Robinson College Cambridge 4th November 2008 · Robinson College Cambridge 4th November 2008. Working beyond walls The government workplace as an agent of change ... • Working at

Smarter working in the public sector

Robinson College

Cambridge

4th November 2008

Working beyond walls

The government workplace as an agent of change

Paul Stansall

Page 3 November 12, 2008


CHANGE IN THE CIVIL SERVICE

• Demand for higher quality services in the right places

• Pressure to make savings and use resources wisely, efficiently,

sustainably

• Competition to attract and retain a high quality workforce

• Adaptation to climate change and harnessing new energy sources

The future will be very different

Working beyond walls looks ahead to where we could be in 2020



WORKPLACE TRANSFORMATION

Providing a wide variety of work settings

• Team desk sharing in the DVLA, DCSF and CLG

• Remote IT environment of BERR, with staff working in third party offices

• Working at home for Ofsted with inspectors supported by social networks

• Distributed mobile working at DIUS enabled by encrypted laptops and HD

video conference connecting staff across the regions

• Field-working of mobile RPA inspectors delivering services on the ground

All this and more is evidence of a paradigm shift away from simply working

between office and home….



And the office is now just one location in a widening network supporting

virtual teams



CHANGE IS CHALLENGING

Requires a coordinated response from all who manage government estate

and its facilities

And those undertaking workplace transformation



Those responsible for government estate along with colleagues in ICT

and HR are already working and preparing for change.



CASE STUDIES illustrate:

• How Departments have transformed their places of work

• How far and fast things are changing across government

• How successfully the change process has been received

• The lessons learned to make change easier for those following

• How diverse the work and place choices are

• What people actually say about such change

• A testimony to trail blazers across government



DVLA

KEY LESSONS

• Clear and credible vision established at start of project

• Support from Chief Executive through sponsoring the project at inception

• Alignment of people[HR], property [Estates] and technology [IT]

• Extensive change management and communication effort applied

early on

• Non-Territorial Working trialed through pilot project to learn lessons, build

support and understand what the solution could look like

• Coupling of NTW project with a radical office refurbishment

programme



DVLA

BENEFITS

• £11m over 10 years in estate savings from property rationalisation

• Increased flexibility in doing business focussing on outputs

• Staff reporting ‘the same’, ‘better’ or ‘much better’ on office performance

• NTW with 8 desks per 10 staff meant 860 fewer workstations

• Less energy consumed on their provision, maintenance, cleaning and

cooling

• Reducing printers from fifty to twelve per floor

• Less travelling required sites

• Park-and-ride facilities: no car commuting for staff living within 1.5 miles



BERR – Remote IT Environment (RITE)

KEY LESSONS

• Cost – be prepared to able to deliver in a climate of financial pressure and

to ensure flexible computing benefits are made widely available

• Security – plan to meet Government security requirements to access

classified restricted information and to minimize and manage information

security risks to BERR and concerns from CESG

• Management and HR – understand implications and concerns that arise

from increased availability of flexible working tools

• Technical management – permit innovation with outsourced IT supplier to

allow in-house new technical solutions to be developed and tested cost-

effectively



BERR – Remote IT Environment (RITE)

BENEFITS

• Organizational Increased workforce and team flexibility and agility

Recovery of lost productivity due to transport incidents and other home or family emergencies

Improved work life balance and satisfaction helps attract and retain workers

• Financial Net cost savings thro’ rationalisation of back-up sites and costly laptops

Opportunities to reduce estates costs with more flexible working

• Environmental Thin client 5W vs 95W PC

Reduced office power consumption, less cooling required



OFSTED

KEY LESSONS

• Working from home requires very good IT system and support facilities

• Homebased staff need encrypted laptop connected through wireless

broadband

• Essential to have good remote support with IT Helpdesk

• And best available office services support with next-day delivery of office

supplies, hotel booking and car hire

• Staff must receive training in managing and being managed at a distance

• Managers and inspectors must be selected for their ability to manage in

this way



OFSTED

BENEFITS

• A new workplace network has delivered significant property savings

• Now operating with only the National Business Unit plus three regional

offices - reduced from eleven

• Inspectors now work from home with consistent quality and high

productivity

• Regional teams have lively social networks



DEFRA in Alnwick – new build

KEY LESSONS

• Staff closely involved in the design development process

• Behaviour changes are required of staff to maximize environmental advantages designed into the operation of the building

• Winning support for piloting renewable technologies

Three 15kW wind turbines

Photovoltaic cells

Solar thermal system

Biomass boiler

Rain water harvesting

Digital display of daily energy use

• How to work with BRE to achieve new BREEAM Outstanding category



DEFRA in Alnwick – new build

BENEFITS

• Better support for RPA inspectors travelling to outlying farms

• Ability to expand DEFRA’s operational support in times of national

emergency

• Planned to bring environmental, economic and social benefits to

community

• Designed to save annual carbon emissions equivalent to 9 typical UK

houses

• SOGE targets met to reduce water consumption and waste and to

increase recycling



DCSF

KEY LESSONS

• Users needed the support of a comprehensive programme of change management

• Challenging the established working culture lay at the heart of the project.

• Close working relationships were essential between internal and external partners

• Post-occupancy evaluation proved the pilot had been well received



DCSF

BENEFITS

• Property rationalization with savings of £10 million per annum

• New work environment stimulating creativity, team working, collaboration and focus on better delivery of services

• A specialist environment – called ‘the bridge’ – promotes internal communication

• Innovative and considered solution



CLG

KEY LESSONS

• Pilot group necessary to test bed 7:10 desk sharing

• Post-occupancy evaluation has allowed ICT peripherals and furniture

changes as requested by staff

• Day 1 of occupation supported by dedicated team of floor-walkers

covering all aspects of furniture, ICT,storage and general communications

• Workspace guides distributed to support the move



CLG

BENEFITS

• Leveraging efficient and effective use of London HQ space and

consolidating into one building from four with 6.7sq.m NIA per person

• Staff feedback positive with collaborative team breakout spaces, creative

space and quiet rooms

• Staff can choose a desk or a place to work on any given day, can find a

space close to those they need to work with on a consistent basis and

teams increasingly networking



DIUS

KEY LESSONS

• Lead by example – I not only sit in open-plan accommodation, I also hot-

desk, which I think is a Whitehall first. Ian Watmore, Permanent Secretary

• Adopt a liberal attitude to flexible working with support from the right kind of

technology so that staff can regularly work anywhere including home

• Use the office to showcase the work of your department



DIUS

BENEFITS

• To work effectively across regional locations staff have their own encrypted,

lightweight laptops enabling them to work anywhere

• Telepresence allows for HD videoconferencing between departmental

locations saving the time and high cost associated with extensive travel



2020 VISION

• Climate change has accelerated depletion of food, water, energy and

medical resources

• Government services brought much closer to where needed

• Scenario planning drives policies and programmes

• Carbon budgeting impacts everyday life

• Workplace energy and space management closely monitored

• Work anywhere culture supported by Hotel.gov

• Reliance on virtual team working and telepresence technology

• Greater dependency on local infrastructure

• Wider choices for balancing work and life-style

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Robinson College Cambridge 4th November 2008 · Robinson College Cambridge 4th November 2008. Working beyond walls The government workplace as an agent of change ... • Working at