Want to save money? Eliminate high-cost government office space.
A White House mandate to reduce federal office space has caused several government agencies to look to creative and cost-effective solutions for solving workspace issues.
The goal of successfully reducing costs, as well as a focus on increasing budgets cuts for federal workspaces, keep government officials moving toward more innovative means of housing their workforce and utilizing other options- including workstation sharing and increased telework.
In June the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) released a Report to Congress, the 2012 Status of Telework in the Federal Government, which details particular guidelines for Federal workers and encourages more agencies to adopt telework within their workforce.
Telework and workspace sharing go hand-in-hand. With more and more workers taking advantage of federal telework initiatives, more workspace is available and there’s less need for employees to have a desk five days per week.
Under workstation sharing programs two-to-three employees will share the same location. It is similar to hoteling, where employees don’t have a dedicated desk space at all, but simply ‘check-in’ to a work station on days when they are in the office. Both workstation sharing and hoteling have been advanced through technology. Digital phone systems, laptops, smart phones and tablet PCs are just a few of the technologies the federal government is taking advantage of in telework and workstation sharing programs.
Through methods such as hoteling, shared workstations, telework and other consolidation, the federal government hopes to save hundreds of millions of dollars in real estate costs annually.
Some examples from the report to Congress:
- Department of Commerce: The agency is working to reduce space through a three part strategy: 1) identify consolidation opportunities; 2) look for reduction savings in expiring leases before new contracts are made; and 3) review all planned and existing leases for savings as well as eliminating any excess or underutilized owned space. Reduction savings can come from implementing three day or more per week telework, reducing space through open floor design, reduction of support space, and setting workstation size standard.
- Department of Labor: The agency has been aggressively reducing its real estate requirements by reducing the work space footprint of individual workers and requiring that new space is built in a rotation of 80 percent workstations and 20 percent private offices. “Hoteling” also is encouraged. The agency also seeks to consolidate bureau populations (minimizing travel time between office functions), and by providing more open, collaborative office designs. Lastly, a lease replacement/consolidation prospectus is being prepared that, if approved and developed, will make substantial use of hoteling and similar practices.
- General Services Administration: The agency uses space reconfiguration to provide enhanced hot-desking, hoteling, and desk sharing options.
