support changing business
practices with the growing awareness that "work" is no longer simply a
"place."

Each year, the Federal Government spends millions of dollars providing
workspace for its employees; unfortunately, many of these work
environments are based on old concepts that do not adequately support
the management strategies and collaborative workstyles of an
information-based workforce. These workspaces do little to incorporate
new approaches to improving the way people work and reducing operational
costs. By taking a more innovative approach, we can leverage the cost of
workspace to improve organizational performance and increase the
productivity of the Federal Government's most important asset -- its
people.

Over the past seven years, the Office of Real Property, part of GSA's
Office of Governmentwide Policy, has been focusing on strategies that
the Federal Government can use to effectively manage its real property
assets, making them a basic part of an agency's strategic business plan.

In 1997, the Office of Real Property published its "Office Space Use
Review: Current Practices and Emerging Trends," which encouraged Federal
agencies to go beyond the traditional thinking in providing office
space - that is, simply housing employees and support spaces. The
"Office Space Use Review" also advocated that Federal agencies include
administrative costs such as real property and human resources in their
strategic plans.

The "Office Space Use Review" pointed out that many agencies were
employing outdated concepts in providing workspace to their employees --
a practice that continues today. However, in today's competitive market,
agencies must provide a range of workplace options to support their
employees and their workstyles. In 1999, the Office of Real Property
published "The Integrated Workplace: A Comprehensive Approach to
Developing Workspace." This report advocated a multidisciplinary
approach to the design of high-performance, adaptable workplaces that
have the flexibility to accommodate the changing needs of the occupants
and the organization. The Integrated Workplace identifies and promotes
leading-edge workplace concepts that can result in cost-effective,
efficient office environments that enhance productivity and help to
attract and retain a quality workforce.

The Integrated Workplace differs from more traditional space design in
that, while it gives consideration to the physical space, special
emphasis is placed on individual needs and the organizational culture or
working environment that defines that organization. Rather than
characterizing the workplace as just "space," the Integrated Workplace
considers three components: **People** (human resources, work processes,
organizational culture), **Places** (work locations), and **Tools**
(communication and information technology, connectivity, design
processes, measurement) and how they interact to produce more
productive, cost-effective workplace environments. A "real-world"
example of an Integrated Workplace project, implemented by GSA's Office
of Real Property, is presented in Section III of this publication.

In the Integrated Workplace approach, organizations consider a variety
of options for performing their work. This approach involves a process
of determining how, when and where people work, and matching these needs
to a range of workplace solutions. Some alternatives may make innovative
use of existing office space, such as, by using shared workstations to
free up space for a community room. Other options may allow a person to
work elsewhere and come to the central office location on an occasional
basis -- what we call the "Virtual Workplace." Think of the virtual
workplace as not replacing the traditional office, but expanding it.

Increasingly, a large proportion of employees work outside of the
traditional office \-- perhaps at home, on the road, or at a customer's
office. In the virtual workplace, employees are provided with the tools,
technology and skills to perform their jobs anywhere they can be their
most productive. This can have a positive effect on organizational
performance. The virtual workplace demonstrates that safe, healthy and
productive places to work can exist inside and outside the office
environment. It is an innovative strategy that can transform an
organization's thinking about the workplace. In this new perspective,
work is what you do, not the place you go to.

The growth of the virtual workplace in the Federal Government can be
attributed to a number of factors: the emphasis on E-Government, the
proliferation of new technologies that allow for more collaborative and
distributed ways of working, the need to attract and retain a
"worldclass" workforce, and the increased focus on continuity of
operations. To effectively meet these challenges, organizations need to
develop strategies to support moving work to where people are, rather
than moving people to where the work is. One example that addresses this
challenge is the Spouse Telework Employment Partnership (STEP), which
allows agencies to utilize telework in addressing the career and
employment needs of spouses of Federal employees who have been relocated
to different geographical regions. The virtual workplace offers
organizations an opportunity to reduce costs, increase productivity,
attract and retain employees and lower environmental pressures.

**Section I** of this publication, The Virtual Workplace, explores
important aspects of working outside of the conventional workplace and
its impact on the Federal workforce. The article \"Leveraging the
Virtual Workplace" demonstrates that both managers and employees need to
obtain the necessary skills to perform effectively in a distributed work
environment. In any work environment, the people factors such as
communication, leadership and trust have the greatest impact. "Virtual
Teams" highlights the use of this workstyle as an innovative approach
for Federal agencies that are increasingly faced with a dispersed work
environment and talent pool, and presents ways in which Federal agencies
can take advantage of the opportunities offered by the virtual
workplace. For agencies that want to learn more about implementing a
virtual workplace, we include an article on Sun Microsystems' virtual
workplace program, called "iWork," in **Section III** of the
publication.

As part of the Integrated Workplace approach, workplace professionals
strive to create workspaces that avoid environmental damage; that are
green, smart, productive, comfortable, attractive, secure and flexible.
In short, as discussed in **Section II**, that are truly sustainable: A
sustainable workplace integrates the total building environment:
facilities, technology and human capital. It focuses on providing a
high-performance work environment for an organization's key asset -- its
people.

"The Sustainable Office: Links to Worker Health, Well Being and
Productivity," supports the finding that satisfaction, retention and
productivity in both the private and public sectors are linked to the
physical features of a building. Providing healthy indoor environments,
daylight, outdoor views, sensory variability, and ergonomic tools can
support worker well-being.

The steps toward, and advantages of, creating a sustainable workplace
are described in greater detail in the article "The Sustainable
Workplace: An Overview." When a workplace is designed, built and
maintained for sustainability, less money is needed to accommodate work
practices and organizational change, and less productivity is lost in
the process. In addition, a sustainable workplace is valuable in
attracting and retaining talented workers, since it demonstrates an
organization's commitment to providing healthy, supportive work
environments. An important first step is the creation of sustainable
facilities, discussed further in the "Feel-Good Facilities."

The Virtual Workplace and the Sustainable Workplace tell us where
today's workplaces are headed in the future. But where is the thinking
today among managers and employees? As you will see in **Section IV**:
Follow up to "Productivity and the Workplace," much work remains to
educate those who use the workplace everyday. By focusing almost
exclusively on the "people" factors that currently dominate workplace
satisfaction, the proven benefits of alternative work environments and
sustainable practices are being overlooked. Few employees or managers
are conscious that their workspace can be a factor in increasing
satisfaction and productivity. Research however, is showing just that.

In this publication, we have included both our own perspectives and
those collected from experts in the private and public sectors,
including the academic community. Our goal is to advocate innovative
workplace strategies that can be used to provide high-performance
environments wherever people work. We believe that the workplace is
critical to the success of the Federal Government and its most important
asset -- its employees.

**SECTION I: The Virtual Workplace**

## **Leveraging the Value of the Virtual Workplace**

By Cynthia Froggatt

*Cynthia C. Froggatt, author of Work Naked: Eight Essential Principles
of Peak Performance in the Virtual Workplace (Wiley, 2001) and principal
of Froggatt Consulting, advises business leaders on leveraging the value
of the virtual workplace. Currently based in New York City, she studied
environmental psychology and organizational behavior, earning a
bachelor's degree from Penn State and a master's degree from Cornell,
and worked for architectural firms for nine years before starting her
own consulting practice in 1994.*

Is your organization using the freedom that technology has given us to
work in ways that optimize individual and team performance? Are you
using a wide array of technology tools and workplaces to their best
advantage? If not, you are wasting some of the valuable potential of
your people, real estate, technology, and financial resources. And you
are not alone.

I am disappointed to observe that even in the United States, hailed as
"the land of the free," relatively few leaders are brave enough to let
their employees make basic choices about where, when, and how to work.
Let's face it -- we have knowledge workers of the 21st Century following
routines of factory workers of the 19th century. We have the technology
to work from anywhere at anytime, but millions of people make long
commutes during rush hour to centralized locations where they put in an
eight-hour day, five days a week.

The choice is not whether to be part of the virtual workplace or not.
The choice is whether to thrive or barely survive in the virtual
workplace. A recent survey by the American Business Collaboration found
that working over a distance affects more than 80 percent of today's
workforce. Given the trend toward mergers and acquisitions, the
increasingly global nature of customer relationships, and heightened
concern about continuity of operations, it is simply impractical to
organize work and the physical workplace around one location. All
employees need to know how to master distance rather than see it as an
obstacle or a temporary hurdle to overcome. When your workforce knows
how to lead, manage, or collaborate from a distance, it makes sense for
employees to have the freedom to work from home, a satellite center, a
hotel, or on the road as well as from an office building. These
workstyle changes are affecting and will continue to affect both the
private sector and the public sector.

**What does it mean to leverage the value of the virtual workplace?**

The full value of the virtual workplace can only be enjoyed in corporate
cultures where:

-   Business leaders see value in unleashing the creative
    problem-solving skills of the workforce;

-   Managers are willing to give employees more autonomy;

-   Employees want more freedom and are willing to accept the
    responsibility that goes along with independence; and

-   The infrastructure allows people to compute and communicate from
    wherever they work best.

Compare this with the alternative to the virtual workplace: the
traditional workplace, where:

-   Leaders expect employees to perform routine tasks in a predictable,
    prescriptive way;

-   Managers need to visually monitor the attendance and performance of
    employees;

-   Employees prefer to follow a routine, be given explicit
    instructions, and be closely supervised; and

-   It is most cost effective to have people work at centralized
    workplaces with fixed equipment.

While there are still jobs that are well-suited to the traditional
workplace, many of those functions performed by today's knowledge
workers could be accomplished in a virtual workplace environment.

**What does this mean for the Federal Government?**

The following examples give a sense of how it looks and feels to be a
Federal Government employee who is thriving, rather than barely
surviving, in the virtual workplace. While these examples focus on
working at home, remember that this is only one form of the virtual
workplace.

-   Department of Labor: Jerry Schrepple is a 49-year-old attorney
    adviser for the Employees' Compensation Appeals Board in the
    Department of Labor. Since 1994, he has been working from his home
    in Arlington, Virginia three days a week. On those days, he writes
    draft decisions on workers' compensation issues (with fewer
    distractions at home, he has more uninterrupted time to write) and
    maintains contact with his manager and colleagues through e-mail and
    phone conversations. He also takes time out during the day for
    physical activity, doctor's appointments, and other errands that are
    easier to accomplish when the roads are not crowded with rush-hour
    traffic. Two days a week, Jerry makes the 45-minute commute to his
    downtown Washington, DC office (where he uses a shared office) for
    face-to-face collaboration with his manager and colleagues and to
    perform some of his responsibilities as a union steward for the
    American Federation of Government Employees Local 12. This work
    routine allows Schrepple to do high quality work, avoid the hassles
    of traffic, and spend more time with his wife who has a very
    flexible schedule as a realtor.

-   Even though Jerry's manager goes to the office five days a week, she
    reaps the benefits of telework, too. Valerie Evans-Harrell, division
    chief supervisory attorney, manages a group where eight of the nine
    employees work from home three days a week. Because telework boosts
    the productivity and morale of her employees, Evans-Harrell's own
    stress level is lower, which has a positive impact on her
    performance.

-   Immigration and Naturalization Service: Bob Wieman, Director of the
    Administrative Appeals Office of the Immigration and Naturalization
    Service, finds that options such as telework have had a very
    positive impact on recruiting. Offering potential employees the
    option to work from home four out of five days a week has helped him
    attract higher quality candidates. Fully 16 of Wieman's 31 employees
    now take advantage of this option, and he teleworks from
    time-to-time as well. Wieman asks the teleworkers to be accessible
    between 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. (and has always been able to reach
    people when necessary), but he does not require that they perform
    all their work during those hours. Better self-management and more
    effective time utilization, he believes, contribute to teleworkers'
    high performance.

-   Department of Justice: Renee Wohlenhaus, Deputy Chief of the
    Disability Rights Section in the Civil Rights Division of the
    Department of Justice, observes that telework, "has become an
    increasingly attractive alternative to attorneys and other staff as
    housing has become less and less affordable within reasonable
    commuting distances, as commuting becomes more difficult in a
    growing metropolitan area, and as the events of September 11th have
    made employees more nervous about coming to work downtown." Because
    her Section has experienced significant growth in the past ten
    years, employees are not only located on different floors of the
    building, but are also dispersed across several buildings. According
    to Wohlenhaus, "We find that with staff connecting instantaneously
    from home with connections through the JCON computer system and
    email, they are often no more difficult to reach than employees
    working downtown, and frequently they are easier to reach. Without
    exception, employees working from home rave about their increased
    productivity as a result of fewer distractions, and less stress from
    time lost to commuting and tension from the commute as well as
    anxiety about terrorism."

Unfortunately, these stories represent the exception rather than the
rule. Only roughly 4 percent[^1] of federal employees are teleworking
(performing some work from home or a telework center during normal work
hours). Yes, it is true that not all federal employees should be
teleworking, but there is a lot of room for improvement. Look at the
figures for the Department of Justice, for instance. According to
Kathryn Wolf, the Department of Justice's Worklife Program Manager,
roughly 68 percent of their 129,000 employees would be clearly
ineligible to telework due to job responsibilities (including
correctional officers, border patrol agents, etc.) That leaves 32
percent (more than 41,000) who could be eligible to perform some of
their work from home, a telework center, or other location. Today, only
about 1,500 Department of Justice employees are counted as teleworkers.
This agency and others are woefully underutilizing the value of the
virtual workplace.

Wolf advises that, "Number range CHAPTERThe Department of Justice, like
many organizations, continues to face the challenges of management
apprehension about telework and job redesign to allow grouping of tasks
that can be accomplished remotely one or more days per week. Those
obstacles will take time and continuing effort to overcome. Progress is
being made on an incremental basis through pilot programs, management
training, and marketing of the many organizational benefits of
telework."

Leveraging the value of the virtual workplace demands significant
cultural change. Mindsets need to change before actions change. Outdated
notions such as "the more time you spend at the office, the better your
chances for promotion" or "if you look busy, even frantic, you must be
very productive" are just two of the mindsets that need to change.
Everyone must take responsibility for changing the culture into one that
supports working anywhere, anytime. I have described the roles and
responsibilities that both leaders and employees have to play in being
able to fully exploit the advantages of the virtual workplace in "Work
Naked: Eight Essential Principles for Peak Performance in the Virtual
Workplace" (Jossey-Bass/Wiley, 2001). The following discussion
summarizes these responsibilities in terms of the eight principles.

***Principle #1: Initiative Shedding the layers of complacency, fear of
change, and resistance to new ways of working.***

Leaders need to help their employees challenge the status quo by
recognizing that people will follow leaders' actions, not their words.
If a leader sees value in changing the way their employees work, the
leader should change his or her own workstyle. Being a good role model
is the most important contribution he or she can make.

All employees should adopt a more positive attitude toward change, in
general, and be willing to help develop and test new ways of working.

***Principle #2: Trust Shedding the layers of management control,
outdated performance measures, and mistrust.***

Many leaders and employees still rely on attendance and the appearance
of productivity to know if someone is being effective \-- they think
that coming to work early, staying late, skipping lunch, and putting in
a lot of hours are signs of high performance.

Leaders need to develop environments and relationships where trust can
flourish even when they don't see the other person every day. Typically,
these are relationships where the goal is clear, deliverables are agreed
upon, performance is reliable, and communication is good.

Employees need to re-define how they judge their own performance -- to
focus on results, not on attendance. They need to trust themselves that
they will be able to make smart choices about how, when, and where to
work. They also need to trust that management will evaluate them fairly.

***Principle #3: Joy Shedding the layers of overwork, high stress, and
sleep deprivation.***

Leaders have relatively few options for changing employees' lives
outside of work, but they have a great deal of power to change the way
work is structured. The goal should be to create jobs that people can
and do love. Leaders can also help their employees by demonstrating
through their own choices that they are more effective when they are
well rested, well fed, physically fit, and generally happy.

Employees need to raise their expectations beyond work-life balance and
be willing to talk with leaders about how their work could be more
enjoyable. They need to take responsibility for making choices that
enhance their morale and performance.

***Principle #4: Individuality Shedding the layers of conformity,
one-size-fits-all routines, and fixed work hours.***

For years, most workers have conformed to a routine that assumes that
one-workstyle-fits-all \-- that commuting to the office, sitting
side-by-side with colleagues from 9 until 5, five days a week, brings
out high performance in all workers. I urge leaders and employees to
talk with each other about where they studied when they were in school
and why they chose these places. This gives them a way to understand
that people are distracted and energized by different things. For
instance, individuals who found a busy café or other public place to
study will say that background noise helped them focus.
Library-studiers, on the other hand, needed absolute quiet to their best
work. What does this mean for the virtual workplace? Former
library-studiers typically do their best solo work from home. All others
perform their best solo work from a setting outside the home. Employees
need to be aware of their workstyle preferences; leaders need to support
these preferences rather than impose their choices on others.

***Principle #5: Equality Shedding the layers of hierarchy, status
symbols, and dress codes.***

Leaders need to evaluate which status differentials add value and which
ones do not and, therefore, should be eliminated. For instance, would
the money that is spent on real estate where office space is allocated
by rank be better invested in technology that enabled people to work
from anywhere? Leaders should help employees view workspace as a tool
rather than as an entitlement.

Employees need to give up their attachment to workspace as a status
symbol. You can't expect to have the freedom and the technology tools to
work from anywhere AND keep a dedicated workspace in a traditional
workplace.

***Principle #6: Dialogue Shedding the layers of one-way communication,
misunderstandings, and idea hoarding.***

Open, honest, two-way communication is the key to collaboration -- which
is essential for high performance in a traditional or a virtual
workplace. Dispersing workers geographically rarely hinders
collaboration, but may exacerbate existing communication problems.
Business leaders unintentionally inhibit the flow of information when
they are afraid to give or receive both positive and negative news.
Leaders have to be good role models by being willing to talk about
mistakes, ask for constructive criticism, and then take action based on
this feedback.

Employees have to be willing to ask for, listen, and give both positive
and negative feedback. They need to resist the urge to go into the
office simply because they miss getting updates from the office
grapevine.

***Principle #7: Connectivity Shedding the layers of geographic
boundaries, reliance of co-location, and misuse of technology.***

Leaders should set an example about choosing the right communication
tool for different types of interaction; face-to-face communication,
e-mail, and phone, for instance, need to be selected consciously and
used strategically. Remember that mastering distance (and the tools that
help mediate distance) should be a core competency for all workers
because it improves chances for disaster recovery, reduces travel costs,
allows people to stay closer to internal and external customers, and
emphasizes self-management over micro-management.

Employees need to make the effort to stay up-to-date on technology tools
that could help them communicate effectively with a broad network of
colleagues. They need to be open to interacting with people in different
ways and avoid assuming that face-to-face interaction is the best way to
communicate and that all other methods are just cheap substitutes for
in-person conversations. They need to understand and respect the
preferences for how others want to give and receive information.

***Principle #8: Workplace Options Shedding the layers of unproductive
work environments, dreary home offices, and long commutes between
them.***

Leaders need to believe that if they provide access to a wide range of
workplace options, their employees will use their time more effectively
and be well supported for both solo and collaborative work. They need to
provide flexible, healthy work settings that respond to the needs of all
of the stakeholders in their "web of work." This may require
collaboration between non-traditional providers of workplaces. For
instance, where there is value in providing wireless access to the
Internet in public places such as parks, public/private partnerships may
be necessary. Finally, leaders need to consider how their organization's
work habits impact traffic, the environment and the community, and make
decisions accordingly.

Employees need to take responsibility for finding or creating safe,
comfortable places to work at home or other places and help their
leaders provide workplaces that support their needs. They should choose
workplaces that enhance their performance and use natural resources
wisely.

**What is the role of those involved in creating today's workplaces?**

Real estate and facilities management professionals, designers,
architects, engineers, and other workplace planners and providers have
important roles to play in helping their organizations leverage the
value of the virtual workplace. First, they must recognize how
dramatically the nature of work is changing. The needs of their clients
are increasingly centered on geographical distribution rather than
co-location. This is good news for the workplace professional. When
workers are no longer tethered to their desks, adjacency relationships
and location drivers can be re-thought. In some cases, this may free
organizations from a requirement for a large amount of space in
expensive, downtown real estate.

As people become more comfortable with mobility, there is generally less
need for dedicated workspaces in traditional office environments. When
there are fewer individual workspaces than there are workers, the
overall space requirement declines. The use of space also shifts from
individual workspaces to collaborative work areas. These collaborative
work areas often require more sophisticated technology for
videoconferencing and web-based conferencing.

While the amount of space the workplace professional is managing may
decrease, the importance of the workplace design increases. When workers
are fully leveraging the value of the virtual workplace and they are
allowed to make smart choices about where to work, the traditional
workplace loses its captive audience. If people choose to use a
workplace based on how well it accommodates their solo work and their
collaborative work (rather than being mandated to go there everyday),
workplaces look and feel much different -- and the utilization rate is
an ongoing measure of how well workplace professionals are doing their
jobs.

When the mission of workplace professionals is defined as, "enabling the
high performance of employees in a geographically distributed
environment," they must work closely with their colleagues in
information technology and human resources to make smart trade-offs
about the best use of financial resources. They must understand which
factors have the most impact on individual, team, and organizational
performance and approach solutions in an integrated way. For workplace
professionals, these trends may push them out of their comfort zone and
require them to master new skills in information gathering, analysis and
relationship-building.

**Conclusion**

Whether they like it or not, most knowledge workers in the Federal
Government are already part of the virtual workplace. The choice is
whether to be an active participant or a passive (or even resistant)
one. Incorporating the eight principles described in this article and
taking responsibility for changing attitudes and work practices will
allow the Federal Government to leverage the value of the virtual
workplace.

**Virtual Teams\
A Conversation with Michael Bell**

By Joanne Shore

***Joanne B. Shore** is a Program Analyst with the U.S. General Services
Administration\'s Federal Acquisition Institute. As part of the
Innovative Workplaces Division in GSA's Office of Governmentwide Policy,
Joanne developed strategies concerning virtual teams and led an effort
to evaluate programs for training virtual teams.*

Michael Bell is a vice president and research director of Gartner, Inc.
His research focuses on workplace transformation, virtual teaming and
e-real estate applications, including leading a major workplace research
project in conjunction with MIT and 22 industry sponsors entitled: "The
Agile Workplace: Supporting People and Their Work," released to the
marketplace in early 2002. Prior to joining Gartner, Mr. Bell worked for
30 years in operations and corporate real estate and held executive
positions at Xerox and Dun & Bradstreet. He earned a bachelor\'s degree
from Brown University, a Master of Arts degree from Colgate University
and a master\'s degree in business administration from the Simon School
at the University of Rochester.

Technology has changed the way we, work, communicate and deliver
products and services. It has also served as a key driver in the
development of virtual teams. Virtual teaming is an innovative workplace
strategy that can respond quickly to changing organizational needs. In
addition, properly done, it can be cost-effective, since much of the
work may be done electronically.

In November 2002, members of the U.S. General Services Administration's
Office of Real Property participated in a discussion with Gartner
Research Director Michael Bell to gain a better understanding of virtual
teams, the benefit of virtual teaming, and the challenges that
organizations face in implementing this workstyle. The following article
is adapted from that interview.

# **Characteristics of a Virtual Team**

For the purposes of this discussion, a "virtual team" is one that\'s
formed to accomplish a particular mission, then disbands and moves on.
We have virtual departments and virtual sales teams; however, they don't
really fit the definition that we're using here. In those cases, any of
the members of the team can accomplish what they need to accomplish
without depending on others within the team.

A virtual team is interdependent and cannot succeed without each member
making his or her particular contribution to the effort. As with other
teams, virtual team members are focused on a singular purpose.
Typically, team members work out--of-sight from each other 99 percent of
the time and will meet face-to-face two or three times during the life
cycle of the team.

# **Drivers Behind Virtual Teams**

Based on research conducted by Gartner, we've concluded that there are
four key drivers behind the virtual teaming phenomenon:

-   **Globalization:** Companies are organizing more and more around
    global teams. Procter & Gamble is a good example of this. About
    three years ago, the company organized around global business
    strategies involving marketing, product development, and brand
    management. In globalization, organizations must assess the ways in
    which people of different geographies can collaborate with each
    other.

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-   **Sources for talent:** In a tough economic situation such as we
    have today, organizations need to find talent wherever they can.
    Virtual teams provide an innovative way of meeting the need for
    specific skills.

-   **The economics of travel:** There are costs involved with bringing
    people together. In addition, people have become more reluctant to
    make long trips, especially international ones, due to the current
    geopolitical environment and threat of terrorist attacks.

-   **Flexibility:** Virtual teaming is a very efficient way of doing
    work. A virtual team can be assembled quickly, respond to the
    situation, do its work, then disband and move on.

#### Key Factors for Effective Virtual Teams

Gartner, Inc., has developed 10 basic principles that organizations
should address for virtual teams to succeed. What's interesting about
the 10 principles is that only one of them involves technology. Of
course, technology -- information technology, communications, software
applications, and remote access - is fundamental to virtual work. But
it\'s really only one factor. My approach to virtual teaming is that
it\'s 90 percent about the people, process and leadership, and 10
percent about technology.

The ten principles are:

1.  **Leadership Imperatives.**

Virtual teaming is more about leadership than management. Virtual team
leaders need to have skills such as coaching, facilitating and enabling
rather than those of managing and controlling. While management
certainly is important to the process, it\'s really leadership skills
that are paramount in forming a virtual team -‑‑ in selecting the
members, motivating them to join, and helping to build a culture of
trust and accountability within the team.

The leadership role can also change during the course of the team
project, depending on the particular project that you\'re working on. At
the first phase of the team process, you might want a leader who's
really good at data analysis. If the team is moving from an analytical
phase into the proposal phase, you may want somebody with those skills
to lead that part of it. Usually, however, the designated team leader
doesn\'t relinquish control.

2.  **Power of Purpose**

It's very important that the team leader and the team members are very
clear on why the team has been formed and what they\'re intending to
accomplish. Purpose is important because it becomes a kind of "glue"
that ties everybody together. It links individual tasks and
accountabilities through what Gartner refers to as the virtual team
"value chain" - from purpose to mission to goal to objectives to task.
It keeps everybody focused on how they can individually contribute to
the overall team purpose. It acts as a compass. It keeps people oriented
around what they\'re trying to do at any point in time and their role in
that mission.

3.  **Trust**

Virtual teams live and die on whether the team leader and the team
members can really develop a rapport that\'s grounded in a fairly strong
sense of trust. Gartner has identified four foundation principles for
developing trust.

-   **Dependability.** This is really about predictability and
    certainty; for example, meetings that are scheduled for at 9:00 am
    every Friday will actually start at that time.

-   **Consistency.** Consistency is equity and fairness -- a level
    playing field. Virtual teams really need to divest themselves of
    rank and hierarchy. People have to think that they\'re colleagues,
    partners and co-equals. If the team leader doesn\'t build that
    notion of fairness and equality in the team, trust is very hard to
    achieve.

-   **Congruency.** Team members need to "walk the talk." It\'s
    especially important, again, for the team leader to be vigilant
    about promises kept - that statements made are backed up with
    actions, without any hidden agendas. The information should flow
    transparently within the team.

-   **Mutuality.** The team must have a feeling of shared benefit and
    reciprocity. People must feel as if they\'re going to contribute to
    the team purpose and that they will be rewarded equally.

Those are some of the foundation principles concerning trust that we've
identified for virtual teaming. While probably true for other aspects of
management, it is particularly crucial in the context of virtual team
leadership.

4.  **The Startup Process**

If you fail to follow the fundamentals of the startup process, chances
are the team will not be successful. Gartner has developed a number of
steps to consider as part of the start-up process.

-   **Step 1** is identifying the stakeholders of the team. For example,
    you'll need someone at the executive level who will provide
    political support and sponsorship; you'll also need a team champion
    -- the same person may serve in both roles. Typically, the team
    members are coming from different organizations and reporting to
    different bosses, so there's the potential for conflict. The
    executive-level sponsor or the team champion can help in resolving
    such conflicts. The team champion can also help in identifying other
    stakeholders for the team; for example, the customers who are going
    to be the beneficiaries of the team's output.

-   **Step 2** is establishing a sense of purpose; that is, being very
    clear with your constituents, your executive sponsor, and the other
    people who will be beneficiaries of this team about what the purpose
    is, the boundaries of that purpose, and how that purpose will be
    manifested in terms of the output of the team effort.

-   **Step 3** is recruiting the team members. Team leaders should be
    diligent in recruiting team members based on their skills,
    disposition, and propensity to work in this type of work
    environment. Some people don\'t collaborate well in a virtual
    context. You need to consider not only the skills you need on the
    team, but also the personalities of team members.

-   **Step 4** is setting up the team infrastructure and resources. This
    is where you determine what support you'll need, both technological
    and administrative. You need to consider any resources that you\'ll
    need to make this project successful. Team leaders should avoid
    trying to perform both leadership and administrative duties such as
    keeping the minutes of the meetings and maintaining the website. A
    team member other than the team leader should be assigned these
    tasks.

-   **Step 5** is bringing the team together to meet up front,
    face-to-face. This is hard in the world of virtual teaming. In fact,
    most of the failures in virtual teams result from the fact that
    people never had a chance to meet each other and build good rapport.

5.  **Team Linkages.**

When people think about linkages in the context of virtual teams, they
think principally about the technology, the connectivity, and the
various applications that you might use to link people. However, experts
in this field say that you have to focus on building relationships,
rather than technology. This gets back to this notion of trust. The team
leader must work to help the team members build those relationships over
time, because only then will people truly share, take risks, and truly
depend on each other to get the work done.

6.  **Communication Protocols**.

Virtual teams have a number of protocols to work out. It is important
for the virtual team\'s progress to develop a template that will guide
each meeting - one that includes time allocation and how they will work
through a particular agenda. They will also need protocols for what
media you use depending on the situation. For example, a complex
problem, a controversial issue, or a negotiation should not be resolved
using e-mail but, instead, through a conference call. Depending on the
sensitivity or the complexity of the problem, the team leader may need
to meet face-to-face with team members. You'll want to look at protocols
for conflict resolution. How do you get through an impasse? Whether
it\'s a vote process or elevation to the team sponsor, you really need
to get a consensus around major points that the team is working on for
things to move forward.

In virtual teaming- in fact, in any virtual communication - control of
the communication process shifts from the sender to the receiver. When
you\'re in a face-to-face session, the person who has the microphone
typically controls the communication. In the virtual mode, this is not
always the case. Based on the literature, Gartner has come up with some
basic rules of virtual communication.

-   All of the team members should define their standards for
    availability, such as when they can take calls, when they can
    participate in group meetings. Many virtual teams are international
    teams. You need to have some understanding of when and what day
    members can meet. This goes back to the issue of dependability.

-   You need to address the culture factor. The biggest barrier to
    virtual teaming is culture - company culture, enterprise culture,
    and, in many cases, international culture. Consider language
    differences as well as cultural propensities in how people
    communicate. For example, Southern Mediterranean countries are very
    visual in the way they communicate and prefer more face-to-face
    communication. Virtual collaboration, therefore, can be very hard
    for people in France and Italy. Eighty percent of human
    communication is non-verbal, and it\'s particularly true in certain
    European cultures.

-   

-   Team members should try to communicate synchronously as much as
    possible. This includes phone calls, conference calls, and web-based
    conferencing. If possible, try to communicate in real time and avoid
    these long, endless e‑mail threads.

-   Finally, the sender needs to take responsibility for prioritizing
    communication -- such as "urgent, important, retain, informational,
    and read only."

7.  **Operational Agreement**

Gartner suggests that if the team is going to exist for more than nine
months, if the output of this team is mission critical to the
organization, or if you have outsiders ‑‑ and many teams do bring in
consultants and other third parties ‑‑ you need to work out the rules of
engagement in some type of agreement. It doesn\'t have to be a legal
agreement, but a document that puts everybody on the same page. When you
have 10 people, all from 10 different organizations, it is pretty
important to have the protocols pretty much spelled out.

8.  **Team Culture**

The four foundation elements of a good virtual team culture are:
purpose, trust, empowerment and accountability. Purpose and trust were
discussed previously. Team members really do have to be empowered to
discharge their particular responsibilities. Virtual teams have to be
empowered to do 80 to 90 percent of what they need to do without a lot
of checks and balances or reviews. Accountability is also extremely
important - people really do have to fulfill their promises and follow
through on their responsibilities. The team leader has to be vigilant in
coaching team members. When things get out of whack, when people start
slacking off, or when they\'re not delivering, the whole team begins to
become dysfunctional. These four points ‑‑ purpose, trust, empowerment,
accountability ‑‑ are the foundation of a good team culture.

9.  **Teams and Communities**

Virtual teams are often thought of in conjunction with virtual
communities, but there are some subtle differences between the two.
Virtual teams are usually thought of only as production units -- they
are in the business to get things done. Virtual communities (community
of practice, community of interest) tend to be more socially oriented -
they don\'t put pressure on people to do things. Virtual communities are
a place to investigate new ideas, to innovate. Gartner has over 35
research communities, most of which meet each week on an hour phone
call. They incubate ideas for research in the communities, but actually
do the research in teams. So it\'s the team that actually gets the work
done. It\'s the community where the ideas are vetted and batted around
and where you debate. Gartner predicts that if companies are moving more
and more to virtual teaming, it will be essential to also have these
virtual communities to replace some of the arrangements (e.g., water
cooler, cafeteria) found in the traditional office operation where you
can maintain those friendships. A virtual community doesn\'t solve all
the problems, but it does solve many about maintaining those
relationships and that social connection back to the enterprise.

10. **Technology**

The biggest mistake people make about technology is getting too
complex - picking an application or functionality that is more than you
need. Simplicity really is the rule. Typically, teams go through a
natural four-step process.

-   At the beginning of a team's life-cycle, you\'re in a planning or
    design phase. Since at this point it's fairly open-ended, you need
    applications that are more non-linear, such as Quickplace, Sametime,
    Groove, and eRoom.

-   Typically, you next move into a data collection and research phase.
    Here, you'll need document-centered applications. Some of the
    typical ones are iManage, eMatrix, and IDweb. You'll need an
    application that has good document management capability.

-   In the processing phase, you'll need to organize that data into a
    useful form- a business proposal or some type of document that needs
    to be vetted with other constituents. Typically, some type of
    web-enabled meeting application is used at this time - Net Meeting,
    PlaceWare, WebEx. This usually goes hand-in-hand with an audio
    teleconference function. Between audio teleconference and the
    web-enabled meeting application, you\'ve got it pretty much covered
    in terms of synchronous meeting requirements.

-   If the team is going to move from design to research to processing
    and finally to implementation, you'll need a project management
    application such as MSProject, Niku, or Primavera.

The good news is that we\'re seeing more and more of these applications
beginning to come together into an enterprise suite. Within the next
year to two years, you\'ll see companies like Open Text provide a strong
document management, collaborative workspace and meeting capability.
We\'re seeing the major project management applications like Primavera
and Niku bringing in collaborative capabilities, which offer not only
scheduling, but also more of an open-ended virtual workspace capability.

**Barriers To Virtual Teaming**

We've already referred to one of the major barriers - culture. The
challenge in dealing with different international cultures is the most
obvious example. In addition, some enterprises are very individualistic.
Bell used to be a member of a major real estate company, and real estate
brokers are very protective of their information.

> "They\'re not terribly prone to collaborate.
>
> "Team leaders also face the "people risk" - those issues of skills and
> temperament. "You have to consider not only whether team members have
> the ability to get the work done and fulfill their accountabilities,
> but also if they have the temperament to work in a virtual team
> environment."
>
> "Of course, you have to obtain the appropriate baseline technology to
> do virtual teaming. People have to be able to access the application
> remotely. You need both the telecommunications and data communications
> capabilities to do this kind of collaboration. And some organizations
> are very strict about firewalls ‑‑ if you\'re not inside the firewall
> you just can\'t do it. You certainly have to have the authentication
> and other protections available so that people can get through the
> firewall and do what they have to do without compromising company or
> enterprise security requirements."

# **Virtual Teams in the Federal Government**

Bell cites one Federal example, in particular. The Department of Defense
(DoD) used to perform an audit by flying everybody into the Pentagon for
a six-week exercise. Now they do it virtually, and they\'ve been able to
cut the whole process down by 60 or 70 percent in terms of time.
They\'ve also cut the cost of this audit, and they\'ve improved the
quality of the audit by a huge percentage. "So we see a lot of the
virtual teaming in the military. Actually, for any work that requires a
diverse level of skills, that has a fairly high need for speed and quick
cycle time, and that relies on talent that must be recruited from
different geographic areas, virtual teaming is the answer."

# **The Future of Virtual Teams**

Gartner predicts that by 2006, the virtual team will be the fundamental
organizational structure for knowledge work. We\'re now beginning to see
a virtual workforce emerge at the grass-roots level, Bell notes:

> "You know, entry-level or first-line type people. So the
> virtualization of work is happening, and that's because we have the
> tools. For example, we have broadband access in the home, cable
> modems, DSL -- it's all beginning to proliferate. We're quite
> confident that this support style will continue to grow and become
> mainstream for enterprises over the next three to five or eight years.
>
> "What should be emphasized is that the issues are now clustering
> around the question, "How do you do this well?" To do virtual teaming,
> virtual communities, and other "virtual" work forms, you\'re going to
> need a strong process design and good methodology. Then, and only
> then, should you consider getting the right technological application
> in place so that you can do virtual teaming effectively. You don\'t
> want to start with the technology. That\'s the last step. Start with
> the people -- that's what's most important."

**II. The Sustainable Workplace**

**The Sustainable Office: Links to Worker Health, Well Being and
Productivity**

Dr. Judith Heerwagen

*Dr. Heerwagen is an environmental psychologist whose interests focus on
the psychosocial aspects of work environments and the human factors of
sustainable design. She received her Ph.D. in psychology from the
University of Washington, where she was a member of the faculty in the
College of Architecture and Urban Planning for ten years. Her current
research and writing concern the links between design, well-being and
productivity*.

# **Introduction**

A guiding principle of sustainable design is to create places that are
not only healthy and productive, but which also lift the human spirit.
The premise is a simple one: healthy, happy people will be more
productive and more engaged with their work and their organization. The
purpose of this article is to look at what evidence exists to support
this premise.

At the present time, we know much more about the environmental and
energy impacts of building design and operation than we do about the
consequences for the building inhabitants. We also know more about what
causes illness and discomfort than we do about what lifts the spirits
and morale at work. However, an emerging body of research is beginning
to show promising links between the physical features of a building and
the lives of people who inhabit them. A large part of this research
focuses on air quality because of the important consequences for health.
However, it is increasingly evident that the benefits of sustainability
extend beyond indoor air to a wide array of building components and
features that have functional, psychological, and social benefits.

Much of the interest in sustainable design is related to potential
productivity benefits associated with improved interior environmental
quality. Because people are the single greatest cost in any
organization, building practices that enhance the human condition are
likely to influence building investments, especially if the enhancements
translate into valued outcomes such as increased productivity, improved
morale, and improved ability to attract high quality workers. (See
Figure 1.) Since productivity is of such great interest to many, it is
useful to look at how it is measured and what productivity means for
knowledge work.

![](media/image1.wmf)

# **What is Productivity?**

The American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC) defines productivity
simply as "units per labor hour". For knowledge work this is not an
especially useful definition because worker outcomes are highly
variable, often abstract, and difficult to document quantitatively. It
is also not a good definition for many office tasks that do not have
regular outputs, or in situations when quality, timeliness, and impact
of work are more important than quantity, which is likely to be the case
in most organizations.

For many organizations, the productivity of individual members is not as
relevant to business success as is the productivity of groups or larger
units. Demonstrating that some individuals can type 10 percent faster is
not as compelling as demonstrating that a product development group has
reduced time to market by 10 percent. Thus, in any productivity study
the unit of analysis needs to be carefully considered.

Productivity indicators are highly specific to the organization's
context and business goals, and there are no general measures or
indicators of productivity that are valid across organizations. For all
of these reasons, "productivity" is not an especially useful term when
applied to knowledge and information based work. However, the concept is
firmly entrenched in the sustainability literature.

Given the problems with measuring knowledge work productivity, it is
common for researchers to use different measures. Some have focused on
the building blocks of productivity rather than specific work outcomes.
At the individual level, these "building blocks" include mental skills
such as attention, memory, reading comprehension, creativity, and
logical thinking. Since these cognitive processes are critical to the
kinds of work valued in office settings, it is assumed that by measuring
the impact of the environment on these processes one can make inferences
about productivity gains or losses.

Another way of assessing productivity is to use measures such as
absenteeism and illness. However, by itself, absenteeism data are not
always a useful substitute for productivity losses. High levels of
absenteeism are likely to be indicative of other problems that can
interfere with overall work effectiveness, such as building-related
illnesses or low morale. Absenteeism as a measure of productivity may be
most relevant to work that is based on individual output, such as forms
processing or sales. In both of these instances, lost time may be more
readily translated to productivity losses.

Self-ratings of productivity are also commonly used in building
research. Self-measures tend to overestimate individual productivity;
however, when the measure is used in a comparative manner to assess
responses to existing and new office environments, the self-assessments
correlate well with expectations from the research literature.

A measurement using actual work output is used only in situations when
the job involves repeatable tasks that can be quantified. These tend to
be things like number of documents processed or calls handled in a call
center.

A problem with many of these productivity measures, and one that creates
skepticism among decision-makers, is their exclusive focus on individual
performance. In many organizations today, work is done in groups, so
that the collective outcome is often more important than the individual
outcome. We clearly need a better understanding of how sustainable
design practices can support group work processes, communication, and
innovation. Sustainability will also be perceived as more valuable to
organizations if it can be shown to have consistent, positive benefits
on motivation, morale, organizational commitment, and other psychosocial
processes that concern managers of human capital.

# **Worker Productivity: What Evidence Exists?**

There is a good deal of research on the links between the ambient
environment and work performance, much of it in controlled laboratory
conditions. Key environmental factors affecting performance include air
quality, temperature conditions, lighting, ventilation, and personal
control over environmental conditions. Despite the heavy emphasis on
laboratory studies, there have been sufficient numbers of field
assessments in recent years to allow some conclusions to be made.

For instance, a review of occupant surveys over a 20-year period in
England found that comfort and self-rated productivity are greater in
buildings where occupants have more control over their work environment
and in mixed mode buildings that have both natural ventilation and air
conditioning. Two additional studies of more than 11,000 workers in 107
buildings in Europe also found increases in self-rated productivity when
occupants have greater control over temperature and ventilation.[^2]

Similar results are reported in a field experiment in Canada.[^3] The
study consisted of two groups of workers in a mechanically ventilated
building. The experimental group was given control over the ventilation
at the workstation with a hand-held infrared device that could regulate
the amount and direction of air flow from four inch air outlets in the
ceiling (similar to that on airplanes). Workers with control said their
productivity had increased by 11 percent at 16 months after the study.
In contrast, workers in the control group said their productivity had
decreased by 4 percent. Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) symptoms also
significantly decreased in the experimental group, but not in the
control group.

In one of the few studies with objective measures of productivity,
researchers using a pre- and post- methodology found that worker
performance was higher in a new building that included many sustainable
features, such as personal ambient controls, increased access to
daylight, and views to a natural setting. Productivity increased by 16
percent overall, of which 3 percent was attributed to the personal
controls and the remainder to a general improvement in environmental
quality^.^[^4]

Field studies of lighting have focused on the computer environment,
especially design strategies to reduce the negative effects of glare
from ceiling lights and windows. These problems are greatly resolved
with the use of flat panel screens and laptop computers. These newer
computers are also more energy efficient, more portable, and take up
less space than older models.

The combined results from these studies show that improvements in the
ambient environment and provisions of personal control can have
noticeable positive effects on worker productivity.

# **Health**

The vast majority of health research has focused on Building Related
Illnesses (BRI) and the relationship to indoor air quality and the
thermal environment. Occurrences of Building Related Illness can be very
costly to an organization, especially when symptoms are associated with
reduced work performance, absenteeism, or temporary abandonment of the
building. Not surprisingly, one of the driving forces behind the
sustainable design movement is the improvement of indoor air
quality.[^5]

Symptoms associated with BRI include headache, lethargy, nausea,
dizziness, lack of concentration, irritability, and irritation of eyes,
throat, nose and skin. Environmental factors associated with these
symptoms include chemicals from materials, furnishings, and cleaning
products, dust, poor ventilation, poor maintenance of air handling
systems, and moisture build-up. Unfortunately, there are no current
studies that compare air quality in sustainable buildings with air
quality in a control sample of standard practice buildings. As a result,
we do not know the extent to which interior air quality is actually
improved and what impact the improvements have on illness symptoms. Such
research is greatly needed.

A widely cited paper by William Fisk and Arthur Rosenfeld[^6] proposes
that, for the United States as a whole, improved air quality could
result in significant reductions in illness and absenteeism associated
with respiratory disease, asthma and allergies, and sick building
syndrome symptoms. They estimate productivity gains of \$17 billion to
\$164 billion annually associated with improved air quality. They also
estimate improved worker performance from enhancements of the thermal
environment and lighting to be in the range of \$12 billion to \$125
billion annually.

# **Well-being**

Well-being is a psychological state characterized by positively toned
moods, low levels of stress, a sense of pride in and commitment to one's
work, and optimism about the future. As noted above, most of the
research on the health effects of sustainability has focused on building
related illnesses. Much less attention has been paid to how sustainable
design can provide a health-promoting environment through improvements
in psychological and social well-being.

Although there is not as much research on this topic, it appears that
illness and well-being are influenced by different building features and
conditions. Just getting rid of building problems may be a necessary,
but not sufficient, way to promote states of well-being.

There is growing evidence that the presence of particular "spirit
lifting" features in the interior environment may promote positive
emotional functioning and serve as a buffer to discomforts or stresses.
These features include daylight, interior sun patches, window views,
connections to the natural environment, and spatial design and amenities
that encourage sense of community. Numerous studies in office buildings
have found that people value daylight and prefer to be near windows.[^7]
Furthermore, there is growing realization that being near a window can
be psychologically and physiologically beneficial, especially if the
view contains natural features such as trees and flowers. Studies by
Roger Ulrich and Rachel Kaplan show that visual contact with nature
through window views enhances mood, reduces stress, and promotes higher
quality of life^.^[^8] Given the high cost of work stress today, efforts
to reduce stress through the incorporation of positive features would be
beneficial to workers and to organizations.

There is also evidence that daylight and views have positive impacts on
work attitudes and experiences.[^9] A pre-and post-occupancy analysis of
a new green building in Holland, Michigan, found that workers in the new
building had more positive attitudes and work experiences compared to
their experience in the previously occupied building. The building is a
combination manufacturing plant and office for Herman Miller, Inc., a
manufacturer of office furniture. The new building has extensive
daylighting in both the manufacturing and office areas, an internal day
lit "street" lined with bamboo plants, and operable windows throughout
the building. The old building, in contrast had high ribbon windows that
were inoperable, no skylights, and no interior street or similar
gathering place. The study found that workers in the new building felt
more positive about coming to work and rated the new building much more
positively overall. They also rated job satisfaction, work spirit, and
sense of belonging much more positively in the new building. The
analysis also showed differences across the manufacturing shifts, with
workers in the daytime shift showing more positive attitudes and
experiences than those in the afternoon and nighttime shifts.

In addition to these psychological benefits, there is also a growing
recognition that sustainable design can influence social relationships
at work in ways that have benefits both to individuals and their
well-being and to the organization at large.

# **Social Well Being**

The social context of work environments consists of many different kinds
of relationships that form the interconnecting web of information,
knowledge and trust that support individual and group work. Most
research on social processes focuses on organizational policies and
culture. However, research in environmental psychology shows that the
features and attributes of space also affect social relationships,
including informal communications, friendships, sense of community,
collaboration, and the development of trust. Although social behavior
has not been a target of sustainable design research, there are links
that need to be more fully explored. Social behavior is influenced by
the characteristics of walls, furnishings, enclosure, work technologies,
spatial flexibility, location of amenities, and the overall circulation
pattern of a building -- all of which are components of sustainable
design.

The physical environment influences the potential for interactions and
allows workers to maintain an on-going awareness of what is happening at
any given time^.^[^10] These processes, in turn, influence information
flow and communications patterns within an organization. High levels of
intra-organizational communication are a contributing factor to
innovation and productivity in many work settings. Not surprisingly, one
of the key goals of contemporary office design is to increase
communications and interactions among employees through spatial design
and furniture systems, with the ultimate goal of improving productivity
and the potential for innovation. Building design elements that increase
internal communications include: a centralized and integrated
circulation system, location of services on the well trafficked
hallways, high levels of visual access into surrounding areas from
individual workstations, visual openness in the environment as a whole,
the presence of internal viewing places, reduced distance between
workspaces, and layouts determined by need to interact rather than by
organizational hierarchy. These spatial features influence the potential
for seeing people and increase the likelihood of having "useful
conversations."

In addition to communications processes, the physical setting at work
can also influence the development of work relationships and
friendships. Regular social interaction and exchange of information is
crucial to the development of shared vision, which, in turn, is
essential for successful collaboration.[^11]^0^ The increased knowledge
of others and the ability to interact in many different kinds of
situations is also critical to the development of trust that underlies
successful group work. Friendly work relationships also contribute to
the sense of belonging and organizational commitment.[^12]^1^

Increases in communication, however, often come at the cost of increased
noise and distractions that have negative consequences for high-level
cognitive work, such as writing and analysis. As a result, there needs
to be a careful balance between design that encourages interaction and
design that provides sufficient enclosure and privacy for quiet,
reflective work and for work requiring confidentiality. This balance is
an issue for sustainability because open plan workspaces have many
environmental benefits. Open plan designs use less material overall,
they are more flexible and easy to reconfigure without taking down or
building walls, and they allow daylight and views to be shared by all,
not just the few who have offices on the perimeter of the building. The
problems created by increased openness can be resolved by improved work
analysis, careful attention to the location of noise generating
behaviors relative to quiet work, and more effective ways to allocate
people to space by taking into consideration the nature of their work.

# **Summary**

Sustainable design can have far reaching impacts on the health,
productivity, and well being of workers if it takes into consideration
the psychosocial environment as well as the physical environment.
Clearly, ridding buildings of problems and discomforts is a necessary
first step. But to be truly beneficial, the building needs to also
provide psychological and social sustenance. Many of the highly valued
aspects of buildings, particularly daylight, views, and personal
control, are not equitably distributed to all staff. Yet, the research
cited here suggests that these amenities can have highly positive
effects on workers. These benefits can have cascading effects on
organizations through improved morale, commitment, and sense of
belonging, as well as improved health.

Perhaps a component of the social contract between organizations and
their workers should be the right to have a work environment that fully
supports them, not only in a functional sense, but also emotionally,
socially, physically and mentally. Many believe that sustainable design
can meet these needs more effectively than traditional practice.

> **The Sustainable Workplace: An Overview^1^**
>
> By Jonathan Herz

*Jonathan Herz, AIA, is a registered architect with experience in both
the public and private sectors. Since joining GSA's Office of
Governmentwide Policy in 1998, he has been an active contributor to its
Integrated Workplace Program, as well as the leader of the Office of
Real Property's Sustainable Development Initiative.*

# **Introduction**

We all know that sustainable development is important, but do we really
know what it is and how it applies to our work and our workplaces?

Sustainable development is an integrated decision-making process that
builds on the creativity of all your employees across your organization,
so that every decision is made with an eye to the greatest long-term
benefits. In other words:

> *"Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the
> present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet
> their own needs."*
>
> The Brundtland Commission ("The Hannover Principles,"1983 United
> Nations' World Commission on Environment and Development)

The Hannover Principles, developed in 1992 by architect William
McDonough, FAIA, and the chemist Michael Braungart, were among the first
to comprehensively integrate the fundamental ideas of sustainability
with the built environment. The Principles encourage all of us - you,
your organization, your suppliers and customers - to link environmental
considerations with ethical responsibility and to recognize our mutually
dependent relationship with nature and our responsibilities to protect
it. When you make decisions in your organization, remember these
essential ideas from the Hannover Principles:

-   **Recognize interdependence**. Everything you do interacts with and
    depends upon the natural world, at every scale, both locally and
    across the globe.

-   **Eliminate the concept of waste**. Consider the full, life-cycle
    consequences of what you create or buy.

-   **Understand the limitations of design**. Nature is a model, not a
    thing to be evaded or controlled.

Using the ideas of sustainable development, we can create safe, healthy
and productive workplaces inside and outside of the traditional office
and maintain and operate them at the lowest, real cost. Sustainable
workplaces can answer today's needs -- more productive and healthier
work environments -- and respond to today\'s needs without imposing
additional costs upon future users.

An important first step is the creation of sustainable facilities. The
Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank, designed by HOK, and completed in
1998, minimizes its impact on the environment by emphasizing energy
conservation, low maintenance landscaping, water conservation, indoor
air quality, environmentally preferable materials selection, and
construction waste recycling.

The 618,000 square foot facility's material selection was based on
source sustainability, the amount of embodied energy, recycled content,
ability to be recycled, and effect on indoor air quality. Materials with
enhanced durability, low maintenance and from predominantly local
sources were used, reducing transportation impacts. Exterior materials
include stone quarried less than 100 miles from the site and local
brick. Interior materials include low-VOC (volatile organic compounds)
paints and adhesives, formaldehyde-free wood products, and many products
with high-recycled content. All wood used in the building is from
certified sustainable sources. About 70 percent of the construction
waste materials were separated and recycled.

Sustainable development is a fundamentally optimistic concept.
Sustainable development doesn't mean giving up the paint that protects
and enhances our buildings. It means reexamining 100-year-old formulas
and replacing toxic ingredients with more environmentally friendly ones.
It doesn't mean giving up the carpet and furniture that presently
enhance our offices and eventually end up in landfills. It means leasing
carpet and furniture and the services they provide, rather than simply
buying them for a finite period, disposing of them, and starting all
over again. Leasing the services of products such as carpet, furniture,
elevators, and cooling means that your real needs are met and---since
the products themselves remain the manufacturer's property---that they
will be designed to be recycled at the end of their useful lives.

# **How Do We Begin To Transform Our Way Of Thinking?**

Sustainability will come as an evolution, not a revolution, and will be
achieved through a series of steps. What are the critical factors
involved in implementing a sustainable development strategy?

-   Executive leadership must understand sustainability and commit to
    its principles.

-   Establish a vision and mission and translate it into specific
    long-term improvement objectives and targets with high-level
    visibility throughout all levels of the organization.

-   Implement a formalized process for identifying the environmental
    aspects and impacts of an organization's operations, products and
    services.

-   Provide training to raise awareness, skills and knowledge for
    transforming the organization into a sustainable development
    culture.

-   Measure progress by incorporating metrics into day-to-day management
    systems.

The most successful organizations have an established vision and mission
that gets translated into specific long-term improvement objectives and
targets, with high-level visibility throughout all levels of the
organization. Ray Anderson, a pioneer in sustainable development,
describes how his entire company, Interface, Inc. (the world's largest
manufacturer of commercial floor coverings) was transformed. Anderson
changed his company's way of doing business by shifting the paradigm of
what the customer wants and what a business can provide.

In his 1998 book, "Mid-Course Correction," Anderson developed a
comprehensive set of guidelines to move every aspect of his company
toward sustainability. Through a detailed set of principles around
"People, Product, and Place," he brings together ideas for living and
working sustainably and uses them to define the company's mission. For
example:

People

-   Employees and Management: Engage the creativity of all employees.
    Educate them on the corporate sustainability vision and ask them to
    commit to improving environmental impacts of their job. Establish
    top management commitment to long-term environmental strategy.

-   Customers: Provide honest information about the known environmental
    impacts of your company.

-   Suppliers: Share your corporate vision for sustainability with
    suppliers.

-   The Public: Develop auditing mechanisms open to public disclosure.

-   Metrics: Measure all material and energy flows in physical and
    monetary units.

-   Keeping the enthusiasm: Set reasonable goals and always celebrate
    your accomplishments.

Product

-   Design and Marketing: Redesign products to use fewer raw materials
    while delivering the same or greater value. Rent the service
    component of your products, e.g., warmth and light not electricity.

-   Packaging, Manufacturing and Purchasing: Redesign packaging.
    Research and adopt alternative energy sources. Adopt a zero waste
    mentality. Establish a "Buy Sustainably" policy.

Place

-   Facility: Design for maximum long-term flexibility and efficiency.
    Maximize use of natural ventilation, heating and cooling. Design
    with the natural flows of the site in mind.

-   Landscape: Leave as much habitat and vegetation as possible
    undisturbed by construction.

-   Maintenance: Invest in high quality systems maintenance to extend
    life and maximize efficiency.

-   Transportation: Favor local products. Buy alternative fuel vehicles.
    Allow employees to telecommute or work alternative hours.

As part of the \$2 billion overhaul of Ford Motor Company\'s Rouge River
Plant in Dearborn, MI, William McDonough looked beyond the 1,212-acre
complex to consider the entire \$150-billion company. Ford asked him to
talk to all the top executives, scientists, engineers and car designers
to see how they might think differently about design of their cars,
trucks, factories and office buildings. New metrics are being developed
that consider the multiplier effect, creating the tools to measure
things like: reduction of contingent liabilities, community relations,
regulation costs, and marketing benefits. Every project should have
goals such as these:

-   Worker retention,

-   Improving employee attendance,

-   Reducing injuries and worker compensation claims, and

-   "Celebrating" people as the company's most valuable asset.

# **How Do You Track Your Progress Towards Sustainability?**

So how do we measure sustainable progress in the workplace? Today, we
require new measurement paradigms, new performance models. As real
property professionals have broadened their focus, providing not merely
space, but providing "workplaces," our approach to measurement must also
change.

The concept of the "workplace" is the result of the merging of the
disciplines of facilities management, information technology, and human
resources. GSA's Office of Real Property publication," The Integrated
Workplace: A Comprehensive Approach to Developing Workspace," advocates
a process to address the planning and design of innovative workplaces
that encompass all of these ideas.

In our "Governmentwide Real Property Performance Measurement Study," we
developed seven key performance indicators to assist Federal agencies
assess the performance of their real property assets. Subsequently our
"Workplace Evaluation Study" expanded our focus beyond the traditional
ways of measuring facility or real estate performance, such as
telecommunications, information technology, furniture and alternative
work environments.

Performance measures will help managers to compare their operations to
similar organizations in the government and private sectors; identify if
the organization is meeting its goals; and address customer satisfaction
issues.

Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC), has developed and
implemented management strategies that analyze, evaluate and report on
real property program performance. Housing 167,000 government personnel
is a major cost item to Canada; with approximately 3.98 million square
meters of office space in 4,000 different sites, PWGSC uses an Asset
Management Plan (AMP) to manage real property assets over their economic
life. The plan provides the strategic framework for Canada's real
property asset investment decisions.

Supplementing the AMP is an Asset Performance Management Policy (APMP)
that provides measures on financial, operational and functional
performance. The APMP looks annually at Return on Investment, unit
costs, unit revenues and vacancy rates for Crown-owned properties. Other
items include operational and functional performance. PWGSC's measures
include:

-   Cost per square meter for leased/leased purchased space and imputed
    rates for Crown properties.

-   Space per person, that compares rentable space to persons housed.

We hope to add "green" metrics to the growing list of productivity
measures. The fastest growing building metric is the U.S. Green Building
Council\'s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED™) Green
Building Rating System™. The Navy, Department of State, and GSA have
adopted the LEED Building Bronze™ as their building standard. LEED™
provides guidance in the areas of building development and design.
Points are given for design features that lead to a truly sustainable
building, including:

-   Building commissioning, erosion control, indoor air quality, energy
    efficiency and thermal comfort, water conservation and quality, and
    a system for recycling occupant's trash.

-   Building Materials, including low levels of volatile organic
    compounds (VOC\'s), use of local materials, advanced resource reuse,
    recycled content, eliminating persistent toxins, and construction
    waste management plans.

-   Energy Efficiency, natural ventilation and advanced systems.

-   Landscaping, including reducing heat islands, shade cover, and
    reflective roofing materials.

-   Siting and Site Development, including infill and brownfields
    development.

-   Water Conservation, including water-conserving fixtures and cooling
    towers, gray water recovery system, water efficient landscaping,
    surface runoff *control, and biological waste treatment.*

> Other established environmental metrics include:

-   ISO 14000 - ISO (International Standards Organization) enables an
    organization to control the impact of its activities, products or
    services on the environment, using a structured approach to setting
    environmental objectives, to achieving these and to demonstrating
    that they have been achieved.

-   World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) has a
    multifaceted Eco-efficiency Project that lays out general components
    of eco-efficiency connected to broad goals of pollution prevention
    and reduction of materials and energy use. They also include
    reducing and eliminating toxic dispersion, maximizing use of
    renewable resources and enhancing recyclability and durability.

# **What Are The Benefits To You And The Environment?**

A healthier indoor environment, including the presence of natural light
as well as fresh air, can greatly affect the health, safety and
productivity of those who visit and work in your facilities every day.
Commonly used furniture, carpeting and cleaning products often contain
dangerous chemicals that "off-gas" directly into our workspace,
contributing to an unhealthy indoor air environment.

At the Inglewood Center in Largo, MD, two Prince Georges County
Government office buildings exhibited high rates of employee complaints
and absenteeism. The building\'s indoor air quality was found to be a
problem. Through a \"Green Housekeeping Program,\" cleaning products
were changed and training was provided to the janitorial staff on how to
use the new products to clean more effectively. HVAC systems were also
cleaned and balanced as part of the on-going scheduled maintenance
program. The situation has significantly improved.

A facility manager, owner and building professional's first priorities
are safety and health. Sustainable practices can make the job easier,
simplifying decisions and reducing costs. How and what you build and the
manner in which you operate and maintain your facilities have a
tremendous impact not only on the environment, but also your bottom
line. Applying sustainable development principles will reduce waste and
lower long-term maintenance and operating costs.

Equally important is the impact on your most valuable resource - your
employees and your tenants' employees. In 1997, the Federal Facilities
Council reported that, over the typical 20-year life of a facility, 90
percent of its cost can be attributed to the salaries of the people
working there, while only 5 percent is attributed to initial
construction costs and another 5 percent to operation and maintenance
costs.

The greatest opportunity for workplace gains is in improving the
performance of the people in the space, not in cutting the cost of
building, operating and maintaining the workplace. If the cost of
providing important facility attributes can be shown to provide even a
modest increase in productivity, they can be more easily justified.

Conversely, a short-sighted approach of cutting the first cost by
providing the wrong kind of space, inadequate space, or installing
systems, furniture, and technology that only meet minimum standards and
thus hamper work performance can have disastrous long-term effects.

Successful businesses know that environmental management and
environmental functions are integral parts of their everyday operations
and strategic plans. They are successful because they understand the
environmental implications of their business functions. Environmental
issues are considered essential components of business processes, rather
than consequences of those processes.

# **Conclusion**

What can you do to be more sustainable? Think about what today's leading
companies and Government agencies are doing to position themselves for
success in the new century, and ask yourself, your superiors, your
co-workers and your employees to consider some of these important
questions.

Are you:

-   Providing leadership in your organization, demonstrating commitment
    to sustainable principles, and providing training to your employees?

-   Establishing long-term improvement objectives, throughout all levels
    and measuring their effectiveness by examining your mission
    statements and strategic plans to identify the environmental aspects
    and impacts of your operations, products and services?

-   Reducing building operations costs and lowering liability from
    potentially hazardous construction and cleaning materials and
    practices in the workplace?

-   Creating livable environments, reducing negative transportation
    impacts, and enhancing your community's quality of life?

These steps will start you on your way to creating sustainable
workplaces and sustainable business enterprises. You are probably
already using some of the building blocks of sustainable development,
including buying \"green\" products and services, using materials with
recycled content in construction and managing construction waste. You
may be using alternative fueled vehicles, Energy Star® equipment, and
alternative energy sources. Finally, you may be ahead of the curve by
implementing waste prevention strategies, increasing office waste
recycling and the amount of property reused or donated, and training
employees to think \"sustainably.\" Reaching and maintaining
sustainability is a continuous process of reexamination and re-learning.

######### "Feel-Good Facilities"[^13]

By Craig Miller

JANUARY 01, 2003 \-- Even before Woodsy the wise old owl told us to
\"give a hoot, don\'t pollute,\" facilities professionals have wanted to
create green, sustainable, healthy workplaces. The difficult part was
convincing the head office; traditionally it took more time and money to
recycle than discard, to build greenfield than brownfield.

Driven by disparate forces including knowledgeable architects and
builders, employee demands, lower costs for green building materials,
and government regulations, sustainability is slowly but surely
permeating the workplace---but sometimes without the client\'s complete
comprehension.

\"In corporate America, some companies are naïve about it,\" says Pam
Light, senior vice president, Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum (HOK), Los
Angeles. \"The first time they\'ve heard about sustainability is when we
mention it, and they say \'As long as it doesn\'t cost me anything
more.\' \"

Sustainable development encompasses a range of laudable goals for
facilities design and operations including comfort, health, flexibility,
environmental responsibility, and technological foresight. It means
making facilities decisions with an eye to long-term benefits,
eliminating the concept of waste, and understanding how our actions
interrelate with the natural world.

Says Light, \"In some cases, like Los Angeles, sustainable design is a
requirement. We\'re noticing more government groups---be they cities,
states, or counties---asking about it. All buildings going up now that
are funded or initiated by, or in the interest of the city, need to
incorporate some form of sustainability.\"

## **Sustainability Measures Up**

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) has been a proponent of
sustainable development for more than a decade. GSA\'s long-term
ownership of properties allows it to see how sustainability eventually
overcomes its potentially higher construction costs. But getting the
private sector to follow suit requires education.

\"Executive Order 13123 says that the government will build sustainably,
but unless there\'s logic behind that, it won\'t catch on,\" says
Jonathan Herz, AIA, a design and construction program expert in the
GSA\'s Office of Governmentwide Policy, Washington, DC. \"Sustainability
is growing as a business idea because it makes sense. Sustainable design
lowers operating costs through energy and water conservation. It also
creates healthier workplaces, thereby increasing productivity. And
people like to work for organizations that consider these aspects in a
positive way, so we get people that might not consider working for the
government otherwise.\"

Herz says companies such as IBM, Ford Motor Company, and Nike are
following sustainable development principles, \"maybe not on every
project, but they\'re seeing it as a good business strategy.\"

He adds that companies benchmarking their facilities\' construction as
well as operations will be able to quantify improvements in lifecycle
costs, air quality, absenteeism and hiring/retention, and facility
maintenance. \"We have a large construction waste recycling program that
saves money as well,\" says Herz. \"Things like that are easy to look
at.\"

One way to measure a facility\'s sustainability is to use the U.S. Green
Building Council\'s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
Green Building Rating System, which the GSA will adopt for all projects
starting this year. The system awards points for design features that
cover site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials
selection, and indoor environmental quality. Although LEED provides a
complete framework for assessing building performance and meeting
sustainability goals, proponents note you don\'t need to go all out to
initiate sustainable workplace processes. Small measures can help, such
as having the building\'s air filters cleaned, providing lighting
controls for separate work areas, or using new cleaning supplies. Herz
asks, \"If people are using toxic materials to clean buildings, what
does it say about what employees are inhaling?\"

Employees also must be educated so they don\'t defeat the purpose of
high-tech sustainable design elements. A space heater under the desk may
not be the best way to control the individual work environment (or the
electricity budget). Waterless urinals can be damaged if they\'re
maintained incorrectly. \"We have a new federal building in San
Francisco with operable windows,\" says Herz, \"but it\'s also designed
with a sophisticated HVAC system, so people need to understand when
windows should be opened.\"

## **The Learning Curve**

Herz says a new relationship based on education and communication is
required between architect and client to maximize the benefits of
sustainability. \"Usually at the end of a (construction) job, you give
the building manager the keys and hope you don\'t hear from him again.
But you should have an ongoing dialog. Building managers need to know
what questions to ask designers because they\'re going to be maintaining
the facilities for many years. The label on a candy bar says what\'s in
it, but building products don\'t have that. If you don\'t use hazardous
materials, you don\'t have to pay for hazardous waste disposal down the
road. It\'s one of many considerations that can add to costs.\"

For corporations who are interested in sustainable design and
operations, there\'s a growing base of knowledge among architects,
builders, and design consultants. The U.S. Green Building Council was
expecting 1,800 to 2,000 attendees for its recent international
conference and exposition. As it turned out, the Council closed
registration a few weeks prior to the event and welcomed closer to 3,500
people. \"It was like a pep rally, there was so much energy,\" says
Monica Green, AIA, CSI, CCS, associate, van Dijk Westlake Reed Leskosky
(VWRL), Cleveland.

Green says her firm is being asked to address environmental
responsibility more often in requests for proposals, whether for
corporate or government contracts. \"Green is trendy, and many
manufacturers are using that terminology to promote products, but we as
design professionals have to be more educated. I think the issue is, we
need to stop and reexamine the way we\'re managing and moving projects
forward.\"

While Green admits that reexamining building methods affects the
schedule and budget, she adds that the education curve depends on the
designer\'s experience. \"There\'s an education process, like when we
went from hand drawing buildings to computer drawing. That added time
and cost, but the next project went quicker. Sustainable design is
overwhelming for clients, design professionals, and architects alike
when you\'re doing it for the first time, but you can build on that
experience with each project.\"

Whether a project formally follows the LEED rating system or not, Green
says the tool can help everyone involved develop goals for a project.
Those goals can be simple, like keeping the construction site clean and
recycling waste on the site, or as complicated as using renewable energy
sources and alternative construction methods. \"There are people out
there always pushing the limits,\" Green adds, \"and that inspires us.\"

VWRL designed a new facility for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) near
Flagstaff, Arizona. Designed to house the scientists of the United
States Astrogeological division, the 27,000-sq.ft. facility combines
private offices, a public exhibit area, and a library and resource
center. Given the client (USGS and its contracting entity GSA) and site
(a mesa at the base of the San Francisco peaks), Green says a lot of
thought was put into environmental responsibility, as well as energy
efficiency and thermal comfort.

The building sits on an east-west axis to take advantage of solar gain
in winter and ventilation throughout the year. It has operable windows,
clerestory glass, and overhangs that minimize heat gain while maximizing
natural lighting by allowing the use of clear glass. The building also
has a reflective metal roof and well-insulated concrete masonry unit
(CMU) walls resulting in high thermal mass.

The project offers an example of \"multi-disciplinary thinking,\" a term
Green says she\'s hearing more often. \"In the past, architects would
hand off plans to engineers, who would circuit the lighting and design
the HVAC. But building systems are so much more sophisticated now that
each design decision affects the total building performance. Architects
and engineers need to work more closely to see how daylight affects
building controls, or how wall and floor coverings retard vapor.
Everyone on a project needs to communicate better; it\'s more important
than it used to be.\"

## **Sustainable And Affordable**

Clients that exhibit an interest in sustainable development may find
that being a good corporate citizen offers rewards beyond good public
relations. HOK\'s Light says sustainable design doesn\'t have to cost
more. \"Green products are coming down in cost because more people are
using them, so we can specify them more often.

\"There are things that are no charge to the client and better for the
environment,\" Light adds. She notes that 4.5 billion pounds of carpet
go in landfills every year. Yet two of the largest manufacturers of
nylon for carpet, DuPont and Solutia, will take old carpeting for
reclamation and charge no more than what the general contractor would
pay for landfill costs. The client merely needs to note in the
specifications that the carpeting should go to reclamation.

A little flexibility on the part of the client can help keep costs down
on sustainable design projects. When Game Show Network was looking for a
new space, HOK suggested a facility recently vacated by another client,
IBM e-Business. \"Although it wasn\'t exactly what they were looking
for, it was still very nice, and they took it,\" says Light. HOK worked
with the client to retain 80 percent of the existing space (including
carpeting, hardwood floors, stone counters, millwork, and lunchrooms).
\"We just added a few more private offices, and changed some lighting
and the interior color palette. We got them in the space for 25 percent
of the expected cost. And they took the existing furniture, cutting that
budget to 10 percent of what it would have been.\" The project also kept
a lot of building materials from going to a landfill.

Other companies have also found that less is more when it comes to
sustainable, good-looking interiors. HOK designed a space for Turner
Feature Animation that used EnviroCoat paint in place of a ceiling. Says
Light, \"There was no additional cost to the client, it\'s a great part
of the design and good for the environment.\" For the National Wildlife
Federation, the firm designed a space that included a wall made of
plants, a solution that provides natural air purification and suits the
group\'s mission.

FMs may feel as green as Kermit but face trouble selling their
sustainability ideas to corporate management and shareholders. Light
suggests showing a cost savings on electricity, or on lowering
absenteeism with better air. Support your data by enlisting the help of
human resources. And seek out design firms that have worked on
sustainable projects before. In addition to their own expertise, they
can provide information from design consultants and product
manufacturers.

Sustainable development depends in part on new technologies, making a
thorough knowledge of sustainable products key to a project\'s success.
Light once specified a floor made of recycled tires for a
forward-thinking client. She recalls that long after it was installed,
the floor retained a slight rubbery smell.

\"Luckily, the client loved it,\" Light says, \"but I warn clients now.
In this case it was artsy people, but if it had been a stuffy corporate
group, who knows?\"

**SECTION III. Case Studies in Innovative Workplace Strategies**

#  **The Office of Real Property Integrated Workplace Pilot Office of Governmentwide Policy General Services Administration (GSA)**[^14]

By Rob Obenreder, AIA

*Rob Obenreder is a registered architect with 21 years experience in the
public and private sectors. He has worked for the General Services
Administration for the past 11 years in varied capacities, including
architectural design, construction documents, design review, contract
preparation, and project management. He is currently leading the Office
of Governmentwide Policy's Integrated Workplace Program*

![](media/image2.png)The Federal Government spends millions of dollars
each year providing workspace for its employees, often using 19th
Century methods and solutions to support 21st Century knowledge work. We
believe this money can be better leveraged to not only improve
aesthetics, but also the performance of the space and the productivity
of those using it. Better space can also reduce long-term operational
costs and minimize waste. To test these ideas, the Office of Real
Property has renovated our offices using Integrated Workplace (IW)
principles, which were developed by this office and presented in our
publication "The Integrated Workplace: A Comprehensive Approach to
Developing Workspace."

Sidebar

The Integrated Workplace allows an organization to use the workplace as
a strategic tool to accomplish its mission and improve employee
performance. It provides a context for examining needs and resources to
be translated into appropriate work strategies and space solutions. It
supports a sustainable approach to federal facilities by focusing on
solutions that provide more healthy, productive, and flexible workspace
and work strategies that help attract and retain valued staff, simplify
reorganization and space reconfiguration, and reduce downtime and waste.

![](media/image3.jpeg){width="1.2708333333333333in"
height="1.6194444444444445in"}**Design Challenges:** The old workspace
for the Office of Real Property consisted of systems and freestanding
furniture of various vintages and sources, awkwardly arranged in poorly
lighted, confined spaces. "Amenities" included a poorly located and
confusing executive suite and staff administrative area at the mid-point
of a noisy public corridor, and a large conference room with a library
whose use was restricted by the conference room schedule. The office
space was gloomy at best, with inflexible, inequitable workstations and
limited opportunities for staff interaction.

The features and furniture of our workspace did little to support the
business process or mission of a knowledge-driven, collaborative,
changing organization. Cubicles were similar to those portrayed in the
comic strip "Dilbert."

As is typical in a small project like this, the limited scope and budget
precluded using extensive consultant help. A workplace change
professional was brought in at the beginning to conduct a workshop that
helped define work processes, workplace strategies, and office space
needs. We then held a design charrette with in-house staff. It could be
said that, in large part, we the tenants, designed our space.

In-house architects and designers provided design and project management
expertise and building support staff carried out furniture procurement
and much of the construction.

Once the easily movable furniture we selected was in place, the tenants
themselves completed the design process by arranging common elements and
workstations to best suit their individual work tasks and style.

**The Workplace Design - From Vision to Reality through Dialogue:** The
staff and management defined our workplace needs. We wanted a workplace
that "fosters innovation and communication, provides a healthy and
satisfying environment, and supports high-quality work."

Using a series of two-bay-wide suites that accommodate 4-5 people in
open workstations surrounding a common area, the final space
configuration is more in keeping with the original building layout of
private offices along a public corridor. This arrangement moved the
secondary internal circulation of the old open-plan office back into the
original corridors, picking up needed usable space and creating
opportunities for staff interaction. The result is a more intimate,
collegial atmosphere than the previous open-plan "cubicle farm," so much
maligned in recent years.

Existing space was reconfigured to make better use of it. As a result,
wasted space was recaptured to create 3 small meeting rooms and a
community room in the same rentable area. In total, over 900 square feet
(12 percent of the total space) has been recaptured.

**Just the Facts:** The Office of Real Property is housed in 852
rentable square meters (9,167 rentable square feet) of space on the
sixth and seventh floors of the historic General Services Building,
built in 1917 in Washington, DC. The newly renovated space was fully
occupied in June 2002, and provides offices and support space for 46
people, resulting in a utilization rate of 18.5 square meters (199
square feet) per person, including joint use and conference spaces.
Average workstation size is 7.2 square meters (78 square feet).

**A More Collaborative Process:** Through team meetings, staff
workshops, focus groups, surveys, and interviews, we defined written
goals for our new workplace. The three most important issues were:
privacy and noise, more user adaptability, and improved day-lighting and
temperature control. The staff also identified ergonomics, team meeting
space, and storage as priorities. Management also wanted increased
opportunities for staff interaction, team collaboration and telework
support.

![](media/image4.jpeg){width="1.0715277777777779in" height="1.625in"}
Specific solutions linked to project goals include:

[More privacy/less noise]{.underline}. Division of the larger, open
spaces into smaller 5-person "suites" maximizes the distance between
workers, helping to reduce noise and distractions. Moveable partitions
allow tenants to vary the degree of visual privacy. Protocols for noise
control are being developed.

[User adaptability and mobility]{.underline}. All furniture and space
screens are easily moveable. Heavier pieces are on wheels. Each person
can adjust their workspace to suit their own work style -- open or
closed, right or left handed, facing in or out, and so on. A new phone
system allows easy call forwarding to any number for seamless mobility.

[More daylight.]{.underline} We took advantage of the narrow depth of
the suites to increase natural light in the spaces. Existing suspended
ceilings were cut back at the windows and door transoms. Translucent
panels were also used to separate workstations. Overhead storage was
eliminated, with equivalent storage provided below or adjacent to the
desktops, reducing shadows on the work area.

[Temperature control]{.underline}. The budget only allowed for simple
changes. Existing window air conditioners, which allow for some local
control, were located more uniformly in the spaces. Ceiling fans in each
office improve air circulation and can be controlled by temperature if
desired.

![](media/image5.png). Workstation storage includes towers, file
pedestals, and bookshelves, all on wheels for easy mobility. Additional
storage is provided in a common lateral file in each suite, the
community spaces and library. A long-term file area is located on an
adjacent floor.

[Ergonomics]{.underline}. Each person was given the opportunity to test
four different ergonomic task chairs and select the one that worked best
for them. Other improvements include new adjustable keyboard trays with
an integral mouse pad and the ability to orient computer monitors to
avoid window glare. Overhead light fixtures were reduced in number and
equipped with non-glare parabolic diffusers. Task lighting provides
increased illumination at the desktop.

[More collaboration/teaming.]{.underline} All staff are now located in
contiguous space. A small meeting area in each suite and the ability to
open up workstations to each other help support collaborative work. A
community room, three small meeting rooms, and use of common circulation
provide more opportunities for both formal and informal discussions.

[Sustainable features.]{.underline} "Green" materials and practices for
the project include sorting and recycling of paper during
pre-construction moves, use of paper recycling wastebaskets, recycled
content in all furniture, fabrics and carpet, and use of 100 percent
recycled vinyl flooring in the kitchenette. Overhead lighting fixtures
were reduced by over 30 percent and replaced with energy-saving
parabolic types that are needed less because of the natural light
filling the space. Other energy-saving features include the use of
Energy-Star rated ceiling fans with a dimmable fluorescent light,
compact fluorescent lamps in the desk lights, separate switching of
light fixtures, and power strips with motion detectors to shut off
lights, computer monitors and other equipment when workstations are
unoccupied.

![](media/image6.jpeg){width="0.9375in" height="1.4166666666666667in"}.
Because furniture and partitions are freestanding, with heavy pieces on
wheels, occupants have the ability to personalize their workstation
configuration. This minimizes downtime and reconfiguration costs, and
simplifies maintenance. New conference room tables are modular, allowing
easy rearrangement. The community space utilizes a low-profile access
floor and modular wiring. All spaces use modular carpet tiles that are
easy to replace if damaged.

[Alternative workplace strategies]{.underline}. In addition to the
physical workspace changes, the Office of Real Property utilizes
telework, telework centers, and desk sharing. The new workplace provides
touchdown space for employees who work full-time outside the office,
call forwarding and cell phones, laptop docking stations, and remote
e-mail and computer network access.

**Project Cost:** The cost of providing flexible space using Integrated
Workplace strategies was comparable to that of a conventionally planned
space, even with some increased planning costs. We believe that this
approach resulted in fewer construction changes. Fit-up costs can be
tailored to meet any reasonable budget. Total "move-in" cost for this
space, including design fees, space renovations and furniture, was \$49
per rentable square foot, or \$9,800 per person.

**Measurement:** A survey will be conducted to poll the users on
workplace performance. This information will inform future workplace
changes. The GSA-wide Gallup Q-12 survey will also be used to assess
general workplace satisfaction.

**Conclusion:** The Office of Real Property Integrated Workplace
demonstrates that a greatly improved work environment can be created on
a limited budget. Our new workspace provides completely mobile
workstations that have already proved their worth. Each occupant has
made changes to the workstation to better suit how he or she works. In
two instances, damage to the building and furnishings from piping leaks
were avoided because the furniture could be relocated in minutes to give
repair crews access.

When staff move to a different workstation, they merely have to roll
their fully-loaded storage units to their new location, saving hours of
packing and unpacking, and saving both moving and down-time costs.
Workstations are more equitable, with each person getting the same size
space and access to daylight.

The new community room, carved out of old circulation space, serves as
the heart of the office, where staff can prepare and eat lunch, get
their mail, make copies, log-on to the internet, read, work, meet, and
exchange ideas. Small meeting rooms support more collaborative and
intense individual work.

![](media/image7.jpeg){width="1.3152777777777778in"
height="1.9833333333333334in"}The "front office" is now located adjacent
to the elevator lobby for better visibility and visitor access,
increasing the Office of Real Property's presence in the building.

Using Integrated Workplace concepts, the Office of Real Property has
developed a more responsive workplace that can be adapted and improved,
meeting today's needs and tomorrow's challenges.

***Sidebar***

***\"The MP space redesign was delivered on time, within budget, and the
result is an environment that is a dramatic improvement over the way we
used to work.\"***

***Stanley Kaczmarczyk, Innovative Workplaces Division Director***

####### Sun Microsystems iWork Program

By Crawford Beveridge

*Crawford Beveridge is chief human resources officer and executive vice
president in charge of people and places for Sun Microsystems, Inc.*

If you look around, you may discover (as we did) that 30 to 35 percent
of your people aren\'t in the office on any given day. The reasons are
not surprising \--classes, conferences, customer visits, sick days,
vacations, meetings at other locations. But the data you gather is
likely to bring home a salient point:

Your work force is already more mobile than you think.

Today's knowledge workers have widely varying needs that stem from
different kinds of job and work tasks, personal and family situations
and workstyles. This has a major impact on our assumptions about the
workplace, and Sun's iWork program can be traced to these changing
assumptions (Fig 1). What is iWork? It is Sun's internal system of
workplaces, work practices, and technologies designed to support an
increasingly mobile workforce.

Figure 1. Changing Assumptions Concerning the Workplace

#### Yesterday Today

  ----------------------------------- -----------------------------------
  Serve regional customers            Markets are global

  Hire local workers                  Hire the best talent

  Expect employees to be "here"       Workforce is anywhere

  Manage by walking around            Manage through leadership

  Work in a single space              Work locations are multiple

  Work mostly is individual           Work activity is more
                                      team-dependent

  Major work constraint-rules         Major work constraint-time
  ----------------------------------- -----------------------------------

Several years ago we thought it would be great to give employees secure
access to their e-mail from home or on the road, but we quickly realized
that what we really needed to give them was access to everything: Mail,
calendar, address book, expense reporting, benefits management \-- you
name it.

That was the start of a significant shift for us. What we used to refer
to as real estate and facilities became Workplace Resources. That may
seem like a subtle semantic distinction, but it really broadened our
perspective. iWork considers the work infrastructure not as a static
resource "assigned" and "owned" by an individual or group but as a set
of resources "available" and "served up" on demand to those who need
them when they need them -- resources available "anytime, anywhere, to
anyone."

Once we got the right Web-based tools in place, we could be a lot
smarter about the kind of work environments we offer: Drop-in centers
closer to where our employees live and flexible zones on our main
campuses, where some seats are available on a first-come, first-served
basis and some can be reserved. (That way, if you have to go to another
campus for a meeting, you can get some work done afterward without
having to return to your home base.) For example, we\'ve determined that
1.8 users per office is about right, given the amount of time they spend
out on sales calls. You have to find the ratio that makes the most
sense.

Here I think it\'s important to note that companies such as ours, with
large, globally dispersed workforces, typically have a vacancy rate in
their buildings of 10 to 15 percent. Some of that is planned (to
accommodate growth and periodic restacking of the organization in
response to shifting market opportunities) and some of it would have to
be considered unavoidable. Because of the iWork program, we believe
that, by the end of 2003, we can achieve a vacancy rate of zero. The
iWork program has already helped Sun reduce real-estate holdings and
lower operating costs by \$50 million a year, and we believe it has the
potential, through cost savings and cost avoidance, to have a
bottom-line impact of \$140 million a year when fully implemented. A
summary of the applications and benefits of the iWork program to date is
shown in Figure 2.

One of the side benefits of iWork is that it enhances our ability to
attract and retain the best talent available. In fact, we estimate that,
so far, the work-from-home aspect of the program has enabled us to keep
680 employees who otherwise would have left the company.

We have started to think of our main campuses as town halls or community
centers\-- places where groups can gather to foster team spirit and
tackle specific tasks. In the cafeteria of our Menlo Park campus, we
even opened a prototype iWork Cafe, with networked lunch booths,
countertop stations, and other casual, open work settings for
individuals and small groups. As always, we\'ll monitor usage and
collect feedback to determine whether we want to extend the café option
to other campuses.

By providing flexible workplaces, where all people need is a Java smart
card to bring up their personal desktop, we make it easy for them to
reorganize themselves, to form and reform groups \-- a real advantage in
a constantly changing business environment.

Mobility is already a fact of life. The new workplace needs to reflect
that.

Figure 2: Applications and Impacts of iWork

Applications Impacts Benefits

+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| **Flexible field      | -   **Enabled rapid   | -   **\$40M annual    |
| Offices --65          |     sales and service |     operational       |
| locations worldwide,  |     growth with no    |     savings**         |
| 11,000 employees**    |     lead time in      |                       |
|                       |     knowing where     | -   **69 percent      |
|                       |     that growth would |     employee          |
|                       |     occur**           |     satisfaction      |
|                       |                       |     today, with       |
|                       | -   **Post 9/11       |     continued         |
|                       |     enabled 250 World |     improvement every |
|                       |     Trade Center      |     year over the     |
|                       |     employees to      |     past 4 years**    |
|                       |     become fully      |                       |
|                       |     productive within |                       |
|                       |     one week of       |                       |
|                       |     disaster.**       |                       |
|                       |                       |                       |
|                       | -   **Employees trade |                       |
|                       |     their assigned    |                       |
|                       |     offices for       |                       |
|                       |     priority access** |                       |
+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| **Drop-in centers in  | -   **Individual      | **90 minutes of       |
| Bay area, Washington, |     employee          | employee time saved   |
| DC, Boston area, 5000 |     productivity      | per average 54        |
| users**               |     gains**           | minutes given to      |
|                       |                       | Sun**                 |
|                       | -   **Strong          |                       |
|                       |     indications of    |                       |
|                       |     improved hiring   |                       |
|                       |     and retention**   |                       |
+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| **Work from home (US  | -   **Enabled an      | -   **Average commute |
| only so far), 2,000   |     estimated 680     |     savings of 3.1    |
| employees registered  |     employees to      |     hours per week    |
| to date**             |     remain with Sun   |     per participant,  |
|                       |     so far**          |     58 percent of     |
|                       |                       |     commute time      |
|                       | -   **Post 9/11       |     returned to Sun** |
|                       |     enabled many WTC  |                       |
|                       |     employees to be   | -   **54 percent      |
|                       |     immediately       |     average           |
|                       |     productive.**     |     productivity      |
|                       |                       |     gain**            |
+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| **Flexible Office and | -   **Improved team   | **In process**        |
| Team Enterprise       |     collaboration     |                       |
| Server Products Group |     between San       |                       |
| (current pilot), 280  |     Diego, Bay Area,  |                       |
| in Bay Area)**        |     and Burlington,   |                       |
|                       |     MA teams**        |                       |
|                       |                       |                       |
|                       | -   **Catalyst for    |                       |
|                       |     change/increased  |                       |
|                       |     team activity in  |                       |
|                       |     Bay Area**        |                       |
+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+

**Section IV: Follow up to "Productivity and the Workplace"**

####### *Introduction*

*As you have read, the Virtual Workplace and Sustainable Workplace are
important strategies that can help in the creation, operation and
management of healthy and productive workplaces. They tell us where
today\'s workplaces are headed in the future. But what is the level of
awareness today among those who use the workplace: managers and
employees?*

*The Office of Governmentwide Policy\'s conceptual Workplace Performance
Model, discussed below, is the first attempt to assess employee
satisfaction with the workplace, with an eye to determining the
relationship between employee satisfaction with each workplace
component, and employee productivity. Our December 2001 publication,
\"Productivity and the Workplace,\" introduced the Employee Satisfaction
Pilot Study, which uses this Workplace Performance Model.*

*The sample size is relatively small and the sampling method was driven
more by practicality than statistical theory. Our objective for
collecting the survey data was to reinforce the integrated \"Workplace\"
concept through measurement. Instead of asking people about satisfaction
with the workplace as a whole, we measured separate satisfaction scores
for the People, Places and Tools components.*

*The results, as Drs. Gina Vega and Martin D. Hanlon write, are
illuminating - workers do not yet recognize the effects of \"Tools\" and
\"Places\" on their job satisfaction and are almost completely focused
on \"People\" factors.*

####### Follow up to "Productivity and the Workplace"

By Dr. Gina Vega and\
Dr. Martin D. Hanlon

*Dr. Gina Vega is Associate Professor of Management at the Francis E.
Girard School of Business and International Commerce, Merrimack College,
North Andover, MA. She is the author of \"Managing Teleworkers and
Telecommuting Strategies,\" forthcoming from Praeger Publishers. Dr.
Martin D. Hanlon is an associate professor in the Department of Urban
Studies at Queens College of the City University of New York. He has
published widely in the fields of organizational change, labor relations
and human resource management.*

Conventional wisdom suggests that productivity and worker satisfaction
are closely tied, and that we can "make" workers more productive through
various workplace enhancements, ergonomic improvements, and increases in
benefits. One white paper indicates, "When office workers are satisfied
with their environmental conditions, when they can work in greater
comfort and control, they will be more productive. Additionally, the
cost of employment per worker will drop, and the cost of facilities
operation will decrease."[^15] In the same context, "E.R. Tischauer, in
his book Biomechanical Basis of Ergonomics, writes that a correct chair
can add as much as 40 productive minutes to the working day of each
productive individual. Easy to measure and tie to the bottom line."[^16]
Proponents of telework in its various formats have provided data to
support claims of increased productivity in the virtual
environment.[^17] But recent research conducted by the General Services
Administration indicates that conventional wisdom may not always hold
true, particularly as they relate to worker satisfaction.

**Research Background**

Over a period of approximately a year and a half, GSA's Office of
Governmentwide Policy carried out the Workplace Analysis Survey[^18]
under the leadership of Stan Kaczmarczyk and with the assistance of
public employees, private sector companies, trade associations, and
academic sources. The primary goal of the survey was to identify the key
factors that influence productivity, based on the hypothesis that worker
satisfaction in the areas of "People," "Places," and "Tools" would be
closely connected with productivity.

-   "*People*" included organizational culture, business processes, and
    organizational flexibility.

-   "*Tools*" included information technology, connectivity, office
    equipment, and Internet usage.

-   "*Places*" included specific work locations, office layout and
    design, furnishings and amenities, and building systems.

Data collected from over 250 public and private sector employees gave
rise to conjectures about satisfaction and productivity in the virtual
work environment.

**Major Findings**

Overall, there are few differences between the government employee
sample and the non-government employee sample in the degree of personal
satisfaction with how well the workplace addresses *People*, *Places*,
and *Tools* factors. Sixty-seven percent of government employees (107)
were either satisfied or very satisfied with how well their workplace
addressed *People* factors. The corresponding figure for employees in
the non-government sector was 70 percent (76). For *Places* factors, 70
percent of government employees (121) and 76 percent of non-government
employees (50) were satisfied or very satisfied with their workplace.
Personal satisfaction with how well the workplace addressed *Tools*
factors was very high in both samples: 86 percent of government
employees (154) and 87 percent of non-government employees (62)
indicated that they were satisfied or very satisfied in this area.

Table 1 indicates some significant differences between the government
and non-government samples in the presence or absence of specific
workplace factors. Overall, government employees enjoy greater job
security and a broader range of employee benefits as well as more
opportunities for independent work. Non-government employees enjoy
higher pay and monetary benefits than their government counterparts.

Table 1: Differences between Government and Non-Government Samples in
the Presence or Absence of Specific Workplace Factors

+-------------------------------+----------------+--------------------+
| ***People* Factors**          | ## Government  | ## Non-Government  |
+-------------------------------+----------------+--------------------+
| Mass transit subsidies        | ## **48%**     | 24%                |
+-------------------------------+----------------+--------------------+
| Mostly independent work       | ## **48%**     | 22%                |
+-------------------------------+----------------+--------------------+
| Competitive pay               | ## **37%**     | 59%                |
+-------------------------------+----------------+--------------------+
| Competitive benefits          | ## **53%**     | 79%                |
+-------------------------------+----------------+--------------------+
| Personal job security         | ## **55%**     | 26%                |
+-------------------------------+----------------+--------------------+
| ***Places* Factors**          | ##             | ##                 |
+-------------------------------+----------------+--------------------+
| Work in a cubicle             | ## **50%**     | 70%                |
+-------------------------------+----------------+--------------------+
| Presence of exercise facility | ## **60%**     | 37%                |
+-------------------------------+----------------+--------------------+
| On-site childcare             | ## **49%**     | 18%                |
+-------------------------------+----------------+--------------------+
| ***Tools* Factors**           | ##             |                    |
+-------------------------------+----------------+--------------------+
| Laptop computer               | ## **44%**     | 18%                |
+-------------------------------+----------------+--------------------+

An analysis of respondents' open-ended comments showed the same pattern
throughout all the respondent subsets. Out of the 62 offered comments,
32 of them pertained to the importance of *People* factors in the
workplace. Respondents used language such as:

-   "*Tools* and *Places* less of a problem than *People* issues."

-   "I think the greatest emphasis should be placed on *People* issues."

-   "Communication between staff members and management is extremely
    important to maintain productive employees."

-   "*People* overall are the most important factor. They need security,
    opportunity, and care."

-   "I feel if interpersonal communication is lacking, then productivity
    will be low."

**Significance in Terms of Worker Satisfaction, Retention, and
Productivity**

These findings translate into an apparent reluctance to change jobs
based on the offer of technological or location-related offerings in
either the public or the private sector, regardless of the disparities
in benefits noted above.

-   It's no surprise that people who work in cubicles don't like it, but
    cubicles have no impact on the decision to change jobs.

```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
-   People are more satisfied when their work places are in new or
    renovated buildings, but this has no impact on the decision to
    change jobs.

-   We might have expected that desk-sharing would have a negative
    impact on job satisfaction, but apparently, it does not. Proximity
    to a window has no impact on satisfaction either.

-   Workers whose employers provide them with laptop computers and cell
    phones are more satisfied than those whose employers do not provide
    such equipment, but these items have no impact on job-change
    decisions.

-   Even the presence or absence of on-site childcare had no impact on
    job-change decisions, although childcare is clearly an important
    issue for significant numbers of workers.

The major finding of the study is that employee satisfaction has to do
with *People* factors, rather than *Places* or *Tools*.

-   The most satisfied (satisfied or very satisfied) workers among the
    survey respondents were those whose organizations practiced open
    communication (65 percent), those who received the right training
    (61 percent), and those whose organizations supported work/life
    balance (56 percent).

-   Competitive pay also played a significant (although lesser) role in
    worker satisfaction, with 50 percent of those whose organizations
    provided competitive pay being satisfied or very satisfied.

-   Despite the statistical significance of the presence of these
    *People* factors on worker satisfaction, none of them has an impact
    on the decision to change jobs.

-   Although being organized into work teams does not have an impact on
    satisfaction, it does have an impact on the decision to change jobs.

We might have anticipated that other factors would play an important
role in job satisfaction -- such as work at home options, mass transit
subsidies, or flexible work schedules -- but the respondents indicated
that these had no impact on their job satisfaction. The people who
participated in this survey were pretty much happy with their jobs.

Interestingly, the *People* factors turned out to have the most
significant impact on productivity, satisfaction, and the decision to
change jobs. Fully 65 percent of the respondents felt that *People*
factors would have a great or very great impact on their decision to
"change jobs tomorrow." This is the only category in which more than
half of the respondents indicated an impact. In addition, there were
differences between government and non-government employees in a number
of important *People* factors in the workplace. Government employees
were far more likely to feel a sense of personal job security and were
much less likely to expect downsizing or frequent moves. Non-government
employees were much more likely to note that their pay and benefits were
competitive than were government employees.

Significantly, while half of government employees stated that their jobs
gave them the opportunity to do independent work, only a quarter of
non-government employees cited this as a characteristic of their job.
One federal worker stated it succinctly: "Work has to be interesting and
worthwhile."

**...In All the Wrong Places**

The implication of these findings is that we are looking for worker
satisfaction in all the wrong places if we focus on the *Tools* or
location of work and ignore the importance of *People* factors in
designing our workplaces. In the words of one respondent, "We need
better managers who understand organizational structure." This
respondent suggested also that retention is not necessarily a worthwhile
goal. This is something we need to consider. Are our efforts at
retention worth the expense? If it is true, as another federal employee
wrote, "Most people here work hard to complete the mission of the
organization as they understand it," perhaps we should turn the mirror
on ourselves and shift the focus to managerial effectiveness and human
relationships in the workplace. The findings regarding human
relationships in the workplace echo other recent studies. In August
2001, the AFL-CIO shared the results of its workplace opinion study in
which "63 percent of those responding said they don't trust employers to
treat employees fairly."[^19] A CNN.com instant poll shows that 71
percent of the readers of the article (3379) agreed that they don't
trust employers to treat employees fairly.

Core processes remain the same no matter where one works, discounting
the importance of location. And, without the appropriate equipment, work
cannot take place, eliminating *Tools* as a meaningful factor in work
satisfaction. Furthermore, there seems to be little or no connection
between workplace satisfaction and productivity, according to the data
from this survey.

If we had the opportunity to "fix" one thing in the work environment,
that item would relate to *People* factors: increasing open
communication, providing appropriate training, and finding a way to
enhance work/life balance. Building trust between employers and
employees would be the first step in this process.

####### 

####### *Afterword*

*Not surprisingly, most respondents focused on People -- the most
familiar and important issue. Most are probably not aware of how Space
and Tools can also provide opportunities for change and improvement.*

*Most of those surveyed were not working in new or "innovative" spaces,
and there was no opportunity to learn how the workplace strategies
discussed in this publication might have affected their perceptions.
GSA's WorkPlace 20 20 program is attempting to remedy that situation
through a systematic process of gathering and analyzing information on
workspace and workplace needs.*

*While the results suggest little awareness of how the workplace
influences worker satisfaction or productivity, many other studies are
showing just that. What we do know is that, at a minimum, building
owners and operators must learn a new definition of safe and healthy
buildings and adopt sustainable practices.*

*As Judy Heerwagen writes, "Sustainable design can have far reaching
impacts on the health, productivity, and well being of workers if it
takes into consideration the psychosocial environment as well as the
physical environment. Clearly, ridding buildings of problems and
discomforts is a necessary first step. But to be truly beneficial, the
building needs to also provide psychological and social sustenance."*

**V: OBSERVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS**

GSA is committed to implementation of integrated design, sustainability,
telework and performance measurement in the Federal workplace. As
educated design professionals learn how to create healthier workplaces,
those who employ them need to be made aware of the available
opportunities.

We are examining strategic goals, work processes, culture, and
workplaces (both "virtual" and "real") to develop solutions that will
accommodate current needs, readily adapt to change and optimize
operational expenses. GSA's "Hallmarks of the Productive Workplace" and
a sustainable approach to both development and operation of our
workplaces are central to this program.

***Sidebar***

***[HALLMARKS OF THE PRODUCTIVE WORKPLACE]{.underline}***

***Spatial Equity:** The workplace is designed to meet the functional
needs of the users by accommodating the tasks to be undertaken without
compromising individual access to privacy, daylight, outside views, and
aesthetics.*

***Healthfulness**: The workplace is housed in a healthy environment
with access to air, light, and water, and is free of harmful
contaminants and excessive noise.*

***Flexibility:** The workplace configuration adapts to typical
organizational and work process changes but can also be readily
restructured to accommodate major functional changes.*

***Comfort**: The workplace allows workers to adjust thermal, lighting,
acoustic, and furniture systems to meet personal and team comfort
levels.*

***Technological Connectivity**: Workplaces on-site (e.g. team space,
conference/multimedia space, hoteling space) and off-site (e.g.,
satellite office, home office) allow easy communication among
distributed co-workers while allowing simultaneous access to data.*

***Reliability**: The workplace is supported by state-of-the-art
heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), lighting, power,
security, and telecommunication systems/equipment that require minimal
maintenance downtime and are designed with back-up capabilities to
insure minimal loss of service.*

***Sense of Place**: The workplace has a unique character, with an
appropriate image and identity, enabling a sense of pride, purpose, and
dedication for both the individual and the workplace community.*

Based on the articles presented in this publication, we can make some
observations concerning how to implement effective strategies for
today's workplace and the implications of these strategies for the
Federal Government.

**Observations**

-   The idea of innovative workplace strategies as workplace tools has
    not yet entered into the thinking of most offices. Flexible
    workplace arrangements, technological advancements and security
    issues require new ways of thinking about the workplace. Innovative
    strategies such as the Integrated Workplace, the Sustainable
    Workplace and The Virtual Workplace can assist the Federal
    Government in creating healthy, productive, and efficient workplaces
    both inside and outside of the traditional office. However, the
    majority of agencies have yet to take advantage of the benefits
    offered by these approaches.

-   Many agencies still cling to outdated concepts in providing
    workspace to their employees. In today's competitive market,
    agencies should provide a range of workplace options to support
    their employees and their workstyles.

-   Without proper communication and training, people will have problems
    in accepting any new initiative, especially one that addresses
    changes in the way they work.

-   The workplace can have an impact on organizational and employee
    productivity and performance. To be effective, workplace strategies
    should be linked to work practices, organizational culture, and
    business strategies.

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-   While Place factors (work locations) or Technology (information
    technology, connectivity, and Internet usage) are important tools to
    improve the workplace, we should remember that successful management
    of the People factors (organizational culture, business processes,
    and human resources) are most directly related to worker
    satisfaction in both the private and public sectors.

**Recommendations for the Federal Government:**

-   Every Agency should adopt innovative workplace strategies
    incorporating Integrated Workplace and sustainable design
    principles, which can be used to create the type of work
    environments that can attract and retain a skilled workforce.
    Creating high-performing and flexible workplaces supports one of the
    key items on the President's Management Agenda: the strategic
    management of human capital.

-   Both the virtual and sustainable workplaces are gaining acceptance,
    but training and education is needed to introduce these new ways of
    working into the mainstream.

-   Federal agencies need to acknowledge that the mobile workplace
    already exists, and take advantage of the opportunities that it
    offers. Both managers and employees need to obtain the necessary
    skills that will permit them to perform effectively in a distributed
    work environment. Two of the key competencies for working virtually
    are establishing effective communication and developing a trusting
    relationship between employee and employer. These skills become even
    more crucial in a virtual teaming environment.

-   When designing workspaces, consider the importance of amenities such
    as daylight, views, and individual comfort control, which can have
    highly positive effects on workers. These benefits can enhance
    organizational performance by increasing employee morale, as well as
    improving their health.

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-   To increase employee satisfaction with the work environment, Federal
    agencies should focus to a greater extent on the "People factors" -
    increasing open communication, providing appropriate training, and
    finding a way to enhance work/life balance.

-   Agencies should provide both employees and managers with the
    opportunity to exercise choice as opposed to the imposition of
    specific types of work styles.

-   Support from executive management and strong leadership commitment
    are essential for successful implementation of innovative workplace
    strategies. Employees and their supervisors must buy-in to the
    process in order for the strategies to be effective. Establishing a
    workplace "champion" can help in identifying key stakeholders and
    addressing potential conflicts that may arise in implementing new
    ways of working.

**APPENDIX**

> **Innovative Workplaces Division**

  --------------------- -------------- ---------------- --------------------------------
  Stan Kaczmarczyk      202-501-2306   Director         <Stan.kaczmarczyk@gsa.gov>

  Mike Atkinson         202-439-1251   Integrated       <Mike.Atkinson@gsa.gov>
                                       Workplace        

  Helen Harlow          202-208-1366   Performance      <Helen.Harlow@gsa.gov>
                                       Measurement      

  Jonathan Herz         202-501-3476   Integrated       <Jonathan.herz@gsa.gov>
                                       Workplace -      
                                       Sustainability   

  Wendell Joice         202-273-4664   Telework         <Wendell.joice@gsa.gov>

  Cheri McClam          202-208-6771   Integrated       <Cherie.mcclam@gsa.gov>
                                       Workplace -      
                                       Sustainability   

  Dee McFadden-Wallace  202-501-1823   Telework         <Dee.mcfadden-wallace@gsa.gov>

  Billy Michael         202-273-4663   Telework         <William.Michael@gsa.gov>

  Shirley Morris        202-501-1145   Strategic        <Shirley.morris@gsa.gov>
                                       Planning         

  Theresa Noll          202-219-1443   Telework         <Theresa.noll@gsa.gov>

  Rob Obenreder         202-208-1824   Integrated       <Rob.obenreder@gsa.gov>
                                       Workplace        

  Glenn Woodley         202-273-4667   Telework         <Glenn.woodley@gsa.gov>

  Ray Wynter            202-501-3802   Performance      <Ray.wynter@gsa.gov>
                                       Measurement      
  --------------------- -------------- ---------------- --------------------------------

[^1]: ^1^ As of January 2003, the number of Federal employees who are
    teleworking has been revised to 5 percent, according to a status
    report prepared by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

[^2]: ^1^ Leaman, A., and Bordass, B. 2001. Assessing Building
    performance in Use 4: The Probe Occupant Surveys and Their
    Implications. Building Research & Information, 29(2): 129-143.

    Preller, L. et al.1990. Sick leave Due to Work Related Health
    Complaints Among Office Workers in the Netherlands. Indoor Air '90,
    Toronto, Vol. 1: 227-230.

[^3]: ^2^ Menzies et al, 1997. Effect of a New Ventilation System on the
    Health and Well-Being of Office Workers. Archives of Environmental
    Health, 52(5), 360-368.

[^4]: ^3^ Kroner, W. et al. 1992. Using Advanced Office Technology to
    Increase Productivity. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Center for
    Architectural Research.

[^5]: Heerwagen, J. 2000. Green Buildings, Organizational Success and
    Occupant Productivity, *Building Research & Information,* 28(5/6):
    353-367.

[^6]: ^5^ Fisk, W.J. and A.H. Rosenfeld, 1997. Estimates of Improved
    Productivity and Health from Better Indoor Environments*. Indoor
    Air*, 7:158-172.

[^7]: ^6^ Heerwagen and Orians, 1986.

[^8]: ^7^ Ulrich, 1993: Kaplan, 1992.

[^9]: ^8^ Heerwagen and Wise, 1998; Heerwagen, 1998.

[^10]: ^9^ Serrato, MG 2001. Building Based Communication Research,
    Tradeline, Inc.
    [www.tradelineinc.com](http://www.tradelineinc.com/);

    Katz, R. and Tushman, 1979. Communications patterns, Project
    Performance, and Task Characteristics: An Empirical Evaluation and
    Integration in an R&D Setting. Organizational Behavior and Human
    Performance, 23:139-162.

[^11]: ^10^ Jarvenpaa, S.L. and D.E. Leidner, 1999. Communication and
    Trust in Global Virtual Teams. Organizational Science. 10(6):
    791-815.

[^12]: ^11^ Baumeister and Leary, 1995. Toronto

[^13]: ^1^ Reprinted with permission of FACILITIES Design & Management
    magazine,

    copyright January 2003.

[^14]: ^1^ Adapted from article, "Integrated Workplace Pilot Leads the
    Way at GSA!" by Robert Obenreder. The original article appeared in
    the U.S. General Services Administration's *Real Property
    Policysite*, Winter 2002/2003.

[^15]: ^1^ Lomonaco, Carol and Dennis Miller. "Employee satisfaction,
    personal control, and the positive correlation to increased
    productivity." Johnson Controls: 2002
    [www.johnsoncontrols.com](http://www.johnsoncontrols.com/) .

[^16]: ^2^ Chong, Ian. "Ergonomics, not a buzzword; A bottom-line
    contributor." Seattle, WA: Ergonomics, Inc. 1997.

[^17]: ^3^ Davis, Donald D. and Karen A. Polonko. "Telework in the
    United States -- Telework America Survey 2001. ITAC: October 2001,
    and Nilles, Jack. "Telework in the US -- Telework America Survey
    2000." ITAC: October 2000.

[^18]: ^4^ U.S. General Services Administration: Productivity and the
    Workplace, Washington, DC: December 2001.

[^19]: ^5^ Anderson, Porter. "AFL-CIO releases 'workers' rights' study."
    [http://cnn.career](http://cnn.career/) August 2001.