How to Maintain a Collaborative Environment in Times of Company Growth

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As your company grows and adapts, your whole organization must be able to work together to make the process as smooth as possible. The first step, writes Elizabeth Dukes, is for HR and FM to work together to find what makes their employees both happy and productive. 

Graphic by See In Colors, via Entrepreneur
Graphic by See In Colors, via Entrepreneur

As your company grows and adapts, your whole organization must be able to work together to make the process as smooth as possible. The best way to do this is with an active collaboration between human resources, facilities management, and your workers. After all, your employees will be the ones affected by change, so it only makes sense that they’re involved in the process of bringing it about.

First, HR and FM need to work together to find what makes their employees both happy and productive. This means talking to employees about what they need in a workspace. Do they need more spaces for private meetings? Do they need a more open layout that encourages interaction? Most likely your organization will be most productive if it can be more open, with low or no cube walls at all, and have a few smaller private huddle or meeting rooms.

When your employees are involved in every step of the process, they’ll ultimately be more accepting of and excited about the result.

A space redesign will not only keep your current skilled employees around, but it will also attract new talent — a key component of growing your company. Many of today’s talent is used to working in teams, so your office space should encourage that. They also want to effectively work anywhere — and they don’t want to be stuck in a closed-door office space. Be willing to be flexible with both space and time. Maybe your employees would benefit from access to telecommuting, flex time, or shared time. And employees need to have the digital tools and technology to be able to connect with the company from anywhere in the world. Providing this will help them stay in the loop.

Regardless of your company and employee specific needs, FM and HR should collaborate together and with employees to determine what makes sense and give the problem due diligence. Joint metrics and key performance indicators can give you a mutual understanding of employee needs and the use of the space, services and assets provided — and how that impacts the organization’s ability to retain and attract talent. Once the information is gathered, it should be presented to the C-Suite so they can clearly see that you understand the workings of the organization and the powerful impact your efforts have on the bottom-line — not just from a cost-cutting perspective, but also from a productivity enhancement perspective. When your employees are involved in every step of the process, they’ll ultimately be more accepting of and excited about the result.

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