By Andrew Mawson and Karen Plum
Edition 8 – Winter 2016 Pages 34-37
Tags: productivity • workplace • facilities management
Within the facilities management sector there has been a notable dearth of scientific enquiry into the impact of the discipline on workplace performance; with more of a concentration on industry standard practice, than robust evidence-based FM. By contrast the HR profession in Ireland, Britain and elsewhere in Europe, spearheaded by the CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel Development) has increasingly focused on science-based knowledge which aligns with masters’ level university programmes throughout Europe.
This paper, which looks at the results of a partnership between a workplace consultancy and academic organisation into ways of enhancing knowledge worker performance, could be said to mark the start of a movement towards ‘evidence-based FM’.
Within the built environment, the term “evidence-based design” (or EBD) is a familiar phrase for a corporate real estate, FM or workplace professional; and is described as1: “a process for the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence from research and practice in making critical decisions, together with an informed client, about the design of each individual and unique project.”
“Evidence-based management”, is a logical extension of a practice which started in healthcare, where “evidence” to support decisions is clearly vital, and must be based on science (not just opinion). Most of us will have witnessed management decisions seemingly made on the basis of personal choice, politics, or fad, so, it makes sense to bring in sound evidence to support management decision-making.
The principles of human resource management (HR) were applied in a paper2 published in 2011 on ‘becoming an evidence-based HR practitioner’ with the following definition: “Evidence-based HR (EBHR) is a decision-making process combining critical thinking with use of the best available scientific evidence and business information.” This practice could (and should) be applied to facilities management (FM). In fact there has been some discussion in recent years about the similarities between HR and FM3, and the need for the two disciplines to work more closely together within organisations4.
The two leading HR/FM organisations in the UK, the CIPD and the BIFM launched the Workplace Conversation in 2014, which was an online conversation which saw employees all over the world with an active interest in the future of the workplace share their insights, ideas and comment on the key challenges related to creating better workplaces and suggest practical solutions to the issues raised.
The results of this collaboration, The Workplace Conversation Report5, revealed that UK companies are jeopardising their ability to compete in the global economy by failing to adapt their workplaces to meet modern demands and that many organisations struggle to cope with the systematic changes that workplace modernisation requires; particularly large organisations with very ingrained working cultures and organisational structures; which are not doing enough to motivate and engage knowledge workers.
Knowledge-worker productivity
Peter Drucker first described the rise of ‘knowledge work’ back in the 1950s and not long before he died in 2005, declared that increasing the productivity of knowledge workers was “the most important contribution management needs to make in the 21st century.”6
Knowledge Workers are people who ‘think for a living’ and Knowledge Organisations are those that predominantly depend on knowledge in order to design and deliver their commercial value. All jobs have some element of knowledge needed to deliver their tasks. However in the Knowledge Economy jobs often don’t have a tangible output (like a product or service). These jobs are at the extreme end of the knowledge work spectrum. In these roles people are being paid to think, fusing their knowledge with that of others to provide new knowledge which ultimately translates into a commercial value.
The difficulty for employers is that many are confused about what exactly is needed to improve the productivity of knowledge workers, simply because knowledge work involves ‘more diverse and amorphous tasks than do production or clerical positions, where the relatively clear-cut, predictable activities make jobs easier to automate or streamline’.7
However, if one facet is clear it is the workplace which is identified as the keystone to improving worker productivity.In 2014, UK Consultancy, Advanced Workplace Associates (AWA) launched a major research project into the subject with its research partners, the Center for Evidence-Based Management (CEBMa)8 a non-profit member organization dedicated to promoting evidence-based practice in the field of management.
Under the auspices of the Research Group within AWA’s Workplace Performance Innovation Network (PIN)9, CEBMa undertook an extensive study involving a review of over 800 academic research papers to answer two important questions:
1. What is known from the world’s academic research about the measurement of knowledge worker productivity?
2. What is known in the world’s academic research about the factors associated with knowledge worker productivity?
The data gathered has provided a deep understanding of the needs of the knowledge worker and helped to identify the main factors which can be associated with their productivity.
Together, using this evidence-based management approach, AWA and CEBMa identified “the six factors of knowledge worker productivity. ”10 AWA believes that if knowledge-based businesses are appraised of these factors,they could have a profound impact on the design oforganisations, culture, leadership competences and workplace infrastructures inthe future….