6.3 BEST PRACTICES

The following recommendations for space management and planning bring Northwestern Polytechnic in alignment with best practices in post-secondary.

Collaboration: Spaces should be designed to facilitate collaboration and interaction.

For students, this can include shared workspaces, group study rooms, and common areas that encourage socializing.

For staff, this can include collaborative office space, meeting spaces with projection and videoconferencing technology, and informal project rooms. Office spaces can be supplemented with informal touchdown space within office suites, and hotelling spaces to support staff moving between and within campuses.

Increasingly, spaces that support the connection between staff and students outside of the classroom are being located throughout campuses through collaboratories, research sandboxes, entrepreneurial centres and social innovation laboratories. Students seeking support may be more comfortable in informal lounge settings than in typical student service kiosks.

Flexibility: Spaces should be designed to be adaptable to different uses and changing needs. This can include movable furniture, modular design, and flexible layouts. Reducing the amount of built-in technology and millwork allows long term use with minimal renovations.

All Space is NWP space: A space policy that clearly allocates space management to the Polytechnic, which is assigned typically to Facilities underlines that all space is owned and overseen by the institution. Space is a resource that is most effectively optimized and utilized without individual ownership and territoriality.

General access classrooms: Allocating all classrooms to the post-secondary rather than dedicated to individual faculties or programs further supports optimizing scheduling and space utilization.

Outdoor Space: Outdoor spaces should be designed to provide a comfortable and inviting environment for students. This can include shaded areas, seating, and recreational spaces.

As with interior space, a variety of outdoor scenes should be provided that allow for multiple uses including collaboration, individual use, learning and wellness.

Staff and Faculty Workspace

Office spaces for administrative and academic staff have evolved from individual offices accessible to students only during “office hours”. Office design continues to evolve from notions of corner offices and seas of cubicles to work environments that support the many activities that comprise a work day. Future workspace planning at Northwestern Polytechnic may consider the following themes:

Hybrid work: Since the return to the office after the COVID-19 pandemic, the workforce is looking to hybrid work scenarios, where work can occur simultaneously virtually and in-person. Providing the technology and furniture solutions to work partially on campus and partially at home allows choice and flexibility.

Zones and Departmentalization: Co-locating similar groups, such as by administrative supports or by faculty allows for communitybuilding, ‘findability’ by others on campus, reduces office moves and creates a sense of ownership.

Activity-based work: workspaces are increasingly providing more options than a workstation or an office to do work. These spaces allow staff and faculty to choose the best environment to complete a task, rather than being forced to sit at their desk all day. Additional workspaces supporting both the most concentrated and focused work as well as the most collaborative work include:

• Collaboration and Connection Space: Providing spaces for people to connect and gather, both informally and formally helps to increase collaboration and creativity. These spaces may include meeting rooms, informal lounge space and nooks for quick conversations within an office suite.

• Heads Down Space: Providing acoustically separated space for heads down work is essential in successful workspace. Individual or small group rooms for focused work, quiet conversations or hybrid meetings and classes allow staff to find the right space for all aspects of their work.

6.0 Summary of Recommendations

• Shared Workspaces: By adding specific spaces to be collaborative and focused, there is an opportunity to explore shared or flexible desk space. There are many models of sharing available and considerations for security, confidentiality and personal identity should be considered carefully.

Policies and Operations: The operational policies and standards of an institution that supports workforce flexibility must be revisited to align with changing work types while clearly setting standards and expectations for both staff and institutional supports. Many policies define working hours, communication guidelines, oncampus expectations, technology requirements and usage, security protocols, approvals and expenses. Behavioral guidelines may also include virtual meeting etiquette, boundaries and team-building expectations.