How Reuters uses technology and state-of-the-art workplaces to reach peak efficiency

How Reuters uses technology and state-of-the-art workplaces to reach peak efficiency

Camilla Berens—21 February 2008

From its sleek new headquarters in London’s Canary Wharf, Reuters nestles strategically among the giants of the financial world. Although it’s best known as a news agency, more than 90 per cent of Reuters’ revenue comes from providing business data to traders and financial analysts. The company’s HQ may not be as imposing as some of its clients’ but Reuters cuts an impressive figure in the business landscape. Today the FTSE100 firm claims to be the world’s largest multimedia news agency with a group revenue of £2.6 billion. This status is even more impressive when you consider that just a few years ago, the company was on its knees.

At the beginning of the millennium, City traders were being laid off in droves following a global economic slowdown and Reuters’ core subscription revenues began to dry up. In 2002 the company made a loss for the first time since floatation in 1984. In a bid to avert disaster, CEO Tom Glocer was brought in to turn the company around and a three-year recovery programme, known as Fast Forward, was put into motion. Much of the core strategy for Fast Forward was driven from the top but many of the implementation ideas came from the workforce itself.

“All employees were asked what was needed to save the company and it got around 3,500 replies from all over the world,” recalls Elly Tomlins, senior organisational development consultant. One of the most significant results of this consultation was a new focus on time management, which came to be known as Smart Working.

Smarter than average

The concept of Smart Working brought together the most recent developments in communications technology and the more effective use of office space freed-up after a wave of redundancies. “The end result is that we could make much better use of the office space within the building and, at the same time, allow employees far greater flexibility in terms of their work-life balance,” says Ivan Newman, a senior project manager with the company’s property portfolio management team.

In essence, Smart Working has been made possible by the laptop computer. The company recognised that certain roles within functions such as sales, FM and IT don’t need to have permanent workstations. By setting up groups of designated desks where employees can log-on to the company’s system as and when necessary, the laptop becomes the focal point of activity, rather than the desk itself. This has resulted in freedom for the company to accommodate a greater number of employees and freedom for the individual to work in whatever environment suits them best: whether at work, at home or on the hoof.

This shift from being location-driven to result-driven has led to Reuters becoming one of the few companies to actively encourage its employees to work from home.

Hot buttons

Implementation of this new approach required close collaboration between the business’s IT, HR, and FM teams. HOK, a firm of architects, was also brought in to advise on space management. “From this experience we were able to bring together the ‘hot buttons’,” Newman explains. “These were the scheme’s selling points. The key ‘buttons’ ranged from easy access to the physical desk environment, through to the IT tools needed to facilitate flexible working from multiple locations and then through to the support given to managers so that they could understand and develop the benefits of the technique.”

The next step was to work out how many Smart Working desks were needed. Desk occupancy across the company’s HQ was monitored to gauge how often desks were left unused. “These rates vary from department to department and indeed from section to section within these departments,” Newman says. “In some departments such as software development, the global project directors are all over the world and might only be in the office 30 per cent of the time. Simple maths tells you that three people can share that desk if they’ve all got the same working patterns and they’re not all in at the same time.”

Putting the plan into action wasn’t all plain sailing however. One of the biggest challenges was overcoming the deeply embedded sense of ownership that most people attach to their personal workspace. To overcome initial fears, Newman and his team developed portable photo frames, folders and mini-filing trays that could be used to store personal items in the lockers allocated to each Smart Worker. Central filing systems were also set up. “It was amazing how much clutter like out-of-date stationery and ancient reports some people stored at their desks,” Newman adds. “It’s all about getting over the idea that a desk is a place to do certain activity, not to store your history.”

Managers too showed an initial reluctance to embrace the scheme. “The middle tier of management really needed to see it working before it got a lot of take up,” recalls Elly Tomlins. “Many wanted to maintain a face-to-face situation with their team members. It wasn’t until they were confronted with a business reality such as lack of space or the need to shift their costs, that Smart Working was embraced. As soon as they started to see the benefits, there was a domino effect.” This is where the virtuous circle begins, adds Newman. “Once the manager and the managed free themselves from the mental idea that they both need to be in the office at the same time, both start to think more flexibly so that people will work from home more often and free further space.”

Moving target

One of the first groups to try out the Smart Working strategy was the facilities management team. “It made sense for us to lead the way,” says EMEA facilities manager, Michael Darbyshire, whose team is responsible for maintaining and developing Smart Working services. “Although we spend most of our time in the office, we’re moving around the building all the time, so we’re actually at our desks for a very short period,” he explains. Overall, Smart Working moved up several gears after the company relocated from Fleet Street to the Docklands in 2005.

“We were able to really embed it once we had a blank page to work from,” Darbyshire continues. “All our sites are now pretty full, so it’s rather like a Chinese puzzle. As teams expand, we’re constantly having to look at the overall situation and see where we can create more Smart Working. Monitoring desk vacancy rates is a continuous process.”

Today, Reuters’ business is going from strength to strength. However it’s difficult to calculate how much of its recovery has been facilitated by the introduction of Smart Working. Elly Tomlins says staff feedback has been positive and the work-life balance it offers has made Reuters a much more attractive proposition in terms of recruitment and retention. “Most of the evidence is anecdotal but there are clear indicators,” she says. “In a lot of cases, time saving to the company is self-evident. In the past, if you had to take your child to the doctor, it might have meant a half or full day off work. With Smart Working you can make up that lost time at home or after hours.” Tomlins adds that female staff are now coming back from maternity leave more quickly because of the same flexibility.

Although overall performance improvements are difficult to measure, there are clear real estate savings to be made. The employee base at HQ is now expanding but thanks to Smart Working, the business hasn’t had to invest in additional premises, says Darbyshire. In terms of accommodation, it has also become easier and cheaper to grow the workforce. “The churn rate has increased but there isn’t the cost in terms of moving things around the office or changing technology,” says Derbyshire. “The base is there. It’s just a question of moving bums on seats.” From an FM point of view, Darbyshire says Smart Working has changed his own role for the better. “It’s no longer transactional. There’s an actual business benefit coming out of it,” he says. “The work is much more consultative, much more of a science and much more rewarding.”

With all the appeal of flexible working, it’s surprising that only around 20 per cent of the workforce at Reuter’s HQ has joined the Smart Working experience. “It doesn’t suit everyone’s role,” Darbyshire explains. “Editors need to be at their desks almost 100 per cent of the time, whereas in sales and support 70-80 per cent are Smart Working. It is about the same in the facilities management and property management functions.” Darbyshire predicts the percentage will increase — and it’s also catching on internationally. Smart Working models have now been introduced at Reuters’ bureaux in France, Belgium, Poland and India. There may also be a major opportunity to expand Smart Working if the company’s proposed merger with archrival Thomson goes ahead. “It’s almost completely embedded,” add Ivan Newman. “We’re not quite there yet but give it another six to 12 months and we could be facing a tidal wave.”

Camilla Berens is a freelance journalist