Parting the sea of office cubicles
The NSW Government’s move to flexible working provides an opportunity to consider the future state of government office accommodation, says head of Property NSW Brett Newman.
Newman (pictured) leads Property NSW, responsible for the NSW Government’s owned and leased property portfolio, which generates more than $0m in revenues each year.
With a current project pipeline of committed development and advisory projects of $14.2 billion, Property NSW’s diverse services also include property reform, asset management, valuation services, place making, transactions and major projects.
The NSW Government’s office accommodation portfolio across CBD, metropolitan and regional areas currently exceeds 6 buildings. And as the NSW Government is the state’s largest employer, any rethink on office accommodation could have industry-wide ramifications.
“The fragmented nature of office tenants in NSW means that theirs is often the forgotten voice in the property industry,” Newman says.
“But as an occupant of more than one million square metres of office space, we have a keen interest in ensuring new government accommodation is open and flexible.”
The NSW Public Service Commission is currently charged with implementing a flexible working policy across government by 2019, with Property NSW complementing this work through the development of accommodation strategies to support this change.
Newman says government and other major tenants will increasingly look for office accommodation that is “flexible and coordinated” across major Sydney metropolitan hubs, so staff can work closer to home and schools.
“The days of coming to the same office every day, to sit at the same desk, surrounded by the same people, are slowly disappearing,” Newman explains.
“Tenants are increasingly looking for flexible work hubs that allow their employees the option of working in multiple locations at any time.”
In the Sydney CBD alone there are around 75 NSW Government agencies and nearly 15,000 staff located across buildings, occupying more than 330,000 sqm of office space, according to the Flexible Working in Government report.
The NSW Government has already committed to relocating 100,000 sqm of office accommodation out of the Sydney CBD by 2021.
Sydney CBD office rents are on the rise, with Colliers International forecasting a 13 per cent increase over the next year alone as demand outstrips supply. Property NSW says there are opportunities to reduce costs, and promote economic activity and jobs growth across the state.
“We need to change our thinking and start to consider how we operate as one government.
“This focus on delivering office accommodation closer to where people live also ties into the Greater Sydney Commission’s vision for ’30-minute cities’,” Newman adds.
4 Parramatta Square, currently under construction by Walker Corporation, is an example of this thinking in action. Once complete, this A-Grade building will house around 4,000 NSW Government employees.
The Department of Planning and Environment will take up 35,000 sqm of space, while 18,000 sqm is reserved for the Department of Finance and Services and a further 12,000 sqm is set aside for the Department of Industry.
“Having these agencies in the one building, with shared facilities, will encourage collaboration and help us all think of ourselves as one government, not just discrete agencies,” Newman adds.
Not all companies are moving towards flexible working. Last year, technology giant IBM reversed its long-standing policy which allowed employees to work from home.
IBM argued that maintaining its competitive edge in a crowded market demanded small, self-directed and agile teams. “There is something about a team being more powerful, more impactful, more creative, and frankly hopefully having more fun when they are shoulder to shoulder,” IBM’s chief marketing officer, Michelle Peluso, was widely reported as saying.
However, NSW residents clearly didn’t get the IBM memo. Four in five people in NSW say that having the option to work from different office locations would influence their choice of employer, according to research commissioned by Property NSW.
“Having flexible work hubs closer to where people live will attract the best people and, more importantly, keep them engaged.”
Watch Property NSW’s Flexible Working in Government animation.