How it works
It starts with the reason and the measure. Leaders agree what the change is meant to achieve, such as releasing a floor or making office days more useful, and which numbers will show it worked: adoption, attendance, occupancy and satisfaction.
People are involved before the change lands. A pilot with one team or floor tests the new setup, champions in each team answer questions, and employees see the evidence behind the decision. Communication explains what changes for each person, when, and where to get help.
After launch, the team watches adoption and behavior rather than assuming them. Booking and check-in data show whether people use the new neighborhoods, surveys show how they feel, and the plan adjusts. Change management ends when the new way is the normal way, not on go-live day.
How to measure it
- Adoption: the share of people booking or checking in through the new system.
- Behavior: attendance and occupancy against the policy or plan.
- Sentiment: pulse surveys before and after the change.
- Support load: questions and tickets in the weeks after launch.
Examples
- Before introducing neighborhoods, a company pilots them on one floor, adjusts sizes from booking data and then rolls them out building by building.
- A new hybrid policy is launched with team days agreed by each team, weekly reminders in chat and a survey after the first month.
Benchmarks
MOPAC reached 83% adoption within weeks of introducing desk booking.
Kadence customer story: MOPACAt RCS England, 85% of staff exceeded the minimum office policy without enforcement.
Kadence customer story: RCS England
Common mistakes
- Announcing the change without explaining the reason and the evidence.
- Treating go-live as the end, with no follow-up on adoption.
- Training everyone the same way, when admins, managers and employees need different guidance.
- Relying on mandates when making the new way easier would change behavior faster.
How Kadence helps
Kadence supports the people side of workplace change. SpaceOps publishes an approved plan to live neighborhoods and assignments in WorkOps, and Move Manager sends move emails and personal move sheets (WorkOps Pro). Workplace announcements reach people in Slack, Teams, email and the mobile app, and employee surveys (WorkOps Pro) and Workplace Insights show whether behavior changed.
Implementation · SpaceOps · MOPAC customer story
Frequently asked questions
How do you implement a hybrid working model?
Agree the goal and the policy, then let teams choose their shared office days within it. Give people a simple way to see who is in and book space, pilot with a few teams, and measure attendance and satisfaction. Adjust the policy and the space from what the data shows.
How do you get employees to adopt desk booking?
Make booking easy where people already work, such as their calendar, Teams or Slack, with single sign-on. Explain why the change is happening, name a champion in each team, and show people who else is coming in. Track adoption weekly and follow up with teams that lag.
How do you implement office neighborhoods?
Use attendance data to size each team's area to its busiest regular day, pilot on one floor, and explain the rules: who can book where and when. Review bookings after a few weeks and resize neighborhoods that run full or empty before rolling out further.
Why do workplace changes fail?
Most fail on people, not design: the reason is not explained, employees are not involved, training is generic, and nobody checks adoption after launch. Changes also stall when the new way is harder than the old one, such as a booking step that adds friction.
Related terms
- Changes Updates to a workspace, team area or setting that do not relocate the people assigned to it.
- Activity-based working (ABW) A workplace model in which people move between settings designed for different tasks instead of working at one assigned desk.
- Workplace strategy The plan that links how an organization works to the space, policies and tools it provides for work.
- Move management Planning, sequencing and carrying out workplace moves, from one desk change to a whole-team relocation.
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