The hybrid workplace in Central Government with ServiceNow

Implementing Workplace Service Delivery at scale – 4,600 licences, across 20 locations for Central Government Agency

With over 4,600 employees and visitors across 20 locations, this UK Government Agency had its challenges when trying to deliver a real hybrid working experience for its employees after the pandemic left them with little time to adapt, nor implement the necessary processes that would allow for a smooth transition into this new and evolving world.

The Senior Management Team were aware that for employees to be empowered with a true hybrid working experience and happier work-home life balance, their service and facilities management would need to evolve too. The Agency needed to rethink its processes and deliver an agile, modern digital experience that offered self-sufficiency and internal visibility. With such a large workforce and broad geographical spread, however, this was going to be no mean feat.

With FlyForm’s reputation of excellence in the Government space (where security and sensitivity are paramount) and having already realised vast improvements from ServiceNow’s ITSM solution, implementing Workspace Service Delivery (WSD) became the obvious choice for this project, and us the obvious partner.

As with many organisations, the abrupt shift to hybrid working quickly rendered manual processes and existing IT systems not fit-for-purpose. Time-consuming and clunky, the incumbent desk booking, and facility management system was causing frustration for employees and at the same time failing to provide the Agency with the tools it needed to manage its facilities for employees. There was no real-time visibility.

The Agency needed a platform that would empower its employees to be self-sufficient in managing their own hybrid working week and facilitate in-house team collaboration through the delivery of intuitive desk and room booking with easy-to-navigate floor plans. Simultaneously, the Agency required insight into visitor numbers, space use and health and safety requirements with the ability to log, streamline and track facility issues - all in real-time.

The service also needed to be able to cater for the whole organisation - not just one area of the business - meaning that, both the language used and navigation tools supplied needed to be intuitive and easy-to-use.

Undertaken during a year of unprecedented global and political challenges, this project required a particularly flexible approach and with its agile methods of working, FlyForm was well-equipped to support. To allow for the Agency’s shifting priorities and resources, daily stand-ups were incorporated between the two organisations to discuss progress and changes. This enabled FlyForm to understand what flexibility the Agency needed when, and allowed them to adapt plans appropriately. Working with this approach instilled confidence between both parties that the project could keep momentum and stay on track.

Successful delivery of the project saw the limitations and frustrations caused by the previous manual set-up removed and FlyForm executing a full-featured solution as follows:

Workplace reservations

Removing any manual effort and/or intermediary, FlyForm implemented an automated desk and room booking function that allows employees to easily search, reserve and modify reservation requirements - all with the click of a button. What’s more, to facilitate collaborative working while in the office, colleagues now have the necessary visibility and functionality to book space next to each other and to share their reservation itineraries - helping them to stay connected.

To help employees accurately navigate the office, manage the proximity of their reservations and report workplace issues, over 20 locations, and 27 floors were mapped and added to the Workplace Location Directory as well as over 50 new Workplace Case requests and icons created. Office navigation has become easier than ever!

Health and safety

For any Government organisation, health and safety is an important priority and FlyForm has used WSD to help the Agency meet its legal requirements in this area by ensuring the appropriate number of colleagues with First Aid qualifications and Fire Marshall skills are present in any building (and across any floor) at any given time.

Additionally, WSD can be used to track positive covid cases, making use of floor mapping to enable facility managers to quickly locate and notify anyone who might have been affected.

Visitor management

Registering and managing visitors has been made safer and more efficient than ever with WSD. Employees can now easily invite and register guests, whilst simultaneously arranging desk reservations for them.

Following registration, the front-of-house staff get automatic visibility into the visit as well as any special instructions required to support the visitors. Automated communications about their visit are also sent to the visitor before their arrival to provide them with all the information required about their visit well before they arrive.

Not only can the organisation now safely and securely manage visitor check-in but the modified process also allows for a much more straightforward and friction-free guest experience.

Facility management

With employees now able to easily and accurately report on facility issues via the WSD portal, the facility manager has real-time visibility of the nature of the issue, when it was reported and where it stands in terms of resolution. The whole process of reporting and resolving issues has been significantly streamlined, saving time and frustration, and delivering efficiencies back to the Agency and its teams.

Reports and dashboards

Having created several reports and dashboards to deliver important data and help with real-time visibility on workplace issues, FlyForm has enabled the organisation in making further improvements to their office space for their employees.

The reports mean facilities management can now easily monitor maintenance resolution times across all its offices - by floor - from one dashboard. The team can also make improvements on how their office space is utilised by using detailed reports on office space use and desk space reservation numbers.

Knowledge articles

To ensure the facilities and estate teams were fully equipped to manage the new system as well as service the new way of hybrid working for the Agency’s employees, several comprehensive knowledge and training articles were created to help the team easily navigate best practices and understand how to update and use the back-end of the platform.

After navigating some unusual circumstances what with the pandemic and other global events, FlyForm were able to successfully deliver this Government Agency a fully-branded ServiceNow Workplace Service Delivery portal for both desktop and mobile, leaving them able to service their hybrid workforce from any location and on any device.

From an employee perspective, FlyForm’s WSD implementation has allowed the adoption of ever-more automated processes leaving them free to focus on more meaningful and valuable activities. Older legacy programs and manual processes have been eliminated delivering plenty of efficiencies - and frustrations have been removed, improving employee happiness and productivity.

More than ever, employees are looking for flexible working options and offering a solution that makes hybrid working easier and more effective can help businesses to retain and attract talent. By streamlining hybrid working functionalities, organisations give their employees the power to effortlessly manage their working week, helping to give a true balance between work and home life.

Furthermore, ServiceNow’s WSD solution delivers important insight into how office space can be used most effectively facilitating collaborative working and allowing for ongoing improvements in workspace utilisation (helping to save time and money) as new ways of working continue to evolve.

Interested in finding out more?

Learn about FlyForm's Workplace Service Delivery services, or download the case study.