Simon Carter, Head of Corporate Property at National Grid spoke at the FM & Property Event 2011

1. FM and Property event
19th
October 2011
The Belfry Hotel, Birmingham

2. Agenda
 Overview of National Grid
 Our workplace challenge
 Current situation & project positioning
 Workplace research
 Key themes
 Physical design and people protocols
 The results
 Flexibility and utilisation
 Collaboration, creativity & innovation
 Sustainability & Cost Effectiveness

3. National Grid – who are we
 Originated from the restructuring of the UK gas industry in 1986 and the UK
electricity industry in 1990 and entered the US energy delivery market in
2000
 A network utility, based in the UK and the US. Our principal interests are:
 Transmission and distribution of electricity and gas
 Metering services, liquefied natural gas facilities and property in the UK
 Electricity interconnectors in the UK and US
 Our Vision:
 We at, National Grid, will be the foremost international electricity and
gas company, delivering unparalleled safety, reliability and efficiency,
vital to the wellbeing of our customers and communities.
 We are committed to being an innovative leader in energy management
and to safeguarding our global environment and for future generations.

4. National Grid – what are we
Transmission UK and US
 UK: 9,500 miles of HV electricity network and 4,300 miles of high pressure
pipeline
 US: Over 10,000 miles of electricity transmission network
Gas Distribution UK & Electricity Distribution & Generation US
 UK: 82,000 miles of distribution pipelines, distributes gas on behalf of gas
shippers and suppliers to around 11 million consumers in just over a quarter
of the UK
 Operates the free national gas emergency number and has over 3.4
million customers
 US: 122,000 miles of Distribution network, 4.4 million electricity customers
(including Long Island Power Authority customers) and 6,650 MW of
generation capacity providing 25 per cent of New York City's capacity needs

5. Our workplace challenge
 Where are we today…
 Engineering and technically based organisation
 Current workspace density ~ 10 m sq / person
 Current space works for some but certainly not all
 So where do we go from here ?
 The question we were trying to answer had three aspects;
 Can we change the workplace and improve collaboration and team
working ?
 Can we improve the benchmark performance of the estate and
reduce cost ?
 Can we reduce our climate change impact ?
 We wanted all three !

6. Project positioning – Workplace Sharing
Aim:
……“to increase collaboration and knowledge sharing across
the businesses in order to drive efficiencies and innovation. We
believe that our buildings could be used much more and
may no longer suit the way we work today.”
Approach:
• Workplace research to better understand current and future
organisational and space requirements
• A pilot project will be implemented to test ideas such as
greater variety of space and desk sharing
• The pilot will be measured in a post occupancy evaluation

7. The benefits – Clarity of purpose from the start
• More sustainable use of existing buildings
• Cost savings
• Better connected teams and more knowledge sharing
• Promote brand and culture through the work space
• Potential to increase productivity
• Choice over where to work
• Wider variety of workspaces to work from including desks, informal meeting,
project spaces and quiet rooms
• New, better quality work environment
• More buzz and quiet spaces
• Better access to leaders and each other within and across teams
What’s in it for
National Grid
What’s in it
for me?

8. Data collected
Work styles breakdown
13%
35%
31%
9%
11%
Residents
Internally
mobile
Externally
mobile
Anchors
Task based
residents
Knowledge
workers
Managers
Strategic
Management
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00
Empty
Unoccupied
Not obtainable
Pausing
Individual work
Collaboration
Percentageof
timedesksused
Core day
Time of Day
Average active
occupancy:
41%
Average empty:
37%
Average internal mobility:
22%
Observations
Percentage time spent in different
locations by job level
Lack of sharing,
silos, focused
individual work
Team working,
stimulated
FutureNow
Identity, hidden
beneath the
surface
Clear company
presence - bold
Formal/Scheduled
Silent
Group based
Focus within discipline
Face to face interaction
Self motivated
Informal/Ad hoc
Communicative
Solo work
Focus across discipline
Virtual interaction
Directed by others
Envisioning session
Focus groups

9. Key research themes and opportunities
 Potential to increase overall floor densities by up to 30%
Meeting culture
Increase
communication
Balance need for
concentration with
team work
Increase variety of
settings
Flexibility related to
job types
Provide stimulating
and creative
environment
Increase floor density
 Mix of formal and informal meeting spaces distributed throughout floor
 Provision of project space
 Non assigned desks for some – encourage movement and interaction
 Team areas with signage and expression of identity
 Better interaction points on floor
 Easily accessible open and enclosed small working spaces
 Protocols which allow productive working in open plan areas
 Provision of different settings to accommodate various working tasks and provide less regimented
layout
 Higher job grades work more flexibly than lower grades; more mobile
 Landmarks provided on floor to express National Grid culture
 A vibrant, modern and professional design

10. Design - Menu of spaces and zoning
Legends
Cores
Hub / Social Space.
Business Lounge / Touchdown.
Bookable Meeting Spaces.
Variety of Types.
Meeting Rooms & Study Booths.
Open / Enclosed / Semi-enclosed
Collaborative Space.
Project / Mtg / Workspace.
Open Workspace
Copy / Print & Tea / Vending
General store / Comms (C)
Main Entry to Floor
Access to Lift

11. Legends
Cores
Workspace (owned)
Workspace (shared)
Support / Ancillary
Main Entry to Floor
Lift Access
Occupancy; ~242 staff (270)
• 50 staff for 50 desks (owned) (50)
• 192 (220) staff for 117 desks & 150 other
work settings, all shared
…and testing the limits (orange text)
Occupancy; ~242 staff (270)
• 50 staff for 50 desks (owned) (50)
• 192 (220) staff for 117 desks & 150 other
work settings, all shared
…and testing the limits (orange text)
Support / Ancillary
42%
Shared
40%
Owned
18%
Design - Applying the sharing model

12. General principles:
• Everyone will work in an open plan environment with access a
range of bookable and non-bookable spaces
• Protocols apply equally to all regardless of grade
• Everyone will have a team base to go to every day
• Team bases do not ‘belong’ to anyone
• not hard and fast
• shared etiquette and common sense
• enables workspace to work
• new desired behaviours
• ‘collective’ decision
People - Workplace protocols
Protocols are..

13. So, what’s been achieved ?
 Flexibility and utilisation
 Collaboration, creativity & innovation
 Sustainability & Cost Effectiveness
“85% of staff when asked
said they didn’t want to go
back to their old working
environment”
“89% of staff said they
have been able to find the
workplace of their choice
since working on A2”

14. Flexibility and utilisation
 Higher utilisation
 Variety of settings to suit activities
 Move from territorial, hierarchical
culture

15. Achieving Higher Utilisation
• The pilot has enabled a 15% increase in workspace utilisation
• Empty spaces have decreased by almost a quarter (24%)
• The levels of ‘temporarily unoccupied’ desks has also increased by 9%
indicating increased internal mobility as people use the variety of spaces
available to them
Open plan desksNow:Before: Open plan desks and offices
Change
13% empty
31% temporarily unoccupied
48% individual work
8% collaboration
37% empty
22% temporarily unoccupied
33% individual work
8% collaboration
Observation study – utilisation of desks

16. Collaboration, creativity
& innovation
 Increase ad-hoc interaction and
knowledge sharing within teams
 Break down silos and increase
knowledge sharing across teams
 Support individual work and
collaboration
 Increase presence of brand values
 Support recruitment and retention

17. • Every item in the survey relating to collaboration and creativity has improved
since the move
• The pilot performs better with regard to supporting effective team working,
knowledge sharing and ad-hoc meetings
• Furthermore the pilot provides a significantly more stimulating and creative
environment for occupants
Supporting collaboration and creativity
5= Very
important/highly
performing
1= Not at all
important/poorly
performing
“Sitting and working
alongside Property members
that I previously did not
come into contact with very
often has enhanced my
working relationships and
aids productivity and
delivery of service…”
Average importance (post)
Average performance (pre)
Average performance (post)

18. Sustainability & Cost
Effectiveness
 Ensure IT is aligned with flexible
working
 Change habits in order to make
change sustainable
 Helps deliver a 15-18% reduction in
our (CRE) carbon foot print

19. Change habits to ensure change is sustainable
“there’s greater collaboration
within the team through
people moving around the
floor plate”
“It has forced a more
focussed approach to
filing and shared
document management”
“Clear desk policy – it’s a
nice tidy place to work and
I have identified more
efficient ways of working
that are proving effective”
• Comments in the survey suggest that new habits are forming which
support lasting change
• Particularly evident is the shift to clear desk policy and paper / filing
management

20. Pre-move
Post-move
dated
interior
No sense of
company’s
mission or identity
dark,
uninspired
Large, undifferentiated
space, with no identity
Smaller differentiated
work zones
Spaces that support
collaborative goals
Strong sense of National
Grid brand and identity
Increase presence of brand values & support
recruitment and retention

21. Next steps
 New UK standard for National Grid
 Nearly halved the space allocation per person –
benchmark performance
 Enabling estate consolidation
 Increasing collaboration and engagement
 Recruitment
 Productivity
 ~£8 – 10m per annum savings
 Further opportunities being developed across the estate