We sat down with Jon to talk about all things workplace strategy and the future of the office!
Why did you want to become a Workplace Consultant?
I’ve always been fascinated in the relationships between people and place, and truly believe that human beings are the beating heart of any corporate purpose, so I knew that I would need to have a career that put people first. I realised that the workplace is a holistic anchor for so many subjects that interested me, from behavioural change to cutting edge technology. I think I was most inspired by the idea that Workplace Consultants could help organisations, and their people, to be more effective, more conscious, and ultimately happier when at work.
What are current clients asking for regarding their Workplace Strategy?
Clients are looking to balance the current requirements of their people, culture and strategy, the future requirements of potential talent and growth, and the environmental and financial challenges that come from under or over-utilised real estate space. It’s a lot! Therefore, clients tend to be seeking a succinct way to capture their current workplace narrative, build a vision about the aspirations they hope to achieve and then go about carving a pathway to deliver on these ambitions by implementing functional changes to their way of working.
How do you take clients through a process to co-create their new way of working?
At MCM we fundamentally believe that Workplace Strategy is not about the building, it is about creating a way of working to best support your people. We intend to reframe thinking and questioning from ‘what space do we have and how can we best utilise it?’ to ‘what are the experiences and ways of working we want to deliver through the space?’.
This approach provides a platform from which we immerse ourselves into everything we can about the organisation, from occupancy to communications to strategy (and everything in-between). We equitably involve all key stakeholders in the co-creation process, developing the Why, Vision and Guiding Principles for the project, and then develop what this means for the physical, digital, and behavioural requirements of the future way of working.
Do you have any predictions for the future of Workplace Strategy?
It is an industry which is evolving all the time, and so predicting the future is a tough but exciting task! Personally, I believe that Workplace Strategies will continue to be more and more bespoke to respective organisations and the needs of their people. I would like to see further integration of DE&I requirements into Workplace Strategies of the future, especially Neurodiversity. I hope in the future that our industry will be trailblazing in its demonstration of the power between the built environment and equitable employee experience.
What advice would you give to anyone wanting to become involved in Workplace Consulting?
There is so much academic, professional, and media-fuelled literature on Workplace Strategy, Hybrid working and Remote working that I think my immediate advice would be to read as much – and as critically – as you can. The workplace is a heated topic that the whole global working population have an opinion on, and so there is (as an understatement) a lot of information to digest. I would also advise reaching out to people in the industry to find out about their work, and how their lenses, expertise and approaches may differ. This can help build a rounded picture at such a dynamic and exciting time.
To get in contact with Jon or MCM, please email: hello@mcm-uk.com
