5 Good Reasons for Housing Associations to consider a move to agile working
VIEW CHANGE AS AN OPPORTUNITY BEYOND THE OBVIOUS
Look beyond the traditional benefits of consolidation when merging organisations. Use the opportunity to deliver further savings to your property costs.
With a growing number of mergers and acquisitions in the housing association sector, this is a perfect time to reappraise how your property portfolio and workplace strategy can deliver the optimum savings from such a period of change. Simply reducing the number of administration buildings and seeking savings by avoiding duplication of roles will not be nearly as effective as considering how your people work, what workplace needs they have and rethinking your workplace strategy. A move to a more agile working environment that better supports their roles and efficiently drives the services required will have far greater impact on the bottom line… and the funds available for the delivery of front line housing needs.
A COMMUNITY WITHIN A COMMUNITY
Create an environment that reflects the culture and goals of your organisation through the workspace aesthetic and character.
When you want to create a culture of caring for the community and delivering first-class service, there is no better place to start than the place your delivery team will work. The typical agile working office has a far greater sense of domestic harmony and soft, engaging settings that match the aspirational culture of housing associations in an inspiring way than the traditional, harsh working environments of the past that can simply say ‘work’. You want your talent to look forward to coming to work and working as one team, inspired by their surroundings that reflect why they are there.
EFFICIENT AND FIT FOR PURPOSE
Make savings by truly understanding how your teams work and using rich data to design your workspace to be as efficient as possible.
With the key focus for all housing associations being value for money, there is a golden opportunity to redefine your working environment to deliver savings in your running costs. By re-evaluating how you work, understanding the true occupation levels and use of resources, what your team needs to work better together and how to spark new ideas; you can create a workplace fit for the coming years and the future demands of change. The greatest benefit being reduced running costs and savings that will go straight back into delivering value for money.
INCLUSIVE DESIGN FOR MULTI-GENERATIONS
Reflect and promote your understanding of the demographic mix of society and celebrate the differences through inclusive design in your own offices.
As we start to see a fourth generation enter the workplace, the diverse needs of Baby-Boomers, Generation X, The Millennials and now Generation Z all have to work together and compromise. A Baby-Boomer needs far more light to read. Generation Z have never been off-line. In the same way that much housing stock is based in the past and unfit for today’s society, many office environments are designed for CRT monitors, typewriters and presenteeism. The modern, agile working environment is a reflection of the new dynamic society in which we live. Fit for purpose, devoid of compromise and ready to embrace the diverse needs of demographic and social change. An agile, inclusive design will create an attractive place to work for all your staff and those you seek to employ in the future.
WELLBEING COMES AS STANDARD
Promote the wellbeing of your team through the provision of choice and the encouragement of movement in the workplace. Your team will thank you and you’ll attract the best talent.
An agile working environment will contain a number of different types of work setting… from meeting booths to touch down stations and clear collaboration and concentration areas. This choice of where to work is central to creating a highly ergonomic working environment… with the key focus on varying posture and encouraging movement. Recent research has proven how a sedentary workstyle is threatening employee wellbeing. Offering a choice of work settings to suit individual tasks and preferences, plus height-adjustable desking that will adapt to the user of the day will maintain and improve the health and wellbeing of your team. A fit, healthy team is an efficient, happy team. Retention of staff will be improved and appearing attractive to new talent when recruiting is the icing on the cake.
