Part 3: Workplace Design

Government office accommodation workspaces need to easily adapt to changes brought about by new technology, cultural shifts, and organisational churn.

Whole-of-government office space strategies are developed to minimise Government’s office space footprint and vacancy, and provide office space that supports collaboration, flexibility, skill development, and service delivery.

Best practice design inspires enhanced service delivery to South Australians and workspaces that perform effectively for all agencies and their staff. This includes being flexible enough to manage the health of staff and visitors to government offices.

The contemporary workplace prioritises increased choice in settings to connect, focus, meet, and collaborate. Different workplaces will make this transition at different speeds and so workplaces need to both support existing practices and be adaptable to these future opportunities. Government office space is moving towards a definition of space and fit out design based on users’ work practices, while remaining within area and cost benchmarks.

The following six principles can be used to support government agencies to achieve a successful and adaptable design:

To deliver upon the objectives set out within PC018 regarding value for money across whole of government, the work environment should comprise the following elements:

• Open plan workstations for all staff
• Lockers to support flexible workstation usage (that is, limited ownership)
• Introduction of adequate shared support spaces to facilitate and encourage a connected and effective workplace
• e.g., quiet rooms, focus rooms
• Meeting room and kitchen / breakout facilities accessible to all divisions within the ‘secure zone’ on each level
• Open collaborative areas, layoff space and small decentralised informal / collaborative areas
• No compactus storage, local storage only

Workplace density benchmarks

The office accommodation workplace density benchmark target for agencies is a maximum of 12m² per workpoint. Open plan floors with low form workstations are the standard to be observed for all government fit outs. Offices are discouraged for all but Chief Executives. (Offices for Deputy Chief Executives can only be approved by exception by the relevant Chief Executive and reported to GOAC.

Utilisation

Future ways of working and space utilisation strategies incorporating work from home, desk sharing, technology and collaboration spaces mean a change from calculating against numbers of staff or FTE and analysing workpoints required.

Staff number x 80% = Workpoint number required

To allow for lower occupancy demand for workpoints where flexible working practices are being used, a space utilisation ratio of 80% is recommended as a guide. This is to provide a greater efficiency return to government where staff are accessing more flexible work practices such as working from home, part-time hours and staff working off site and on leave. Having additional support and collaboration spaces allows set down options between meetings for example.

Workstations

Workpoints should be open plan and standardised linear workstation arrangements.

Workstation systems should consist of separable components that can be reconfigured and reused without requiring multiple trades to disconnect and reconnect services.

Soft wired workstations made up of separate free-standing components are highly preferable to integrated, panel-based systems furniture that involves significant disruption whenever workstations need to be rearranged.

Workstation sizes ranging between 1800mm and 2100mm long will be sufficient for most office based activities and respond to infection control strategies. Workstation screens between desks should be limited to a maximum height of 1200mm to maintain visual privacy when seated, but not impede the flow of light or vision when standing.

To allow for flexible sharing of workpoints, consideration should be given to staff lockers in lieu of pedestals at workstations. These should be allowed for all staff. Growth should be considered.

Meeting, focus and collaboration spaces

Methods of working, collaborating, and meeting are ever-changing. Spaces are required to be flexible and adaptable to work with workstyles into the future. Areas for shared support spaces should be verified as part of the detailed design process. A largely generic layout is encouraged. Technology use should be supported in these spaces.

Strategies to maximise meeting space utilisation should be considered. Large conference and training rooms should be multi-purpose and able to be subdivided into smaller spaces for alternative uses.

Sharing within agencies and among agencies is encouraged and should only be provided within an office tenancy if used frequently enough to offer better value than hiring external facilities when needed.

These areas are to be included in calculating overall workplace density and incorporated within the benchmark density targets. Training rooms must be justified and must be consistent with the intent of these guidelines.

Meeting, focus and collaboration spaces include:

Refer also Agency Request for Office Accommodation Form (XLSX, 47 KB).

AV/ICT

Flexible and wireless ways of working across the tenancy should be available across all spaces, breakout, focus spaces, collaborative areas and including within meeting rooms (where possible).

Collaborative spaces and Meeting Rooms are to be provisioned with consistent AV/ICT equipment to support video conferencing and online meetings.

Seamless interface with AV/ICT equipment to reduce our reliance on paper should be included.

Breakout spaces and open collaboration

Good facilities promote a team approach. Teams can interact in centralised open or enclosed areas. Glazed enclosures enable teams to remain part of the work environment, while providing acoustic isolation.

Successful organisations recognise the importance of staff interaction in achieving organisational goals. Great ideas are often shared in passing. The office must be an enjoyable space for all users which encourages social interaction and a sense of community.

Work cafes and lounge areas can provide alternative less formal meeting areas.

Office support spaces

Other areas that support operational requirements can often have multipurpose amenity. Where areas are highly specialised, opportunities to share with other agencies are encouraged to reduce duplication and waste. Personal storage should not be held at the desk but utilise personal storage lockers to allow for greater workpoint utilisation and thereby reduce the amount of space required.

Utility, filing and mail processing areas. Consider minimising these areas and/or designing them to be readily converted to other uses in the future.

Storage. Off-site storage is encouraged in accordance with record keeping and disposal policies. Storage is classified into active, intermediate and archival types:

• Active storage needs to be accessed frequently and so located near the user.
• Intermediate storage is accessed frequently so can be in a central location.
• Archival storage is needed infrequently and can be located elsewhere.

Consideration to future digitisation strategies should be made, and storage spaces able to be repurposed in the future.

Visual and acoustic privacy

Visual privacy (Lines of sight) can be managed through layout design and visual barriers can be incorporated as partitions, screens, furniture elements and landscaping. The choice of material for visual barriers also affects acoustic privacy.

Acoustic privacy is increased by managing ambient sound levels, speech intelligibility and sound paths. Acoustic performance of both open and enclosed spaces is a critical factor in achieving an effective and conducive work environment for staff.

Typical Dw ratings are noted below, but special use spaces may require higher values, for example, customer interview rooms, video conferencing facilities, training facilities etc. These should be reviewed during the design process.

Enclosed offices

Enclosed offices are not supported in office fit outs other than for Chief Executives (if required). If an individual office is assessed as necessary to be provided, after all open plan configurations and arrangements have been considered first, Chief Executives are responsible and accountable for justifying this to GOAC.

Visitor management, security and access control

A visitor management process is required to provide access safely, securely and seamlessly to accommodation for staff, invited guests and external visitors. Fit out deign shall ensure that visitors and public are unable to access the secure office areas to ensure staff safety and that public meeting spaces are designed for the uses and types of visitors anticipated by the agency.

The Police Services Security Branch (PSSB) should be engaged to assist with a Security Risk Assessment and assess the level of security factored into tenancy design.

Special agency spaces

Registries and customer service areas should be designed to incorporate and/or adapt to new technology and new ways of delivering services.

Reception, waiting and display areas. If required, these areas should be compact, functional and shared between Agencies whenever possible.

Wellness rooms. This space should be considered as a multi-function space where the following activities can be supported: nursing mothers, prayer, retreat/yoga/ massage etc, parent/child requirements.

Flexible privacy and acoustic requirements should be considered in the design, and where possible, the following furniture and equipment provided:

• sink, chilled / boiling and filtered water, could include hot and cold water
• microwave bar fridge
• bench space & storage
• handwashing facilities to be considered where applicable
• nappy change recliner chair feeding chair
• accessories eg. sharps containers.

Other types of special-agency areas refers to spaces required for non-administrative functions such as interview, clinical, counselling, meeting, media rooms, parole and rehabilitation functions and special equipment rooms.