Businesses needs to get into a different and less rigid mindset about how employees work if they're get the best out of their workforce.
16 May 2014
The relationship between the workplace and business productivity has been a muse to the FM industry for more than two decades, according to Professor John Hinks.
At ThinkFM, Hinks argued that FM needs to adapt its approach because the changing nature of work is affecting productivity.
Technology has altered where, when, how and how much people work. As a result, the relationships between people, the workplace and business is changing.
Companies need to move towards a new type of productivity and away from the old model. The old model is more rigid, whereas the new model involves people having more freedom to determine their work style and work location.
Facilities managers can play a key role in overseeing the changes that need to be made in the evolving workplace.
Companies often give the psychological and psychosocial aspects of managing a workplace a low priority. They tend to focus FM efforts on the basic tasks in an office like acoustics, lighting, ergonomics, safety, personal space, cleanliness, storage, décor and space.
But FMs could play a more significant role in tailoring a workplace to an employee's preference and, in turn, improving the wellbeing of employees, which could lead to enhanced productivity.
Mediating psychosocial and psychological factors would mean FMs being instrumental in manoeuvring employees' personal work style preferences, managing territorial behaviours and conflict, privacy needs and work relationships.
Summary
- FM and workplaces facilitate productivity, but the impact on work may not be instant, direct or linear;
- The workplace, work and people operate as a complex system; and
- Think more about the person.
Sources
Individuals And Environment: A Psychosocial Approach to Workspace by Gustave Nicholas Fisher
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