IMPROVING PRODUCTIVITY IN THE WORKPLACE

1 British Council for OfficesNovember 2018 IMPROVING PRODUCTIVITY IN THE WORKPLACE Lessons learnt and insights from the Whole Life Performance Plus projectCOPYRIGHT BRITISH COUNCIL FOR OFFICES, 2018 All rights reserved by British Council for Offices. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission from the British Council for Offices. The BCO warrants that reasonable skill and care has been used in preparing this report.

2 Notwithstanding this warranty the BCO shall not be under liability for any loss of profit, business, revenues or any special indirect or consequential damage of any nature whatsoever or loss of anticipated saving or for any increased costs sustained by the client or his or her servants or agents arising in any way whether directly or indirectly as a result of reliance on this publication or of any error or defect in this publication. The BCO makes no warranty, either express or implied, as to the accuracy of any data used by the BCO in preparing this report nor as to any projections contained in this report which are necessarily of any subjective nature and subject to uncertainty and which constitute only the BCO s opinion as to likely future trends or events based on information known to the BCO at the date of this publication.

3 The BCO shall not in any circumstances be under any liability whatsoever to any other person for any loss or damage arising in any way as a result of reliance on this THE AUTHORSP rofessor Rajat Gupta leads the multi-disciplinary Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development at Oxford Brookes University. As Principal Investigator he has won over 10 million in research grants from the EPSRC, ESRC, EU and Innovate O Brien is the founder and managing director of LCMB Building Performance Ltd, and has designed, constructed and operated over billion worth of real estate.

4 John and LCMB s aim is to make a difference by making buildings work harder for their clients, their staff, customers and Howard is a research associate in the Low Carbon Building Research Group of the Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development at Oxford Brookes University. He holds a bachelor s degree in physics and an MSc in sustainable buildings: performance and Cudmore is a senior consultant with LCMB. Tom has experience in both employee wellbeing and building operations, having delivered nationwide WORKPLACE health initiatives and building optimisation projects in a number of high-profile companies.

5 CITATIONR ajat Gupta, John O Brien, Alastair Howard and Tom Cudmore (2018). IMPROVING PRODUCTIVITY in the WORKPLACE : lessons learnt and insights from the Whole Life Performance Plus project, Oxford Brookes University and LCMB Building Performance Ltd, report can be accessed at: THE BCOThe BCO is the UK s leading forum for the discussion and debate of issues affecting the office sector. Established in 1990, its membership base comprises organisations involved in creating, acquiring or occupying office space, including architects, lawyers, surveyors, financial institutions and public BCO recognises that offices don t just house companies, they hold people and so what goes on inside them is paramount to WORKPLACE CONSTRUCTING EXCELLENCEC onstructing Excellence is a cross-sector, cross-supply-chain, member-led organisation operating for the good of industry and stakeholders.

6 And it aims to produce a better built is a long-term advocate of a whole life value rather than lowest capex or, worse, lowest tender price approach to construction, notwithstanding that budget constraints may apply. We hope this project will add weight to Whole Life Performance Plus project has been supported by Innovate UK (application number 54815-413475) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) (grant reference EP/N509000/1).COVER IMAGE MBI | Alamy Stock PhotoPublished by:Low Carbon Building Research Group, Oxford Brookes University and LCMB Building Performance Ltd.

7 Low Carbon Building Research Group and LCMB Building Performance Ltd, 2018 ISBN: 978-1-9165043-1-8 FOREWORDS 4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 5 Key project findings 5 Project participants 5 THE IMPACT OF WORKPLACE ON WORKER PERFORMANCE AND PRODUCTIVITY 6 The UK s PRODUCTIVITY problem 6 PRODUCTIVITY and buildings 6 WORKPLACE PERFORMANCE AND PRODUCTIVITY IN THE REAL WORLD 8 Case study: King s College London 8 Case study: EMCOR UK and NATS 9 Case study: Argent and Havas 10 WHOLE LIFE PERFORMANCE PLUS (WLP+): PROJECT OVERVIEW 11 Evidence to date from a review of the literature 11 Methodology 11 Key findings 12 Conclusions 15 LESSONS LEARNT AND INSIGHTS 16 Lessons learnt 16 Applying the insights to improve WORKPLACE performance and PRODUCTIVITY 17 Creating a business case for existing buildings 17

8 Creating a business case for new buildings 17 Gauging PRODUCTIVITY 17 Evolving the role of facilities management 18 Potential impact for organisations 18 High potential opportunities 18 CONCLUSION 18 APPENDIX: WLP+ OVERVIEW 19 Consortium partners 19 Project supporters 21 REFERENCES 22 CONTENTS3 BCO 2018 IMPROVING PRODUCTIVITY IN THE WORKPLACEL essons learnt and insights from the Whole Life Performance Plus project4 BCO 2018 IMPROVING PRODUCTIVITY IN THE WORKPLACEL essons learnt and insights from the Whole Life Performance Plus projectConstructing Excellence has been researching the impact of the built environment on organisational performance and value since its earliest days.

9 Its aim is to ensure that the real estate delivered by the construction industry benefits society, organisations and the publications include Be Valuable: A Guide To Creating Value in the Built Environment (2005) and Delivering Built Asset Operational Excellence (2016), which summarise lessons learnt from clients and their supply chains across the retail, education, healthcare, industrial, infrastructure and commercial next logical step for the organisation was to research the impact of the indoor environment on WORKPLACE performance, PRODUCTIVITY and wellbeing.

10 The most comprehensive study of the impact of the indoor environment on WORKPLACE performance in the real world and we are proud contributors. I believe that WLP+, which is co-led by LCMB Building Performance Ltd and Oxford Brookes University, is the most comprehensive study of the impact of the indoor environment on WORKPLACE performance in the real world, and Constructing Excellence is a proud research proves that workplaces which are optimised for indoor environmental conditions enable workers to perform at higher demonstrates a route for organisations to use their built assets and workplaces to enhance their performance and that of the look forward to working with Constructing Excellence members and the construction industry to implement the findings of this work.