Heralding the future of work
Workplace strategy and design specialists Nicola Gillen, reporting from London, and Kelly Bacon, in New York, look closely at The Global House of Prestige Beauty, The Estée Lauder Companies’, new UK and Ireland headquarters to show how strategic workplace design and supportive change management can encourage creativity, support wellbeing and increase job satisfaction.
The world of work is changing fast; it is a thing we do rather than a place we go.
Advances in technology from wireless networks to mobile devices give us the freedom to work wherever we want — in the café, at home or anywhere in the office, with agile and flexible working playing a big part in attracting today’s best staff.
But the changes we’re seeing and what constitutes ‘good’ work transcend the digital and physical. Today, work needs to enrich, engage and work in harmony with employees’ family and social lives, beliefs and wants.
This is especially true for Millennials: born between 1980 and 2000, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) research suggests they will make up 50 per cent of the global workforce by 2020. This digitally savvy generation is showing signs of wanting more freedom and flexibility at work, is less interested in corporate structures and more concerned with having fulfilling careers. PwC research also shows that attracting and retaining these younger workers is one of the biggest challenges faced by employers today.
Employees are also dissatisfied: job satisfaction in the UK has reached a two-year low according to the results of a 2016 Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development survey, with one in four looking to leave their jobs.
So, how do you help people feel happy at work and drive satisfaction so you can attract and retain the best staff?
Our view is that driving workplace satisfaction and productivity isn’t just about the percentage uplift on the bottom line: it’s about creating spaces and cultures that people want to spend time in, be a part of and allow them to innovate, collaborate and feel — and do — well.
Our recent partnership with The Global House of Prestige Beauty, The Estée Lauder Companies, on the development of its new UK and Ireland headquarters (HQ) in London, shows how good and detailed strategic briefing and interior design can together connect spaces, technology, facilities and services to truly inspire employees to do well and spark creativity and innovation, driving workplace engagement and satisfaction.
In fact, seven months after The Estée Lauder Companies moved into its new office, staff workplace survey results show almost 90 per cent workplace satisfaction, up from 30 per cent pre-move.
Empowering positive change
The Estée Lauder Companies UK and Ireland HQ, London, UK
Located in the heart of central London, within the City of Westminster, One Fitzroy brings The Estée Lauder Companies’ 400 London-based UK and Ireland head office employees and around 20 brands together under one roof for the first time.
As workplace consultant on the project, we held discussions and workshops with The Estée Lauder Companies’ employees to understand the company’s people, workplace culture, current ways of working, future wants, needs and overall vision for its new workplace.
The workshop results were clear: The Estée Lauder Companies’ vision was to create a new home, designed with employees at its heart, that supports collaboration, creativity and innovation, and strengthens the company’s commitment to work-life harmonisation. Its new HQ also needed to be flexible enough to grow with the company as its people, technology and ways of working evolve.
This meant introducing new ways of doing things, such as going from anchored desktops to agile working and from segregated work spaces to open plan, requiring ongoing support to guide employees as they transitioned from new to old.
To ensure the new physical workspace matched The Estée Lauder Companies’ vision, wants and needs, we developed a strategic brief for interior designers MCM Architecture to base its designs on, followed by workplace change management and postoccupancy evaluation.
With such a strong sense of identity, it was important that The Estée Lauder Companies’ new space strengthened its brands, existing culture of wellbeing and its passion for inspiring and empowering women to feel well and look beautiful.
01. Managing change
There’s no doubt that workplace design can encourage positive employee behaviours. But if you lift people up and move them into a new environment without the right support, they’ll more than likely behave in the same way. Engaging and supportive workplaces only work well if the right conditions and initiatives are created and put in place to support new ways of doing things.
Working closely with The Estée Lauder Companies’ human resources and communications teams made it easy for us to connect in with the organisational change and the company’s inherent focus on employee wellbeing, to provide the ongoing change management and support it needed.
We also worked with The Estée Lauder Companies in the early stages of the project to develop a change and communications programme, including a welcome pack for employees that outlined the location and purpose of their new workplace spaces and a blog for sharing project information with staff.
Assigning employee change champions within teams gave staff a friendly face to speak to and ask questions throughout the transition.
02. Strategies to feel and live well
Wellness, health and happiness have always been important at The Estée Lauder Companies, and can be seen not only in its cultural commitment to work-life harmonisation, but also in its new workplace facilities.
Employees can book in for a range of express beauty services from manicures to blow dries at the inhouse beauty salon, while a contemplation room encourages employees to engage in quiet reflection, meditation or prayer. Subsidised gym membership, bike storage, showers and an event space designed to be flexible enough for yoga classes, talks, workshops and social activities, encourages healthy activities for mind and body; the building’s environmentally friendly, intelligent lighting system and temperature-controlled air improve employee comfort; and an in-house café with many healthy food options, barista coffee bar and two outdoor terraces make it easy for staff to eat well and make the most of natural sunlight during the day. It’s also introduced summertime hours, where staff can leave an hour early on Fridays during summer — a small but empowering change for everyone
03. From anchored to agile
Previously, every employee at The Estée Lauder Companies owned a desk. To reflect the company’s desire to better support its employees’ lifestyles and encourage work-life harmonisation, The Estée Lauder Companies has introduced agile working, where most employees use a laptop rather than sit at the same anchored desk each day, giving them the freedom to work across teams and locations, whether in the office, at home or elsewhere. Spaces for collaboration, concentration and one-onone meetings, coupled with seamless IT, let employees move around the office, while staying connected.
04. Technology as an enabler
Widely-connected technology and Wi-Fi at One Fitzroy gives employees the freedom to move around in the office. In line with The Estée Lauder Companies’ agile working, employees are encouraged to take up free desks in other neighbourhoods, empowering them to work in whichever brand neighbourhood best supports the work they’re doing on each particular day, be that concentrated, collaborative, with direct teams or across departments. For this reason, The Estée Lauder Companies’ has introduced a clear desk policy, with employees allocated individual lockers to store their belongings.
Staff report that new information technology including digital meeting room booking systems and tablets help them be more productive. A physical ‘IT Salon’ helpdesk lets staff ask questions and fix their IT problems quickly and easily, while also encouraging more face-to-face interaction across departments.
05. A sense of community and belonging
A big part of the project was about creating spaces that balanced The Estée Lauder Companies’ overall corporate identity with individual brands, while encouraging employee interaction and collaboration not only within teams but across them. It was also important to create a sense of identity and belonging for employees, especially as they would no longer ‘own’ their own desks. Physical brand neighbourhoods or hubs not only carry the individual brand personalities against the beautiful The Estée Lauder Companies backdrop, they also provide employees with a more collaborative attachment to their workplace. This fundamental shift from ‘me and mine’ to ‘us and ours’ encourages people to share knowledge across brands to spark innovation and build a sense of community.
Employees say they met more people in the first week at One Fitzroy compared to all other times in their previous buildings, and that they see a lot more of each other now, whether in shared spaces, brand hubs or over lunch in the employee restaurant.
06. Space to communicate
Previously, across The Estée Lauder Companies’ offices, there were few opportunities for chance encountering among employees. Staff needed to make appointments to see people, so communication was quite formal. Going from segregated work spaces to open plan means people can see each other and connect much faster. Chat rooms allow confidentiality and privacy; 50-plus meeting rooms and informal breakout areas with virtual conferencing facilities encourage creative communication; while collaboration spaces with high tables and stools for informal standing or sitting meetings encourage flexibility of movement and a chance for employees to engage in more interactive ways.