“Relocation of the Flemish government to central office buildings in brussels”
The challenge
The Flemish Government noticed that a significant amount of office space was underused due to the success of remote working. As a result, the Facilities Agency decided to consolidate the civil servants working in Brussels into a number of central locations: Belpaire, Hendrik Conscience, and Herman Teirlinck. In total, this involves several thousand civil servants working across about 20 entities (VDAB, Wonen in Vlaanderen, Education Inspection, etc.).
At these central locations, employees will be able to choose from a wide range of workspaces, some of which will be assigned to their entity, while others will be shared with colleagues from other entities. As the move approaches, civil servants have several concerns: will there be enough workspaces available? Will they still be able to sit with their colleagues when they come to the office? What is the point of all these shared zones? Moving away from the idea of a fixed, personal workspace in a single location raises many questions. To address these concerns, the Facilities Agency decided to collaborate with brainmove.
Our approach
brainmove began by identifying the wishes and concerns of civil servants across the 20 entities. We believe in the power of data, so based on this, we defined the content of the subsequent process. We then worked with a group of representatives from the different entities. Not only were these representatives given intensive guidance to better understand and embrace the new way of working, but they were also given the mandate to make decisions, with the support of our workplace expertise, on the use of shared spaces.
The result
brainmove’s guidance allowed the Facilities Agency to present a workplace solution that was more supported by the end users of the environment. Thanks to the participatory approach, the entities felt heard and were given a platform for input, even though the decision to centralize and establish shared zones was already set in stone. The different entities faced the move with more confidence, supported by a framework of agreements that they themselves had developed.
