Post-occupancy evaluation: the other 90% | with Harriet Shortt

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Chris and Ian return to Blighty to explore a novel approach to the ‘post-occupancy evaluation’ (or POE) of new workplaces with Dr Harriet Shortt, Associate Professor in Organisation Studies at the UWE Bristol. Harriet and her collaborators used a participatory visual technique featuring smartphone photographs to explore the lived experiences of staff, students and visitors using their shiny new £55m Bristol Business School building. James then joins for a PinderPonder™ to discuss the value of POEs, fluffy research and novel approaches.

Whilst useful learning and evaluation tools in principle, POEs are often uninspiring exercises that only scratch the surface of workplace change initiatives. This visual approach found that only 10% of the findings replicated areas covered by traditional POEs, suggesting the huge potential for untapped insights from richer qualitative work. And all of this from two simple questions:

• How do you feel about the building?
• How are you using the building?

Timings

[00:00] Welcome to Workplace Geeks
[01:19] Introducing Harriet
[04:00] Harriet explains her work and this research
[09:44] Traditional versus alternative POE approaches
[19:04] Paradoxical findings, including pride and identity
[22:38] Open and closed
[27:22] Being open to criticism
[32:34] Demonstrating strategic value
[38:48] Impacts of visibility and transparency
[41:48] Practical advice for trying participant-led photography (PLP)
[48:18] The PinderPonder™
[63:52] Outro and contact us

Learn more

• The UWE POE project website (including the full report download) 
• Harriet’s personal blog / website
• Harriet’s book, ‘Using Arts-based Research Methods’ (co-edited with Jenna Ward, and featuring a chapter by Harriet and Samantha Warren) 

Email us with questions and feedback: hello@workplacegeeks.org 

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