Hundreds of Health Department staff will trial a new office layout costing $7.5 million in fit-outs to the agency's main Canberra building.
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The department will refit a level of the Sirius building as it begins a refurbishment flagged when it signed a new lease keeping it in the Woden office block until 2035.
Nearly 500 staff, contractors and service providers will participate in the pilot on the building's ninth floor.
The Health Department will use the trial to plan a broader refit of the building, aiming to reduce wasted office space and to increase staff collaboration and productivity.
It expects to spend about $7.5 million on building works and $8.5 million on the pilot project.
A department spokesperson said it was working with staff to design the pilot floor plan, which would influence later decisions about changes to the workplace at the Sirius building on Furzer Street.
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"We expect it will include a variety of work settings to support different types of work, including where appropriate remote working," the spokesperson said.
"Based on a proof of concept pilot undertaken in the department's Hobart office, we expect staff will choose to use different settings for different tasks.
"Unassigned seating is potentially within scope for the pilot, however the extent of this element will be determined by staff participating in the pilot.
"We also expect the pilot floor will provide greater support for both digital and face-to-face collaboration, reflecting the importance of this element of the department's work."
Desks and collaborative spaces in the pilot will allow physical distancing and have signage showing occupancy limits.
The department expects to fit out the pilot floor in the first half of 2021.
Staff will plan how the floor will be used, including whether to include spaces such as quiet areas.
The pilot will shape the department's designs for other workplaces including outside Canberra.
"Once a direction has been determined, the department would seek to roll out new fit-outs over the next five years," the department's spokesperson said.
The Health Department flagged that staff in Woden were likely to have new, "flexible" workspaces after it signed on for another 16 years in the Sirius building in 2019.
It negotiated the new agreement with property company Mirvac six years before its lease expired at the office block purpose-built for the federal agency in 2010.