Workplace Strategy Consulting
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+
Portfolio sqm reviewed
6M+
Our work spans commercial portfolio strategy, hybrid governance, experience measurement, and cross-functional stakeholder programmes for listed FMCG, financial services, and life sciences clients.
We work across the full arc of workplace — from the strategic decisions that shape your portfolio, to the human-centred design of the spaces your people actually inhabit.
01
Workplace Strategy
Portfolio optimisation, experience measurement, and hybrid governance — evidence-based strategy for organisations managing complex global real estate at scale.
02
Workplace Experience & Design
Human-centred strategic design and fit-out — translating insight about how people work into spaces that are purposeful, identity-driven, and built to perform.
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.
Data without empathy is noise. We pair quantitative portfolio data with qualitative experience signals to build a picture that neither alone can provide.
Senior delivery, every time. Every engagement is led by a principal with in-house corporate real estate experience — not handed off after the pitch.
Built for your stakeholders. We produce outputs that work for Finance, HR, IT, and FM — not just the CRE team. Cross-functional buy-in is part of the brief.
No shelf-ware. Strategy only has value if it gets implemented. We stay close through execution, not just the deck.
Ready to talk about
what your workplace should do?
A 30-minute conversation is usually enough to know if we're a fit.
Our services
We work across the full arc of workplace — from the strategic decisions that shape a portfolio, to the human-centred design of the spaces that result from them. Each service line is deep enough to stand alone. Together, they are more powerful still.
Service line 01
Evidence-based portfolio and governance advisory for global organisations. We work from data to decision — connecting the numbers to the people, and the strategy to the organisation.
Most organisations are carrying more space than they need — but 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, Finance, and HR who need a shared view of portfolio direction — without three separate workstreams that reach different conclusions.
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
10–120 sites. EMEA, APAC, or global portfolios. Works alongside existing space teams or as a standalone advisory engagement.
Typical duration
7–17 weeks for a complete portfolio review. Sprint-format diagnostics available for individual markets in 4–5 weeks.
What you get
Workplace surveys are broken. Most produce engagement-adjacent scores that nobody knows how to act on. We design survey programmes that generate decision-grade data — structured around the questions your organisation actually needs to answer, with stakeholder-ready outputs at every level from site to global.
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 handle everything else.
Typical scope
10–100+ sites. Globally deployed in any language. Compatible with existing HRIS and comms tooling.
Typical duration
13–17 weeks end-to-end for a first cycle. Subsequent cycles run in 9–11 weeks with standing infrastructure in place.
What you get
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 build the governance layer — policy, process, and stakeholder alignment — that makes flexible working real for your whole workforce.
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
Service line 02
We translate deep insight about how people actually work into spaces that are purposeful, identity-driven, and built to perform. From strategic brief to completed fit-out — with the human at the centre of every decision.
Most fit-outs fail because the brief is written by the wrong people — facilities managers describing square metres, or architects guessing at how people work. We write briefs from the inside out: starting with behavioural insight, cultural identity, and how different groups actually use space, then translating that into a design mandate that gives architects and fit-out teams something genuinely useful to work from.
Who it's for
Property, HR, and leadership teams planning a new space, a major refurbishment, or a relocation — who want the outcome to reflect how their organisation actually works.
What it requires
Access to people, not just plans. We need to understand how different teams work — through workshops, surveys, and direct observation — before a single line is drawn.
Typical scope
Single-site briefs to multi-market design standards. Works as a standalone brief or as the strategic foundation for a full fit-out engagement.
Typical duration
7–13 weeks for a full human-centred brief. Express versions available for projects with shorter lead times.
What you get
A space should be unmistakably yours. Not a generic office with a logo on the wall — but an environment that communicates who you are, how you work, and what you value, without anyone having to say a word. We provide the strategic design direction that gives your chosen design team a clear identity framework to work within, ensuring the finished space reflects your culture and your people rather than a catalogue.
Who it's for
Organisations who want their workplace to reflect a distinctive identity — and who don't want to end up with the same space as every other company that used the same architect.
What it requires
A clear understanding of your culture, your values, and the impression you want to make — on employees, clients, and future hires. We help you surface and articulate this.
Typical scope
Works alongside any architect or interior design team. Can be engaged before, during, or after design team appointment.
Typical duration
5–9 weeks for a full design direction framework. Can run concurrently with the human-centred brief.
What you get
Fit-outs go wrong in the gap between strategic intent and practical execution. The brief gets diluted. Value engineering strips out the things that mattered most. The people who wrote the original vision aren't in the room when the decisions that affect it are made. We provide independent advisory throughout the fit-out process — keeping the human-centred intent intact from first fix to final handover.
Who it's for
Project sponsors, HR leads, and property directors who want someone independent in the room — focused on whether the finished space will actually work for the people who use it.
What it requires
Engagement at or before RIBA Stage 2. The earlier we're involved, the more we can protect. We can join mid-process but will be candid about what we can and can't do at that point.
Typical scope
Single-site fit-outs to multi-market roll-outs. Works independently of or alongside a project manager or employer's agent.
Typical duration
Full engagement from Stage 2 to handover: 10–25 months depending on project scale. Stage-specific advisory also available.
What you get
Not a methodology slide. The actual sequence of how we show up, what we produce, and how we stay close through delivery.
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.
Proposal and brief
A short document — never more than four pages — that states the problem, the approach, the deliverables, and the timeline. No filler. No methodology diagrams.
Discovery
Stakeholder interviews, data review, and site visits where needed. We build a picture of the real situation — not the one in the presentations you've already made.
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.
Delivery and sign-off
Outputs are presented, not just emailed. We walk your stakeholders through the findings and recommendations and stay available through the decisions that follow.
Seen enough?
Let's talk about your situation.
We respond to every enquiry within 48 hours.
Engagement models
We don't publish day rates on a website, because the right scope matters more than the right number. What we do publish is how our engagements are structured — so you can come to the first conversation informed.
Most enquiries start with a diagnostic and grow from there. Some clients need a single focused output. Others bring us in for a sustained programme. Both are fine — the scope shapes the model, not the other way around.
Focused
Diagnostic
A bounded piece of work with a single, well-defined output. Typical for organisations doing a first data review, pre-transaction analysis, or policy audit.
Starting from
£15k
Most common
Full engagement
A complete consulting engagement from discovery through delivery. The right model for portfolio reviews, experience measurement programmes, and governance design.
Starting from
£45k
Sustained
Programme advisory
An ongoing relationship for organisations running multi-year portfolio programmes or annual survey cycles that need consistent senior expertise across the lifecycle.
Retainer from
£8k/mo
Scope and complexity
Number of sites, markets, and stakeholders
A single-market portfolio review is simpler than a 90-site global programme. We right-size the engagement to the actual complexity — not a standard template.
Data availability
What exists and what needs to be built
Engagements with clean, accessible data run faster. If we need to help you establish a baseline first, that adds scope — but it's scope that matters.
Output format
Who the outputs are written for
A site-level report is different from a board-ready synthesis. We charge for the audience, because reaching different audiences requires genuinely different work.
Timeline
How quickly you need the output
Standard timelines are built into our scope estimates. If you have a board date, a lease event, or an internal deadline driving urgency, we'll tell you what that requires.
Stakeholder engagement
Interviews, workshops, and presentations
More stakeholders take more time. We always include at least one stakeholder presentation in a full engagement — additional sessions are scoped explicitly.
Repeat engagements
Previous clients work differently
When we've already built the baseline and know your organisation, we can move faster. That efficiency gets passed back to you in the scope.
Do you work with organisations outside the UK?
Yes. Most of our work is global or multi-regional. We have experience operating across EMEA, APAC, and the Americas, and we're set up to work remotely-first with travel scoped explicitly.
Can we start with a smaller piece of work before committing?
Absolutely. A diagnostic is a perfectly reasonable first engagement. Most of our long-term relationships started with a focused piece of work that established trust before expanding the scope.
Fixed fee or time-and-materials?
Fixed fee, scoped upfront. We don't send surprise invoices. If scope changes materially during an engagement, we discuss it before it affects the fee.
What's your typical lead time from first conversation to start?
Three to five weeks from signed agreement to kickoff. We can move faster if you have a hard deadline.
Who actually delivers the work?
A named principal leads and delivers every engagement. We may bring in specialist support for specific components, but the thinking and the client relationship stay senior throughout.
Do you work with organisations that already have internal workplace teams?
Most of our clients do. We work alongside internal teams, not instead of them. The typical reason for bringing us in is capacity, an external perspective, or dedicated senior focus.
Can you work within our procurement process?
Yes. We're experienced with enterprise procurement, framework agreements, and IR35 compliance. Tell us what you need and we'll accommodate it.
What happens after delivery?
All full engagements include 30 days of post-delivery availability. For clients who want sustained support through implementation, programme advisory is designed for exactly that.
Not sure which model
fits your situation?
Tell us what you're working on and we'll suggest the right entry point.
About WXS Partners
WXS Partners — Workplace Strategy & Experience Solutions — 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. Workplace strategy and experience solutions — built for global organisations that need both halves to work together, not as separate workstreams managed by separate teams.
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 — 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
Founder & Principal
Workplace Strategy & Corporate Real Estate
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, engaging with HR, IT, FM, and Finance as genuine partners rather than stakeholders to manage. Alongside that in-house experience, I've worked across consulting, experience data research, and advisory engagements with organisations ranging from fast-growth businesses to large global enterprises.
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. Most organisations are flying blind. They have space data, or they have engagement data, but they don't have a coherent picture of the relationship between the two.
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.
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 who is accountable for the outcome, visible to your stakeholders, and genuinely doing the work.
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.
Not a criticism of other consultancies. A clear-eyed description of where the gap tends to be — and what we've built to close it.
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 fails when it doesn't travel. We work across HR, IT, FM, and Finance — and we produce things each of those functions can actually use.
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.
If this resonates,
let's have a conversation.
No pitch deck. No introductory call with a business development person. Just a direct conversation about what you're working on.
Get in touch
Tell us what you're working on. We read every enquiry ourselves and respond within 48 hours — usually faster.
You send the form
Brief description of the challenge is enough. We'll ask the right questions when we respond.
We respond within 48 hours
Not an automated reply. A real response from the principal, with a view on whether we're a fit.
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.
Proposal in 6 working days
A short, clear proposal — scope, deliverables, timeline, and fee — within six working days of our call.
Tell us about your situation
Fields marked * are required.