3.19 MOD's Director General Management Organisation (DGMO), consisting of approximately 100 staff, has been occupying the trial open-plan space in St Giles Court since June 2001. The experience of using this new working environment will help to achieve a smooth transition to the redeveloped Main Building. Trials in the St Giles Court facility have included the establishment of protocols and practices to help optimise the use of the new workspace in support of better working practices. The trials will also look to support solutions to issues such as noise, distractions, confidentiality, security and perceived loss of status together with the evaluation of new furniture and fittings. These activities are aimed at securing greater staff understanding, involvement and ownership of the new working environment.
3.20 MOD is already receiving very positive feedback from the open-plan trials. A programme of respondent consultation sessions has already taken place, together with various space utilisation and workplace performance surveys, ad hoc workshops and a number of group and individual interviews. On the whole, the occupants of the trial area have settled quickly into the new office and feel that the space is delivering what it was intended to deliver. In particular, there has been:
■ an increase in formal and informal interaction with a corresponding increase in inter- and intra-team understanding and knowledge;
■ a preference for open-plan working from many of those who moved from single-occupancy cellular offices;
■ approval of the functionality and utility of the new furniture; and
■ a positive feeling about the new working environment in general.
3.21 The feedback is also informing the areas that need to be further improved such as the current level of background noise; the right level of technology to support open-plan working; the control of the office working environment (heating and lighting) and the mix of workplace settings. MOD will bring the findings and conclusions of all these studies together in a final report in early 2002 to use to design the use of open-plan place in the redeveloped Main Building.