To unravel the mystery of strategy, as it pertains to your workplace, office or otherwise, let’s look at the following common types of strategy:
Portfolio Solutions: Look at your real estate, whether owned or leased, no matter the total size, as a whole opportunity. . . and create a program to optimize. A portfolio strategy analyzes space, cost, risk, leases, locations, tax impacts and more . . . for current and future planning efforts, to drive business objectives. A portfolio strategy will support and tie together all other strategies defined below.
Strategic Occupancy Planning: Move from reactive to proactive! Marry up portfolio supply (how many seats/places to work and where are they) with people demand (how and where will divisions grow/what do employees need to succeed). A strategic occupancy plan typically defines a longer term vision, with the ability to remain agile and periodically adjust at shorter term intervals.
Workplace Strategy: A comprehensive workplace strategy will correlate tactical tools and processes with strategic thinking needed for both portfolio and occupancy planning. A strategy can launch either pre or post occupancy, and generally uses analytics and benchmarking to facilitate informed decision making about space types and usage. In today’s hybrid environment, this is an increasingly important issue for teams to tackle.
Experience Strategy: How today’s employees experience the physical work environment will be the primary driver in how and when they return to the office as a preferred destination. An experience strategy will align stakeholders from the realms of real estate, technology, and human resources . . . in order to attract and retain the best talent. The employee experience is fast growing into an amenity that is a “must have” basic.
Change Engagement Strategy: Sometimes referred to as “change management”, at Watchdog we prefer to use the term “engagement” . . . because a successful communication strategy will engage all associates, from conception through relocation, with a mindful eye on continuous improvement processes. This type of strategy focuses on the communication vision and goals, specifically related to any real estate focused change.
With the Watchdog team by your side, we can help you with any or all of these strategic planning efforts, with the following actions:
- Establish project parameters, to ultimately create a roadmap/schedule of activities, to identify and close the gaps between your vision and your current reality
- Operationalize the roadmap into actionable items, and coordinate the flow of information between all engaged teams
- Support implementation as may be required, with an integrated team and approach
