VELDHOEN + COMPANY LEESMAN INDEX
Our company Principal, Neill Johanson, last week attended the, “Are Workplaces Working?” event. Charter Hall Group invited Veldhoen and Leesman to co-host the forum which discussed the findings of the largest workplace survey, Veldhoen + Company Leesman Index. 145,000 people working in 1200 organisations across 49 countries were surveyed to to measure how the workplace supports employees and establish project measures of success.
Leesman, the brains behind this work, are independent Stockholm based statisticians and Veldhoen, the originators of Activity Based Working (ABW) presented some real insights into the current state of workplace science. The findings are fascinating and align with what we aim to do at Davenport Campbell. The Several key findings from Leesman include: – The analysis shows overwhelmingly that people prefer to work in a place where there is a high variety of work settings. – This reliance increases for those with the most complex work activities as does the need to access colleagues, the increased use of meeting rooms and the need for collaborative spaces. – The more you provide a person with control of their environment, the more satisfied they are at work.
The science behind these claims has always been somewhat limited, however with the Leesman data we can now fully support our claims that the provision of a variety of settings within the workplace enables people to work in the most productive ways.
Gijs from Veldhoen followed by outlining the 3 principle ingredients required for a highly collaborative workplace:
1. Mindset – “I believe I will get a better out come when I collaborate”.
2. Choice – Make sure you give people the permission to work in a collaborative and highly flexible way.
3. Structure – Provide all the necessary tools to make it so.
He finally made the point that behavior does not change automatically and whilst we can provide all the workplace cues, change management has a huge role to play in getting people ready to embrace change.
To find out more about how Leesman and Veldhoen + Company work here.