Ep 03: Edward Novak of Delta Dental

In this episode: 

• “Hybrid, with a twist”: How Delta Dental encourages attendance without a mandate
• Why the company tore down its cubicles to make room for collaboration
• How “the Wednesday wave” changed workplace planning
• Why workplace leaders should think more like hoteliers
• Ed’s advice for the next generation of facilities managers

Meet Ed

Over the past 30 years, Ed Novak has watched the workplace evolve from rows of assigned cubicles to flexible, hospitality-driven environments designed around how people actually work.

With a background in architecture and design, Novak discovered the facilities management profession in the 1990s and knew that’s where he belonged. After leading real estate and workplace initiatives for Lam Research and consulting with technology companies like Google, he was recruited by Delta Dental in 2018 to help relocate its California headquarters. Today, he serves as Senior Corporate Real Estate Business Analyst, helping the company use workplace data to guide everything from hybrid policies to space planning.

As Novak puts it:

“It doesn’t really matter if the company is growing or not growing. As long as there’s something changing, there’s plenty for me to do.”

Hybrid, with a twist 

Delta Dental has been in business for over 70 years. While headcount has remained steady during Novak’s time with the company, the physical workplace has transformed. In his role, Novak analyzes security badge data, workplace analytics, and operational insights to help leaders understand how their teams actually use the office.

Our People organization has really embraced the idea of hybrid work. But our hybrid work has kind of our own little twist, which is: ‘Yeah, you’re hybrid, but we still want to see you.’ 

Companies that mandate that you come in for X number of days a week haven’t really been successful in doing that, or they have some other agenda. For us, we really look for ways to make the experience better. I think that’s what it’s all about.

Ultimately, it was a leadership change that cemented Delta Dental’s transition to hybrid. 

Once we realized that we were going hybrid, like so many other companies, it took us a few years to figure that out. Our former CEO kept saying in every quarterly meeting, ‘OK, next quarter we’re all coming back.‘

Then they announced that he was retiring and the new CEO at the first quarterly meeting said, ‘We’re gonna stick with hybrid.’ That tension lasted for a year or so. It’s really only been the last couple of years that this hybrid designation was defined.

Breaking down walls, building connection

As hybrid work evolved, the company also realized it had too many individual workstations and not enough shared space. They removed rows of cubicles to create flexible gathering areas, including a space large enough to host an entire 200-person quarterly meeting.

The flex space helped facilitate spontaneous interaction and knowledge sharing, adding more value to the workplace experience.

Maybe it’s because I’m a facilities person, but I’ve always been used to walking around the building, bumping into people and talking to people.

During the quarterly meeting, the place was packed. There were people who were new to the organization that had never met one another. There’s still a lot of value in people coming in and sharing information that you just don’t see happening remotely.

By looking at service request data, Novak could see just how many hours of manual labor went into adjusting work surface heights of the outmoded cubicles. The facilities team would reconfigure furniture and space, only to have to do it all over again when new employees came in with new preferences.

Seeing that visually really helped us go full speed ahead and transition away from old furniture to adjustable desks. It saved us a tremendous amount of money. I think open workstation cubicles are just a total waste. No one ever liked them. I really think that the amount of space that we have for dedicated seating is going to vanish. Hopefully, the infamous cubicle will die in our lifetime.

The hospitality mindset

Forward-thinking companies view the workplace as a destination rather than a requirement. That mindset shift is influencing the experience across Delta Dental’s sites.

Our account director at Cushman & Wakefield, who’s in charge of all of our FM sites, his background is in hospitality. He looks at our facilities almost like a hotel, it’s a concierge service. As people transition out and he brings people in, he’s looking at people with events and hospitality backgrounds. That’s becoming really, really important.

Right-sizing the portfolio

Since COVID, the company has reduced its real estate footprint by roughly 50%, but that wasn’t driven by sweeping cost-cutting initiatives.

Instead, the company took advantage of natural opportunities to reshape its portfolio as leases expired and owned buildings were sold.

We’re not doing anything too crazy. A lot of it is leases expiring. We sold our last building that we owned. It’s really just taking advantage of those opportunities where we can vacate space.

Riding the Wednesday wave

Office attendance used to be fairly steady across the week for Delta Dental. Now, Novak sees sharp swings that vary site by site, which makes space planning a moving target.

Now it’s a huge wave for us. With some sites, it’s Tuesdays. Others, it’s Thursdays. But for most sites it’s Wednesdays; that’s our big wave [of attendance]. And today, Friday, it’s kind of a ghost town here.

Novak points to desk booking data as the clearest tool he has for anticipating those swings before they happen.

Desk booking is a great indicator for us to look ahead and say, ‘We know March 10th is going to be a really busy day for us.’ You can forecast it and try to make sure we’re ready for that onslaught. But it’s always fun when that happens.

Advice to the next generation of FMs

Asked what he’d tell someone starting out in facilities management, Novak pointed straight to professional associations.

Look for an organization that you think you can learn from. But also look at associations, I’ve been a member of IFMA for 30 years. There’s a wealth of information you can gain through that. To me, that’s been the greatest education. Look at the FMP program, which is great for introductory classes for people getting into the profession, get involved with IFMA, and get certified. That will really help you in your career.