New Thinking About the Workplace

By Susan Young Hemphill, ULI Marketing Consultant & Writer. From ULI Newsletter, December 2013.

If you’ve worked on developing a company Web site you know that every design decision is fraught with import. Is it clean and easy to navigate? Are the images right? Does it communicate the right impression for your firm?

Yet too often a company’s largest branding opportunity- its physical office space-receives scant attention. In fact, no where is the culture of a company more apparent than in its office design. Not only does a corporation’s interior space make an impression on visiting clients, it makes an impression on recruits. And most importantly it has a significant impact on the productivity and creativity of employees. Every day.

Successful companies like Google and Facebook have figured this out Their spaces have gotten a lot of attention for their open architecture, disdain for hierarchy and frat-house playthings. And for the millennial techies who populate their companies, the spaces encourage creativity, collaboration and reinforce the companies’ forward thinking brands. These workers don’t need the pod-like privacy of cubicles; they respond to the spontaneous support and give-and-take that a more open workplace facilitates.

“Millennials are changing the way businesses use space,” said Kelly Ennis, managing principal of The Verve Partnership. “But many of those trends are applicable in more traditional settings. Co-working is a good example. The diversity of the workers and the casual nature of the shared environment create a synergy that participants find in invigorating.

“Co-working planning methodologies are being built into the corporate workplace even today,” says Ennis. The result can be versatile space that enables employees to choose how they want to work. Do they need a quiet place to draft a report or would interaction with others stimulate a fresh approach to a problem? Even for a more old-school business like law or accounting, more
flexible work areas are taking hold and proving to be popular.

For The Verve Partnership, all corporate interiors begin with design-driven discussions about the business, its brand and its
culture. And Ennis cannot emphasize enough the importance of understanding the business culture and internal workings before any floor plan is drawn. Solutions at TVP are agnostic, meaning the firm doesn’t come to a project with an established point
of view but delivers an original plan that responds to that particular client’s profile and values, each and every time.

A design should also be strategic and anticipate the future success of the business and a changing demographic in its workforce. “Some businesses make the mistake of thinking about he real estate and the furniture first,” says Ennis. “But there needs to be a workplace strategy in place. Then we can talk furnishings and color. As a colleague said, ‘Furniture is not he solution, it’s the application.”

Her advice to a business considering a “re-do” of their office space is to work with a workplace strategist or interior architecture firm. Although an office furniture rep will offer to develop a plan in-house, you will likely be fighting with
the space for years. Better to spend some time delving into your company’s culture, its values and the heart of its brand- your corporate gestalt. Only then can you arrive a a workplace that incites enthusiasm and loyalty and represents your brand essence for years to come.