Leading Health Organization Implements Hybrid Work with FM:Systems
The Client
This leading health and well-being organization delivers an ever-better healthcare experience to everyone in its communities. Leveraging its nearly 90 years of experience and expertise from its two founding organizations, this health and well-being organization helps people find their version of healthier living through a broad range of health plans and tools that make navigating health and well-being easier.
The Challenge
In the summer of 2019, two healthcare organizations announced their intent to merge. To accommodate the growing, soon-to-be 5,000-person team, the organizations purchased an expensive 42-acre property to become its new headquarters. The property included four multi-level buildings amounting to a combined 522,000 square feet. It also featured an additional 14,000 square foot mansion, where the previous company that owned this space would host events.
The new campus would be more than just a new address with more space; it represented combining two of New England’s largest and most iconic nonprofit healthcare companies that, for decades, were competitors. Planning the office opening involved needing to prepare the new headquarters for a hybrid work arrangement. And because the company was also bringing together two cultures for the first time, it was equally important the space was designed in a way to ensure employees felt connected and experienced a smooth transition into their new office. This is why, despite the merger completing on Jan. 1, 2021, leadership intentionally had employees continue to work remotely until March 2022.
To streamline the tedious, cost-intensive process of moving offices, the newly combined organization needed a workplace management solution that could provide space planning, strategic planning, and room and desk booking capabilities. And, like most mergers, the organization had to navigate which existing apps and systems each entity was using could work best going forward. For example, one of the organizations used had been using the FMS:Employee system hosted by FM:Systems, while the other was using a self-hosted on-premises solution; while simultaneously embarking on a new implementation of FMS:Employee during the merger.
An unexpected advantage we experienced during the pandemic was that it actually gave us a lot more time to be able to get the applications in a good place before people needed to actually use them for reservations, maintenance tickets, and other features they were used to – only under a different name!
Lisa Koskulics, FMP, Senior Applications Consultant, AMS Workplace Technology
The Solution
“As many employees would still be working remotely, and in a hybrid way, we wanted to provide a variety of reservable and drop-in options,” said Senior Manager of Real Estate Technology at the Leading Health and Well-Being Organization.
The three solutions that would achieve their near-term and ever-changing future workplace needs included:
FM:Systems partner, AMS Workplace Technology (AMS), was also chosen to seamlessly integrate employee badge data into the FMS:Workplace environment to provide valuable reporting and analytics. Because one of the prior organizations had already been using these badging reports well before the pandemic started, the newly merged company maintained this feed. It had reports run every 5 minutes to ensure all badge data would remain current, and all reports could continue to be run as they had been, with no interruptions.
Because the new site is largely unassigned, the organization leveraged FMS:Workplace to configure locker assignment and tracking module with the help of AMS to provide employees with secure, reservable spaces to put their belongings for their in-office work days. With this solution, the system also has access to assignment history, should an employee forget their items; there is also a graphic view to show where available lockers exist, so employees can reserve one closest to their preferred booked desk for the day.
As many employees would still be working remotely, and in a hybrid way, we wanted to provide a variety of reservable and drop-in options
Senior Manager of Real Estate Technology, the Leading Health and Well-Being Organization
The Results & What’s Next
The organization successfully moved into the Canton campus in March 2022, which offered a variety of reservable and drop-in options to work, ranging from flex desks and benching desks to cubicles, standard offices, and flex offices for quick meetings. The new headquarters provides assigned and reserved space available with “focus rooms” and “hover rooms” for people to use as needed for heads down work, or quick impromptu meetings. The campus also includes a new “Innovation Lab” that features several breakout spaces with flexible furniture that can easily be moved depending on requirements.
Today, the value of using FMS:Workplace with FMS:Employee and AMS feeds has provided the health and well-being organization with the means to centralize all workplace utilization data within a single system – and most importantly, the ability to gain quality insights to respond to inevitable changes that will take place in a new office and new work model.
Just after the merger, the organization used metrics and data to inform the design of the new campus environment for a post-pandemic world. Initially, the company anticipated 10% of space would be assigned. However, almost a year since the new campus opened, the company knows it only needs to provide less than 4% of assigned desks, with 100 essential employees being based at the campus.
“With FM:Systems workplace management solution, we can now use accurate data to generate several reports, including the percentage of space reserved and identify hotspots on the premises that reflect which floor sections are the most popular,” said the Senior Manager of Real Estate Technology. “We need to understand why and how the new campus environment is being used according to our expectations. We can also leverage workflows for maintenance tickets to ensure the space is optimally set up for a large conference and other uses.”
The organization is also in the process of implementing HR personnel schedules. The organization can now request that employees submit their intended flex plan schedule for the workday to determine how much on-site space is available. This helps the business understand its utilization, and thus make informed decisions to re-stack the building to make the most of its space.
“We have 2,500 seats in the building,” said the Senior Manager of Real Estate Technology. “With the badge data, we knew we had more than 500 open seats most days in the building, as we’ve never had more than 2,000 people swipe into the building in a day. At one point we were talking about if we needed to lease more space, but the badge data from the FMS:Workplace and AMS FMS:Connect solution has been such a game change for us! It helped validate that we had plenty of space.”
Finally, a future project the organization is looking to implement is an improved communications environment. This will enable the internal communications department to send building-related emails to those employees who have indicated they will be at the campus on certain days. It all comes down to having a streamlined system to optimize the new campus space while keeping employees productive and engaged.
With FM:Systems workplace management solution, we can now use accurate data to generate several reports, including the percentage of space reserved and identify hotspots on the premises that reflect which floor sections are the most popular
Senior Manager of Real Estate Technology, the Leading Health and Well-Being Organization
