Wish you worked here?
An inspiring workplace has the power to boost our creativity. Rima Evans introduces a new book which takes a peek behind the doors of companies that believe their buildings need to be as innovative as their products.
By Rima Evans
The facilities management profession has long recognised the relationship between pleasant working environments and creative, productive and innovative organisational cultures. While dark, cramped offices are to nobody’s taste, the way many work spaces are designed is no longer merely about basic function; it’s also about projecting a brand identity, to both employees and the outside world, and about capturing the best from staff and their commitment to sustaining a competitive edge.
The idea that the workplace is a physical manifestation of a company’s vision, values and commitment to its people has been gaining momentum and is now encapsulated in a new book by Kursty Groves with Will Knight. I wish I worked there! A look inside the most creative spaces in business highlights some of the most imaginative and effective workplaces around the world, featuring big names such as Google, Nike, Bloomberg and the Lego Company.
‘I am a believer in creative process and am fascinated by the idea that environment, both physical and cultural, can make or break creativity,’ says Groves, a design and innovation consultant, adding that ‘physical space’ can actually be used as a tool in the creative process. For instance, Bloomberg’s use of art in its New York headquarters is stimulating but also offers time for contemplation. While at Google, the physical well-being of ‘Googlers’ is put before anything else, so that they are ready to focus on their work. Free food is provided and there are chill-out spaces with plenty of natural light. At the company’s HQ in Mountain View, California, there are swimming pools, while staff at its Zurich office can recline in a bath of foam blocks in the ‘water lounge’ (see FM World’s case study Search and enjoy).
Well-designed workplaces can even help to improve a businessÄôs results. At sunglasses manufacturer Oakley, for example, US sales figures rocketed after the firm moved to a modern, high-tech HQ.
Many of the offices featured in I wish I worked there! are overseas, but there are also several UK-based companies covered in its case studies, including Dyson, Innocent Drinks, Sony Music Entertainment, Virgin Management and Virgin Atlantic. Based on information from the book, over the next few pages we look through the keyholes of these innovative workplaces.
Dyson HQ, Malmesbury, Wiltshire
Despite initial rejection by UK manufacturers, James Dyson started selling his first bagless vacuum cleaner in Japan in 1986. Today Dyson is a global brand, with 2,400 employees and sales in 47 countries. The company’s HQ is based deep in the West Country. Built on the site of a former lighting factory in 1993 at a time when Dyson was the fastest-growing business in the UK, it’s now home to an expanded R&D operation and a customer service centre. Described as an ndulating steel wave, mounted on a glazed facade, the building is a clean, functional, highly engineered structure resembling the style of Dysons products.
Professionals ranging from concept designers to motor engineers are brought together in one big space in the building, which is known as The Cathedral. One notable feature is the concept areas’ — circular tables where teams can gather to discuss ideas. Indeed, face-to-face communication is encouraged by the huge atrium. This environment also supports its occupants’ efforts to experiment and find the right solutions, with more than 20 workshops and laboratories. There is access to ‘dirty’ workshops where technicians can test prototypes (‘test them, break them, learn from them’ as one engineer puts it). Other facilities include a ‘user course’ — an area mocked up to resemble a domestic living room, kitchen and bathroom, which is used for testing the usability of new concepts.
The facilities at Dyson support the entire creative process. When the engineers need some quiet time in which to seek inspiration, they can sit in the mock living room or stroll along a nature trail that encircles the building.
Innocent Drinks, Fruit Towers, London
The company was founded in 1999 by college friends Adam Balon, Richard Reed and Jon Wright with a mission to create ‘no nasties’ fruit drinks. It now employs 240 people in offices all over Europe. Fruit Towers’ exterior, an unremarkable unit on an industrial estate, masks a creative, unique and surprising space for 200 employees. The office boasts ‘huge parasols set on a field of AstroTurf that stretches throughout the 18,000 sq ft building’. This open-plan office has the ‘feel of an English village fair’ according to the authors. It’s furnished with picnic benches, table football and a traditional red phone box. It even has a ‘beer garden’ where people can meet or take a break. The humour of the environment reflects the company’s cheeky image.
For quiet time, employees can retreat to ‘hanging-basket chairs’ or a plain old sofa in the chill-out space.
The fundamental principles of Innocent’s workplace are to ‘keep things open, mix people up and keep them close to each other, but also give them space to escape’. To this end, people in the same department aren’t seated together: an HR professional can find themselves sitting next to someone from marketing or finance, say, and every six months there is a desk reshuffle. Only certain teams — IT, for instance — are kept together permanently for practical reasons.
‘Sitting next to colleagues from other teams gives you easy access to new perspectives and great brains. You can’t help but get involved and learn stuff that you wouldn’t ordinarily find out about,’ says Karen Callaghan, head of people at the company.
A development kitchen in the middle of the office is ‘the real hub of creativity’. It is surrounded by glass walls, which mean that activities are highly visible. Anyone can wander in and offer their thoughts.
The collaborative nature of Innocent’s culture and general accessibility to all employees means that innovative ideas are an everyday occurrence, not one-off isolated events. The fun, quirky and informal environment was made, suggested and designed by employees themselves, reinforcing the philosophy that, if staff are encouraged to add their own ideas, they are more willing to contribute to the business.
Virgin Management, The School House, London; Virgin Atlantic, The Base, Crawley
The Virgin Group is an international conglomerate of more than 200 privately held companies operating in industries ranging from travel and leisure to music and mobile communications. Virgin Management’s offices form the corporate HQ. They house, among other teams, the ‘guardians’ of the brand — managers who act as consultants to new Virgin ventures, with responsibilities including people, culture and public relations. Connecting people through the brand is an important aspect of the space and a way of reinforcing a cohesive brand personality and culture. Bold graphics are a distinct feature, conveying both the range of industries that Virgin covers and the firmÄôs sense of fun. For example, on one wall 3ft-high words exclaim ‘Screw it’ (a nod to Sir Richard Branson’s autobiography Screw it, let’s do it).
Meeting spaces are decorated to represent the territories in which the company operates — for example, Bollywood or Safari themes. When booking a room, a ‘random meeting generator’ suggests a different location each time to encourage staff to keep switching their surroundings. While the decor in the reception area and meeting areas is bold, the main working spaces are toned down and have flexible desk systems to hide clutter and help employees to concentrate.
Situated close to Gatwick airport, a building known as The Base houses engineers, crews and back-office staff from Virgin Atlantic. It also serves as a training facility.
‘The heart of the building feels more like an upper-class lounge than a training centre,’ write the authors. It contains a ‘town square’: a large communal space with facilities such as a library, a cafe, a travel agent and a beauty salon. This area, which has been designed to encourage colleagues to ‘reconnect’ and to evoke the excitement of flying, also features an aircraft and check-in desks displayed behind glass walls.
Sony Music Entertainment HQ, London
This subsidiary of the Sony Corporation of America is the world’s second-largest recording company. It runs one of the richest music catalogues in the world and includes labels such as Columbia, Epic and Simon Cowell’s Syco. Sony converted what was once the Barkers department store, a listed Art Deco building on Kensington High Street, to create a glamorous environment aimed at encouraging a more collaborative approach to working. It was an ambitious project: the existing 97,000 sq ft space required extensive work to convert it into a relaxed open-plan area that also maintained the individual identities of each department. But the resulting ‘Music Emporium’ achieved the right mix despite serious reservations about the open-plan design, which goes against the hierarchical nature of an industry where managers are usually housed in private offices. A balance has been struck between public and private, as well as between consistency and individuality. For example, there is a variety of meeting rooms, ranging from casual and relaxing for listening to demo CDs to more formal spaces for meeting suppliers and partners.
Each record label has an entrance and maintains its own sense of territory using colours, fabrics and furniture that reflect its individual style and identity. Quirky nooks in the building that would otherwise be unwanted or wasted are reserved for HR and executives. The new office has heralded several collaborative initiatives including an ideas scheme and ‘sounding board’ which acts like a ‘parliament for staff’. The environment has also created a more unified feel in the organisation and increased the level of interaction among its various departments.
Rima Evans is a freelance journalist and former editor of People Management, the magazine for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. I wish I worked there!A look inside the most creative spaces in business, by Kursty Groves with Will Knight, is published by John Wiley & Sons. A version of this article first appeared in People Management.
