Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Workplace Program Specialist

🎯 Role Definition

The Workplace Program Specialist designs, implements, and optimizes workplace programs that improve employee experience, enable hybrid and flexible work models, and ensure efficient, safe, and cost-effective use of real estate and facilities. This specialist coordinates cross-functional stakeholders — including real estate, facilities, IT, HR, procurement and business leaders — to deliver office moves, space planning, workplace technology implementations, workplace experience initiatives, and ongoing operations support. The role is both strategic and operational: it requires data-driven decision-making, vendor and budget management, and excellent communication to drive adoption of workplace policies and tools.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Workplace Coordinator / Office Coordinator
Facilities Coordinator / Facilities Technician
HR Generalist with office or onboarding responsibilities

Advancement To:

Workplace Program Manager / Senior Workplace Specialist
Manager, Global Workplace Experience
Real Estate & Facilities Program Manager

Lateral Moves:

Employee Experience Manager
Facilities Manager
Workplace Technology Product Manager

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Design, plan and execute end-to-end workplace programs that support hybrid work, flexible seating, and office reconfigurations, including timeline creation, stakeholder alignment, deliverable tracking, and post-implementation evaluation.
Lead and manage office moves, reconfigurations and seating assignments for multi-site locations by coordinating internal teams (real estate, IT, HR), external vendors (movers, AV technicians, contractors), procurement, and communications to minimize disruption and ensure on-time delivery.
Own the vendor lifecycle for workplace services — evaluate, select, onboard, manage SLAs, monitor performance, renegotiate contracts when needed, and ensure vendors deliver on quality, safety and budget expectations.
Drive the implementation and ongoing governance of workplace technology platforms (desk-booking, visitor management, space utilization analytics, room scheduling, badge systems) including requirements gathering, vendor coordination, configuration, user training and support.
Develop and maintain workplace policies, standards and playbooks (hoteling, desk allocation, visitor policy, hybrid work guidelines) and partner with legal, HR and facilities to ensure compliance and clear communications.
Serve as the primary liaison to business unit leaders to translate workforce and business needs into space and workplace solutions, balancing utilization, employee experience and real estate cost optimization.
Conduct regular workplace utilization and occupancy analyses using sensor data, booking logs and headcount forecasts to inform space planning, portfolio optimization and business case development for changes to real estate footprint.
Create and maintain detailed project plans, budgets and status reporting for workplace initiatives; proactively identify risks, issues and mitigation strategies and communicate impacts to stakeholders and leadership.
Lead workplace communications and change management campaigns for policy changes, program launches and major workplace events — including manager briefing materials, FAQs, training sessions and feedback loops to increase adoption and reduce friction.
Manage workplace experience programs including office ambassadors, community events, on-site wellness initiatives and amenity programs that increase employee engagement and reinforce company culture.
Coordinate with IT and AV teams to scope, test and deploy meeting room technology, collaboration tools and standard office AV setups to ensure reliable hybrid meeting experiences across locations.
Perform site assessments and condition surveys for new office locations and existing sites; produce recommendations for layout, ergonomics, accessibility, safety and cost-effective improvements.
Administer workplace budgets, purchase orders and invoice reconciliation for facilities and workplace-related expenses; partner with procurement and finance to enforce cost controls and optimize spend.
Ensure workplace health, safety and regulatory compliance by coordinating with EHS, building management and local authorities on emergency preparedness, accessibility, cleaning protocols and inspections.
Maintain accurate workplace documentation including floorplates, seating charts, furniture inventories, asset registers and vendor contracts to support operations and audit-readiness.
Support workplace-related onboarding and offboarding activities for employees, including orientation tours, access provisioning, desk assignment and smooth transitions during workforce changes.
Facilitate cross-functional working groups and steering committees for workplace strategy, real estate planning and capital expenditure prioritization; synthesize input and present recommendations to senior leadership.
Develop KPIs, dashboards and monthly reports on occupancy, utilization, cost per seat, workplace satisfaction and program ROI to inform continuous improvement and executive decision-making.
Lead pilot programs to test new workplace concepts (neighborhoods, touchdown spaces, collaboration zones) with measurement plans, participant recruiting, feedback collection and roll-up recommendations.
Manage procurement and installation of office furniture, signage and wayfinding; partner with design or architects to ensure brand standards, ergonomics and sustainability targets are met.
Support mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures by coordinating workplace integration activities, site consolidations and transition plans to ensure continuity and alignment with company strategy.
Respond to escalations and act as point of contact for on-site issues (facility repairs, security incidents, vendor disputes), coordinating swift resolution and documenting outcomes for root-cause analysis.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis related to workplace metrics and utilization trends.
Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap by advising on workplace data sources and integration priorities.
Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements for analytics or workplace tooling.
Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within cross-functional teams during workplace platform rollouts.
Provide backup support for facilities operations tasks as needed, including coordinating repairs, maintenance requests and building access provisioning.
Assist with sustainability and ESG initiatives by tracking workplace energy and resource metrics and supporting green office programs.
Serve as a workplace ambassador trainer and mentor; recruit, onboard and enable volunteers who represent workplace programs in each location.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Workplace program management and office operations: multi-site coordination, office moves, build-outs and seating models.
Space planning and occupancy management: experience with capacity planning, space utilization analysis and floorplate optimization.
Workplace technology platforms: hands-on with desk-booking, visitor management and meeting room systems (e.g., Robin, Condeco, Teem), and workplace analytics tools.
Vendor and contract management: RFP development, SLA management, vendor performance monitoring, and contract negotiation.
Project management methodologies: proficient with project plans, timelines, risk registers and tools like Asana, Jira, Trello or MS Project.
Data analysis and reporting: comfort with Excel, Google Sheets, Looker, Power BI or Tableau to build dashboards and perform trend analysis.
Budgeting and procurement: PO processing, invoice reconciliation, and budget stewardship for workplace and facilities spend.
Facilities and EHS basics: familiarity with building systems, maintenance workflows, workplace safety and emergency preparedness.
AV and collaboration technology coordination: basic knowledge of conferencing systems and AV requirements for hybrid meetings.
Documentation and diagramming: maintain floorplans, seating charts and asset inventories using platforms such as AutoCAD (basic), Visio or workplace-specific tools.

Soft Skills

Exceptional stakeholder management: able to build trust and influence leaders across HR, IT, Real Estate and business units.
Clear and persuasive communication: create executive summaries, how-to guides, training materials and change communications.
Customer-service mindset: proactive, responsive, and focused on delivering a positive employee workplace experience.
Problem-solving and decision-making: pragmatic approach with the ability to prioritize and resolve competing demands quickly.
Change management and facilitation: lead workshops, town halls and trainings to drive adoption of new workplace practices.
Organization and attention to detail: manage multiple concurrent projects with strong follow-through.
Collaboration and teamwork: work effectively with cross-functional partners and external vendors.
Adaptability and resilience: comfortable operating in ambiguous environments and adjusting plans as priorities shift.
Time management and prioritization: deliver to deadlines while balancing urgent operational needs.
Analytical curiosity: use data to form hypotheses, test pilots and iterate on workplace programs.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Human Resources, Real Estate, Facilities Management, Interior Design, Architecture, or a related field; or equivalent work experience.

Preferred Education:

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree with coursework in Facilities Management, Real Estate, Project Management, Organizational Psychology, or related disciplines.
Certifications such as PMP, IFMA (FMP), WELL, or LEED are advantageous.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Facilities Management
Real Estate / Urban Planning
Human Resources / Organizational Behavior
Architecture / Interior Design
Business Administration / Project Management

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

3–7 years of progressive experience in workplace operations, facilities, real estate, employee experience or program management.

Preferred:

5+ years in a workplace, facilities or corporate real estate role with demonstrated experience managing multi-site programs, vendor contracts, workplace technology deployments and change management initiatives. Experience supporting hybrid work models and using workplace analytics tools is highly preferred.