New Ways of Working Network

New Ways of Working, (New WOW), a research consortium focused on alternative workplace solutions, announced the results of its 2011 Benchmarking Study. New WOW found that adoption rates remain high but more and more companies are shifting to a more informal approach to workplace programs.

Pacific Grove, CA (PRWEB) November 03, 2011-- New Ways of Working (New WOW), a research consortium focused on alternative workplace solutions, released the results of its latest benchmarking survey at its semi-annual symposium in Utrecht, NE in September.

The survey examines how leading organizations around the world implement, manage, and profit from alternative workplace practices, settings, and locations. It strives to provide a better understanding of why and how organizations are employing alternative workplaces. Alternative Workplace (AW) is defined as the combination of nontraditional work practices, settings, and locations that supplement or replace traditional offices. AW practices include mobile work inside and outside the office, hoteling, work from home (telecommuting), and work from third party places, among others.

Major findings:
AW continues to be adopted at a rapid pace, but there is a surprising rise in the number of informal, ad-hoc implementations versus more formal programs. In 2011, 32% of the surveyed organizations have informal programs, compared to only 18% in 2009.

Organizations continue to shrink the percentage of employees with assigned seats (down to 66% from 76% a couple years ago), and consistently, also increase the use of mobile work settings.

Executive leaders are more actively running and managing AW programs than in the previous years and they are the primary sponsors of such programs.

Perhaps consistent with the rise of more informal programs, organizations are engaging with groups more directly and supporting them with social websites.

Organizations are emphasizing providing employees with supporting technologies and training, but apparently lessening their participation in the planning, evaluation, and choice of work styles and workplaces.

Assigned and unassigned employees are supported by pretty much the same technologies and services. Almost the same number of assigned employees (70%) have laptop computers as unassigned employees (71%), meaning that most can easily work alternatively from a technology standpoint, although data security may be a concern.

As expected with the continuing economic pessimism, cost savings and related space savings are still driving AW programs. The top three barriers to these programs remain organizational, managerial, and staff concerns over change, however, the levels of concern are dropping, with managerial concerns dropping the most.

The perceived value of the AW programs is consistent with their drivers, with cost savings as the top perceived value, but there is significantly more focus on employee related values, such as work/life balance, attraction and retention, and satisfaction.

In sum, AW programs continue to grow beyond the early adaption stage to become mainstream practice. However, they are also becoming more informal and more part of the overall enterprise shift towards more distribution, flexibility, and mobility of work.

Joe Ouye, co-founder of New WOW, concluded, “The study confirms many of the trends picked up in the previous benchmarking study. Organizations are still adopting AW at a rapid pace, but the shift towards informal programs and more employee-related values signal that they believe that employees, given the necessary technology, can make the best choice of how, when and where to work. The danger is that important changes of work policies and practices may be overlooked.”

New WOW’s Joe Ouye and Haworth’s Gabor Nagy, co-leaders of the 2011 benchmarking study, will present an overview of the benchmark findings at the CoreNet Global Summit in Atlanta, Georgia on Monday, November 7, 2011.

About the survey: The benchmarking survey was conducted online in June and July, 2011. This is the third such survey conducted by New Ways of Working. 143 respondents completed the entire survey, while 74% of them, 106 had an AW program (formal or informal) in place. These respondents represent many Fortune 500 and 100 companies.

This study was made possible with the help of financial contributions from the Lienhard Office Group, Switzerland's leading office solutions company in creating and managing productive workplaces; VTT, the Technical Research Center of Finland; ZHAW, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, the European center for research and education; Better Workplace, a software as a service solutions provider that helps the world’s leading organizations build more intelligent and flexible workplaces; and in-kind consulting support from Haworth, a global leader in the design and manufacture of office interiors and adaptable workspaces.

Members of the Benchmarking Committee include Ann Zis, Applied Materials; Chris Hood, CB Richard Ellis; Ed Nolan, Hewlett Packard; Gabor Nagy, Haworth; Glenn Dirks, Better Workplace; Margaret Long, Hewlett Packard; Nils Gersberg, Zurich University for Applied Sciences; Reza Ahmadi, Jones Lang LaSalle; and Jim Creighton and Joe Ouye from NewWOW.

About New Ways of Working: New Ways of Working (New WOW) is a research consortium of thought leaders from companies and academia exploring new ways of working such as distributed work (telework), environmental sustainability and work, cross-cultural work, innovation and productivity.

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