Ministry of Defence Rationalisation of MoD Main Building

The MoD provides the defence capability for the UK and acts as a specialist training supplier for service people across all of the three armed services.

The Challenge

EventMAP were approached by one of our commercial partners to undertake a comprehensive utilisation survey of the MoD’s headquarters in Central London. In order to move towards the Government’s target utilisation for government departments, set to drive efficiency through increased occupancy, the MoD needed to initiate a process of estate optimisation. The MoD had scored poorly in previous surveys and needed to find a way to make significant improvements.

The MoD as a whole, was undergoing a significant period of transformation to align a vast estate portfolio with its current and future operational requirements in an effective and efficient way. The resultant change planned to deliver improved performance and efficiency across their estate through greatly improved utilisation and improved collaborative working – as well as establishing a cultural change within the whole organisation towards its attitude to resource and asset usage and requirements. EventMAP’s task was to accurately establish the accurate current utilisation, identify the potential scope of optimisation that was possible without impacting on operational abilities, and then deploy our workplace consultants to develop and manage the implementation of this the change and engagement programme to deliver the new optimised use of the building.

The Solution

The study used our proprietary techniques and software tools. The results of the study identified that there was an opportunity to better optimise occupation and, in fact, make sufficient space available within the building to make accommodation available for other Government departments, without impacting at all on the organisation’s current operations.

We developed a strategic multi-occupancy proposal that would generate significant cost savings and provide income generation via a paying tenant. The full analysis of utilisation data and engagement with key stakeholders clearly showed the scope for greater efficiency within the building – and with the help of a cultural change programme for the building occupiers the MoD could achieve a shared approach to accommodation use.

Following governmental approval, an implementation plan was developed to support the staff to work differently, including the implementation of the staff relocation and migration, which took place over a period of six months. At this point in the process, EventMAP’s workplace consultants took responsibility for delivering the communication, engagement and moves planning along with training and support to promote the cultural changes needed for successful programme delivery.