Rethinking Faculty Workspaces — Embracing New Approaches To Faculty And Staff Office Areas 1

Rethinking Faculty WorkspacesEmbracing new approaches to faculty and staff office areas

W H I T E P A P E R

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As designers, we have seen first-hand how new or updated campus buildings can lead to an increased new student and/or program enrollment. This also often leads to an increase in the number of faculty or staff required to meet a growing program’s needs. It’s natural, therefore, that shortly after a new or renovated building opens, that we hear that a lack of faculty office space becomes an issue, as additional staff areas are needed beyond what was anticipated in the initial plans for the updated space. This is especially true of projects with a constrained budget.

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It is widely recognized how critical faculty are to the success of a university, however, it is common to intentionally limit office spaces to curb costs during the design of a project. When space issues arise, tenured faculty are asked to double-up within an existing office, and emeritus offices may be eliminated. While this may be a quick fix, if done without a fully thought-out process, it can decrease morale and leave faculty feeling as though leadership is not meeting their needs.

Given our work on campuses around the country, we have developed a few best practices to apply during the design process aimed to curb the faculty space issue prior to building occupation, while retaining the importance of office space to faculty and the institution. Historically, the office has been a status symbol, recruiting tool, and a place of respite. Current trends, however, lean towards faculty choosing “third spaces” to work such as common areas, and students are not meeting faculty in their offices during office hours. Creating spaces that provide better support to faculty and students — either in new or existing buildings can bring success to all. Here, we’ve shared a few ideas of how to approach your faculty and staff office areas — both with new construction and within existing buildings:

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Using a Team Approach to Designing or Reworking Office Space

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Rather than allowing each department to consider their future office space, consider creating a fully integrated team, including leadership from the university, faculty, staff, IT and facilities. This results in a few key takeaways:

• Gains buy-in from leadership and faculty to any cultural shifts you may need to adopt for a different office layout.

• Integrates younger faculty who may have a fresh-perspective on working environments as well as an ability to embrace change.

• Ensures you will coordinate efforts with any campus standards/requirements for office sizes, getting buy in on how office size is calculated, eliminating redoing work later in the design process.

• Engages IT from the onset to help with appropriate systems understanding and a smooth transition of equipment.

• Encourages a fresh approach to what a faculty office can be by engaging all users’ input.

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Reconsider the Typical Office Layout

Typical Configuration at Reader's Digest Association — Milwaukee

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For years, faculty offices have been designed in a double-loaded corridor configuration and have been a place faculty could seek privacy and personalization. The workplace is changing quickly thanks to shifting workforce demographics and advancements in technology. In nearly every industry, this has impacted where, when and how people work. Within higher education, dedicated faculty offices are slowly becoming a concept of the past. In fact, research shows that among medical teaching faculty, the actual time spent in an assigned office can be as low as 10-15%. While faculty need the ability to find respite outside of classrooms and meet with students, this is often being done in common spaces, and off campus. Given the common need to maximize space and budgets for capital projects, we encourage campuses to rethink what is needed for office work space to better support current faculty needs.

One fresh approach is considered the Activity-Based Workplace (ABW). ABW starts with the premise that the “ownership” of a specific office within a workplace is an outdated idea that ties up floor area and does not encourage collaboration. This approach

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Typical Double Loaded Corridor ConfigurationCapacity: 14 Faculty (14 Offices)

Typical Configuration at Reader's Digest Association — Milwaukee

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has been quickly adopted in corporate and professional services industries, though is still slowing being integrated into academic settings. When not in their assigned offices, faculty are often found in areas that are dictated by the type of work they are doing. The ABW approach acknowledges this and adjusts the workplace design by minimizing the assigned area available to each occupant. A portion of the area freed up by this strategy applied to shared work areas, each of which is designed to support certain work “activities.”

These shared areas need to be looked at (in a distinctly different way, both in layout and aesthetics, and need to be designed in a way that does not feel like it lacks in amenities. For instance, while shared desk areas may dominate the floor plan, locked storage should be provided for personal belongings. Upgraded

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OO OO OO OO OOCC Mixed Office Space ConfigurationCapacity: 22 Faculty

5 Offices +17 Shared Workspaces +1 Conferencing

Mixed Office Configuration at University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Nursing

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finishes can go a long way in differentiating spaces for various departments or functions. Flexible office furniture can create a unique and flexible office area for faculty that encourages interaction between staff. Additionally, work area accessories to allow staff to customize their work area, including organizing work tools, monitor arms, variable height worksurfaces, and personalized lighting encourages faculty to use the space. Finally, consider integrating lounge furniture to meet multiple work styles and again encourage silos between departments to break down. Shared offices can replace portions of the typical double-loaded corridor, allowing areas for meeting space while not requiring additional square footage. This progressive design approach along with these added amenities can be a faculty recruiting tool.

Finally, recognize that privacy will still be needed for private conversations, phone calls or student meetings. We suggest dedicating a few separate rooms to use on demand as well as small conference rooms that faculty can book for student meetings/hours. By taking this approach to reduce a dedicated office foot print, buildings can achieve 40% more space for support to faculty workspace as well as flexibility to add work areas for faculty without needing to spend funds on costly renovations. Faculty and students appreciate the added security of “third space” meeting rooms. While ranges can vary by campus, studies have shown that approximately, two-thirds of students fail to take advantage of faculty office hours if they are not convenient. First generation students are less likely to meet faculty in their offices. Creating convenient spaces that are less threatening increases the student/faculty connection. And, student retention is vastly increased when students are connected to faculty.

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CCrdC Third Space ConfigurationCapacity : 24 Faculty

17 Shared Workspaces +7 Shared 3rd Space +2 Conferencing

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Embrace the Benefits of Alternate Workspace Arrangements

Beyond saving space and budget, creating common work environments provides benefits that may not be possible in the traditional single office layout. For example, you may be able to integrate the latest technology into shared areas that would not be realistic to integrate into a single office layout due to cost — such as video conferencing. Additionally, these flexible spaces also provide a “third space” work environment that can replicate spaces faculty search out off-campus, such as coffee houses. As mentioned, more communal work environments can also increase collaboration between staff and faculty. This is increasingly important as many health sciences programs encourage interdisciplinary approaches to curricula.

Rethinking Faculty Workspaces — Embracing New Approaches To Faculty And Staff Office Areas 11Third Space Configuration

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Test-drive Design Features and Flexibility

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When reviewing work area plans and furniture, evaluate how well the design and amenities work for your faculty — everything from seating, monitor height placement, laptop support and flexible work surface heights. Use mock-ups of work area options and seating for faculty and staff to evaluate what works for them and to be involved in the process. These mock-ups educate and confirm to faculty that they will have the ability to customize their work areas, even selecting from a kit of parts to create spaces that work best for them. Stand up desking is a current trend, but is not always embraced by all. To get the most of mock-ups and trials, be sure to have a way to document and record responses from users and integrate suggested changes before finalizing designs, purchasing furniture and equipment, eliminating costly mistakes. Faculty involvement creates buy in and educates the team to create effective work areas.

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Address the Cultural Change

Shifting to a new workplace model in an academic environment may require a significant cultural change in how your faculty and staff work and interact. While this model is becoming increasingly more common in the corporate environment, we recognize that within academia, we need to be extremely sensitive to faculty and staff’s perception of moving to a very

collaborative physical space. Without this level of delicacy, the project is at risk to be unsupported and met with contention. Evaluation of how faculty work can help with creating a layered approach to faculty spaces as opposed to the typical double loaded corridor of offices. And, many of these changes can be accomplished within the existing square footage of faculty space.

Throughout the design, it is important for stakeholders to understand it is inevitable there will be push back with change. Integrating faculty in the design process helps as mentioned earlier. We also encourage that beyond mock-ups for new spaces, to also conduct orientation sessions to share how office space can be used and the benefits integrated into the solution. Something as simple as having leadership use common areas gives faculty the encouragement needed to embrace these spaces as well. Finally, once completed, ask faculty and staff to participate in a post-occupancy evaluation to get their feedback — both the good and the bad — and be willing to integrate changes that are voiced. But most importantly, embrace and celebrate the flexibility, collaboration and benefits that the new workplace model has brought.

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About Kahler Slater

Through architecture, interior design, strategic advisory and environmental branding, Kahler Slater leverages design to help our clients reach their strategic goals for advancing their organizations. We use a Performance-Based Design process that is grounded in research to ensure we design for change. The result of our work enriches lives and achieves powerful results. With clients around the US, Canada and Singapore, Kahler Slater’s team includes marketplace experts in health care, higher education, corporate, living environments, hospitality, sports and wellness.

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Contact

For further information, please contact:

Larry Schnuck, Vice President and Higher Education Team Leader at lschnuck@kahlerslater.com

Mary LaFrombois, Associate Principal and Senior Interior Designer at mlafrombois@kahlerslater.com

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