“Well, walk us through your typical work day” will often be one of the first follow-up responses a workplace strategist will ask to begin to discover what’s working and what’s not in terms of how people use their space.

As we continue to look for more effective ways to improve the overall workplace experience, one tool we can use is measuring and analyzing space utilization. To gain better insight into how companies utilize their office space, there are several ways to approach these types of studies. Below are few ways to get started.

Establish Goals and Understand the Key Performance Indicators

Be clear on what you are trying to measure. I’ve worked with clients who want to know how every last inch of their space is being utilized, but in some cases, clients have more targeted pain points, and really want to focus on, say, how often conference rooms or break rooms are being used. Being clear on these goals will help you tailor your approach. In addition, make sure you know any Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) or benchmarks that you want to measure against. For instance, some companies have pre-determined ratios for how many private offices vs. open workstations they provide, as well as ratios of how many overall conference room seats they provide in relation to staff headcount. In other cases, companies can provide more anecdotal benchmarks, such as “our sales team should only be in the office around 15% of the time”.

Time and Technology Factors

Establishing goals and KPI’s early on will help determine how long to conduct a study as well as how high-tech or low-tech you want to make your approach. In some cases the client may have data to provide you as a reference point, such as badge swipe statistics for days and times employees are coming and going. Likewise, you’re probably going to want more than a day or two worth of data. Doing a study for at least a week or more will provide a more realistic pattern of activity. This gets us to technology. If you’re looking to do a large study (i.e. looking at multiple floors, hundreds or thousands of employees) how do you tackle this logistically? In the past, people would simply do a “pen and paper” approach, walking the floors in the same route, hour after hour, marking each area on a floor plan by hand (bed checks, essentially), then having to manually input that data into a spreadsheet in order to do further analysis. Very time-consuming and draining on your staffing resources. The other downside is that your people can’t be everywhere at all times, so some of your data will miss the “in-between” observations that help paint a clearer picture.

The other approach is to get more tech savvy with the studies. In recent years there have been advances in sensors that track how people use their space. This can provide great benefits in terms of saving time, resources, and the ability to collect much more accurate data. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Tracking Sensors Invade the Workplace, highlights some of the ways companies are leveraging tracking sensors. In one example, employees all wore a small badge which collects “data on their motions, whereabouts, voice levels and conversational patterns”. The badges were developed by Boston startup Sociometric Solutions Inc. Data collected from these types of devices can help an employer better understand how their employees work, and when and where they are interacting with one another. This, in turn, can help determine more appropriate allocations of office space. For instance, if the data tells you that employees are spending more time away from their desks than usual, you need to figure out what’s driving that behavior.

Sociometric Badge (image © Alex Johnson, WGBH)

In addition to badge sensors, you can also attach motion sensors to office chairs. Herman Miller provides these type of chair sensors, which were used by Kimberly-Clark, as noted in the WSJ article.

“Employees frequently griped that the consumer-product company’s Neenah, Wis., offices were short on meeting space. Kimberly-Clark placed space-usage sensors offered by furniture maker Herman Miller Inc. beneath chairs and in conference rooms. It found that groups of three to four employees were gathering in meeting rooms designed for much larger numbers”

Wireless motion sensor (image © Herman Miller)

The “Big Brother” Factor

While all of these methods are useful in collecting valuable space utilization data, we must not forget about the human element when doing these studies, most notably, people’s perceptions of privacy.

“Gathering big data about human behaviors can be a sensitive topic,” says Dave Lathrop, director of workspace futures and strategy at Steelcase Inc., which has used sensor data with its own employees and is developing sensor products for businesses.”

Humans are curious by nature, and we also love to jump to conclusions. So as you begin to plan a space utilization study, you need to be sensitive to the people on whom you’re collecting data. Many people I talk to say they would have a negative reaction if their company proposed using tracking sensors in the workplace. There is a general assumption that this is less about improving the workplace and more about spying on employees. So, going back to the early stages of establishing goals, one of the goals should be to clearly communicate the purpose of the study to all employees and consider letting them opt-out of the study if they truly feel uncomfortable. The goal of a space utilization study should be to collect accurate data that represents normal workplace conditions. If everyone feels like they are being spied on, they will change their behaviors and your data will not be truly representative of normal conditions.

As many smaller to mid-size companies evolve into global organizations, the way we collaborate with one another also needs to evolve. We continue to see a plethora of technology based solutions being rolled out to enable more global collaboration. I personally rely heavily on the hardware, software, apps, and the ubiquitous 24/7 access to get the job done, whatever that job may be at any given time. But lately I’ve been working with more remote teammates and I realize that while we definitely have good technology to collaborate, we sometimes forget the human element to how we effectively communicate with one another. No matter how good your technology, the effectiveness of simple human interactions plays a huge part in how successful we will be in the workplace.

I have some remote coworkers who I’ve worked with for over two years who I have never met in person. How is it I can often communicate better with them than people I see on a daily or weekly basis? Below are a few tips I recommend to keep up effective communications with everyone you work with, wherever they may be located.

Know the Org Chart

With teams who are spread out across multiple offices in multiple time zones, it is critical to understand not only your day-to-day teammates, but also all members of the extended team, especially the decision makers. We often get so caught up in the day-to-day activities with our closest teammates, we can lose track of the big picture and overall goals of a project. If you never get the opportunity to interact with key decision makers, try to make a point to connect with a team member who may have closer access to that person, and check in with them periodically to get a sense of what’s going on with your project at a higher level. Was there a big meeting with the client that you weren’t aware of? Is the boss in a good mood about the progress of the project? Sometimes you may not find out about these details for several days or weeks. People tend to be less productive when they feel left out of the loop.

Check the Calendars

Whatever method works best for you, make sure you and your team keep your calendars up to date and that everyone has access to each other’s calendar. I often work on multiple projects at once, as do my teammates, so it’s critical that everyone has a clear understanding of when people will be working on the same project and when we are traveling, in meetings with other clients, and generally unavailable. I run into conflicts all the time when someone assumes that I am available to work on something, or schedules a meeting or phone call for a time when my calendar clearly indicates I am unavailable. This leads to wasted time with back and forth emails and phone calls to re-schedule meetings.

Respect Your Time and Others

Along the line of calendars, make sure you understand the other client commitments of your teammates and that they also understand your other commitments. It is also critical to respect your own time and block out appropriate time to focus on your deadlines. I often juggle multiple tasks in a given day or week, and it’s easy to lose control of your own schedule when the phone rings unexpectedly or an email comes in that you think you can answer quickly but ends up taking you an hour. When calling someone unexpectedly, be sure to ask them if they are actually available to talk. And if you are truly unavailable to talk, simply don’t answer the phone. If you need focused time and have to turn off email and your phone for a bit, make sure you let your teammates know you will be unavailable and who they can contact to get information. Unfortunatley, most of us work in a culture of interruption, and being able to own your time can be very difficult.

Make it Personal

When you see people every day and sit near them, it’s easy to build a personal connection. But with remote teammates, the relationship can easily become very impersonal. This past year my group started to have each team member do a brief 3-5 minute presentation about themself on our team calls, focusing more on our personal lives. The benefit is that you get to learn something new and personal about each other such as shared interests, hobbies, common family situations, alumni from your college, etc. These are great nuggets of information you can use to connect with each other next time you are on the phone. Stronger personal connections can lead to deeper trust and understanding with each other. I love it when I can connect with people and ask how their kids are doing, or how their marathon training is coming along, etc.

Daily Check-In

Regardless of the schedule of your projects, I recommend a daily check-in with your closest remote teammates. At the beginning or end of each day, find some way to quickly connect with one another, whether it is on the phone, webcam, IM, etc. There are plenty of options. When your teammates are sitting next to you, it’s easy to have a quick morning chat over coffee and to see what everyone is working on, but when you don’t have the luxury of face-to-face interaction, you lose that daily connection. A daily check-in will help strengthen those personal relationships as well as avoid certain teammates feeling left out of the loop. The check-in also serves as a good recap of the progress that was made each day, and also helps to reduce any overlap of work. We all know how frustrating it can be when you find out that two people have been working on the same task, due to lack of simple communication. I find a quick phone call in the morning or an end-of-day summary email works well in most situations. If you have more advanced technology, great, but you don’t need it for some of these simple check-ins.

If you’re in New York City on March 19, please join us at Inscape NYC for a Workplace Salon discussing the Yahoo! No-Work-From-Home Memo. HOK will help moderate the event and participate in a debate on both sides of the argument. We’ll be joined by folks from Gensler, Credit Suisse, BrightSpot Strategy and Perkins + Will.

Workplace Salon: The Yahoo! Debate
March 19, 2013 from 8:00-9:30 a.m.
Inscape NYC Showroom
414 W. 14th Street, 6th floor
RSVP by March 15, 2013
jfeuerborn@inscapesolutions.com

The audience will be polled on which side they most agree with before and then again after the debate. Let the workplace banter begin!

Related: Why I Believe a Work-at-Home Policy Is Worth Keeping

Accenture this week released the results of a study that highlights what makes women happy (in the workplace, at least), just in time for International Women’s Day 2013, which happens to be this Friday, March 8. The study concluded that women are more interested in flexibility than in money and that work-life balance (we’ll have to save trying to define what that means for another time) is the number one quality women find in the workplace.

The report goes on to say that, for most women, happiness in the workforce is measured by flexibility, workplace relationships, and job stability.  The top ways that women define personal success?  Having a family and happiness.

The question, dear reader, is what do you think about this?  Why is flexibility so important to women?  We see more and more women continue to achieve professional success and, at the same time, we also see that work-life balance is extremely important.  Are these two goals in conflict with each other, or do they go hand-in-hand?  What does “having it all” – i.e. professional success and a personal life – look like?

Read the Accenture report here.

Another interesting read about “having it all” on PandoDaily and how it looks different for different people.

Several organizations have asked for our advice on “work-from-home” policies, particularly in light of the recent policy change at Yahoo, effectively rescinding their work-at-home program.  I can’t speak for Yahoo, but the issues they are facing are very real… how can organizations encourage employees to connect with one another now that we’re so all so mobile and can work anywhere?  Marissa Mayer, Yahoo’s current CEO and formerly with Google, has seen the benefits of a culture that encourages employees to come into the office.

As our team learned in HOK’s design of Google Canada’s new Toronto office, they go to a lot of trouble to make sure their employees are enticed to come to their campuses and want to stay there by providing great food, dry cleaning, exercise rooms, games, etc. Honestly, pretty much every Google office is way cooler than my home and, yes, if I worked for Google I would absolutely be more likely to come into the office than stay at home to work. Google trusts their employees to make the right call on how they need to work to be as productive as possible.

Last Friday, I sat in a room with executives of an engineering company and had a discussion about this topic. We are in the midst of developing their overall workplace strategy as well as their telework (work from home) and mobile work (work from anywhere) policies. We were talking specifically last week about the need to encourage employees, when not with their customers, to be at the office. These employees are highly technical with a mission that requires that they share information on behalf of their customers. They need to communicate, collaborate and fortuitously “bump into” one another often in order to get their job done well.  That said, the way they work is by thinking and researching for long periods alone, which is critical for innovation and the accuracy of their work.

The executives of this company were torn about how to communicate what they are trying to achieve. On one hand, collaboration is good for their business. On the other hand, working alone (at home or the office) is a highly effective way for their people to work. We discussed the importance of “trusting” their managers and employees to make the right call. At the end of the meeting, the executives opted for a strategy of providing their employees choice and clear measures for success and they decided not to create mandates. We also talked about the importance of creating a workplace that really helped attract employees to come into the office on a regular basis.

The other interesting anecdote that was discussed last week with these executives was the fact that their company actually measures how well individuals collaborate as part of their annual performance review process. Just about across the board, their teleworkers (those who work primarily at home) consistently score higher at being “great collaborators” over any other group. We talked about how this is likely because their teleworkers are concerned about how they are “out of sight and out of mind,” and tend to make communication and collaboration more of a priority than those who come in the office every day.

We advise clients to  engage in conversations with their people about how to encourage more effective collaboration — to model the very behavior they are trying to achieve. We also like to check performance metrics. Do the organization’s metrics support collaboration and the culture they are trying to achieve? Or is there a need to create incentives to connect people and encourage innovation.

Having a ”choice” about working at home, being mobile or working full- or part-time at the office is an important option that attracts and retains talented people. These choices create greater satisfaction and allow organizations to align their needs with those of their employees. Given that employees are company’s most important asset, isn’t it worth a little flexibility to keep them around and happy?

It seems a bit counterintuitive at first.  Schwartz states that they key to achieving greater productivity is not found through getting swept up in a whirlwind of working/going/doing longer and faster, rather, it is found in quite the opposite state: that of relaxation and rejuvenation.

Schwartz’s thesis comes down to this point: the amount of time in a day to complete our tasks is finite.  No matter how productive we are, we cannot come up with more time.  What we can control, however, is the amount of energy we have to spend on accomplishing these tasks. Energy may not be infinite, but it is renewable, and it is in our power to find ways to renew it.

It may seem absurd to take more breaks on our busiest weeks, knowing we may lose “precious” minutes of work time, but those are the weeks we most need breaks. Even knowing this, taking a break from work – even if just to step out for a short lunch break – can be hard to do. An overwhelming number of employees eat lunch at their desk every day, which makes for 9+ hour days of sitting straight through the day. (Speaking of eating at one’s desk…have you seen the funny site Sad Desk Lunch? This hits pretty close to home for many of us!)

A few good quick restorative options are to take a brisk walk, hit up a spin class at a nearby gym, or book a short massage during your lunch break. Many days, this just may not be possible. On those days when you simply can’t take the time off, there are other theories of productivity boosters such as the tried-and-true quick fix of looking at picture of puppies which, the ever reliable sources, HuffPo and BuzzFeed, say are “scientifically proven” to increase your productivity. (In case BuzzFeed is blocked at your place of work, I’m including an example of one such puppy photo  for you here:

Super Cute Puppy

Or you could try and incorporate exercise into your work day on those busy days. For inspiration on work-incorporated exercise, check out the conference bike and the walking meeting concepts.

Schwartz realized the power of renewal first-hand while writing his fourth and fifth books, which he did using the 90-minute interval technique. This interval naturally aligns with our bodies’ rhythm and signals when we need breaks at the end of each cycle—but we generally ignore these signals and opt for a sugar, caffeine, or adrenaline for a boost instead. Schwartz found that when he worked in four 90-minutes cycles per day, with renewal breaks in between, he churned out his books twice as fast, even though he spent fewer hours working on them each day. He believes that energizing ourselves is so important that he founded a company called The Energy Project to do just that for employees of companies ranging from Google to Cleveland Clinic.  To paraphrase The Energy Project’s motto: “Work Hard. Renew Hard.”

Productivity is also inextricably tied to the amount of sleep we get each night.  We all are aware of the importance of a good night’s sleep before a big exam or athletic competition, but often overlook the old regular nights.  We can so easily get caught up in the vicious cycle of working late, which leads to staying up late to accomplish the rest of the things we need to do, which leads to waking up tired…and then doing it all over again the next day. Sleep can also be compromised if your boss is under the misconception that emailing at all hours of the day or night is an indication of a strong work ethic — which is slightly ironic, since sleeping too little is one of the major predictors of on-the-job burn-out!

Because getting more sleep each night and taking daytime naps are not a reality for many people, striking a healthy work-life balance and taking renewal breaks during the day may be the only solution for increasing productivity.

To review:
Q: Besides increased sleep, how else can we increase productivity?
A: Relaxation and renewal. (And looking at pictures of baby animals…maybe.)

Now then, go forth and relax!

When you visit your doctor to talk about what is hurting or not right, you may find yourself describing sharp pains, headaches or numbness. If your doctor is doing her job, she will then ask you follow-up questions about these symptoms to get to the root of the problem.

You are probably painfully aware of some symptoms. Others are less obvious and take some probing and testing to figure out. Having studied for many years and seen many patients, your doctor should be able to give you a reasonably accurate diagnosis of what is ailing you.

That’s our job, but for space. At HOK, we listen to our clients and evaluate their complaints. But we also know enough about human behavior and how people are affected by space to unearth and diagnose issues that can be solved by the workplace. Though complaints like, “my neck hurts” or “I can’t concentrate” or “I sneeze at the office” may be problems that a doctor should address, space may also be part of the problem.

After several decades of practice, we have observed millions of square feet of space being used across hundreds of industries in every building type. We have talked to thousands of people about how space is supporting or not supporting how they work. We have worked with smart researchers at universities and institutions across the globe who have taught us about how space can boost human performance and also improve human health and wellness. The top ten strategies are:

1. Thermal Comfort and Temperature
2. Access to Nature, Views and Daylight
3. Sensory change and Variability
4. Color
5. Noise Control
6. Crowding
7. Human Factors and Ergonomics
8. Indoor Air Quality
9. Choice
10. Employee Engagement

How can these strategies improve performance and health in your workplace? Click here to learn more and see real-life examples of these strategies at work.

It has been nearly one thousand days since Earth Day 2010.  I’m proud to be part of a firm that celebrates this day as passionately as we do.  It means something.  Our belief in and commitment to sustainability is unparalleled amongst our competition.  Every year we campaign and rally around our messages as if an election was at stake.  We’ve turned the lights out.  We’ve recharged.  We go above and beyond to prove to the world that we care about the world.  I like this.

One thousand days ago, it was this passion and commitment that drove me to stop driving.  On Earth Day 2010, I sold my car.  For many of my colleagues in DC, New York, San Francisco, Chicago and other “big” cities, feel free to stop reading anytime.  You probably already don’t have a car.  An even a few of my local St. Louis colleagues don’t have one.  I say kudos to all of you.  Perhaps you have already gone through this lifestyle transformation.  Every city is unique with its own transportation quirks and challenges, and St. Louis is no different.  I’ve wanted to share my transformation story for some time – not to brag (believe me, many days I feel, well, odd) – but to encourage others to continue to take action in support of living sustainably.  I also wanted to wait to share my story until I was sure the transformation would stick.  It stuck.

Sunrise over the City

The story actually dates back to late 2009 when my family was considering new real estate for ourselves.  Part of my criteria for a home purchase was to live within one mile of a Metrolink (St. Louis’ light rail) station and within a quarter mile of a bus stop.  We came across a property that just barely met those specifications.  We bought it, moved in, and I sold my car.

I now have a lot of choices in terms of getting from point A (my house) to point B (my train station) to point C (my office).  I am an athletic person.  I like to bike.  I love to run.  But I am by no means exceptionally talented at either.  I could simply bike from A to C (about 11 miles), skipping B entirely.  A few of my St. Louis colleagues do this impressively every single day of the year, rain or shine.  I could walk (or run) from A to B, then train from B to C.  Or I could bus from A to B and then transfer to the train.  Any one of these choices has logistics associated with it, and I think this is the biggest hurdle for anyone to overcome when considering an alternative transportation lifestyle.  Let me clearly state that having a shower in the office is an absolute prerequisite for any of these transportation lifestyles.

Metrolink, St. Louis' Light Rail

From a logistical perspective, biking might be the easiest choice.  All of my clothing and work materials can be stuffed in panniers or my backpack for the commutes.  It was my original intention to bike the majority of days, and I did so exclusively for a number of weeks.  As the summer approached, the days became longer and warmer.  Biking was a fantastic way to begin and end each day.  However, as winter approached and days became wetter, shorter, darker and colder, biking was certainly less appealing on a daily basis.  Plus, I was missing my running life.

After switching houses and selling my car, changing gyms was a very easy transformation.  I found one that is literally attached to the parking garage of a different train station.  In the winter, this gym allows me to get in a good run without adding any extra commuting time.  In the summer, Forest Park (another stop on the Metrolink) is my home for running.

A Glimpse of Impressive Architecture along the Walk

I tried the bus for a while too.  It’s a quick four minute walk to the bus stop, and then a short ride to the train station.  However, I found it surprisingly inconvenient.  St. Louis’ train system is amazingly punctual.  You can expect it to arrive on time 99% of the time (to the minute).  It is very impressive.  The buses, however, not so much.  I found myself needing to arrive at the bus stop at least five minutes early (in case the bus came early, which it often did) only to sometimes wait 15 minutes for it to arrive (because it was 10 minutes late, which it often was).  St. Louis indeed has four seasons.  In the winter, standing for 15 minutes is not at all enjoyable.  In the summer, if I’m in work clothes, I could be dripping with sweat, even at 6:00am.  I now use the bus only when I have a suitcase to lug.

Where the Sidewalk Ends

After testing the waters with many commuting solutions, I find that walking to the train is best for me.  I did try running to the train, but it’s simply not possible to carry anything without it flopping around in my backpack.  As long as I’m moving in the winter, I stay warm enough with the proper dress.  In the summer, I wear workout clothes to stay cool.  I hit the gym as many mornings as I can during the week.  I keep some clothes in the office and rotate them home in my backpack to launder.  For a while, I kept the train times plugged into my Outlook calendar.  Now, I know them all by heart.

My parents recently went on vacation, and I borrowed their car for two weeks while they were away.  I admit, I did enjoy the freedom of the commute.  It certainly did save me time, especially when working late and travelling home with zero traffic.  I could more quickly make a stop to run errands along the way.  After all, much of our society and economy is geared around the automobile for cities like St. Louis, Atlanta and Los Angeles.  But as much as I was enjoying the temporary adjustment to my transportation, I was missing my everyday routine even more.  The twenty minute train rides are my time to read books, catch-up on emails or even catch a nap.  The one-mile walks at the beginning and end of my day remind me to breathe, think and briefly escape.  A car does not allow me to do any of those things.  Plus, it burns a lot of fossil fuels too (even the electric ones).

P.S. – Thanks to everyone whom I’ve bummed rides from over the past 1,000 days!  I also want to thank Enterprise Car Rental for their downtown WeCar hybrid car sharing program, which has been very handy.

There’s an intrinsic dilemma that all architects and designers carry with them: the struggle with the idea of control. We lose precious sleep over the often unknowable outcomes of our projects.

An ever-present but less contemplated thought is the impact of those outcomes. While this also can be “unknowable,” designers can draw on evidence and research to predict the impacts of projects with more accuracy. From a business culture standpoint, we crave predictability. Yet, it rarely leaves room for growth, evolution or interpretation of the agile, creative problem-solving that opens the doors to new opportunities.

Designers often design to completion, leaving no detail unknown. We struggle with leaving things unfinished and open-ended. Can we challenge this notion of perfection in physical objects, including space? Throughout time, industrial designers have pondered this thought, which provides evidence of projecting themselves onto the objects and their imperfections as rational, endearing and personable.

The reality is that design is never complete because truly good and bad design is a mostly time-specific manifestation of ideals. That time can be five or 500 years, depending on the ideal, but every design is rooted in the time in which it was created.

With workplace culture, a company should always be evolving, some at a faster pace than others. Workplace designers should be thinking ahead of the current culture to improve and evolve the perspectives of those who work there. Employees should grow within – and sometimes beyond – that context.

Can building space be much the same way? How do you create silence and unfinished space that feels like a book with blank pages? Brands beget culture, and culture begets behavior, but how do we design to create a cycle of behavior begetting culture again?

I think about these long-standing philosophies of perfection and utopia to better connect with our surroundings, creating objects and space for that quiet simplicity that leaves room for thought, contemplation and growth.

John Cantrell is a senior designer at HOK in Atlanta.