Many factors are influencing the design of work places today - social, environmental, generational and, even more so now, economic. ‘The Sustainable Workplace', a recent British Council for Offices conference for facilities and property professionals in the UK, brought together leading exponents of how efficient working styles and collaborative workplaces can ultimately benefit an organisation's bottom line. Where flexible and advanced working were once the preserve of IT and management consultants, they're now being embraced by commercial enterprises in a bid to improve performance of both employees and space.

The Royal Bank of Scotland may be suffering the consequences of the current economic turmoil, forced to take a £20 billion bail-out from the government and cut 3,000 jobs last month, but its grasp of advanced working practices could stand it in good stead in both good and hard times.

"The most efficient building is the one you don't need to build," said RBS' head of WorkSpace, Claire Arnold. "The benefits of that add up to tens of millions of pounds."

Arnold took the helm of the WorkSpace programme two years ago and oversaw the largest implementation of it to date when the company acquired an existing building at London's Aldgate Circus. Too small to accommodate a one-person-to-one-desk ratio, it was part of a move that would see more than 3,000 employees go from five buildings into just two.

Like many large organisations, RBS discovered it had just a 60% occupancy rate for most of its office space. Small scale trials of desk sharing, with staff booking desk via the online ‘My Workspace' system, at two Edinburgh locations proved that WorkSpace has a lot to offer the organisation.

Arnold explained: "WorkSpace isn't leading edge innovation, a new people proposition or a high sharing environment - 30% of our staff are still static. But it has been successful in increasing collaboration and has saved 600 seats so far."

RBS, which has undertaken more than 20,000 people moves every year, recently announced that WorkSpace will now be the template for all new builds and major projects and has also launched WorkSpace Lite, designed to increase desk sharing and flexible working among specific teams.

Arnold added: "We are looking at improving working between property, human resources and technology and eventually for WorkSpace to be considered ‘business as usual'. With WorkSpace Lite we are looking for pockets of teams expanding and how we can make them share more. We have also issued a series of guidelines [to encourage employees] to think about making better use of the space we have."

Fellow banking group Morgan Stanley took a more radical approach to flexible working and desk sharing during pilots among two IT teams, one in New York, the other in London. In New York, the 102-strong IT team was encouraged to increase its rate of home working, while the 76-strong London team watched as its entire floor space was stripped out to be replaced by a completely new layout, new furniture, new work spaces and new technology, based on thin clients and virtual PCs, allowing individuals to access all their required documents and programmes regardless of the desk they sit at.

"[The technology] gave us the opportunity to break the relationship between people, desks and technology," explained Terry Arnold, project manager in Morgan Stanley's IT division.

A study of who was using which desks revealed a utilisation rate of just 53% pre-trial. Following the introduction of FlexDesk, the rate soared, averaging around the mid-to-high 70s over the three month trial period, and on two days reaching 90%, which Arnold describes as ‘a little uncomfortable'.

Arnold reported that further to the trials, which revealed gains for individuals, teams and the organisation, Morgan Stanley is looking at rolling out the FlexDesk approach to include 50% of the London IT function over the next 18 months. The New York pilot is also to be extended, while Arnold's team is now working to develop the virtualisation technology."The virtualisation technology was a massive enabler and we are now looking at a mass deployment of that," he said.

While increasing headcounts and the knowledge that the IT division in particular was capped at 1,800 spaces were the main drivers for FlexDesk, Arnold said other factors also held sway. "Predominantly, FlexDesk is an effort to make a better workplace for our people," he says. "We see flexible working as a fundamentally better and smarter way of working, with work-life balance, motivational and property gains to be had from it."