Services About Contact

Workplace Strategy Consulting

Workplaces that work
for the people
using them.

We help global organisations close the gap between what their portfolio looks like on paper and what it actually feels like to work in every day.

Sites advised globally

180+

Our work spans commercial portfolio strategy, hybrid governance, and experience measurement, with exposure to FMCG, financial services, and life sciences environments.

We start with
the human
in the building.

Most workplace strategy fails because it optimises the wrong thing: the metric, not the experience. We work in the opposite direction. Understand the person first, then build the strategy around them.

  • 01

    Data without empathy is noise. We pair quantitative portfolio data with qualitative experience signals to build a picture that neither alone can provide.

  • 02

    Senior delivery, every time. Every engagement is led by a principal with in-house corporate real estate experience, not handed off after the pitch.

  • 03

    Built for your stakeholders. We aim to produce outputs that are legible beyond the CRE team: written with a wider audience in mind, and structured to support the conversations that follow.

  • 04

    No shelf-ware. Strategy only has value if it gets implemented. We stay close through execution, not just the deck.

Senior advisory.
Delivered remotely.

Advisory services

Workplace Strategy

Evidence-based portfolio and governance advisory for global organisations. Fully remote: we work from data to decision, connecting the numbers to the people and the strategy to the organisation.

01

Portfolio
Optimisation

CRE & Strategy

Most organisations are carrying more space than they need. Cutting blindly creates problems that are harder to solve than the ones you started with. We work from the data up: utilisation, headcount trajectory, hybrid attendance patterns, and lease events. The output is a portfolio recommendation that your CFO and your people teams can both get behind.

Who it's for

CRE leads and workplace teams who need to build a clearer picture of portfolio direction, and want the work to hold up when shared with Finance or HR.

What it requires

Access to lease data, badge/sensor utilisation data, and headcount forecasts. We will tell you what's missing and how to fill it.

Typical scope

10–100+ sites. EMEA, APAC, Americas, or global portfolios. From a smaller portfolio strategy setup to a global portfolio with external support to the existing team.

Typical duration

7–17 weeks for a complete portfolio review. Sprint-format diagnostics available for individual markets in 4–5 weeks.

What you get

  • Portfolio baseline — current state, cost per seat, space efficiency by site and cluster
  • Utilisation analysis — interpreted, not just reported
  • Scenario modelling — future options, with assumptions surfaced
  • Recommendation deck — written for a leadership audience, not a CRE audience
  • Implementation roadmap — sequenced by lease events and risk

02

Experience
Measurement

Research & Insight

Workplace surveys are broken. Most produce engagement-adjacent scores that nobody knows how to act on. We design and build survey programmes tailored to generate decision-grade data, structured around the questions your organisation actually needs to answer, with outputs that can be adapted to different audiences and levels of the organisation.

Who it's for

Workplace, FM, and HR leaders who want to measure the employee experience of the physical environment and make the case for change with evidence.

What it requires

An HR or comms channel to reach employees, and a clear view of what decisions the data needs to support. We scope and manage the survey workstream from there.

Typical scope

10–100+ sites across single or multiple markets. Survey frameworks are built to be adaptable to your organisation's context, scale, and tooling.

Typical duration

13–17 weeks end-to-end for a first cycle. Subsequent cycles run faster as the framework and methodology are already scoped to your organisation.

What you get

  • Survey framework design — questions and structure built around your specific hypotheses and decision needs
  • Deployment programme — communication plan, timing, and response rate management
  • Global insights deck — executive-ready synthesis across the full portfolio
  • Regional and site reports — granular enough for local action, consistent enough for comparison
  • Transaction analysis — for acquisitions, disposals, and refurbishments where experience data is material

03

Hybrid
Governance

Policy & Change

Flexible working is only as good as the frameworks that support it. Without clear expectations, consistent application, and manager confidence, hybrid becomes a source of inequity rather than a benefit. We help build the governance layer (policy, process, and stakeholder alignment) to give flexible working a clearer structure and more consistent application.

Who it's for

HR and People leaders navigating post-2020 flexible work commitments, RTO pressure, and the disconnect between policy intent and lived experience.

What it requires

Access to existing policy documentation, leadership sponsors across HR, CRE, and line management, and a shared view of the target model.

Typical scope

Single-market policy design to global governance framework. Works across unionised environments and multiple workforce segments.

Typical duration

9–21 weeks depending on organisational complexity and the number of stakeholder groups requiring alignment.

What you get

  • Current state diagnostic — policy gaps, inconsistencies, and manager confidence mapping
  • Target model definition — developed with your key stakeholders
  • Policy framework — written for employees, not employment lawyers
  • Manager toolkit — practical guidance for the people who have to make it work day-to-day
  • Governance cadence — how to maintain consistency and evolve the model over time

04

Activity-Based
Working Design

Strategy & Brief

Activity-based working only delivers value when the design is grounded in how people actually work, not a trend applied from the outside. We develop the strategic brief and ABW framework remotely, defining activity profiles, space ratios, and design principles based on behavioural data and stakeholder input. The output gives architects and fit-out teams a clear mandate to work from, without us needing to be on site.

Who it's for

Property, HR, and leadership teams planning a new space or refurbishment who want the outcome to reflect how their organisation actually works, not a generic ABW template.

What it requires

Access to people through remote workshops and surveys. We design and run the listening programme; you share the channel to reach employees.

Typical scope

Single-site strategic briefs to multi-market design standards. Works as a standalone advisory or as the foundation for a full design engagement.

Typical duration

7–13 weeks for a complete ABW brief and framework. Express versions available for projects with tighter lead times.

What you get

  • Behavioural insight report — how your people actually work, built from remote research
  • Activity profile mapping — the range of work modes your space needs to support
  • Space ratio framework — how much of what type of space, and the rationale behind it
  • Design principles — the non-negotiables that should govern every design decision
  • Strategic design brief — written for your architect and fit-out team to act on

How every
engagement
runs.

Not a methodology slide. The actual sequence of how we show up, what we produce, and how we stay close through delivery.

  • 01

    Scoping call

    30 minutes. We listen more than we talk. The goal is to understand what decision you're trying to make and whether we're the right people to help you make it.

  • 02

    Proposal and brief

    A short document that states the problem, the approach, the deliverables, and the timeline. We keep it concise and avoid filler.

  • 03

    Discovery

    Stakeholder interviews and data review, conducted remotely. We build a picture of the real situation, not the one in the presentations you've already made.

  • 04

    Analysis and synthesis

    We work with your data, your benchmarks, and our own. We look for the story the numbers are trying to tell before we start writing the narrative.

  • 05

    Delivery and sign-off

    Outputs are presented where possible, not just emailed. We walk through the findings and recommendations and remain available for follow-up questions.

Seen enough?
Let's talk about your situation.

We respond to every enquiry within 48 hours.

About WXS Partners

Built on the
inside. Practised
from it.

What we actually
believe.

Not the things consultancies say because they sound good. The things that shape how we scope work, what we push back on, and what we decline.

01

The person in the building is the unit of analysis.

Not the desk. Not the floor plate. Not the cost per sqm. Every portfolio decision is a people decision, and it should be treated as one from the first conversation.

02

Data is only useful when it's honest.

We don't frame data to support a conclusion. If the utilisation picture contradicts the real estate ambition, we say so. Clients pay us to tell them what's true, not what's comfortable.

03

Outputs are only as good as what happens after them.

A recommendation that doesn't get implemented wasn't a recommendation. It was a document. We care about what actually changes, which is why we stay close through delivery.

04

Seniority isn't a pitch thing.

We're not interested in winning work that someone else delivers. Every engagement has a named principal leading the work and accountable for the output.

05

Simplicity is harder than complexity.

Anyone can produce a 120-slide deck. The hard part is reducing a complex portfolio problem to the three decisions that actually matter. We try to do that, and resist the temptation to fill space with thoroughness.

06

We decline work we can't do well.

There are things we're not right for. Large transformation programmes with hundreds of workshops. Projects that require a permanent on-site team. We know what we are and we're honest about what we're not.

Why this is
different
from what you've tried.

  • In-house accountability, not consulting distance

    We've been the person who had to explain the recommendation to a sceptical CFO. That changes what you put in the recommendation.

  • Outputs written for the people who have to act on them

    Every deliverable is authored with a specific audience in mind. CRE decks are different from board papers. We write both, and we don't confuse them.

  • No team of analysts behind the principal

    The person you meet in the scoping call is the person doing the work. Not a project manager. Not a recent graduate with good Excel skills. The principal.

  • Cross-functional fluency, not CRE-only thinking

    Workplace strategy tends to fail when it can't be understood outside the team that commissioned it. We write with a broader audience in mind, and flag early when something will need translating for HR or FM.

  • European sensibility for global work

    Much global workplace strategy is designed in an Anglo-American frame and applied everywhere else. We bring a different baseline, which matters for portfolios that are genuinely global.

WXS Partners was founded on a specific observation: the best workplace strategy advice doesn't come from people who've only ever done consulting. It comes from people who've sat on the other side of the table, who've had to get a recommendation past a CFO, align an HR team that doesn't agree, and then live with the results.

Most consulting firms sell frameworks. We sell judgement. The difference is that judgement comes from having been accountable for the outcome, not just for the deck.

The name says exactly what we do: partnering in workplace experience and strategy, built for small to global organisations.

7+ years

In-house corporate real estate and workplace experience, coupled with consulting services, experience data research, and advisory across organisations of all sizes

98 sites

Global commercial portfolio managed as in-house lead, which forms the experience base for the advisory practice

4 continents

Active client work spanning EMEA, APAC, North America, and Latin America

Zero

Work we've handed off to a junior team without the founding principal staying accountable

Bernard Noël, Founder & Principal, WXS Partners

Founder & Principal

Workplace Strategy & Corporate Real Estate

BasedEMEA
BackgroundIn-house CRE, Leesman, FMCG
LanguagesEnglish, French

Seven years of doing it
before advising on it.

I spent seven years working inside organisations on workplace strategy. Not studying it, not presenting to it, but doing it. As Global Workplace Strategy Manager at Haleon, I led the Workplace Experience Survey programme across a 98-site global commercial portfolio, working closely with HR, IT, and FM as part of a broader stakeholder group.

Before that, I spent time with Leesman, which gave me a specific vantage point on what good workplace measurement looks like, and how rarely it actually exists. That experience, alongside consulting, experience data research, and advisory work across organisations ranging from fast-growth businesses to larger global enterprises, shapes how I approach every engagement.

That's what WXS Partners is built to provide. Not a report. Not a survey. A practice of evidence-based workplace strategy that connects the physical, the operational, and the human, and produces outputs that people actually use to make decisions.

What people say
about the work.

Get in touch

A direct line.
No gatekeeping.

Tell us what you're working on. We read every enquiry and aim to respond within 48 hours.

  • 01

    You send the form

    Brief description of the challenge is enough. We'll ask the right questions when we respond.

  • 02

    We respond within 48 hours

    Not an automated reply. A real response from the principal, with a view on whether we're a fit.

  • 03

    30-minute call

    If there's a match, we'll schedule a short call. No pitch. We'll listen to your situation and tell you honestly what we think.

  • 04

    Proposal in 6 working days

    A short, clear proposal covering scope, deliverables, timeline, and fee, within six working days of our call.

Preferred contact

Via the form — fastest response

Email

Bernard.noel@wxspartners.com

Based

EMEA

Tell us about your situation

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No automated replies.