Because
of this lack of knowledge the consequences of a property change
on business productivity are rarely quantified or analysed and,
at worst, are entirely ignored. By investing management attention
on the impact of environment on business performance, shareholder
value can be increased for the occupying business, and consequently
for their property and facilities suppliers. Founded over 10 years
ago, the OPN provides a Network to facilitate the exchange of information
between practitioners and researchers, identify and disseminate
best practice and campaign for the greater appreciation of the importance
of office environments to business productivity. It has organised
25 on-site workshops.
There
is currently one class of membership:
Core
Membership, which is restricted to a maximum of 20 companies and
any new member will be subject to unanimous approval of existing
members
See
the Members pages
for a full list of current members.
The
OPN is run by SBS Business Solutions. For more information and details
on how to become a member contact the OPN Chairman, Paul Bartlett
at email paulbartlett@sbssol.co.uk
or phone 01379 678899.
OPN
working objectives for 2009/10 are:
•
To encourage and support the generation
of information on the impact of buildings on workforce performance,
particularly knowledge on maximising the intensity of use of floor
space.
•
To provide an exchange on the impact
of all aspects of the whole office environment on office worker
productivity, involving Human Resource, IT and Facilities management
focussed on the output from buildings.
•
To generate knowledge of the flexible
operation of office buildings and how their occupation can be
rapidly and cost-effectively attuned to changing occupant business
needs.
•
To disseminate office productivity
best practice to key decision-makers in property, facilities,
human resource, IT and general management and the building design
community.
In
addition to the intrinsic networking benefits Core Members received
during 2008/9 the following:
•
Privileged access to leading practitioners
at exclusive discussion seminars, including:
•
Nigel Oseland, AMA
described the research, case histories and guidance he
produced for the BCO
Guide to Post-Occupancy Evaluation
•
Marie Puybaraud, Johnson Controls summarised
the findings of their work with the Dublin Institute of
Technology on workplace futures
•
Paul Guest and Stephanie McMahon, Jones
Lang LaSalle gave an overview
of the post credit crunch economic climate and the
impact on occupier strategies in
a European context.
•
Brian Thompson, Drivers Jonas
gave a presentation on the July
2008 RICS Report ‘ Workplace
design and productivity: are they inextricably linked?’
•
Hugh Mulcahey, Gensler
gave a presentation on their 2008 UK Workplace Survey
and the Workplace Performance Index (WPI) and its role
in evaluating workplace effectiveness.
•
The opportunity to tour EC Harris’s
newly refurbished Kings Cross HQ and Eversheds’ prestigious
new international HQ in the City and have a dialogue with their
designers and managers.
•
One OPNI building survey and advice
on the application and interpretation of the checklist to their
own or clients stock.
•
Input to direction of the Network
programme through a seat on the Advisory Board, particularly
the development of space/activity/utilisation modelling with
the University of Cambridge Martin Centre and the OPN Index
and its 40 plus site database.
•
Free licence to use OPN material
for in house purposes including customisation of the Checklist
and its reference in corporate publicity literature.
Programme
The
OPN work programme for 2009/10 will consist of:
•
3 workshops at best practice, exemplar
buildings including tours. Venues will demonstrate successful
implementation of productivity enhancements; in 2009 prospective
on site workshops include Unilever’s refurbished Blackfriars global
HQ building and Westminster City Hall.
•
Collaboration with the RICS to prepare
a compendium of case studies of the 23 OPN on site workshops to
capture the salient lessons drawn from the programme so far.
•
Development of a survey-based report
on the presentation of business
performance benefits of property projects
•
Collaborative research with the
University of Cambridge to validate a model for predicting activity,
space and utilisation outcomes in flexible working offices. The
model will be applied to workplaces undergoing work system changes
so that predicted values can be compared with and inform observed
outcomes
•
Development of the database of the
OPN Index for evaluating whether environments are optimising staff
performance. Members will be entitled to one free survey and in-house
training.
•
Quarterly half-day seminars, for
Core Members, on key productivity themes with leading speakers.
Future issues include: consolidation of portfolios, maintenance
of quality workspace while lowering accommodation cost, new technologies
including wireless, strategic interaction between HR, IT and FM,
, implementation and change management techniques, performance
measurement tools.
|
