People, culture and identity in a co-location

People and change

Co-location projects share similar change characteristics to single agency workplace projects. Specific concerns that will impact people who are co-locating include:

• sharing space with other agencies
• security of information
• expectations around more cooperative working.

We recommend taking a cross-agency approach to change.

Each co-locating agency should also take responsibility for:

• additional communication channels specific to their agency, like the agency intranet, leadership forums, and internal alerts or newsletters
• any unique change initiatives that are being run in tandem with the relocation, such as moving to flexible working or major technology changes
• resource changes as a result of the lead agency taking over building support activities. This includes job description changes for business or building support staff as a result of the co-location.

Managing the workplace

Culture and identity

All agencies in a co-location should follow the Government workplace design guidelines.

A co-location workplace design should:

• avoid defining agency areas through look and feel – including through brand-specific statements, graphics or other imagery
• incorporate agencies’ artwork and taonga into the overall design
• treat customer-facing and service delivery areas in a coordinated way – but acknowledge the distinct brand requirements of each agency.

This may mean:

• creating dedicated transaction areas integrated into the overall design solution
• upskilling receptionists to deal with transactional queries for all participating agencies.

Branding, wayfinding and signage guidelines