Business case: PwC & ISS Hospitality; part of the bigger picture

Transcription

1 Business case: & ISS Hospitality; part of the bigger picture

2 Business case: & ISS Hospitality; part of the bigger picture joined forces with the service organisation ISS and redesigned its office building in Rotterdam based on Activity Based Working (ABW) principles. Afterwards, and ISS wanted to know what employees thought of the new building and how they viewed the new working approach. In order to measure this independently, they turned to the Leesman Index. In a world where many facility service providers restrict themselves to merely assessing how satisfied employees are with their services, ISS s approach can definitely be considered pioneering. The company no longer looks just at the quality and effectiveness of the cleaning, security, catering and other services, but at how effectively employees are able to function within their working environment as a result of these services. Marjolein Kurstjens, Demand Manager Facility Management at said that As part of our efforts to professionalise our Facility Management organisation, we decided to partner with ISS at the end of As well as their innovative working methods, another important reason why we picked ISS was that they operate worldwide, meaning that they have a great deal of expertise internationally. Independent assessment Two years later, ISS had been completely integrated within s Facility Management operation with the two companies working as strategic partners. Central to this partnership was the need to independently and holistically assess the effectiveness of the working environment at the different We thought the Leesman Index was perfect due to the shift in focus onto the effectiveness of the working environment. offices. This was driven by the fact that whilst the Rotterdam office had already been completely redesigned with ABW introduced, their Amsterdam office was still in the middle of both the redesign and roll out of this approach. They recognised the need to measure satisfaction in the Rotterdam office in order to learn lessons from the experience and apply learnings to the Amsterdam office, as well as other buildings. This led to Marjolein Kurstjens and Herman Knevel (Director Innovation & Strategic Development at ISS) to turn to the Leesman Index. International benchmark Marjolein explains why they made the decision to use the Leesman Index: Our customer satisfaction measurement was inadequate, and we wanted to increase the level of professionalism. During our search, the question was whether we Leesman Index scores The Leesman Index measures how well the workplace supports it s employees. Poorly supported 36.8 Lowest Lmi score ever recorded would develop our own measurement tool, or whether we would adopt an existing one. Herman drew Marjolein s and s attention to the Leesman Index. We thought it was perfect due to the shift in focus onto the effectiveness of the working environment, Herman explains. Partly because it s an international benchmark. That s obviously extremely attractive if you want to grow on a European level. Marjolein said that When Herman pointed out the Leesman Index to us, we immediately saw its value. What is the point of developing your own employee satisfaction survey when there is already such a good benchmark available? Lmi Leesman+ Lmi 70 and above 81.7 Highest Lmi score ever recorded Total Very well supported 71.6 Rotterdam The Leesman Index measures how well the workplace supports it s employees. By implementing the Leesman Index Survey in both the Rotterdam office, where ABW had already been adopted, and the Amsterdam office, where employees were still working in the old environment, a direct comparison between the two locations could be made. The results showed that the Rotterdam office scored significantly higher than the other buildings measured and also scored highly compared to other buildings within the Leesman Index. From this it was clear that the workplace in Rotterdam was performing at a higher level; ABW worked.

3 The Right Choice Marjolein said: The Rotterdam office is doing significantly better than the offices which have not been converted and where ABW is yet to be rolled out like the one in Amsterdam. That means we can say with confidence that our employees value this new form of working, along with everything we have done to make it possible. Their workplace, the level of hospitality, the good service they are proud of all these things and enjoy working in these surroundings. Herman added: During the implementation of ABW, we put the end user at the center. What do they experience during their workday, and what touch points with their environment can we influence positively? On that basis, we worked with the end user to design and structure our service. The Index result proves that ABW was the right choice for, particularly when you look at the effectiveness of the work environment. Differences in pride and productivity The Design of my workplace enables me to work productively Innovative Concept The task now is to continue to adapt ABW to be even more closely aligned to the user. They appear to place great importance on the restaurant facilities, for example. Abacus the new restaurant concept we developed in Rotterdam is great, both in terms of the fact that the restaurant facilities achieved the highest scores, and in relation to our ambition to innovate, explains Herman. In this restaurant, employees can dine à la carte with clients or with their teams. Abacus is a third element within the overall concept, alongside a restaurant and an espresso bar, and provides a diversified offering that further supports ABW. That was something we were missing before. The concept is so innovative that it has been nominated for a 2017 Gouden Bestek (Golden Cutlery) award by Facility for the Future. Total Leesman Benchmark 70% 59% 56% The Bigger Picture Marjolein also believes that Abacus is a great example of what and ISS envisage in terms of the level of hospitality towards employees and clients. But there s more to come, she adds. For example, we are also working on a highly innovative food and beverage app, which employees can use to remotely order speciality coffee or tea which will then be ready for them when they arrive. Physical features & facilities Facility services Furniture and layout During the implementation of ABW, we put the end user at the center. What do they experience during their workday, and what touch points with their environment can we influence positively? 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Leesman Database Technology Environment Quality General appearance I am proud to bring visitors to my workplace 88% 49% 51% Variety of spaces

4 According to Marjolein, innovations of this kind are made possible by the fact that co-creation is a guiding principle in the Rotterdam office. The user has a central position and had been involved in the design process from day one. The Leesman Index clearly reflects what we want to achieve together in this area as an organisation; that people experience these things as welcoming, and that that s what makes them proud. Hospitality is part of the bigger picture. An office building may be beautiful to look at, but if a receptionist fails to offer people a warm welcome then employees won t feel proud to invite clients there. A friendly reception, great coffee, the fact that employees can dine à la carte in Abacus all these things make a big difference to people s experiences, and they are also things that make people understand why they are doing what they do. It makes them proud, and you can see that in the scores. Biggest differences in satisfaction with the physical features and facilities % % 86% Variety of different types of workspace 37% 83% Atriums and Communal areas 45% General decor 91% Total 36% 81% Informal work areas / break-out zones 60% 94% Hospitality services Biggest differences in satisfaction of the support of activities Relaxing / taking a break Video conferences Collaboration on creative work 90% 57% 74% 41% Total Individual focus work away from your desk Informal, un-planned meetings 71% 42% 81% 53% From old-school to plazas The Leesman results show that the greatest difference in scores between the two offices were seen when looking at relaxing/ taking a break, collaboration on creative work and thinking/ creative thinking. Herman Knevel attributes this to the differences in building design, which came about to support ABW. One very obvious component of the ABW design in Rotterdam is the plazas inside the building, where people can gather and work together. We previously had an old-school design with closed rooms, as is still the case in Amsterdam but now the plazas open everything up spatially with places where people can sit together. So that design is working. However, there are still lessons to be learnt. In Rotterdam there are a few low scores in terms of noise levels, explains Marjolein Kurstjens. This isn t good enough and we are currently taking steps to improve the situation. We had actually already noticed the problem ourselves independently of the Index, so that acted as a confirmation. 79% 50%

5 If, as a CEO, you can say that you have created the most effective working environment to get the job done, then that s fantastic as a competitive advantage for the leader of any organisation. Around 4,400 people work together at Netherlands across 12 different branches. Netherlands is a member of the network of companies, which covers 157 countries and comprises over 195,000 people, and sees its role as delivering quality in the fields of assurance, tax and advisory services. Focus on the situation in question A lot has been said and written about ABW, but the results of the survey proves that this working method adds value to our organisation, argues Herman Knevel. The Index makes this measurable. Departments such as Facility Management, HR and IT often look at employee satisfaction, but the Index allows you to measure how effectively your employees are supported by their working environment. If, as a CEO, you can say that you have created the most effective working environment to get the job done, then that s fantastic as a competitive advantage for the leader of any organisation. And although the Leesman Index is a standardised questionnaire, Marjolein sees plenty of opportunities to adapt it and focus on the situation in question. There is space to add open-ended questions. We added a question about health and safety issues, and one about emergency response planning. We also added an IT module, which allowed us to carry out a baseline measurement of all IT facilities together with our IT organisation. Leesman Managing Director Benelux Gideon van der Burg t. +31 (6) e. gideon.vanderburg@ Delivering insights that drive better strategies Speaking the same language Herman concluded: What I like most is that we have set up a service to make ABW even more successful. It s vital to be able to see from the Index that this is working and delivering results. We have redesigned our Activity-Based Services and redefined our working methods. And we will continue down this road together with. Two years ago we had to get to know each other as organisations and as individuals, and to bring our working methods into alignment. Now, we speak the same language. It s been an intense journey, but we are all extremely happy with where it has taken us. And that has only increased by the fact that is among the highest scoring buildings. Before Marjolein Kurstjens joined as Demand Manager Facility Management in April 2015, she worked for ING in a range of FM roles. She is now responsible for matching demand the client, or in the case of the partner organisation, the owners of the company and supply (ISS as an Integrated Service Supplier). ISS Facility Services is one of the world s biggest facility service providers, and is active in Europe, Asia, South America, North America and Australia with over 540,000 employees. ISS has been working for as a strategic partner in the field of Real Estate and Facility Management since January Herman Knevel is Director Innovation & Strategic Development at ISS and has been active in his field for around fifteen years. In recent years, he has focused on developing strategic partnerships with ISS s most important clients, with an emphasis on innovation. Leesman do one thing one way: measure how workplaces support those who use them. The Leesman Index survey tool allows organisations to assess how well their workplaces are supporting employees, benchmarked against the largest independent database on workplace effectiveness. The amassed data collected allows Leesman to challenge assumptions, confront outdated standards and foster an open investigation into the role of workplace in organisational performance.