As with any change, integrating employees into a new working environment upsets their habits and has consequences for the company's organization. Here's an overview of the best practices to put in place to ensure that this transformation project runs smoothly.
How to manage change
Before setting up a change management program, it's important to understand the ins and outs of the process.
Change management means providing optimum support for any transformation project within a company. The aim? To make it easier for employees to accept change, which can destabilize them by putting them outside their comfort zone. And in this area, moving into a new workspace is no exception.
The primary aim of change management is therefore to convince employees of the merits of these new features, and to make them key players in the process, so as to encourage them to cooperate. The challenge is to make the most of their ideas, while meeting both collective and individual expectations.
With this in mind, certain functions within the company will play a key role in supporting change: HR teams, managers, senior management, not forgetting employee representative bodies and project ambassadors appointed for the occasion.
Diagnosing needs
Designing new workspaces leaves no room for improvisation. To bring such a project to fruition, you need to ask yourself the right questions:
- Why does the company want to change its workspace?
- Does this need correspond to a new way of organizing work, such as coworking, flex office or hybrid working?
- Does this new project involve a move?
- How do our teams work and what are their priorities?
- Whatvisibility do we have on future needs, in both the short and long term?
This initial diagnosis will enable us to define the number of workstations, closed offices, individual offices, meeting rooms, relaxation rooms or conference rooms required, depending on the activity.
Involving employees in the new project
To accept change, an employee needs to feel committed to, and therefore involved in, the future layout. To achieve this, a few best practices are essential:
- Assess potential employee resistance and anticipate their reactions. It's essential to understand why they're worried, so that you can find appropriate solutions and move ahead with the project.
- Listen to employees' expectations: set up surveys to identify current shortcomings and ways of improving working conditions on a day-to-day basis.
- Provide idea boxes, organize brainstorming sessions and Design Thinking workshops, organize competitions to reward the most original ideas... The aim? Cross-reference employee visions with user experience.
- Organize votes to choose the type of furniture.
It's important to include employees in all the different stages of the project, so that in the end they recognize themselves in their new space. Employees must not be subjected to change, but rather make it their own.
Communicating change objectives
Once the initial consultations have been carried out, the needs diagnosed and the project validated, communication with the teams throughout the project is one of the key success factors. In this way, they will feel that they are an integral part of the decisions taken. How can this be achieved? By keeping staff informed of project progress, research phases and work in progress, through dedicated newsletters or publications on the company intranet, for example.
Workspace design plays a key role in the quality of working life.
It's therefore essential to point out to employees the beneficial effects these new facilities will have on their productivity and well-being.
New spaces may have been created for specific uses: quiet, confidential, friendly, relaxing, collective, creative, coworking, learning environments... Key factors in reducing stress at work, and which it's a good idea to highlight to enhance your employer brand.
To make the most of future shared spaces, it's best to regulate them and communicate upstream about the golden rules to be respected. Reserving meeting rooms, no telephone use or conversations in quiet environments, cleaning up after yourself after eating. A little reminder in the form of playful communication can be a good way of keeping the link alive and raising expectations within teams.
Once installed, carry out a new survey to obtain employees' initial impressions. Places aren't set in stone, so they need to be able to evolve once they've been tested.
Inaugurating the premises
Any change within the company is an important milestone that should be celebrated to send a strong, positive message to your teams.
A party, a drinks reception, an escape game or a treasure hunt on the premises... take the opportunity to organize a festive occasion. The aim? To help employees make the new premises their own, and to capitalize on their image of trust and emotional attachment.
To find out more about change management, visit our dedicated page.