MAKING THE WORKPLACE WORK

The Contract Furniture Dealer Puzzle Piece
Written By: Gary Longbotham / Executive Vice President of Business Development / Co-Owner of J.Tyler Office Furniture & Services Houston, Texas

Most people have no idea what the role is of a contract furniture dealer. Certainly we are where companies go to purchase furniture, but you may be surprised to hear at J.Tyler that is not our focus. This is confusing to most people since they perceive, and rightfully so, they come to us to purchase furniture not consulting services.

You may note that I do not refer to it as the “office” but rather the “workplace”. We do not only deal in office spaces, but any place work is performed or supporting the people involved in that work. That can include training rooms, lecture rooms, break areas, school classrooms, record storage areas, equipment storage areas, outdoor break areas, home offices, laboratories and lots of other environments outside of your home.

We also touch areas that you may not realize, such as art work, signage, ergonomic tools to support technology and plants and accessories. All are ingredients of the environments that we assist our clients in developing to give them the best possible design for their spaces.

The Bosti Associates based in Buffalo, New York published a 15 year study of over 13,000 workers and 40 business units in which they examined organizational structure, workplace attitudes, technology and strategies for the workplace. Among the data was the fact that over the 10 years they quantified the cost of employees doing work over 10 years is 82% of an organization’s revenue. Those same organizations spent 10% on technology, 3% on operations and only 5-8% of their revenue on furnishings and the workspace. The most interesting and surprising data however proved the impact that a properly designed work environment has on the productivity of the organizations most valuable asset, its people.

Effects of the Workplace on Work
The physical environment for work is one of many things that affect team performance, individual performance, and job satisfaction. But the physical environment is always "present", always shaping behavior, interactions and distractions. Bosti Associates have long been pioneers in research that attempts to understand how much effect the workplace has on work, and on the business.

BOSTI Associates has engaged in two major "waves" of research on these matters. In the 1980's, we collected data from some 10,000 workers in about 100 organizations (corporate and governmental), and analysis of these findings led to publication of a 1985 two-volume landmark work, "Using Office Design to Increase Productivity" (now in its third printing).

Newest Research (1994-00)
Much has changed since then ... in technology, in customer focus, in the proliferation of teams, in matrix management, in mobility and virtual work, and in workforce expectations. So, early research about the effects of the workplace on work needed updating. To that end, since 1994, BOSTI Associates has been collecting new data about a wide variety of job types in several industries. We currently have a new database of over 13,000 cases (from 1994 to 2000, and growing), which now measures team performance as well as individual performance and job satisfaction. Analyses of the effects of the workplace on these bottom-line measures suggest that the physical design of the workplace has a substantial impact on business success factors ... and the results show great commonality.

Some highlights of the findings:
BOSTI examined the effects that the workplace has on performance and satisfaction, compared to all other factors affecting work, such as technology; pay/ incentives; advancement opportunities; skill-to-task matching; direction by managers; work/ life balance, etc. The average findings for companies in our database is shown in the graphic below.

Lesson: Design and use of the workplace is a management tool, and if done appropriately, affords substantial contribution to the business.

The analysis shows that about a dozen particular features of the workplace are primary contributors individual job performance, team performance, and job satisfaction ... and that the strongest contributors are 1) a distraction-free workplace that allows people to concentrate (both as individuals and in doing group-work), and 2) an environment that supports informal interactions with others, for face-to-face learning, and to keep up with what's going on. Both of these needs must be met in any business-supportive workplace, and they can, without interfering with the other.

The First Wave of Research: 1980-85
Bosti's 1980's nationwide research project looked at the workplace as a collection of "facets"... things like physical enclosure, aesthetics, privacy, furniture, status communication, temperature control, lighting...eighteen in all. The research was a set of large scale studies, involving some 10,000 workers in 100 organizations, and included a major before and after study. It explored how changes in these "facets" related to changes in organizational important measures of individual job performance, job satisfaction and ease and quality of communication, all of which have measurable economic consequences to organizations. Economic analyses demonstrate that the dollar value of the benefits of appropriately designed office can be substantial, as can the costs of poorly designed ones. The data suggest that the theoretical upper limit of benefits from a "perfect" workplace could have an annual benefit equal to about 17% of salary. In practice, we didn't believe that benefit was attainable. Our own experience at that time suggested that 2 to 5% was reasonably attainable. However, the newest data suggests the effects of the workplace are greater. [Brill, M. with Margulis, S., Konar, E., and BOSTI, Using Office Design to Increase Productivity. Buffalo, NY: published Vol. 1, 1984 and Vol. 2, 1985.]

Considering that with a minimal expenditure of total revenues, effective planning, proper design and selection of equipment and tools with which employees can perform their tasks as efficiently and comfortably as possible can affect a significant impact on the productivity and profitability of the organization. Think about it. With better emphasis on the work environment and only fractional total costs (5-8%) an organization can have a significant boost to its profitability through productivity of its 82% investment in people. This is J.Tyler’s focus with our clients. By assisting in good design and proper selection and use of products, we can make the organization more efficient and profitable. Furniture is simply another tool or piece of equipment affording the employees to perform effectively.

Other concerns for a good workplace are sustainability and healthy work environments. Sustainability refers to using products that are friendly to the environment, recyclable and long lasting. In the long run, such products reduce costs and burdens on the organization as well as on our whole society. Healthy work environments mean we are designing and furnishing the workplace to enable people to work more healthily thus more productively and reduce health issues from poor work practices. I will address these two considerations in future articles. They warrant much more attention than simply a brief mention.

After many years of servicing client’s needs, working with them as workplace management philosophies evolved, with product evolutions in our industry, with rising concerns in social and environmental responsibility and sustainable designs and healthy work environments we realized that J.Tyler was taking a unique approach to our customers. We were consulting on workplace efficiency and using product to affect the desired end result. We always questioned the customer regarding the nature of their business, challenges of such, employee recruiting and retainage, workflow and technology support needs....then we recommended products and services. We did not try to simply sell them furniture with no justification or plan.

A dedicated contract furniture dealer fits into the workplace design puzzle along with other consultants, architects, engineers, technology consultants, as the expert in assisting in the planning and implementation of an efficient, comfortable, healthy and ecologically responsible workplace. The furnishings and services recommend should simply be the tools provided to reach these results. The benefit in selecting a dealer committed to this approach will be to make your organization more efficient and thus more profitable.