Annie Spratt has captured nicely what a fantastic workplace can look like. What does your workplace look like and how would it score? Do the self-test!

12 Steps to Create a Fantastic Workplace

Would you like to go to a workplace everyday which is uninspiring and dysfunctional, where learning is not encouraged, communication with colleagues limited and contribution not wanted. Probably not, right? But what is a great workplace? In his book “The Elemental Workplace”, published early 2018, Neil Usher identifies 12 elements, which can help to create a fantastic workplace. Read this book review and do the self-assessment to evaluate your own workplace!

With his book “The Elemental Workplace” Neil Usher has written a great guide to improve the personal workplace. You can order it here.

With this book review I want to give you an introduction to the field of Workplace Analytics and Design. Starting out with a quick overview of the book, I want to go deeper into the elements that contribute to creating a fantastic workplace. I will do this by assessing my own workplace with the simple tool Usher develops throughout his book. Finally, I’ll conclude with some personal impressions and lessons learned.

Why Well-Designed Spaces Have a Positive Impact on People

Neil Usher, has more than 25 years of experience in helping organizations to transform their workplace into unique and inspiring working environments. He writes a lot about how to create a perfect workplace.

Usher’s observations have led him to assert that well performing companies often are successful because they provide great workplaces. Over the years he collected and distilled his knowledge and experiences into this book.

The idea is simple: Only if we feel accepted, motivated and self-confident can we tap our full potential. By getting the chance to live, learn, grow, share and contribute can we be productive. With this book the author nails down the key aspects of his finding and arranges them into the form of an elemental framework which anybody can easily apply to their own workplace; improve the Flow at work and boosting productivity. Neil Usher shows that you don’t necessarily need a big monetary investment or a makeover in order to create a great workplace. He is aware that he can’t provide an overall solution that is applicable to everyone and everywhere and stresses the fact that it needs a lot of openness and continuous work for change.

This is how the formal and informal meeting area of a daylight flooded workplace with sufficient space, comfortable and ergonomic settings could look like.

The 12 Elements for Creating a Fantastic Workplace

This being said, I now want to jump to the core of the book, the 12 elements.

For each element, I thought about my own workplace and how well it stacks up against the twelve elements? Helpfully, Usher provides a self-assessment tool making it easy to self-evaluate your workplace. On a scale from -5 (worst) to 15 (best) points, you can grade your workplace in the different fields. In the following I’ll go through the elements and provide my rating:

1. Daylight

• Every workplace should have access to as much daylight as possible but also providing the choice to shut it away when needed. A nice view to the outside can be of supplementary benefit.
• In this discipline I think our office scores well as it has a large window facade and two glass doors for exterior access and window blinds.
• 10 points

2. Connectivity

• This aspect stresses the need of a working high-speed and reliable connectivity and a well-functioning technical equipment. The argument is obvious: If technology is not working properly, we are unable to be productive. “connectivity sets people free like nothing else” (p. 83).
• I guess working in a PropTech start-up we are lucky to be provided with a lot of technical know-how, and new equipment. The office building where we are located in furthermore offers the necessary infrastructure.
• 15 points

3. Space

• This aspect was quite striking to me as here Neil Usher provides a benchmark (which obviously needs to be handled with care as it is depending on the kind of organization). The amount of space divided by the amount of people using it should not fall under 6 square meters/per person.
• It surprised me that we graded poorly. With around 60 square meters and around 8 employees we get a value of 7.5m2/person.
• With 5 points a moderate evaluation

4. Choice

• According to Neil Usher a fantastic workplace should support free choice. He therefore suggest providing “four key spaces” serving different work purposes, i.e. 1. Primary working desk, 2. Quiet and focussed workplace, 3. Informal meeting area for ideas and 4. Formal meeting area.
• Concerning our office this is where I see options for improvement. Lacking a comfortable space for quiet, individual work and needing the permission of using a formal meeting space.
• 5 points are attributed

5. Influence

• Being able to influence the workplace is a good sign and leads to some kind of connection with your workplace.
• For my part, I can use the different working spaces and openly address new ideas as we have a open-minded team.
• 10 points

6. Control

• Having a workplace where you can control temperature, light and noise makes people feel that personal needs are taken seriously.
• With being able to have — more or less control over temperature and lighting — but with limitations on working without distraction.
• 5 points are a fair deal

“If our inclusive workplace is flooded with natural daylight, if there is sufficient space with comfortable and ergonomic settings, if it is inspiring and stimulates the senses and our technology connects us seamlessly to the networks and highways we need, if we can use well-stocked and pleasant washrooms and store our stuff securely the we are going to feel considerably more positive about our place of work, our colleagues and ourselves.” (p. 169)

7. Refresh

• Every great workplace should fulfill the physiological and social need.
• A welcoming and well-positioned refreshing space, a kitchen niche providing free tea and coffee, and a nearly located canteen, with fairly priced but medium quality food.
• Scoring 5 points

8. Sense

• Usher doesn’t give detailed sensory design propositions but stresses the fact that a nice sense-scape can have a positive effect on people.
• Being welcomed with a nice smell of coffee in the morning, surrounded by well-designed and ergonomic furniture, our office can be seen as stimulating and motivating. The coloring and the soundscape could probably be improved.
• 5 points

9. Comfort

• This aspect relates to the basic human needs, determining the conditions for comfort through the specification, design and arrangement of work settings.
• In this concern I can say that my workplace generally is human-oriented but is also lacking control elements.
• Therefore 5 points

10. Inclusion

• As Neil Usher puts it: The fantastic workplace “offers a home to everyone, where no one has to raise a particular need because it has already been fully thought through” (p. 202).
• I can undoubtedly say that I go to work with a good feeling and it seems to me that my colleagues also feel welcomed, accommodated and comfortable and noone feels left behind.
• Therefore 10 points in this element.

11. Wash

• According to this element, a fantastic workplace has excellent toilet and washing facilities (clean, warm, hot water, soap).
• Here my workplace definitely gets an A+.
• So 10 points, for super close, always neat and well stocked amenities.

12. Storage

• A fantastic workplace provides lockable and sufficient storage space in order to store personal stuff.
• With our new USM cupboards everybody has storage space for personal belongings. We are a small team so even though the cupboards are not lockable, I can trust everybody that its still gonna be there when I want to get.
• I would give us 10 points here.

If we have the opportunity to control our environment, if we have a plentiful choice of setting to suit our every need that gets us up and mobile during the day, that in turn offers the potential for us to influence as required, and the opportunity to refresh with healthy food and drinking, then we have a landscape in which we can exercise our judgment and make decisions that will benefit us.” (p. 169)

Doing the Test

After adding up my scores (90 points, yay!, of maximum 130) and taking a look at the evaluation table provided by Usher, my office is a quite a decent place to work! We could do better in some aspects though; notably the space element, which would also have a positive impact on choice, control and comfort. But I am quite content with it, as with some adjustments it seems to have the potential for becoming a fantastic workplace.

This self-assessment is super fun and helps a lot to specifically reflect on your workplace and personal needs. Be aware that your own evaluation can deviate from your colleague’s opinion so I encourage you to discuss this. Also keep in mind that this tool for workplace analytics can’t be exhaustive (the author himself is aware of that), but serves a good framework with benchmarks that should be met for the wellbeing.

Conclusion

While working through the book it I often thought that a lot aspects Usher addresses seem obvious and therefore negligible, for example: importance of functioning technology. But by providing background information and going into detail he stresses their importance e.g. when arguing that work can be done with well working IT and connectivity in a “shitty” surrounding but not the other way round.

Neil Usher uses clear and simple language, providing a guide for everybody — from the company owner to the curious employee. His recommendations range from more complicated, time and money consuming change elements like providing different types of work spaces, to a variety of easily adjustable ones, e.g. have free coffee or tea for refreshment. All in all his approach is human-centered.

Although I appreciated not being buried by verbose and purely theoretical explanations I did find myself craving for more evidence — be that historical or scientific. I missed those additional pieces of information that lend more insight into his reasoning. For example, the finding that a higher serotonin level helps when negotiating the salary. While provision of those additional details is sparse, the author does stay close to the topic at hand. He leans his recommendations on own observations and many years of practical experience in the field of workplace analysis. Therefore he includes latest trends in the working world, especially paying attention to the digitisation and the consequences for the physical workplaces, working styles and the culture.

tl;dr

1. The solution of creating a fantastic workplace doesn’t lie in making workplaces aesthetically appealing, which is often sold as the secret to a perfect workplace. A good design should not only look great but also serve the people who use it; It should be purposeful, intuitive, and simple.
2. “[S]pace itself is a journey not a product” (p. 55). Changing a workplace needs a lot of work. It’s a process with the power of setting free a lot of potential. Enjoy the process.
3. Pay attention to the details and the little things which can already make a huge difference.
4. While reading the book I suddenly started to talk to my colleagues and boss about it during our lunch brakes. I realised that communicating and reflecting about the workplace is the first step for change.

The book, in giving concrete tips for creating and ameliorating your personal workplace, is therefore definitely worth a read. Because “[a]bsolutely everyone deserves a fantastic workplace” (p. 202)

Personal Motivation

A good design of architecture and interiors has always been fascinating to me. After graduation I chose to do a training as hotel management expert where I worked in various different hotels which I always selected for their outstanding and special interior design. This is because I was — and still am — convinced that well-designed spaces with a great atmosphere have a positive impact on how people feel and work. This conviction and fascination for built environments has accompanied me my whole life; from a job in a online interior design magazine to now working in a company operating a service for architecture and interior analysis and simulation.

When the book “The Elemental Workplace” by Neil Usher fell into my hands I thought this might be a great opportunity to explore the elements that contribute to establishing a great working place in a deeper and more scientific way. It also made me think of my current workplace.

Tell us how your workplace shapes up in the comments below!
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