Workplace Strategy
The choice of which work is supported where, and how.
What it studies
Workplace strategy studies the choice of which work is supported where and how: workplace concepts derived from demand analysis (which work, with what need, at what frequency), translated into a portfolio of settings. It is the subject of the sibling platform, the Workplace Strategy Method, with 41 Evidence Domains as its research base.
Why Facility Management needs it
Workplace strategy sets FM's operating conditions and load: the number of settings, the occupancy level, the intensity of service required. FM inherits those strategic choices at rollout and has to operate them without having been able to test the assumptions behind them — precisely the handover cliff the sibling Facilities Management domain within the Workplace Strategy Method describes. The reverse insight matters just as much: FM operating data is the best evidence of whether a workplace strategy actually works.
Questions it answers
- Which demand analysis underlies this workplace concept, and does it still hold?
- What operational load follows from this strategic choice, and was that load explicitly weighed in the decision?
- Is FM operating data fed back to the strategy function, or does the information flow stop at rollout?
Evidence sources
- Workplaced's Workplace Strategy Method, with 41 Evidence Domains as its research base.
- CoreNet Global and academic work on workplace strategy and demand management.
Operating and management implications
- FM should structurally feed the demand analysis behind a workplace strategy, not merely inherit its execution.
- Operating data (occupancy, complaints, faults) is the best available evidence to recalibrate a workplace concept over time.
Open question
Is the handover cliff unavoidable?
The Workplace Strategy Method describes the handover cliff as a structural problem: FM inherits a workplace concept it was not allowed to shape. Some organisations resolve this by involving FM early in demand analysis; others treat it as an unavoidable consequence of separating the strategy function from the delivery function. Both platforms — this Atlas and the Workplace Strategy Method — describe the same phenomenon from opposite directions, and neither claims the problem is structurally solved.
Related services
- Space and workplace management
Related capabilities
- Translating operating data into strategic recalibration
Related operating models
- Demand organisation
Workplace strategy belongs with the demand organisation's client role; the handover cliff arises where that function fails to involve FM.
Related standards
- ISO 41011:2024 — terminology for the boundary with facility management.
The standards section arrives in Part 7.
Common misuse
- Workplace strategy rolled out without FM consultation, producing a concept that works on paper and fails in operation.
Current research frontier
There is still no standardised, widely accepted method for evaluating the quality of a workplace strategy against FM operating data over time; evaluations remain generally standalone and project-based.
Further reading
- Workplaced, Workplace Strategy Method — the 41 Evidence Domains.