We were contacted by the HR director of DaimlerChrysler Group (including the Mercedes Benz, Jeep and Smart brands) as the DCG's Milton Keynes based warehouse, repair and service facilities needed to expand onto land already occupied by their the HQ office function.

The board was divided on where the new HQ offices should be sited, with ideas ranging from the London outskirts (based on proximity to the City and Heathrow) to Doncaster (grants and incentives) or at a separate new site in Milton Keynes.

Our brief was to carry out a study to investigate the best location to collate and consolidate the various DCG office based functions in the south east of the UK. The new building/site would need to accommodate at least 2,000 group staff.

Phase One
The first phase of our brief was therefore to carry out 'like for like' comparisons of three possible locations already identified by DCG and measure them against the existing MK site. The locations were at Stockley Park (near Heathrow), Chiswick and the Dearne Valley in South Yorkshire.

To carry out this exercise we developed an agreed programme based on the following investigations:

• Digital GIS mapping to show (by DCG grade) where the MK based staff currently lived, as well as maps centred on each of the three location options
• Calculations of the likely attrition rates of the existing MK based staff who would be either unable or unwilling to work at the identified alternative location options
• Estimates of the likely numbers of staff willing and able to sustain a daily commute to any of the 'new' locations
• Estimates of the likely relocation costs of moving willing staff into the catchment areas of each location
• Estimates of the redundancy costs of those unwilling to commute or relocate
• Estimates of the overall recruitment costs, location by location, to replace staff who would be 'lost' as a result of a move
• Comparative income levels, skill shortages, unemployment, labour turnover/quality in each location
• Relevant socio-economic, socio-demographic and local information and data

The conclusions of the research can be summarised as follows:

• Dearne Valley would be the worst case scenario from the HR point of view. Overall HR costs of moving here would be circa £3.135m
• Stockley Park would be the least disruptive and least costly option and has a large catchment area – but travel to/from MK from here would be badly affected by traffic congestion problems. Overall HR moving costs would be circa £2.856m
• Chiswick would be marginally less attractive than Stockley Park and the area is generally badly affected by traffic congestion too. Overall HR moving costs would be circa £2.945m

Phase Two
As a result of our report DCG asked us to carry out a second and more detailed independent study to identify the best building, location or site for their new office HQ facility – but this time using criteria and objectives agreed by the whole board.

To achieve consensus we asked each director to list what their key criteria were (e.g., rental costs, staff attrition, accessibility etc) and compare their own list with everyone else's so as to produce mutually agreed criteria. However as there was still internal debate about how important each criterion we asked them to prioritise each one in sequence, through most important to least important. This would then enable us to provide both weighted and un-weighted conclusions when the research had been completed.

In summary, the criteria for the new location, site or building selected were as follows:

• Accessibility by road, rail, air and public transport plus congestion issues
• Within 60 minutes of airports with scheduled flights to Germany and the US
• Staff availability/quality within a 60 minute drive time catchment area
• Staff redundancy and recruitment costs etc
• Occupation and operational costs
• Quality of life for staff needing to move home to work at the new location

Action:

• We identified a lozenge shaped search area within which to investigate the locations, sites or buildings that could match the DCG needs of housing at least 2,000 office staff within two years
• Our research covered a total of 17 locations but this was whittled down to a short list made up of Coventry, Rugby, Milton Keynes, Northampton, Luton and Marlow.
• Each of these locations was then carefully reviewed in order to determine how they ranked against each other by reference to the other criteria selected by the DCG board – these included;
• Accessibility
• Motorways
• Main trunk roads and other main routes
• Congestion bottle necks
• Rail and tube services, frequencies, destinations etc
• Bus routes, frequencies, destinations etc
• Copies of local authority travel plans
• Airports
• Distances and travel times from locations
'Talent Pool' in the Catchment Area
• Local University and further education outputs
• Socio-demographic profile data now and in 5-10 years
• Availability of managerial grade staff
• Comparative income levels
Operational Costs
• Rents, rates and service charges for quality offices
• Distances and travel times from locations
• Commercial utility costs
• Quality of Life
  • Academic results from local schools
  • Nursery/crèche facilities
  • Unemployment rates
  • Incomes data
  • Crime statistics
  • House prices
  • Shopping, leisure, sporting, entertainment facilities

We then brought into play our in-house matrix analysis tools and reviewed all the options within the identified search area. The matrix then produced weighted and un-weighted scores for each location. This resulted in an overwhelmingly clear conclusion that DCG's new HQ office base should be situated within Milton Keynes but on a new and separate site.