Agile Working and the

Digital Workspace
Agile Working and the
Digital Workspace
Best Practices for Designing and
Implementing Productivity

John Eary
Agile Working and the Digital Workspace: Best Practices for Designing and
Implementing Productivity

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To my wife, Janice
 Abstract
Organizations are increasingly adopting new ways of working to take
advantage of new digital technologies to enhance the services they can
offer and become more productive. The aim of this book is to provide
guidance on how agile working and a digital workspace can be success-
fully implemented in organizations that are looking to increase their
­productivity.
This book defines and explains the different terms that are used to
describe new ways of working and identifies the benefits and limitations
of different approaches. It draws on the author’s extensive experience in
assisting a wide range of organizations to adopt new ways of working and
reflects established best practice.
You will learn about the key components of successful agile working
and how a holistic approach is needed for the successful implementation
of agile working. It will provide advice on the introduction of new ways
of working, including preparing a robust business case, setting up an agile
working program, and providing a road map. The contributions of the
Internet of Things and artificial intelligence to the digital workspace and
agile working are assessed.
HR, IT, property and facilities management professionals and line
managers will gain an understanding of the concepts of new ways of
working. They will find practical guidance in introducing agile working
into their organizations and how the new initiative can be sustained.
Masters and undergraduate students in the above disciplines will gain
a good grounding in the subject and they will have access to practical
guidance for projects they undertake as part of their course.

Keywords
agile working, BYOD, collaborative working, digital workplace, dynamic
working, flexible working, homeworking, hotdesking, mobile working,
remote working, smart working, work–life balance, work–life integration
 Contents
Foreword�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������xi
Acknowledgments���������������������������������������������������������������������������������xiii
Introduction����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� xv

Part I What Is Agile Working?����������������������������������������������� 1

Chapter 1 Defining Concepts of New Ways of Working�������������������3
Part II The Components of Agile Working���������������������������� 19
Chapter 2 Work Practices����������������������������������������������������������������21
Chapter 3 Technologies that Support the Digital Workspace�����������25
Chapter 4 Agile Working and the Modern Workplace���������������������47
Chapter 5 Agile Working and Culture Change��������������������������������55
Part III Embarking on the Agile Working Journey����������������� 71
Chapter 6 Assessing Agile Working Readiness���������������������������������73
Chapter 7 Making the Business Case for Agile Working������������������81
Chapter 8 Developing an Agile Working Strategy����������������������������99
Chapter 9 Setting up an Agile Working Program���������������������������109
Chapter 10 Implementing Agile Working���������������������������������������123
Part IV Sustaining and Progressing Agile Working��������������� 139
Chapter 11 Managing Agile Workers�����������������������������������������������141
Chapter 12 Continuing the Agile Working Journey������������������������153

Appendix A: Glossary��������������������������������������������������������������������������161
About the Author��������������������������������������������������������������������������������167
Index�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������169
 Foreword
The early decades of the 21st century have seen significant movement in
business and social trends. On the back of new digital technology waves
of opportunity have been sweeping into all sectors enabling the demoli-
tion of barriers to new ways of working. This is the age of Agile.
Agile working is increasingly viewed as a critical commercial success
factor in today’s digital economy. However, as Digital McKinsey reports
this is not just about technology, “successful agile transformations address
every aspect of the organization.”
For many this means the development of new and unfamiliar oper-
ating models requiring new supporting infrastructure, skills, and settings
but more importantly changes in mind-set, behaviors, and culture both
within the organization and its supporting supply chain.
I have collaborated and worked with John over the last decade
researching and engineering agility into a wide range of organizations.
While John is a true professional, a technology project and program
­manager by trade, he is also an accomplished “agilista,” passionate about
the quest to help and support organizations on their holistic agile work-
ing change journey and successful in creating their individual agile DNA.
In the following pages John draws on this passion and the practical
experience gained in “agilizing organizations” over the past two decades
and his knowledge of digital working to share his insights into the
­successful adoption of agile working.
Paul Allsopp,
Managing Director,
The Agile Organisation
 Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Paul Allsopp for sharing his knowledge, guidance,
and encouragement, Gavin Stretch for the design of the images in this
book, James Eary for drawing the homeworking cartoons, Christina Jeffs
and Leigh Fyffe for sharing their experiences, and Janice Eary for proof-
reading and her continuous support.
 Introduction
There has been a fundamental shift in the way people work in the 21st
century. The rapid development of technology such as smartphones
and other mobile devices and ubiquitous connectivity mean that it is
no longer necessary to be in an office to work. Already more than half
(55 ­percent)1 of employees work “flexibly,” either on the go, at client sites,
or from home. And 36 percent of employees spend at least a day a week
away from the office.2
Offices themselves have changed to better support the various
­activities that people undertake in the world of work. Up to five work-
force generations are at work with different expectations and experience
of technology.
Management of the new workforce is challenging when employees
are working remotely and often outside what are standard office hours.
Today’s agile workers expect more autonomy in how they choose to
work and also that their well-being is considered seriously. Agile work-
ing embraces these changes. When implemented correctly it can provide
increases in productivity and service provision together with significant
bottom-line savings to the organization. For employees agile working
offers positive improvements in the quality of their life by taking more
control of their work activities. Agile working should not be restricted to
management and professional staff but should offer opportunities to the
whole workforce.
The digital workspace provides the technology to support agile work-
ers. The use of communication and collaborative tools can enhance
an employee’s productivity. They can now have access to voice, video,
­messaging, and conferencing platforms from anywhere, on a range of
devices. While many organizations have adopted a digital by default

1
  Research conducted by Davies Hickman, 2016. “The Digital Dislocation at
Work.” BT/Cisco.
2
  Vodafone proprietary research.
xvi Introduction

approach for their customers, they now recognize the advantages of a

more digital experience for their employees.
Organizations are increasingly adopting new ways of working to take
advantage of new digital technologies to enhance the services they can
offer and become cost-effective. While more challenging in some sectors
than others, when implemented correctly agile working and the digital
workspace provide a positive employee experience, and can boost align-
ment, engagement, and retention.
This book aims to provide guidance on how agile working and other
new ways of working can be applied effectively in organizations in the
private, public, and not-for-profit sectors.
As a management consultant, I have assisted over 30 organizations in
the adoption of new ways of working including major assignments in the
private, public, and not-for-profit sectors. I write a regular blog on agile
working, and I have contributed to seminars and webinars on the subject.
I regard myself as an agile worker, and I actively practice work–life inte-
gration. Agile working has many aspects, and I have found that success is
achieved by adopting a strategic, holistic approach, which I have sought
to describe in this book, together with some practical insights.
Part I of this book defines the concepts underpinning agile working
and distinguishes between the many different terms that have evolved
enabled by developments in technology. These terms, and their features,
are categorized using a ways of working progression model. The concept
of the digital workspace is introduced.
Part II describes the components of agile working and how work
practices can be impacted by digital approaches and introduces the con-
cept of workstyles. The role of digital workspace and other technology
components, such as collaboration tools, are discussed together with
the importance of infrastructure and security. The modern workplace is
described and also how it can support different types of work activities
and the well-being of employees. The concept of coworking is introduced.
­Culture change is a critical component of the successful adoption of agile
working. Ways of overcoming resistance to new ways of working and
working digitally are proposed, and the concepts of work–life integration
and workwrapping are introduced.
 Introduction xvii

Part III describes how an organization’s readiness for agile working can
be assessed. The business benefits and costs that should be considered in a
business case are identified, and workstyle analysis and options appraisal
are explained. The formulation of an agile working strategy using a holis-
tic approach is set out, and a road map is proposed. The governance and
planning of an agile working program are described together with a list of
pitfalls to avoid. The contributions of HR, IT, and facilities management
to prepare and support the implementation of agile working within an
organization are described.
In Part IV the critical skills required to manage agile workers are
listed and the research findings on the management of agile workers
with d ­ ifferent personality types are reported. Looking to the future, the
impact of artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and smart build-
ings are assessed.
 Part I

What Is Agile Working?

While interviewing employees of large public- and private-sector organi-
zations for a major survey on agile working, it became clear to me that
many employees didn’t really “get” what agile working was about. With an
increasing number of organizations introducing agile working initiatives
surely they will stand a higher chance of success if their employees have
grasped the concept of agile working. My interviews provided evidence
that most employees are familiar with flexible working, hardly surprising,
as this term has been around the beginning of this century. However
agile working was coined around 2008 and has not yet permeated nearly
as far. Confusingly, sometimes agile working is used as a synonym for
flexible working.
Furniture providers, workplace designers, and architects often describe
a digital workplace as an extension of the physical workplace. But they
have a vested interest as providers of furniture and physical facilities in
talking about a place of work.
The new generations of workers are unlikely to accept the idea of
working in confined physical spaces, however attractively furnished.
Digital workspaces should support agile working to serve the needs of all
employees including those who do not have ready access to desks. As Paul
Allsopp, of the Agile Organisation, says “these days it’s all about screens,
not desks.” Not every employee has a desk but most have access to a screen
on at least one device. Digital workspace rather than digital workplace is
a more appropriate description of where work activities are conducted,
if currently a less common term and is used in the title of this book
although the digital workplace is used in citations and other references.
With agile working there should be fewer constraints on where and
when people can work with accommodation built around job tasks and
technology allocated according to their job role. While more challenging
in some sectors than others, when implemented correctly agile working
2 Agile Working and the Digital Workspace

and the digital workspace provide a positive employee experience, and

can boost alignment, engagement, and retention.
 CHAPTER 1

Defining Concepts of New

Ways of Working
Defining Agile Working and How It Is Different from
Flexible Working
Flexible working is used as a general term to describe working at times
and places away from the traditional full-time nine-to-five office-based
employment. Flexible working has two dimensions of flexibility:

Time, that is, when employees choose to work. There are many exam-
ples of this dimension: employees can work at different times of
the day (e.g., flexitime), different days of the week, (as part-time or
compressed hours, job share), or specific weeks of the year (term-
time working, annualized hours, etc.).
Location, that is, where employees choose to work. Again there
are many examples of this dimension: in addition to the office,
employees can choose to work at, or from, home, at work hubs, at
cafes, while traveling.

As shown in Figure 1.1 agile working introduces a third ­dimension

of flexibility, autonomy, that is, how people choose to work. In an
­organization adopting agile working employees are empowered to decide
how they work to meet the goals set for them to the standards required.
There may be some limitations on agile workers such as operating within
the limits of their authority or competence and observing legal and
­regulatory requirements but they are not overly dependent on formal
­processes and procedures. So by this definition, a way of working that
uses the same processes and practices outside of normal working hours
and/or at different locations is not agile working as it lacks this third
dimension called autonomy.
4 Agile Working and the Digital Workspace

Autonomy
Time

Location

Figure 1.1  The dimensions of agile working

Some job roles will more readily accommodate this freedom, for
example, sales roles traditionally have a significant degree of autonomy
as they are set targets and are typically lightly supervised. Operational
roles can be more challenging as they are often prescribed by detailed
processes, and it is not impossible to introduce agile working into
­operational roles.

Further Differences Between Agile Working and Flexible Working

Flexible working is generally regarded as primarily a benefit to employees.

However, when implemented well agile working should provide ­benefits
for both employers and employees. This advantage is another way of
­distinguishing agile working from flexible working.

The goals of organizations in adopting agile working are to create a more

responsive, efficient, and effective organization, which improves business
performance and increases customer satisfaction.
 Defining Concepts of New Ways of Working 5

The goals of organizations in adopting agile working are to create a

more responsive, efficient, and effective organization, which improves
business performance and increases customer satisfaction. By empower-
ing their employees to work how, where, and when they choose there
is ­evidence that they increase their productivity and provide s­ervice
improvements by working in a way that suits them best. There is the very
real prospect of a win-win situation. Organizations become more respon-
sive and effective and their employees gain more control over the way
they work.
Another critical difference between agile working and other forms of
flexible working is commitment. While flexible working can be readily
implemented with today’s technology, agile working requires far more
commitment from management and employees. However, the potential
gains are much greater. Many flexible working initiatives have been quite
small-scale with one-off savings but agile working promises transforma-
tional benefits of service improvements as well as continuing cost savings.
The Agile Organisation defines agile working as

bringing people, processes, connectivity and technology, time

and place together to find the most appropriate and effective way
of working to carry out a particular task. It is working within
the guidelines (of the task) but without boundaries (of how you
achieve it).1

How Agile Working and Agile Software Development

Are Linked to Agile Organizations?
This book is about a way of working, called agile working, but agile has
become an overused word. Agile can also refer to a form of software devel-
opment and even more confusingly “Agile Working” is also being used
in the context of software development. The UK Civil Service deliber-
ately uses the term “Smart Working” to differentiate it from agile software
development. Agile is also used as a label to describe an organization as a
whole. So how do these terms link together?

 http://agile.org.uk/what-is-agile-working/
1
6 Agile Working and the Digital Workspace

The adoption of new ways of working has given us a lexicon of terms:

homeworking, mobile working, remote working, smart working, agile
working, and the latest term is the digital workplace. For a definition of
these terms see Appendix A: Glossary. These terms have emerged in a jour-
ney as organizations have adopted new workstyles. Each new approach
has promised new benefits but often the reality of their implementation
has not always provided the hoped-for gains.
There remains much confusion in the terms associated with new ways
of working. It is the concepts, benefits, and requirements that these new
ways of working have introduced that are important and not the labels
that are often carelessly applied.

Agile Software Development

Agile software development is an umbrella term for a set of ­methods

and practices based on the values and principles expressed in the
Agile Manifesto.2
The values are:

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan

Solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organiz-

ing, cross-functional teams utilizing the appropriate practices for their
context.3
Some of the 12 principles have a more generic application beyond
software development:

2
 Beck, K., J. Grenning, R.C. Martin, M. Beedle, J. Highsmith, S. M ­ ellor,
A. van Bennekum, A. Hunt, K. Schwaber, A. Cockburn, R. Jeffries, J. S­ utherland,
W.  Cunningham, J. Kern, D. Thomas, M. Fowler, and B. Marick. 2001.
­“Manifesto for Agile Software Development.” http://agilemanifesto.org
3
 http://agile.org.uk/what-is-agile-working/
 Defining Concepts of New Ways of Working 7

• No.1 Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through

the early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
• No.2 Welcome changing requirements, even late in devel-
opment. Agile processes harness change for the customer’s
competitive advantage.
• No 5 Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them
the environment and support they need, and trust them to get
the job done.
• No.10 Simplicity—the art of maximizing the amount of work
not done—is essential.
• No. 12 At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to
become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior
accordingly.

Principles 5 and 10, in particular, resonate with the principles of agile

working.
Agile project management is a methodology that has evolved from the
agile software development approach and uses short development cycles
called “sprints” to focus on continuous improvement in the development
of a product or service. This approach also has more generic applications
with benefits such as the more rapid deployment of solutions.

Agile Organizations

Agile is a word that has no negative associations. All organizations would

like to describe themselves as agile, and no organization would want to be
labeled as not being agile. But what are agile organizations?
Your Dictionary4 defines agility as “the ability to move nimbly with
speed and ease.” This is a definition of physical agility that could also be
applied to an organization that adopts agile working, while a definition of
mental agility as “flexibility of mind, a tendency to anticipate or adapt to
uncertain or changing situations,” could be applied to employees of agile
organizations.

 http://yourdictionary.com/agility
4
8 Agile Working and the Digital Workspace

In his paper5 for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors Paul

Winter defines organizational agility as “the ability to change routines
without resistance.”
Goranson defined the agility of a virtual enterprise as “unplanned
and unscheduled adaption to unforeseen and unexpected external
circumstances.”6
The Agile Business Consortium (formerly DSDM), with its roots in
agile software development, is now focusing on business agility, which
it defines as “the ability of an organization that that embraces the agile
philosophy and values to:

• adapt quickly to market changes—internally and externally;

• respond rapidly and flexibly to customer demands;
• adapt and lead change in a productive and cost-effective way
without compromising quality;
• continuously be at a competitive advantage.”

However agile working would also claim a number of these values,

for example, agile working has been defined by the Agile Organisation as
“the means of empowering and supporting people to work where, when
and how they choose, to maximize their productivity and deliver best
value to their organization.”7 So it can be argued that both agile software
development and agile working make contributions to organizations that
claim to be agile.
In practice, agile organizations are free of rigid structures and sluggish
decision making and are consequently leaner, more responsive, and often
able to do more with less. Specifically, agile organizations claim to be:

• More creative
• More adaptive
• More responsive

5
  Paul, W. 2009. “Agile Working.” Property in the Economy. RICS.
6
  Goranson, H.T. 1999. The Agile Virtual Enterprise. Westport: Quorum Books
7
 http://agile.org.uk/what-is-agile-working/
 Defining Concepts of New Ways of Working 9

• More innovative
• More efficient
• More effective
• Less risk-averse
• Producing better outcomes

Defining Productivity
Agile working provides opportunities to enhance employee performance
and their productivity. Defining productivity is a challenge in many
industry sectors. The traditional measure of productivity as the output of
an employee in a specific period of time is not relevant to many job roles
in today’s knowledge economy. However, there are a number of compo-
nents of productivity as defined in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1  Definitions of performance measures

Efficiency Doing more work in the same, or less, time
Effectiveness Doing a better job or providing a better service
Timeliness Meeting deadlines or delivering service at the right time
Responsiveness Willingness to adapt to a changed requirement
Responsibility Willingness to take ownership
Flexibility Willingness to handle peak workload

The quality of work, teamworking, motivation, loyalty to an employer,

and job satisfaction can also be used as indirect measures of performance
that can affect productivity.
In research8 conducted for Employers Network for Equality & Inclu-
sion (enei), factors rated as “very important” for achieving good perfor-
mance by at least three quarters of agile workers across all personality
types were communications, laptops, good remote access to systems and
files, fast reliable networks, and calendar/diary management as shown
in Figure 1.2.

8
  Eary, J. 2015. “Research Report on Agile Working, Personality & Performance.”
JEC Professional Services/Employers Network for Equality and Inclusion.
10 Agile Working and the Digital Workspace

Percentage
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Communications 89%
Teleconferencing 51%
Smartphone 61%
Laptop 90%
Good remote access to files 89%
Good remote systems 98%
Fast reliable networking 98%
Interaction with manager 44%
Interaction with colleagues 63%
Calendar/diary management 75%
Good workplace facilities 36%
Opportunities to be creative 51%

Figure 1.2  Factors rated as “very important” for achieving good

performance

The Ways of Working Progression Model

The ways of working progression model seeks to provide a way of assess-
ing how organizations are progressing in the adoption of new ways of
working.
The key factors are increasing choices in when, where, and how people
can work. Technology has been a critical enabler for the adoption of new
ways of working.
Changes in management styles and policies are required to support
these new ways of working. The model shown in Figure 1.3 summarizes
the development with an indication of when the ways of working were first
introduced. The stages in the model also reflect a different chronology in
the development of technologies that have enabled new ways of working.

Stage 0: Traditional Office Working

The office has been the traditional working environment that predates the
20th century with the fixed location and time periods (as Dolly Parton
sings “folks on the job from 9 to 5”) for these work activities. The tra-
ditional office model offers certainty for both employers and employees.
 Defining Concepts of New Ways of Working 11

Agility
1800s 1980 2000 2005 2008 2015

Traditional Activity-based Flexible Mobile Agile Digital

Office Working Working Working Working Workspace
Rigid processes Differentiation Time discretion Scheduled Staff Autonomy Virtual
of activities activities collaboration
Assigned work Some home Coworking
location Worksettings working Third-party Any location
premises
Management by Management by Management by Delegated
walking about exception exception Management by management Self-managing
results teams
LAN Data projectors Domestic Wi-Fi
broadband 3G Cellular Cloud
networks

Technological Development

Figure 1.3  The ways of working progression model © John Eary 2017

In the 1960s partitions were removed to create open plan offices but work
patterns remained mostly the same.
Technologies needed for the traditional office-based working are not
too demanding. Typically each office worker is assigned a designated desk
on which a personal computer is permanently placed connected to a local
area networked to other PCs providing local access to line-of-­business
applications. Security is relatively straightforward as most data and
­systems are contained within the perimeter of the building.
Managers who like to manage by walking about can feel they are in
control as their employees are under their watchful eye. Significantly the
emphasis is on time spent in the office (working or not) while the quan-
tity and quality of outputs are typically not formally measured.
Meetings can be held at short notice as employees are already on site.
However to accommodate impromptu meetings, a significant part of the
office accommodation needs to be dedicated to meeting rooms even if
their utilization is low.
There is little incentive for process improvement as many costs are
fixed. Where there is change, new processes are likely to be tightly pre-
scribed with little scope for employee’s discretion in decision making. The
traditional office workstyle suits employees who find routine comforting
and enjoy the daily contact and support of their colleagues.
12 Agile Working and the Digital Workspace

So there’s a lot to like about traditional office-based working and

this workstyle is still very prevalent. However, it comes at a price, in
accommodation costs for the employer and commuting costs for the
employee.
The first variation from the traditional office model occurred in 1971
with the invention of flex(i)time. This introduced the concept of “core
time” around which employees could choose when they started work, and
when they would finish, to fulfill their contracted hours. Some schemes
also enable employees to accumulate credits for extra time worked and
take these as an additional holiday. There is little change in workstyle
apart from managers having to accept that not all employees will be pres-
ent in the office throughout the normal working day. As work activities
only take place in the office, there is no need to change technology or
processes. The primary requirements of this workstyle are the need for a
flexitime policy so management and employees are aware of the rules of
the scheme and a mechanism for recording time worked, which may be a
software application or a more informal signing-in system.

Stage 1: Activity-Based Working

Activity-based working has been with us since the 1980s although a num-
ber of organizations are still discovering it. It is a philosophy that aims to
make work more effective and efficient, but also more enjoyable for both
the organization and the employee.
The concept of activity-based working recognizes that employees need
different types of work settings to accommodate the various activities
they undertake in the course of a day. Rather than forcing individuals to
undertake all their work at one work setting, such as a fixed desk, activi-
ty-based working provides a variety of workspaces to enable employees to
conduct a range of distinct tasks in a more productive and enjoyable way.
Quiet areas for reflective activities such as report writing, and stimulating
places that inspire and support creative activities.
Activity-based working provides a variety of predetermined ­activity
areas, or workspaces, to enable employees to choose the most ­suitable
location to undertake a range of distinct tasks e.g. focused work,
­
impromptu and informal meetings, or more formal meetings.
 Defining Concepts of New Ways of Working 13

Office-based activity-based working makes few technological demands

other than a projector or smart board to enable a participant to show a
presentation or electronic document to colleagues on a screen.
Operational processes will be mostly unchanged. Management by
exception may be chosen as a management style as employees are not
always visible to their manager.

Stage 2: Flexible Working

The first change in work location for office-based employees was allowing
employees to work at home. In the UK in 2003, the Government intro-
duced legislation that gave parents the right to request a flexible working
arrangement from their employer and this right has been extended to all
employees in 2014. When granted, flexible working allows employees to
choose variations in when they work, for example, changes to their work-
ing day, or changes in their working week including part-time working,
compressed hours (i.e., working the same hours in fewer days), and so on.
Working at home, also called telecommuting, for part of their con-
tracted working hours, as opposed to full-time home-based working, has
been a commonly requested flexible working arrangement. However, as
well as these formal requests for flexible working there are often more
informal arrangements between managers and employees who may
bypass the HR department. There are also “Day Extenders”—managers
and employees who do a “full day’s work” in the office but also work
at home in the evenings and/or weekends, for example, to catch up on
e-mails or finish off a report.
In the UK the number of employees who say they usually work from
home has increased by a fifth (19 percent) over the past decade accord-
ing to an analysis published by the Trades Union Congress (TUC). The
most prominent growth in regular homeworking has been among women
employees, at 35 percent.9 According to Global Workplace Analytics, in
the United States regular work-at-home, among the non-self-employed
population, has grown by 115 percent since 2005 and more than three

9
 https://tuc.org.uk/workplace-issues/home-working-fifth-over-last-decade-tuc-
analysis-reveals
14 Agile Working and the Digital Workspace

million full-time employees in the United States now work from home,
up to 25 percent of the global workforce telecommutes regularly.
While partial homeworking is usually an adjunct to the traditional
office routine with little perturbation to processes, homeworking has
additional technology requirements. Early connections over ISDN
(Integrated Services Digital Network) were often painfully slow but the
increasing speed of domestic broadband has put homeworkers at a much
less of a disadvantage than their office-based colleagues. And Wi-Fi has
enabled devices to be used in different rooms provided health and safety
considerations are met. At a minimum, all employees working at home
will require an external e-mail access. Many homeworkers will need
equipment to access office systems. This equipment could be a corpo-
rately owned laptop or the employee’s personal PC with “thin client” soft-
ware installed on it using the employee’s broadband service.
Managers need to adapt their style to accommodate homeworking.
They should ensure that homeworking employees are not excluded, for
example, by arranging meetings at times when homeworking employ-
ees can visit the office. As with activity-based working, management by
exception is often practiced.

Stage 3: Mobile Working

Many employees, such as inspectors, service engineers, and sales employ-

ees, need to work “in the field,” that is, making regular visits to sites away
from the office.
The introduction of fast mobile data networks, 3G cellular networks
from around 2005, followed by 4G networks, has been vital to the devel-
opment of technology-enabled mobile working, as has been the prolif-
eration of mobile devices—laptops, tablets and smartphones, and the
upcoming wearable devices. These devices are used for e-mail and mes-
saging and access to line-of-business applications, for applications that are
feasible for mobile working.
Mobile technology allows mobile workers to keep in touch with man-
agement, colleagues, and clients. It also provides an opportunity to reduce
travel time and costs through enabling mobile workers to access the infor-
mation while they are “on the job” so they can go straight to their first
 Defining Concepts of New Ways of Working 15

appointment from home rather than diverting to the office. Similarly,

technology can enable mobile workers to file reports remotely without
returning to the office, saving further travel time and enabling greater
efficiencies. These savings in time can increase productivity through addi-
tional visits and/or reduced travel as well contributing to the organiza-
tion’s green agenda where overall travel is reduced.
A management by results style is common, with targets such as the
number of completed visits per day. However, the autonomy of mobile
workers is often limited as many of these activities are scheduled for them.
Mobile workers may enjoy some discretion in the decisions they make in
the field.

Stage 4: Agile Working

Agile working (smart working) differs from flexible working in that it is

transformational, that is, based on fundamental changes in working prac-
tices, rather than incremental improvements. With agile working, perfor-
mance is explicitly based on objective measures of output, and managers
need to allow flexibility in how these outputs are achieved. Similarly, agile
workers can choose when, and where, they carry out their work activities
provided they fulfill business needs.
In flexible working (Stage 2 of the model) organizations react to
employees’ requests for homeworking. Agile working assumes that a pro-
portion of the work activities will routinely be carried out away from the
office. Once an organization is convinced it can continue to provide its
services at appropriate and acceptable levels when employees are work-
ing away from the office, and it will encourage employees to frequently
work at locations away from an office base, including coworking prem-
ises and home, where that is appropriate, for part of the working week.
When employees are working in the office, they are likely to be required
to work at shared desks, often called “hot desks.” Hotdesking breaks the
link between individual employees and designated desks and therefore
increases the flexibility of accommodation. Given that fewer employees
are working in the office, fewer desks and other physical facilities are
needed so there is a consequential reduction in office space required. This
reduced requirement can be realized as a cash benefit from the sale, or
16 Agile Working and the Digital Workspace

rental, of surplus accommodation. This benefit is often the key driver for
many agile working initiatives.
The other benefit promised by agile working is summed up by the
slogan, “work smarter not harder.” To realize this benefit, existing proce-
dures need to be challenged to identify opportunities for business process
improvement. To achieve the benefits of true agile working, managers will
need to engender a significant change of culture delegating some deci-
sions and ensuring that employees can work in a more autonomous way.
A light touch management style is required, based on results measured on
agreed targets. Agile workers need to be empowered to make their own
decisions within their competence and to react quickly and appropriately
regardless of where they are situated. Agile working cannot be dictated by
policy, but with education and involvement a voluntary commitment to
agile working can be elicited from employees.
Connectivity is a critical technological requirement of agile working.
A wireless network will free agile workers from fixed locations within their
office base and enable them to work at third-party premises. There will be
increased security vulnerabilities, including eavesdropping, that will need
to be addressed.

Stage 5: Digital Workspace/Workplace

The concept of the “Digital Workplace” is still emerging, and it is likely

to continue to do so for some time. So what exactly is the digital work-
place? At its least ambitious definition it is a synonym for a portal or
an intranet. However Mathew W Cain of Gartner10 describes it as “an
on-going, deliberate approach to delivering a more consumer-like com-
puting environment that is better able to facilitate innovative and flexible
working practices.” This definition legitimizes the digital workplace as
an enabler of a new way of working. Put simply, it is a unified work-
place where technology-based solutions and tools allow employees to be
­productive, creative, and engaged at any time, in any place.

10
 http://thecommunicationsstrategist.com/2015/05/31/digital-communica-
tions-highlights-may-2015/
 Defining Concepts of New Ways of Working 17

Using the preferred term “Digital Workspace” rather than “Digital

Workplace,” as explained in the introduction, then an effective digital
workspace will have a symbiotic effect of providing an enjoyable place for
employees to work while facilitating productivity gains for organizations
that employ them. Digital workplaces provide employees with the free-
dom and flexibility to do their jobs in the best way available, wherever
they are working. Furthermore as David Dunbar11 states, “It should be
a pleasant place to work, allowing people to perform at their best while
maintaining the work-life balance. The Digital Workplace, like a good
physical one, should be somewhere that you want to work.”
Technology has evolved to support an increasingly connected digital
world exploiting newly available technologies such as the Cloud. With
cloud storage, files and data can be readily shared among team members,
and modified using collaborative tools. For example, unified communi-
cations and collaboration services can bring together all fixed, mobile,
and desktop communications services in one integrated platform that is
accessible from any device. The power of today’s technology means that
the aspiration that people can work from anywhere, anytime can now
be realized.
The digital workspace is also driving a change in the management
of employees. While agile working has focused on the autonomy of the
individual, the digital workspace reflects today’s social media-based world
and is centered on connecting people together electronically, enabling
virtual collaborations between self-organizing and cross-functional teams.
Management responsibility is being devolved to teams (as it is in agile
software development), breaking down the hierarchies that have existed
since traditional office working.
A more in-depth description of the technological aspects of digital
workspace is given in Chapter 3.

11
 https://linkedin.com/pulse/unlocking-digital-workplace-david-dunbar/
 Index
Activity-based working, 12–13 road map with phasing, 102–107
Agile Business Consortium, 8 vision, 99–100
Agile Organization, 5, 7–9 AI. See Artificial intelligence
Agile software development, 6–7 Antivirus software, 43
Agile workers Artificial intelligence (AI), 155–156
leadership skills required for, Audioconferencing, 63
142–143 Authentication, 43
other skills required for, 143–144 Autonomy, 3
personality affects, 148–152
skills required for, 142 Benefit realization plan, 97
Agile working Bring Your Own Device (BYOD),
benefits for employees, 89–90 30–32
benefits to organization, 83–89 BYOD. See Bring Your Own Device
description of, 1–2
devices for, 27–29 Choose Your Own Device (CYOD),
dimensions of, 4 30
drivers for, 82 Client hypervisor, 38
flexible working vs., 3–5 Collaboration, 48–49
in future, 154–157 Collaborative tools, 33–35
implementing costs of, 90–92 Communication tools, 35–37
infrastructure to support, 37–40 Conscientious employees, 151
productivity, 9–10 Consultations, 62–63
providing devices for, 29–32 Contemplative activities, 48
security issues, 40–45 Contractual home-based employees,
sustaining, 153–154 95
in 2025, 158–159 Contractual home-based workstyle,
working progression model, 10–17 24
workstyle analysis, 92–96 Coworking, 51–53
Agile working implementation Creativity, 49
engagement, 123–124 Culture change
facilities package, 129–130 component of agile working, 20
ongoing support for, 135 encouraging digital working, 59–60
HR, 124–127 overcoming resistance to digital
learning, 130–133 workspace, 58–63
rolling out, 135–138 overcoming resistance to new ways
technology, 127–129 of working, 56–58
work etiquette and protocols, paper-based working, 58–59
133–134 physical meetings with virtual
Agile working strategy meetings, 60–63
aims, 100–101 Cybersecurity, 156
holistic approach, 101–102 CYOD. See Choose Your Own Device
170 Index

Decision-making meetings, 61 MDM. See Mobile device

Device lockdown, 43 management
Digital Workplace Experience survey, Meetings, 21
26 Mobile device management (MDM),
Digital workspace/workplace, 16–17 44
components, 25 Mobile working, 14–15
description of, 1–2 Multigenerational workforce, 63–65
empowering employees through, Multi-site employees, 94
26–27 Multi-site workstyle, 23, 24
Document management, 22–23
Dominant employees, 151 Network delay, 40
Network speed, 40
E-mails, 22 Nomadic employees, 94–95
Employee surveys, 74 Nomadic workstyle, 23, 24
Enabling departments, 73
Encryption, 42–43 Operational departments, 73–74
Options appraisal
Fixed desk employees, 93–94 benefit realization plan, 97
Fixed desk workstyle, 23, 24 payback period, 96–97
Fixed location employees, 94
Fixed location workstyle, 23, 24 Payback period, 96–97
Flexible working Physical workplace, 19
agile working vs., 3–5 Portal-based approach, 39
dimensions of, 3 Problem-solving and collaborative
working progression model, meetings, 62
13–14 Productivity, 9–10
Productivity apps, 155–156
GDPR. See General Data Protection
Regulation Readiness assessment tools, 74–76
General Data Protection Regulation The Reluctant absentees, 145–147
(GDPR), 44–45 The Remote manager, 147
Get What You’re Given (GWYG), Remote wipe, 43
29–30
GWYG. See Get What You’re Given Screensharing, 63
Setting up an agile working program
Heating, lighting, and ventilation benefits realization, 118–120
needs, 51 developing, 114
Home workers, 144–147 governance, 109–114
Hosted or cloud-based solutions, 39 initiatives, 120–121
Hosted or virtual corporate desktop, stakeholders, 114
38 technical aspects of, 114–118
Shared desks, 49–50
Influential employees, 151 Shared facilities, 50
Information-sharing meetings, 61–62 Space utilization study, 75–76
Internet of Things (IoT), 156–157 Status update meetings, 61
Interviews, 74 Steadfast employees, 151
IoT. See Internet of Things Supporting work activities
The isolationist, 144–145 collaboration, 48–49
 Index 171

contemplative activities, 48 Web-based utility software, 38

creativity, 49 Ways of working progression model
heating, lighting, and ventilation activity-based working, 12–13
needs, 51 agile working, 15–16
role of furniture, 50–51 digital workspace/workplace, 16–17
shared desks, 49–50 flexible working, 13–14
shared facilities, 50 mobile working, 14–15
traditional office working, 10–12
Technology Work–life balance questionnaire,
requirements, 76–77 68–70
review of policies, 78 Work–life integration, 65–68
summarizing findings, 78–79 Work practices
Telepresence, 156 component of agile working, 19
The Time Shifter, 145–146 document management, 22–23
Total cloud environments, 44 e-mails, 22
Traditional office working, 10–12 meetings, 21
Workshops/focus groups, 74
Videoconferencing, 63 Workstyles, 23–24
Voice control, 156 Workwrapping, 65–68