When we say alignment we are inspired by the 10 P model in the book Corporate Real Estate Asset Management: Strategy and Implementation , which extends the commonly used people, process and place elements to also include more organisational components, such as the paradigm or (culture) and position (market orientation and brand), plus the inclusion of planet, or these days, environmental, social and governance. (ESG). Aligning the internal processes, objectives, culture and market position of an organisation with its people, in the right place, at the right time, and supporting its ESG policies and aspirations is what we call workplaced alignment.

The culture of an organisation (both in written statements and unwritten rules) needs to align with and support hybrid, flexible working. Trust is key, and without it a dependency on visibility will lead to what we call presenteeism 2.0. As we reported in the previous blog, there is evidence from a sample of Standard & Poor's 500 firms by the University of Pittsburgh , of low tolerance of enforced mandates leading to disengagement and high churn, rates. So, trust and a culture of autonomy is essential. A positive approach to true flexibility and autonomy also requires the right performance metrics and an open and honest evaluation process in place.

An example of this is a national telecoms provider (of a country passionate about football) who had introduced a flexible, and activity-based working (ABW) workplace strategy. On a visit, we noticed nearly everyone watching the national team playing in a final of a European championship. The CEO was very relaxed as he knew the mission critical operations were being undertaken and as everyone was on a transparent performance measurement-based contract, he knew that the appropriate inputs would be made up at some point soon. Here, clearly displayed was an autonomous mindset (culture) and a trust in individuals that productive work is being done wherever and whenever it occurs.

Employees need to be aligned to the culture and the operations, scheduling and the workplace design and configuration to be productive.

However, employees are very diverse and whilst thankfully the tyranny of one size fits all open plan is much reduced, there is still a lack of understanding of how personal preferences and personalities respond to different workplace options. Open plan supports visibility, if a person is tied to one cubicle it is easy to see when that person is in the office, and sadly promote presenteeism. ABW reduces visibility and gives multiple options to work flexibly within the office, but if the culture is not aligned to an environment that provides privacy and choice - Houston we have a problem!

So, if a culture is misaligned with flexible hybrid working patterns and not calibrated to an individual's psychometric profile, it may be hard to optimise performance and productivity.

The recent major experimental study at Trip.com by Stanford University, California found resignations to be 33% less in a hybrid working group, compared to those mainly in the office. It concludes that hybrid workers were also much less likely to quit their jobs, especially women, non-managers and people with long commutes. To be successful hybrid working not only needs trust and autonomy, but a measured and nuanced configuration of what we call the hybrid balance, (the optimized proportion of time in the office, home and third space). It also needs to provide an appropriate choice of different spaces to work and an understanding of the days, times and hours a person performs their designated activities and interactions most effectively.

Not only do people fall into simple personality types such as extrovert, but also elements of neurodiversity, the way they see, listen and feel, impacts upon their workplace experience, and ultimately their performance. As stated in a Harvard Business Review article : 'every person's body and mind are unique, and when businesses force them into conformity, no one does their best'.

The same article also discusses finding alignment in the workplace in terms of, as they define it:

  • The how: aligning how people work (including where and at what hours) with people's lives, health needs, and energy.

The report evidences a number of studies from around the world that indicate that this alignment, within a hybrid solution, supports flexible work benefits such as work-life balance, productivity, and of course, the all important organisational outcomes. Thereby delivering a true win-win scenario.

Workplaced provides the detailed human-centric and organizational data to support more effective alignments of people, process and place and capture other elements, including planet (ESG), paradigm (culture) and market position, thereby influence performance and productivity. At the same time, it can support change management processes and reduce costs through better occupation of space.