any given time. But much like Google, Deloitte had broader cultural
goals in mind when the company made the shift to flexible
offices, complete with workstations, phone booths, reading nooks
and more.
The reasoning for the office design goes like this: ideally, workers
with a range of backgrounds and experiences from different
areas of the company sit next to each other, discuss ideas and challenges
and gain company-wide knowledge from each other.
“I’d call it learning by osmosis,” said Cissy Pau, principal consultant
with Clear HR Consulting in Vancouver. “Let’s say you’re a
developer sitting in an open space, and you’re next to a graphic designer,
who’s next to a sales person. It’s a way of learning what’s going
on with their world and being more engaged in the organization.
You hear the challenges and maybe you can start contributing to
some of those discussions from your perspective, your knowledge.”
The plan isn’t without its drawbacks, though.
“It sounds like utopia, but without some guidance – and this is
where HR can make a real difference – it can be chaos,” said Pau.
PLANNING STAGES
It can also be a rocky transition for some employees, but starting
the conversation early in the process can smooth the path.
“Before employees walk in and find that all their desk space is
gone and they have no walls, you need to talk to them and say, ‘This
is what we’re doing, this is why we’re doing it,’” said Pau. “You need
to ask them what challenges they foresee and how those might be
mitigated. It’s all about change management.”
During the development phase at Deloitte, the project team
worked with one or two people from each area of the business.
“They told us what their typical days looked like, from a morning
client meeting offsite, followed by a few hours at a desk at
the office, then a team meeting, then lunch with a colleague, followed
by a confidential client meeting in the afternoon,” said Jason
Winkler, managing partner, Talent at Deloitte Canada.
Considering the details of how every part of the business functions
can help pinpoint what to include in a flexible environment.
Those in accounting, for example, may need more filing space for
papers and proximity to printers. Tech people may need space for
or proximity to particular pieces of equipment.
“People in HR, for example, aren’t going to discuss sensitive
topics like someone’s mental health issues in a wide open space,
so the planning needs to consider where those things will happen,”
said Pau. “You need to find ways to accommodate each person’s
different needs.”
SOCIAL SPACES
Beyond workstations, meeting rooms, readings nooks and other
productivity-focused areas, new flexible workspaces place an emphasis
on spots for socializing, as well.
“When I walk into the average Starbucks I see a lot of people
talking, working and connecting,” said Winkler. “One of the
things we realized when planning our new design is that many
of the spaces we had before didn’t really enable connections between
people the way we would like. The addition of social spaces
talent management
AN INCREASING
NUMBER OF
ORGANIZATIONS HAVE
TAKEN TO KNOCKING
DOWN WALLS, QUITE
LITERALLY, IN THE
HOPES OF SHAPING
A MORE INNOVATIVE
AND COLLABORATIVE
CULTURE.
60 ❚ MAY/JUNE 2015 ❚ HR PROFESSIONAL