What is workplace consultancy?

Developing new working strategies and intelligent office design must be well informed and tailored to suit your individual business and staff needs. This process relies on accurate, reliable data gathered from assessing your current workplace and workforce.

This process, often referred to as workplace consultancy or workplace strategy, involves a comprehensive analysis of how employees interact with their enviroment and how the workspace supports—or hinders—productivity, collaboration, and wellbeing. It encompasses a range of elements, from space utilisation studies and employee experience surveys to technology assessments and change management strategies.

The need for workplace consultancy has never been greater. With hybrid working models becoming the norm and businesses striving to create more agile, engaging workspaces, understanding how office environments impact performance is crucial. Studies show that well-optimised workplaces can boost productivity by up to 20% and improve employee satisfaction and retention. A recent survey by Leesman found that only 57% of employees believe their workplace enables them to work productively, highlighting the importance of strategic workplace improvements.

By investing in workplace consultancy, businesses can create environments that enhance efficiency, foster innovation, and improve employee wellbeing. From reducing wasted office space and cutting real estate costs to designing workspaces that inspire collaboration and engagement, workplace consultancy helps organisations future-proof their offices while supporting the evolving needs of their workforce.

What is the Workplace Consultancy process?

At Peldon Rose, our workplace consultancy team specialises in creating data-driven strategies that transform work environments into inspiring, high-performing spaces. Our process is designed to uncover how your workplace functions, identify areas for improvement, and develop a tailored strategy that supports both your people and business goals.

From in-depth workplace assessments to employee engagement studies, we ensure every recommendation is backed by insights. Discover how our expert team can help shape your future workspace — meet the workplace strategy team.

Learning about your company DNA

The first place to start is through a leadership workshop or briefing session. This is where the key project champions and senior stakeholders can get together to begin outlining what is most important to their organisation. The workshop is broken into two clear stages: The first is to understand the aspirations and organisational challenges, and the second stage is built around activities to test ideas and gain an understanding of likes and dislikes.

Alongside these sessions, our workplace strategy team conducts a thorough review of existing data such as headcounts, growth plans, and organisational charts. This ensures that workplace strategies align with long-term business objectives and support scalability. By analysing key metrics, we gain a deeper understanding of how teams operate and where efficiencies can be introduced. Explore more about our existing data review.

We begin gathering data for a space occupancy study (SOS), which is a valuable way of collecting physical raw data based on your current workplace performance. Typically held over a 10-day period, this study enables us to assess space utilisation, from meeting rooms and breakout areas to private offices and support spaces. During this time, we also observe behavioural patterns, such as where employees make phone calls or how teams collaborate.

“Data is essential in quantifying workplace performance. It provides a factual foundation for decisions, ensuring that workplace design is based on real usage patterns rather than assumptions.” – Sameeha Joshi, Workplace Strategy Consultant at Peldon Rose.

Workplace consultancy survey

Qualitative data gathering takes the form of anonymous online surveys, interviews, and focus workshops. The online survey is tailored to suit your specific organisation but generally covers the following:
• Demographic profiling
• Personality profiling
• 20-30 different scoring matrices for the current workplace
• How often do you attend meetings each week?
• Culture and definition of the current workplace/organisation
• How staff travel to work
• How do you feel about change?
• How do you feel about your current workplace?
• Any ideas you would like to share?

Staff interviews and focus workshops allow us to take a cross-section of all data gathered so far and validate it. Sitting down with teams helps us understand key differences between survey results and space occupancy study (SOS) findings, while also offering deeper insight into how different teams function within the broader organisation. Workshops are held in groups of 2-10 people, typically engaging 10-20% of the organisation.

To ensure a balanced perspective, workshops include representatives from all levels — senior managers to administrative staff.

"Surveys provide a crucial layer of insight that raw data alone cannot capture. They highlight how employees truly experience their workplace, offering a foundation for informed, people-centric design decisions." – Nathalie Walls, Workplace Strategy Consultant at Peldon Rose.

Collecting data from our workplace consultancy

Once the workplace consultancy process has been completed, all the data is collated into a simple to understand yet detailed analysis and feasibility report which analyses the findings and produces a clear model which would work within your workplace. This report will outline in detail:
• How we set out to achieve your project objectives
• Specific desk sharing ratios per team
• Departmental requirement
• Worker profiles
• All essential support areas required to enable staff to perform their role better
• Flexible working model suggestions
• Strategies for implementation of agile working / alternative working models
• Space budget analysis outlining space impact for decisions

With the output from this report, it is possible to start clearly defining potential smart working concepts to enable informed decision making. This report helps to form the detailed design brief that enables the project to move forward to the design stages.

Test fit

The test fit process is a crucial step in workplace consultancy, ensuring that proposed design solutions are both practical and beneficial before moving into the full design phase. This involves testing the workspace layout within specific floorplates to assess how well it aligns with your business needs, operational requirements, and employee working styles.

By analysing the spatial strengths and weaknesses of each potential layout, we can identify areas for optimisation — whether it’s improving collaboration zones, maximising desk efficiency, or ensuring smooth traffic flow throughout the office. The test fit also helps to highlight the pros and cons of each space, allowing businesses to make informed decisions about their future workplace.

Through this process, we ensure that the proposed workplace design will support your business goals and enhance employee experience before committing to any structural changes. A successful test fit helps to minimise costly revisions later in the design process while ensuring that your workspace is optimised for long-term success.

Change management

Effective change management is essential to the workplace consultancy process, ensuring that employees remain informed, engaged, and supported throughout a redesign, refurbishment, or relocation. Workplace transformation is more than just a physical change — it’s a shift in how people interact with their environment, and without the right approach, it can lead to uncertainty or resistance.

By implementing a structured change management strategy, businesses can guarantee that every stage of the process runs smoothly. Clear communication, workshops, and leadership alignment help employees understand why changes are being made and how they will benefit both individuals and the organisation. Engaging staff in the journey fosters a sense of ownership, reducing disruptions and ensuring a seamless transition into the new workspace.

When done correctly, change management leads to higher employee satisfaction, improved productivity, and a stronger workplace culture. It also minimises downtime, helping businesses maintain efficiency during periods of transition.

Workplace consultancy at Peldon Rose

At Peldon Rose, we take a strategic, data-driven approach to workplace consultancy, helping businesses create offices that enhance productivity, collaboration, and employee wellbeing. One standout example of our expertise in action is our work with Vitality, where we transformed their office into a dynamic, wellness-focused workspace.

Reason for consultation
Vitality wanted a workplace that reflected its brand ethos: promoting health, happiness, and an active lifestyle. The goal was to create an environment that would energise employees, encourage collaboration, and support a hybrid working model.

Peldon Rose’s approach
Our team carried out a comprehensive workplace consultancy process, including leadership workshops, space occupancy studies, and employee surveys to understand their needs. We identified opportunities to improve space utilisation, introduce flexible working areas, and enhance wellbeing through biophilic design and wellness-driven features.

Outcome from consultation
The result was a vibrant, agile workspace tailored to Vitality’s employees. The redesigned office encouraged movement, fostered collaboration, and provided a variety of work settings to suit different tasks. By aligning the space with the company’s values, we created an environment that boosted engagement, productivity, and employee satisfaction.

In Summary

To recap, workplace consultancy uses data-driven insights to optimise office design and strategies. Combining leadership workshops to identify organisational goals, spatial and occupancy analyses to investigate workspace usage and employee behaviour, and surveys, interviews, and workshops to gather feedback on employee satisfaction and needs, we uncover actionable recommendations on space and working models, designing a new workplace that supports both business objectives and employee wellbeing.

If you’re ready to transform your workspace, contact our workplace strategy team to get started.