Digitize mail and paper files so employees can read them from anywhere, put all furniture on wheels to encourage a team environment and provide alcohol swabs and cleaning services to keep shared phones and desks germ-free.

These are but a few of the "best alternative office practices" gleaned from more than 25 innovative companies and summarized in the new book Managing the Reinvented Workplace (International Development Research Council, 1996) by Cornell University professors and organizational ecologists William Sims, Ph.D., and Franklin Becker, Ph.D., with Michael Joroff of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"Scores of alternative workplace strategies are being used around the world and we wanted to know what these leading edge organizations are finding most successful," said Sims, who with Becker, directs the International Workplace Studies Program at Cornell, an international research consortium comprised of 17 leading companies in the United States, Europe, England and Japan.

To identify these "best practices," the researchers conducted surveys and in-depth interviews with professionals in companies experienced in implementing alternative workplace arrangements; these companies included AT&T, GTE, Sprint, NYNEX, Pacific Bell, IBM, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett Packard, Ernst & Young, Delta Consulting, Arthur Andersen, General Electric, DuPont, Shell, Amoco Oil, American Express and others.

The authors combined their findings with their own experiences and knowledge gained from almost 75 years of combined experience in consulting and research. Full of practical tips and suggestions, specific case examples, photographs, graphics, boxes, and lists, the book is intended for those charged with the ongoing management and maintenance of alternative workplace arrangements.

The book's chapters focus on managing five alternative workplace strategies: team environments, non-territorial offices, home-based telecommuting, telework centers and the virtual office. The authors raise specific issues that come up in the new workplace, summarize how specific companies have successfully coped with the issue, and then offer general strategies.

Most chapters in Managing the Reinvented Workplace include sections on creating a climate for success, reconfiguring the workplace, learning to work in new ways and lessons for facility managers. Topics include supplies, furniture and equipment planning, security, training, marketing, coffee breaks, filing and housekeeping.

The book follows up on to two previous books: Reinventing the Workplace (1995) by Becker and Joroff which focused on mapping the change process and was intended to help companies get started in reshaping the workplace; and Tool Kit: Reinventing the Workplace (1995) by Becker, Joroff and Kristin Quinn, which provided specific tools and techniques for facilitating the design of these new workplaces.

"There is good evidence that these workplace strategies improve employee performance, employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction while reducing office costs substantially," said Sims, who teaches courses in facility planning and management, and is the chairman of the Department of Design and Environmental Analysis in Cornell's College of Human Ecology.

These innovations also allow companies to attract and keep high-quality employees, which saves millions of dollars since the cost of replacing and training a high-quality/high performance employee can be as high as $100,000.

"Studies show that more than 60 percent of American companies are using some form of alternative office strategies and this trend is only going to continue," Sims concludes. "There will be no turning back because the multiple forces driving change are causing fundamental shifts in society and government as well as in business."