We believe that banks will start
to bring in activity based working
environments to a significant extent,
to meet various challenges, from cost,
to attracting and retaining talent,
to supporting fast-changing and
project based working methods. With
average offices occupied only 45/48%
of the time dramatic improvements
in efficiency can be achieved and a
new way of working can allow banks
to grow in headcount without taking
on any additional space or increased
overhead. Typical space savings of 30%
are easily achievable through activity
based working, with a typical return
on the fit-out investment within a five
year period. It also increases velocity –
speed of decision making – and pulse
– energy in the environment – through
improved density, bringing people
together in environments that stimulate
conversation, communication and
collaboration. Organised collaboration
as well as serendipity play an equal
part in increasing knowledge flow and
kindling innovation.
Always-on video links between
different sites or teams are the future
of instantaneous collaboration across
boundaries and geographies. Instead
of video technology being limited to
certain rooms, which in some cases
are prioritised for leadership – today’s
situation, where video is more a
formal communication method than
an informal collaboration method.
The future of video collaboration will
include these always-on links, which
we call ‘presence of the community’.
These will not only increase
collaboration potential, but will foster
a feeling of community between
global team members, and a sense
of unity across the organisation.
Banks have already started and should
continue to invest heavily in online,
web-based and mobile technologies
– both for internal and customer use
– to ensure that they can continue to
compete with new players coming
into the payment space, and other
incursions into traditional banking
territory. Those that do not invest will
be left with a legacy of older customers
on the retail side, but will not be able
to attract the younger customers.
And from an internal perspective, a
lack of investment in technology and
automation will result in far higher costs
than competitors, lower share prices
and a shrinking business.
Agile
working
Presence
of the
community
Continued heavy
investment in
technology
59
The future of the financial workplace
|
September 2014
