1. 16 FMworld • 28 January 2010 www.fm-world.co.uk
factor is that where the end user was not in the design loop
and using a well constructed PPOE will open up criticism of
the design or project execution. As the user was not
expecting to be surveyed, they raise no objection when a
PPOE is not implemented. Finally, it could just be
attributed to apathy. “I believe however that PPOE is
essential, as continuous improvement must be the goal of
every organisation,” says Watson.
Andrew Mawson, of Advanced Workplace Associates is a
supporter of PPOE. He believes that PPOE is an essential
tool and that companies should be keen to use it. “All our
projects have a PPOE related to the space, the technology
and the ways of working, as well as the process of change.
It’s a vital way of learning whether what you have done has
worked and how to modify solutions and processes for the
future.” Mawson believes that a holistic approach is sensible
and that looking at factors such as space, technology and
behaviours, and then tuning these factors, makes the ‘whole’
work better. “PPOE helps to identify whether what you have
done has worked and how to modify solutions or processes
for the future. PPOE is very useful because it helps you to
‘tune’ the workplace and learn what you should do next time
to improve the result, or the process, you use,” he says.
Recent reports on the usage of PPOE are positive,
suggesting that usage is up thanks, at least in part, to a
30 FMworld • 6 May 2010 www.fm-world.co.uk
FEATURE by Kevin Stanley
OCCUPANT FEEDBACK
P
re or post-occupancy evaluations (PPOE) are
surveys, most commonly completed by
questionnaire or face-to-face interviews,
carried out on employees by facilities
managers or consultant before an office move,
refurbishment or major change. They can also be used after
the event, to provide feedback on how successful the
workplace is in supporting the occupying organisation and
individual end-user requirements. A well-devised and
carefully undertaken PPOE will help to fine-tune a building
as well as highlight any issues.
Reports vary but PPOE has definitely been around since at
least the 1960s, and although its popularity has fluctuated, it
remains a well-known device. “There are many advocates of
PPOE. It is often an essential part of the toolkit when a
project is being defined or pitched for. I believe that they are
recognised as good practice but that the follow through is
sometimes flawed,” says Claire Watson, head of business
development and enterprise at the BIFM. The reason for this
lack of follow up can be considered in a number of ways,
suggests Watson.
The first and foremost reason being that the original
project team has moved on and no-one sees the benefit of
closing the project planning by completing the PPOE. The
second is that the project has gone badly wrong in both
cost and time and there is a reluctance to pin blame
therefore dropping the PPOE is an easy option. The third
The
rating
game
Recentreportsontheuseofpre
orpost-occupancyevaluations
appearpositive,butwhatare
thebenefitsoftheexerciseand
willcost-conscioustimesseethe
practicedecline?
FM
QUICK
FACTS
•PPOE’slikely
gainswillbe
inrevenue
expenditureand
staffperformance
improvement
PHOTOLIBRARY
2. FMworld • 6 May 2010 31www.fm-world.co.uk
ThepurposeoftheDepartmentforChildren,Schoolsand
Familiesistomakethisthebestplaceintheworldforchildren
andyoungpeopletogrowup.In2006theDfESreviewedthe
potentialforarealestateconsolidationwithinitscentralLondon
estateandbusinessconsultancyDEGWwascommissionedto
implementflexibleworkingpracticesinaninnovativeworkplace
atSanctuaryBuildings.
Objectivesandaspirations
Keydriversfortheproject
•ConsolidationoftheDCSFintoasinglespaceefficientbuilding
•Reducehierarchicalbarriersandmovetoanopenculture
•Reducecostsandincreasesustainabilityforthefuture
•Createamodernofficespace
Seniorstakeholderaspirations
•Aflexible,cost-effectiveandmodernenvironment
•Bringingeveryonetogetherinonebuilding
•Changinghabitsinmanagingpapermoreeffectively
Approachandtechniques
•TimeUtilisationStudy(2weeks)
•TargetedInsight–Ethnographicstudy
•Interviewsx14–1:1sessionswithusers
•WorkplacePerformanceSurvey–OnlineQuestionnaire
•StaffFocusGroups–Workshopwithuserrepresentatives
•Spaceanalysis–densities,capacity,etc.
•Travelandvisitordata
Staffsatisfaction
Bestaspects
•Bright,lightandmodernspace
•Cleanliness
•Clutterfree
•ITsolutions
•Openplanenvironmentsupportscollaboration
•Flexibilityofworkstations
•Beingabletochoosewheretosit–gettingtoknowcolleagues
better
Worstaspects
•Notbeingabletositwithteam
•Lackofspacesfordifficultorconfidentialconversations
•Locationandamountsofstoragespace
•Havingtolookforadesk
•Locationandspeedofprinters
•Noiseandovercrowding
•Hygiene
•Lackofmeetingrooms
•Notknowingwhereyourcolleaguessit
•Findingaheightadjustabledeskoradeskwithadockingstation
Results
Efficiencyandeffectiveness
•Increasedutilisation,higherdensityandreducedspace
•Significantpropertysavings
•Qualityofworkspacetoreflectamodernandprofessional
organisation
•Staffsatisfactionimprovedoverall(withafewniggles)
•Regionalvisitorstotheofficehasincreased
•Collaborationandinteractionhasincreased
DCSF CASE STUDY
number of government and NGO initiatives having
increased its profile. “The uptake of PPOE has increased over
the last few years because of OGC’s High Performing
Property (HPP) benchmarking intuitive and the British
Council for Offices (BCO) Guide to PPOE recognising the
effects of efficiency relating to cost, space and satisfaction,”
says Nigel Oseland, director of strategy, at DEGW. “It is now
mandatory for government departments to evaluate their
buildings and return the results via ePIMS, as part of the
OGCs benchmarking initiative,” says Oseland. Nevertheless
it seems that there remains an element of dislike, or mistrust,
of PPOE. Oseland explains why this should not necessarily
be a stumbling block. “Part of the dislike of PPOEs is the
whole litigation element. However, as mentioned PPOE is to
do with how the building supports the occupying business
and takes place usually six months after moving in, so it is
not to do with the defects liability or commissioning stages.”
So what are the main benefits of PPOE? “The value of
these studies is in helping us understand the performance of
any building in use, new-build or existing, modern or
historic, whether only occupied for a month, or occupied by
the same tenant for several years,” says Daniel Winder a
spokesperson for the BCO. Indeed many people assume that
PPOE studies are only worth doing after a new-build
building has been occupied for a short period of time, and
‘‘PPOE is to
do with how
the building
supports the
occupying
business,
it is not to
do with the
defects.”
»
3. 32 FMworld • 6 May 2010
FEATURE
OCCUPANT FEEDBACK
Furthermore Oseland believes that one of the other main
problems with PPOE is that people don’t share their results.
“PPOE is not just about you and your company, or your own
building. Results should be published,” he says.
One person looking to standardise PPOE is workplace
strategist Tim Oldman of TO Consulting, who, in May 2010,
will be launching the Leesman Index. Which he says will be
cost effective and easy to deploy, compared to designing a
new PPOE from scratch, and will offer considerably greater
comparisons. “We are aiming to set the cost of
commissioning a survey at a fraction of percent of the total
capital expenditure budget so that it can almost be seen an
automatic part of a project initiation due diligence process,”
says Oldman.
“We believe we can develop a series of Core questions
that will be applicable to every project scenario and give all
associated with the design and management of workplace
environments, an immediate mirror on their staff
engagement in the work setting. We will then have a series
of bolt-on modules that can be deployed to explore project
specific issues in greater depth. If we can then successfully
position ourselves as an independent third party willing to
unite data from all sectors and architects, while still
delivering significant feedback into their design process,
we can start to provide a central library of data that those
who use the system can mine for trends, facts and figures,”
says Oldman.
PPOE is clearly a useful, perhaps vital, part of ensuring
that a building can effectively support the organisation that
inhabits it. And although it seems that discussing PPOE
raises more questions than it does answers, it’s clear that the
big players including Winder, Oseland and Oldman, are
invested in the success of PPOE and are very positive in
promoting it and improving it.
Kevin Stanley is a freelance journalist
that the results might enable the building systems to be
tweaked to achieve better performance. However this is only
a small part of the process. “A thorough, holistic, PPOE can
identify not only what the performance of a building is, but
also why it is what it is, as well as helping us to understand
the effects of the building performance on the productivity
and satisfaction of the occupants and the performance of
their business,” explains Winder.
Yet there are further barriers to PPOE, including, perhaps
primarily in a time of recession, cost. PPOE, when
considered as part of the larger picture, is not expensive,
however despite this it is debatable whether there is a
certain and quantifiable financial gain to carrying out a
PPOE. Moreover the finance for a PPOE is a capital
expenditure item whereas the likely gains will be in revenue
expenditure and staff performance improvement. These
latter gains are usually difficult to attribute to any changes
made as a response to the results of the study. Responsibility
can also be a problem. There will always be the question of
who owns the study. Opinions will differ from company to
company but Facilities Management, Human Resources, The
Board of Directors and The Project Design Team are all likely
to be in the frame. Finally there is the legal and professional
responsibility for the results. In a new building who will take
responsibility for the performance of the property, especially
if the results are below expectations?
Which is best?
Another talking point is the perceived lack of industry-
standard questions, or an understanding of which PPOE
might be the best. Swanke, DEGW, Gensler and CoreNet
have all developed PPOE, all of which use different
methodologies and metrics in application and address
different aspects of performance. Would greater
standardisation of PPOE be a positive step? “Given the long-
term needs and objectives of the industry, some level of
standardisation would clearly be helpful. Although the Better
Buildings Partnership Sustainability Benchmarking Toolkit
sets out a useful format in relation to energy use, metrics for
numerous other criteria also need to be established, and I
suspect that any overall industry agreement on the metrics
of data collection are yet some way off. One of the key
advantages of the Useable Buildings Trust approach is that
the data is publicly accessible which allows others to learn
from it,” says Winder.
However Oseland points to the fact that many PPOE
consultants have databases of their own, into which they
have invested much time and effort, and suggests that it
would now be difficult for them to change their questions or
work with an industry standardised PPOE. “Bringing
together a set of questions to benchmark buildings against
one another, is something that I’ve aspired to do for at least
15 years,” he says. There are, he suggests, a standard set of
topics and themes but that the key would be to standardise,
not the questions, but the outcome and the case studies
arising from PPOE so that lessons learned can be shared.
“It’s the feedback and the lessons learned that are the most
important things to gain from PPOE. The methodology itself
is not as important. Having a set of standard questions is not
really feasible because over time PPOE evolves. Topics such
as flexible working and sustainability, for example, are fairly
new,” says Oseland.
‘‘PPOE is useful because it helps
you to ‘tune’ the workplace and
learn what you should do next.”
FM
QUICK
FACTS
•Anumberof
government
initiatives(eg,
OGC)have
contributedto
theincreased
profileofpreand
post-occupancy
evaluations
andrewmawsonadvancedworkplaceassociates
GETTY
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