North American Life Insurer Shifts to a Hybrid Workspace using FM:Systems
The Client
This life insurance company is a leading provider of financial and retirement solutions throughout North America. For more than 125 years, this company has been helping people manage risks in retirement and live their lives with confidence.
The Challenge
During the onset of the pandemic, this life insurance provider recognized that many of its employees were able to get their work done remotely without it impacting productivity. To adapt to the new normal, the company decided that at least 40% of the workforce could operate on a hybrid model. This transition was not just about rearranging physical spaces; it was about maintaining the brand’s strong, employee-centric culture and commitment to sustainability while also ensuring that employees’ individual needs and preferences were met.
This company was already using FM:Systems FMS:Workplace for space planning and facilities management within its campus, but to facilitate the transition to a hybrid work model they needed room and desk booking capabilities. And, knowing how quickly the workplace was evolving, they also wanted a solution that could help them better understand the way their new hybrid workplace was performing to inform future real estate and workplace changes going forward.
Working with AMS, we were able to import valuable Work Arrangement personnel classifications into FMS:Workplace to better understand department personnel space needs to support our new Ways of Working program. Showing the new design on the floor plan was a great way to show employees the three different types of workspaces created post-pandemic
Sr. Director Corporate Services of the life insurance provider
The Solution
Because the company had an established and trusted relationship with both FM:Systems and long-time Premier Certified Business Partner AMS Workplace Technology (AMS), they didn’t consider looking for outside vendors. Instead, they were excited to add the FMS:Employee and FMS:Insights modules to their FMS:Workplace platform and have AMS help to integrate the solutions, including installing hardware occupancy sensors.
With FMS:Employee, the life insurance company’s employees would be able to use their mobile devices to easily find and book rooms, equipment, lockers, or shared desks, based on their preferred workspace type or even location within the workplace. And with FMS:Insights, FM:Systems advanced workplace analytics solution, the company would now be able to automate data gathering of their entire 765,000 square foot. property, providing them with powerful insights on workplace utilization, employee mobility and more.
During this phase, the life insurance provider embarked on a discovery process, meeting with internal leaders and stakeholders to understand their work habits and needs. Using FMS:Workplace, they were able to easily design new work stations throughout the property, including community spaces for collaboration, huddle rooms with different types of seating arrangements, reservable workstations, quiet rooms for focused work, agile rooms for agile teams, mothers’ rooms, and lockers on each floor.
“Working with AMS, we were able to import valuable Work Arrangement personnel classifications into FMS:Workplace to better understand department personnel space needs to support our new Ways of Working program. Showing the new design on the floor plan was a great way to show employees the three different types of workspaces created post-pandemic. FMS:Employee helped employees reserve workspaces, lockers, and meeting rooms, all through a user-friendly app. FMS:Insights was used to analyze office and employee space usage, providing valuable data to understand how our spaces were used and to guide future decisions,” said Sr. Director Corporate Services of the life insurance provider
FMS:Employee helped employees reserve workspaces, lockers, and meeting rooms, all through a user-friendly app. FMS:Insights was used to analyze office and employee space usage, providing valuable data to understand how our spaces were used and to guide future decisions
Sr. Director Corporate Services of the life insurance provider
The Results
The new hybrid work arrangement was implemented successfully, with employees starting to move into the redesigned spaces in November 2022. The company has been using both department surveys and feedback along with early data generated from the FM:Systems workplace occupancy sensors to understand how the different spaces are being used, which types of workstations have been most and least popular, and to get a better sense of peak utilization days and times. Employees who were previously unfamiliar with the campus due to the pandemic were made comfortable in the new environment through change management strategies, continuous feedback collection, and by using FMS:Employee to digitally familiarize themselves with the space prior to arriving.
In addition to enabling a smooth employee transition back to the office, being armed with additional workplace insights has helped this organization also improve its overall sustainability efforts. For example, knowing which days and times had the least utilization among its employees and other occupants, the company could reduce unnecessary energy costs accordingly.
We look forward to having FMS:Insights now, knowing the data it provides will allow us to continue to optimize our work environment further. We plan to introduce more features and access as employees get more comfortable with the system, continually monitoring and tweaking the environment based on employee feedback and new insights
Sr. Director Corporate Services of the life insurance provider
What’s Next
“Of course, we recognize that this is an ongoing process. We look forward to having FMS:Insights now, knowing the data it provides will allow us to continue to optimize our work environment further. To this end, we plan to introduce more features and access as employees get more comfortable with the system, continually monitoring and tweaking the environment based on employee feedback and new insights,” said the Sr. Director Corporate Services of the life insurance provider
The new work environment was a pledge that employees took, adjusting to the new norms. This major life insurance provider is committed to upholding its strong culture and employee-centric approach while navigating the challenges and opportunities of hybrid work.
