1. Matching office space to service delivery needs

1.1 New office accommodation requirements

The business planning process will identify agencies' new service-delivery initiatives. The office accommodation resources needed for these initiatives can be established through the process of formulating indicative space and cost budgets, and refining these budgets to develop detailed space and cost budgets. Please refer to Guideline 1: Planning.

1.2 Revised office accommodation requirements

The business planning process should also identify proposed changes to existing services and opportunities for consolidation, collocation and resource-sharing to enhance service delivery and reduce costs. These initiatives should be considered as both intra-agency and inter-agency opportunities, and could include shared or common reception areas, conference rooms and other support facilities. These changes and opportunities become the drivers for the ongoing process of matching office space to service delivery needs, reviewing space utilisation and improving the efficiency of service delivery.

Accommodation changes that result from changes to service delivery need to be identified as part of each agency's planning process. Please refer to Guideline 1: Planning.

1.3 Churn

Accommodation changes that are undertaken in response to revised accommodation requirements generally involve the relocation of people as part of the process, which can then be described as 'churn'. Churn means: the relocation of people within an agency, undertaken in response to changing service delivery and functional requirements.

Churn is usually considered in terms of the office workplace. It is measured by the number of people relocated per year expressed as a percentage of the total number of people employed by the agency. Agencies need to anticipate churn and plan effectively for the associated implications and costs. Churn management strategies are addressed in Guideline 3: Fitout.

1.4 Workplace density benchmarks

It is necessary to confirm that the total area of space established for new service-delivery initiatives and changed service delivery is consistent with the workplace density benchmarks approved by Government Office Accommodation Committee (now known as Deputy Directors-General Accommodation Group). The application of benchmarks is discussed in Guideline 3: Fitout and benchmarks are defined in the reference Office accommodation workspace and fitout standards (PDF, 1.6 MB) , which is a supporting document to Guideline 3: Fitout.