Rethinking a work environment involves much more than installing a foosball table in a cafeteria or creating a new meeting room. Renovating or creating new office layouts raises the question of the type of spaces to be created, their number and the functionalities to be included. Far from the uniform open space of yesteryear, different living spaces need to be imagined.
The layout, divided into zones, constitutes a "menu" from which employees can pick and choose according to the needs of their activity, throughout the day. Thinking things through in-house, or calling on the services of a company specializing in office design, makes it possible to combine creativity with respect for employees' essential needs.
Before starting any redevelopment work, it's essential to find out how current teams work, as this is a prerequisite for the design phase. "We have to go through a phase of gathering requirements, as we always work on a made-to-measure basis", explains Philippe Savajols, President of the Isospace Group, specialists in space planning for the service sector, retail outlets and the hotel industry.
Wilco Poppelier, Global lead Workplace Strategy and Design at collaborative working platform Miro agrees: "It's all about listening to employees to find out what they need to get the job done!"
Do your teams tend to work in isolation? In silos? Is your organization individualistic or collaborative? Do activities require concentration or collaboration ?
In the first case, an organization comprising separate, isolated or even semi-partitioned spaces will be better suited to the activity, and provide a quieter environment. On the other hand, a task requiring teamwork will favour less partitioned office spaces or collaborative meeting areas. As Philippe Savajols points out, each team may have different needs:
"For example, for accounting teams, we'll provide meeting rooms with enhanced acoustics to ensure confidentiality. For more creative teams in open spaces, a cafeteria could be used as a meeting room for meetings without the need for screens."
A cross-functional organization with a strong emphasis on inter-departmental activities and brainstorming meetings will require large, flexible workspaces or creative labs. Does the department hold a lot of meetings? Frequent seminars? You'll need to provide the corresponding spaces, of sufficient size to accommodate face-to-face teams.
Lots of phone calls? Don't forget phoneboxes and other confidentiality confidentiality bubbles.
Finally, if the operating mode is hybrid, equipment equipment (webcams, screens, videoconferencing systems) will be required to enable remote exchanges with employees.
"There are metrics and rules to follow, for example when defining the number of meeting rooms required. But the most important thing during the needs gathering phase is first to understand the company's culture, its approach to well-being. You have to meet the customer, find out about the culture, analyze the look-and-feel of the website, for example," emphasizes Philippe Savajols.
There's no need to propose ambiences that are too disconnected from the company's identity, such as aggressive colors for a fairly sober company. Or austere meeting rooms for creative teams. A good initiative is to use the brand's color chart to propose a range of fixtures and furniture in keeping with its identity.
Launching a space redevelopment is also an opportunity to propose a different organization or ways of working, particularly from the point of view of managerial links. For example, a team of customer advisors in the industrial sector opted to break away from the organization of separate workstations for each product, and group them around a central island. This has enabled them to strengthen synergies between the various divisions and to pool certain activities. The proximity of all teams around a single manager also helped to make managerial links more concrete.
For companies wishing to calm down hierarchical relations, doing away with closed offices can be a way ofstimulating a new management style. A media group, for example, has chosen to install its deputy heads within the editorial teams themselves, in order to erase the statutory aspect of the closed office.
The Vinci Immobilier group has chosen to support the evolution of its businesses and its growth by rethinking its various spaces as concentration, meeting and reception areas in its new headquarters in Nanterre. A way of spatially anchoring the evolution of its businesses and the skills expected of them.
A law firm has redesigned its cafeteria, transforming it from a cramped enclosed space into a vast central island, to encourage exchanges and guarantee different moments of conviviality.
"We don't have the nerve to explain their work to the customer, but from the moment we have an intention, such as 'I want to break a few codes in my home, I want to break down barriers', we know what can work, and we support them in a spirit of design and change management", analyzes Philippe Savajols.
Thinking about work and meeting areas isn't enough. Creating welcoming spaces that you won't find at home is key, as the president of the Isospace Group confirms: "Offices have to be nice, otherwise people go home". Wilco Poppelier agrees: "My advice would be to start a conversation, explore and understand what employees need to make a successful day at the office."
"If you're going to flex, you need to offer decompression zones. Places of conviviality and exchange, but also zones of silence or siesta. At Free, we thought about a restaurant-cafeteria open 24 hours a day for their techies, which is important for employees who work different hours" Philippe Savajols.
Finally, if the office is open to external visitors, customers, prospects, buyers, shareholders or job applicants, optimizing the space dedicated to them is a real plus. More upscale meeting rooms, dedicated waiting areas with mobile charging stations, lounge areas, and so on. These are the kind of signature spaces that make all the difference.
Are you planning to fit out or redevelop your offices? Deskare can help you make your working environment evolve as you go along, by analyzing space occupancy data!
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