BL Surrey Quay
Wellbeing Consulting & VAlue
Project Specs
Project
MANAGEMENT SUITE, SHOPPING CENTRE
SECTOR
WORKPLACE & RETAIL
SERVICE
‘a better place’ WELLBEING STUDY
Size
1,200 sq ft
Client
N/D
Location
LONDON, UK
Brief
Following staff feedback from an in-house survey, our client understood they had to review and improve the conditions of the shopping centre management suites.
The company selected this Shopping Centre for a pilot wellbeing case study, with 8 different spaces to survey and 25 staff to consult; it provided an average example of a management suite from their portfolio.
The study needed to address the following challenges:
- Their staff survey revealed dissatisfaction with the physical space of management suites across the UK.
- There was a lack of understanding on how to support the wellbeing of management suite employees through space design.
- Our client needed clarity and guidance to deliver on this objective
- Measuring and driving the “right things” is critical to achieving the best return on investment.
The Client team was very keen to understand what their staff needs are, what ‘good performance’ looks like and how to ensure both space and people are working in alignment towards success, so together we agreed and set the following objective:
To provide clarity on how to harmonise the management suites with employee needs, to support their wellbeing and enable highest productivity and value returns.
The following questions were also set, in order to focus the study:
- What is the current performance of the physical space against good practice?
- Who are the users – create the User Profiles and define optimum/good performance.
- What key workplace features need improvement to support the good performance of User Profiles in their job roles?
- What value do these features return to the business?
Solution
The ‘a better place’ wellbeing evaluation study comprises of four stages:
- People: we understand the occupants and create user profiles for each user group
- Space: we survey the physical space against good practice benchmarks
- Insights: we analyse the findings of parts 1 and 2, and extract insights to identify how the space can support occupant wellbeing and performance
- Value: we measure the financial value (ROI) & strategic importance of improvements in the space.
Key Performance Indicators
To obtain insights from the intersection between space and staff and its contribution to the business’ financial performance, we defined the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and User Performance Activities (UPAs) at the start of the project. We identified the corporate objectives and the activities staff are required to do in order to deliver on these, and created a map of all the UPAs and KPIs they supported.
User Profiles
We created User Profiles and gained an understanding of who the users are, what makes them comfortable and what supports or removes wellbeing within their workspace. This is key to the success of not only the overall exercise but the way to use space as a business asset smartly. The interviews were rich with insights, both on what ‘good performance’ looks like for each User Profile and also how the space affects them perform at a good level.
Benchmarking the space
We surveyed all the spaces within the Management Suite covering 40 main issues under the five categories: Design Character, Physical Arrangement & Furniture, Acoustics, Air Quality and Light.
Recommendations
Cross referencing the User Profiles and key activities performed by staff to deliver and perform in their roles, together with the data from benchmarking the space’s current condition, enabled us to provide our client with a list of targeted improvements that need to occur, in priority order. Undertaking these will specifically support staff’s spatial wellbeing, allowing them to perform in their roles and work towards achieving the business KPIs.
The value of good decision-making
Having value metrics to comparably measure different space improvement approaches against each other is more powerful than guessing which change and investment to make in a space. Using verified and quantifiable metrics to calculate the value, we provided a priority ranked list of spatial improvement opportunities impacting each user group, with the estimated wellbeing and value return they can anticipate from each. The ROI was quantified in both a wellbeing and productivity value.
The shopping centre management and Client team now have the knowledge to inform their decision-making to unlock the potential of their space. This will enable both the organisation and its people to perform and become even more successful.
SUSTAINABLE ACHIEVEMENTS
Economic Value
Based on the self-reported wellbeing levels at 36%, which is due to the current impact of the space on the users, the business attains a value of £16,849 per year from the space. As wellbeing levels rise due to improvements to the spatial features, the value return to the business will proportionally increase. If all recommended features were brought up to good practice, the value return of the management suite to the business would increase by 57% to £26,390 per year.
Social
There is now clarity on which spatial improvements will impact staff, that can proportionally increase a sustainable value return and support the achievement of the wider Social ROI (SROI).
Environmental
Having value metrics to comparably measure different space improvement approaches against each other is more powerful than guessing which investment to make within a space. It means less waste of resources, materials, energy, water etc. that would otherwise be consumed in a ‘trial and error’ approach.
