identify new spaces that didn’ t have furniture. Also, the existing spaces that previously had furniture were cleared out completely for whatever reason we needed to clear out. We had a lot of internal movement. 80 % of the people in existing spaces were reassigned,” she said.
“ The whole plan was to make adjustments and better integrate the team. We wanted the core staff of each team to be together in the new configuration. On the Dean’ s side, the COM core leadership is housed, with the exception of MedEd and Student Affairs, whose leadership is housed on the other side in the new configuration.
On the other side of the space, we had the residency programs, plus the department chair,” she said. That freed up space, and the task of relocation and space allocation was less arduous as a result. The residency programs are housed on the Dean’ s side, with the exception of Pediatrics and Preventive and Social Medicine, which are located elsewhere on campus. There was enough space to construct seven new cubicles on the Dean’ s side, three more than prior to the new expansion. That decision was made to maximize working space and creating a more efficient, functional space utilization.
COM in the Cobb Building: A Remarkable Renovation in Record Time( continued)
progress made because the renovation process was about to begin. The space was ready for the construction company to come in and do their part. The next step included staff people to clean out their cubicles by the construction start date,” she added.
That staff worked from home became a factor in the decisions made about the ongoing process of streamlining COM operations. It allowed construction activities to be done quicker. If staff didn’ t show up, their belongings were boxed and labeled for retrieval later. Everything was tagged and assigned to the user.
Cobb Lounge became a storage area for things unclaimed: desks, chairs, and cubicles that the construction team dismantled.“ We were able to
Other dilemmas emerged. MedEd hired ten new curriculum coordinators, so the process of hoteling, a hybrid approach, was employed. Hoteling, as the term implies, allows employees to occupy space when it is available and encourages collaboration and the execution of taskwork more creatively. Pairings were based on which teams are compatible workwise with one another. Hoteling seemingly was a solution that allowed for COM staff to be on campus working together. The new work configurations were important based on the growth from 23 to 70 employees with the onset of the new MD program.
But given the time-consuming work of keeping track of staff access to available spaces at the given time allotted, true hoteling morphed into a hybrid approach based on individual department need and the capacity to accommodate staff needs. Now that all staff have returned to campus on a regularized basis, the ultimate goal is to reconcile teams’ schedules to match office space need with availability, with the ultimate emphasis on full utilization.
CDU College of Medicine | PG. 13