Future Work Environment – evaluation of an office change project

Abstract

When work and workers are changing, the work environment needs to change as well. But what are necessary and effective changes? Which areas of a work environment – physical and/or psychological – need to be included? And how should the change management processes for a work environment change look?To shed light on these questions the work environment change project (“Work 2020”) of a Financial Services company has been accompanied and evaluated. A mixed methods approach combining short personal interviews, weekly surveys (“pulse checks”), each followed by a project team meeting to discuss and decide about adaptive measures, and a detailed final evaluation survey together with further interviews resulted in a very rich longitudinal data base of a work environment change.Based on this study, insights are made and recommendations can be given regardingareas and aspects of an office work environment that are important to the office users in the context of financial services,the behavioral changes and the adaptations of the users within the first five months after the move into the new/redeveloped office space,the do’s and don’ts of the change management process in this setting,the impact of work environment changes and the change process on different performance dimensions.