GlaxoSmithKline's shift to an open office layout with no assigned seats raises a number of logistical issues. Here's how the company is handling some of them.
Telephones: GSK has a voice over IP system, which enables it to create a roaming account for each employee. When employees arrive at a desk, they simply punch in their account, and their calls will be routed to that phone. If an employee wants to take a call in private, they can put it on hold and then pick it up in one of the conference rooms. Employees can also take phone calls over their laptop.
Possessions: All employees are assigned a storage unit where they can keep files, a keyboard, a power pack and a mouse. There will also be group storage spaces where files that need to be accessed by more than one person can be kept. Any files that are not accessed regularly will be stored off-site. GSK's document retention policy isn't changing; it just may end up being followed more closely.
Printing: Each employee has a key card. After pressing print on a document, the employee can walk to any printer and swipe the card, and the printer will list all of the worker's outstanding print jobs.
Ergonomics: A number of workstations within each neighborhood can be adjusted to handle the requirements of tall and short employees.
End of day: GSK will have a clean-desk policy, meaning that at the end of the day, an employee needs to leave a work space in the condition in which it was found. Personal touches an employee makes to a work space must be stored away at the end of each day.
Shelby Bryant says she wasn't thrilled when she found out she would be one of the guinea pigs testing GlaxoSmithKline's new open office environment.
An administrative assistant in Research Triangle Park, Bryant, 39, went from having a desk outside her boss's office to having no assigned desk or phone.
Instead of personalizing her work space with family photos and funny cartoons, she was expected at the end of each day to leave her work area the same way she found it: pristine.
Read more: http://www.thesunnews.com/2011/03/17/2042693/companies-unchain-workers-from.html?#ixzz1GpgP66rb
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