Student-lead evaluation of a new workplace concept in an academic environment

This paper presents the outcome of an evaluation of a new workplace concept in the staff room of the Academy of Hotel and Facility Management at the NHTV – a medium-sized school for higher vocational education – in the city of Breda, the Netherlands. The workplace concept, known as “NHTV@Work”, was centrally developed by the Facilities Division of the said school, with assistance from professional workplace consultants. The objectives of the study was (i) to determine the level of user-satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the new workplace environment, (ii) assess the implementation process by way of self-reporting by staff members using the new workplace environment, and (iii) develop recommendations for improving the overall concept for implementation across all workplace environments of the NHTV. The evaluation of the new workplace concept was considered a suitable project assignment for 2 2nd-year FM student groups of the theme “Corporate Real Estate Management”. As part of the theoretical component of this theme, students were given instruction on diverse methodologies and approaches to workplace performance evaluation through questionnaires, observations and interviews. Through the application of a process-model for supporting decision-making on organisational accommodation as conceptual framework, the various methodologies were structured to provide students an optimal learning experience.Outcomes of the research identified (i) staff members using the workplace concept to be overall satisfied with the new concept, but less satisfied with the implementation and continued monitoring thereof, (ii) the use of the workplaces to be overall well-adopted, but a need for increased diversity in the functionality of specific types of workplaces provided, and (iii) a perceived misalignment of interest between the development and the new workplace concept by the Facilities Division and external consultants on the one hand, and the perceived work culture and functional requirements of staff members. The study provides a comprehensive framework for firstly, assessing all workplace environments where the NHTV@Work concept has been implemented, and secondly, for inter-organisational comparative research and continues monitoring of the effectiveness of the workplace concept. In addition to this, the approach as applied in the current research, provides a qualitative project-based learning experience for FM-students of the Academy.