[Music]
I’m Larissa and I’m Aaron and I’m an
architect but I spent the last twenty
years of my life dedicated to designing
workplaces so today we’re going to talk
about whether or not trendy offices
really are great places to work and as
we mentioned I’ve spent 15 years working
in human resources but my primary area
was in really helping people understand
how to attract retain and develop the
best talent the design of workplaces is
becoming an ever-greater factor in the
consideration of people in terms of why
they might join a company or leave a
company and it’s not just a
consideration in terms of why people
might join or leave a company but it’s
also become a trendy discussion topic
and a lot of people now discuss this and
it’s regularly featured in standard
broadsheet newspapers magazines and
there are lots of articles online about
where is the best place to work what’s
the coolest office etc exactly and along
with design one of the other things that
were really seeing is that there is a
movement in the way that workplaces are
being defined and so what people used to
really care about when they were
applying for jobs for things like salary
and benefits but today those really
aren’t at the forefront of applicants
Minds instead they’re considering things
like will I find a work spouse here will
I be able to really engage with this
community and is the business that I’m
working in a place that’s actually going
to give back to the community that I’m
in so as Larissa and I were talking
about this topic I think that the place
where we really felt like it was
important to start was to understand
kind of the soul of the business because
that’s where it all begins and for us
that’s company culture and so when we
think about defining company culture we
quite simply think that it’s actually
the personality of an organization and
so a personality of an organization is
actually not really developed from the
top down it comes from everyone that’s
in the company so each person that comes
in or leaves the organization can
actually change that culture a little
so as we think about some of the things
that really make a great place to work
one of the first things that we think
about is community so people want to be
able to go into an office space where
they feel like they’re able to work with
people and that the people that they’re
working alongside with are carrying
weight the way that they are that
they’re is engaged as they are and that
they’re all making a difference together
now this can actually be something that
is a little bit difficult to maintain
but there’s an organization that does an
excellent job of this
so Zappos which is a subsidiary of
Amazon actually has a really unique
policy called the pay to quit policy so
once a year they’ll actually pull their
employees and they’ll make them consider
their level of engagement and there’s
their level of positivity towards the
organization and if upon that
self-evaluation an employee finds that
they really aren’t engaged anymore
they’ll actually pay the people to leave
the company now it might sound a little
bit crazy but when they’ve done the
research and they’ve thought about the
detrimental impact of disengagement and
lack of positivity that happens to the
overall organization they feel like it’s
something that’s very much worthwhile
the next one is trusted leadership so I
think that as humans it’s really
important for us all to understand where
we’re going and why it’s exactly the
same in an organization you have to be
able to set the vision for the company
and then make sure that people
understand where you’re going so having
an exciting destination for employees
and then a really well thought through
road map are very key things in order to
keep people engaged what’s even better
is if you can do an excellent job of
communicating that to your employees I
think it’s also important from a
leadership perspective because the
leaders are essentially the people who
will sign off on the procurement or the
construction of the workplace and
therefore employees have to trust their
leaders to build them an environment
that is good for them for eight to ten
to twelve hours a day so then what
really rounds out a company culture is
opportunity so opportunities for
individuals to be
able to really grow within the
organization people are very concerned
with professional development these days
so making sure that employees know that
we’ve got the roadmap for the
organization and I know how I play into
that and how I can continue to grow as
an individual our importance one of my
former clients is Estee Lauder companies
and they have a really unique way of
doing this it’s a huge global
organization with people that are all
different levels right so you have like
the beauty advisers that are working at
the Clinique counter and then you have
trainers that come in from the different
brands to help them as well as the
c-suite leaders it was really difficult
for them to find exact ways to develop
those people so they implemented a
leadership from every chair approach
meaning that each individual person is
in charge of their own personal and
professional development it actually is
very empowering to the employees because
they know that they can actually set
their own roadmap for how they want to
grow as individuals and then work with
their leaders to do this so a lot of the
things we talked about are really
important you know we do also consider
design importance but one of the things
that can happen in an overly designed
place or a place that has such a strong
aesthetic is it can actually be
disengaging or disenfranchising to some
people an organization that takes really
good notice of this and make sure that
they don’t let that happen
is actually the ritz-carlton hotel
company so when their founder Horst
Schultz he established the company he
wanted to make sure that the ladies and
gentlemen that were working there felt
comfortable in these beautiful buildings
he didn’t just want to create gorgeous
hotels he wanted to make sure that there
was an amazing service experience for
the guests that stayed there so he
ensured that the areas that the staff
work in were well designed and worked
well for them and then he also
implemented the mantra of ladies and
gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen
and what this actually did was it made
the staff peers with the guests so it
enabled them to interact with them on a
different level and it also ensured that
the staff was always comfortable working
in a luxury setting I think this picture
is a really good example of why a
workplace can
we contribute or a culture can
contribute to a space this is an example
of a digital agency and what’s really
really interesting about this is one
employee the employees were great the
culture was great so when you get that
right that’s fantastic but they were
sick of the environment they worked in
they were tired of the white walls so
one employee took it upon himself to
change this and he in his own personal
time pixelated superheroes and then
asked the company give me some money to
buy some post-it notes some glue and
some markers and he encouraged his whole
team to redecorate the office for me
this is good design this is good
workplace because it brings people
together and it brings the environment
together to create an environment that
people will be happy in so other than
this how else can workplace design
contribute well workplace design is
great in terms of how it can contribute
to creating a culture as Erin mentioned
but what is important that we have to
remember who we are because so often I
work with clients and they come to me
and they say we’ve just seen this
picture of this workplace we want our
workplace to look just like that I think
that’s great but is that you you know if
it was a person and you had somebody
come to you as a plastic surgeon saying
I want to look just like this supermodel
you know would everyone think that was a
little strange just a bit but in the
world of corporate workplace that seems
okay you know it and that’s
unfortunately the reality of things
because people have to go on what they
see and it’s a very visually dread thing
piñon what happens is the management
have these great ideas of who they are
or who they like to be or which other
company they would like to be but they
forget in that who they really are and
the question I often ask is have you
asked the employees and the answer is
inevitably why would we do that oh
they’ll just give you loads of different
answers and make no sense but the
reality is to create a good workplace it
really has to
of who the people are who the company
are who the code what the culture there
is so what we really need to focus on is
what employers really want and the
reality is only 3% of employees want a
trendy funky office with slides and
other weird features that aren’t really
functional about 12% want some where
they can go and relax and get this map
if they need to but 38% really care
about the quality of the coffee you know
so why are we spending our money and
what should we be doing the other thing
that I think is really important is
about giving people control so I’m sure
you’ve all been in a situation or has
there any been anybody in the situation
where they have felt out of control and
it doesn’t feel comfortable does it so I
think it’s very interesting then when we
look at workplace why we take more and
more control away from the people that
occupy it as technology evolves we
develop new technology to take yet more
control away has anyone in this room or
does anyone in this room work in an
office where they frequently find
themselves too cold oh my gosh a lot of
me and can you change that can you
change the temperature can you make it
better can you make it comfortable for
you do any of you work in an environment
where the lighting is too bright or it’s
too dim can you change that so are we
really creating workplaces that are
comfortable for people and you know
people are so much more productive if
they’re happy and if they’re comfortable
so why are we doing this ultimately to
create a good workplace that fosters a
good culture it needs to be a place
people want to be how many people in
this room wake up in the morning I think
I can’t wait to get to the office so us
designers are going a bit wrong a couple
of people but yeah I think you know so
we need to try harder at this and the
interesting thing is if we don’t as
designers acknowledge it people will do
it for themselves so as a designer once
upon a time I
really hated people they were a massive
inconvenience in my world they ruined my
designs wholeheartedly ruin them I would
make something slick and beautiful in
one example I designed this amazing
utility point where they keep printers
and stuff and when I returned to do
defects the occupants had turned it into
a Hawaiian bar
can you imagine my dismay had paper
pasted all over it I was just like oh my
god so you know this is what happens now
I’m a changed person and I realize the
reason they do this is to make it
comfortable for them and so as a
designer I need to learn from this and I
need to engage more with the people
understand what makes them comfortable
and make it good for them
so then thinking about these two things
how do we create a great place to work
so the number one thing that you can do
is really listen to people ask them what
they care about and then actually try to
implement it at the end of the day we
have to forget this model of one size
fits all we can’t put every human being
in a box in an office and expect them to
perform we’re all different the next
thing is we really have to remember that
offices are communities right it’s
communal space and what really drives
innovation are people that can actually
work together effectively and as part of
that the designer has to become part of
that community understanding the
community and working with them and
engaging with the people that form that
community and the other thing that we
really have to make sure we’re doing is
we have to communicate so a big part of
the listening piece is when we hear what
people have to say but as businesses we
decide we’re sorry we just can’t do that
change that you want right now because
of budget or some constriction like that
we have to make sure that we’re
communicating that to people if we’re
asking them for feedback or for input
and then never giving them any feedback
on the input that they’ve given us
they’ll eventually stop giving their
input that’s very true but also in terms
of creating a space that supports that
because how do you create a sport their
space that supports communication we
love this idea of taking everybody out
of their offices and dump them in
open-plan and yes that’s a great idea
because people shut away in offices in
isolation all right
communicating but this idea of a
warehouse with endless seas of space
makes people feel insecure on a show on
edge so we really have to think about
the scalability of open spaces
communities happen best when there’s
small groups of people coming together
so we really need to scale the space to
the size of the communities and then the
final thing is really considering how
we’re spending the money and so if we’re
spending money on trendy things instead
of what can really benefit the the
employees we’re probably doing the wrong
thing I’ve worked with organizations
that actually spent more money on
flowers and their businesses than
people’s development in learning
platforms I think this is a great
picture to emphasize the point I’m sure
we can probably all guess whose office
this is but do you miss something in
this picture what’s missing this is an
office know people and yes it’s
beautiful look at all these stunning
wonderful features that make a part of
this office so the company have
obviously spent a fortune they’ve bought
brand-new Vespas just to turn them into
chairs great expenditure on the right
things this is the same office this is
where the people work so really our
company spending money on the right
places yeah and I mean when we think
about it it is actually important that
there is an attractive place to work I’m
we personally believe that the design of
the office isn’t really going to be the
main thing that drives the company
culture at the end of the day it is the
people I think that’s very true but if
the people are miserable because they’re
uncomfortable then it’s very very
important that the environment supports
them and makes them happy a good
workplace should really feel like a
comfortable pair of shoes they should
make you feel good they should make you
feel excited and happy to be wearing
them it should be like your favorite
item of clothing it should fit and feel
good and the trendy offices you can walk
in and they might make you say wow and
that’s actually great for attracting
people because that is an important part
right it’s making sure that people want
to come into that space and it could be
great for PR opportunities as well these
are all things that we recognize are
important when it comes to actually
getting people into the space but as
Larissa said
it really is about what keeps them there
which is more on the side of comfort
yeah it’s a more long-term approach and
really in order to take a long-term
approach I think we really need to be
more considered about what we’re doing
and more engaging with the people that
occupy the space so that we really think
about what is going to look good feel
good and work so there are a lot of
aspects to what we need to do to make a
great place to work
because at the end of the day the goal
really is to retain develop people and
make sure that we’re growing the
organization this is another great
example this is an example that I love
because as a designer it’s perfect it’s
flawless everything is in the right
place everything looks great again
what’s missing
so I think as designers we really need
to start thinking about this and I think
our conclusion is that ultimately to
create a great place to work and the
problem is if we’re following trends or
fashions or if trends and fashion
dominate then culture and people can
really suffer
you
I’m Larissa and I’m Aaron and I’m an
architect but I spent the last twenty
years of my life dedicated to designing
workplaces so today we’re going to talk
about whether or not trendy offices
really are great places to work and as
we mentioned I’ve spent 15 years working
in human resources but my primary area
was in really helping people understand
how to attract retain and develop the
best talent the design of workplaces is
becoming an ever-greater factor in the
consideration of people in terms of why
they might join a company or leave a
company and it’s not just a
consideration in terms of why people
might join or leave a company but it’s
also become a trendy discussion topic
and a lot of people now discuss this and
it’s regularly featured in standard
broadsheet newspapers magazines and
there are lots of articles online about
where is the best place to work what’s
the coolest office etc exactly and along
with design one of the other things that
were really seeing is that there is a
movement in the way that workplaces are
being defined and so what people used to
really care about when they were
applying for jobs for things like salary
and benefits but today those really
aren’t at the forefront of applicants
Minds instead they’re considering things
like will I find a work spouse here will
I be able to really engage with this
community and is the business that I’m
working in a place that’s actually going
to give back to the community that I’m
in so as Larissa and I were talking
about this topic I think that the place
where we really felt like it was
important to start was to understand
kind of the soul of the business because
that’s where it all begins and for us
that’s company culture and so when we
think about defining company culture we
quite simply think that it’s actually
the personality of an organization and
so a personality of an organization is
actually not really developed from the
top down it comes from everyone that’s
in the company so each person that comes
in or leaves the organization can
actually change that culture a little
so as we think about some of the things
that really make a great place to work
one of the first things that we think
about is community so people want to be
able to go into an office space where
they feel like they’re able to work with
people and that the people that they’re
working alongside with are carrying
weight the way that they are that
they’re is engaged as they are and that
they’re all making a difference together
now this can actually be something that
is a little bit difficult to maintain
but there’s an organization that does an
excellent job of this
so Zappos which is a subsidiary of
Amazon actually has a really unique
policy called the pay to quit policy so
once a year they’ll actually pull their
employees and they’ll make them consider
their level of engagement and there’s
their level of positivity towards the
organization and if upon that
self-evaluation an employee finds that
they really aren’t engaged anymore
they’ll actually pay the people to leave
the company now it might sound a little
bit crazy but when they’ve done the
research and they’ve thought about the
detrimental impact of disengagement and
lack of positivity that happens to the
overall organization they feel like it’s
something that’s very much worthwhile
the next one is trusted leadership so I
think that as humans it’s really
important for us all to understand where
we’re going and why it’s exactly the
same in an organization you have to be
able to set the vision for the company
and then make sure that people
understand where you’re going so having
an exciting destination for employees
and then a really well thought through
road map are very key things in order to
keep people engaged what’s even better
is if you can do an excellent job of
communicating that to your employees I
think it’s also important from a
leadership perspective because the
leaders are essentially the people who
will sign off on the procurement or the
construction of the workplace and
therefore employees have to trust their
leaders to build them an environment
that is good for them for eight to ten
to twelve hours a day so then what
really rounds out a company culture is
opportunity so opportunities for
individuals to be
able to really grow within the
organization people are very concerned
with professional development these days
so making sure that employees know that
we’ve got the roadmap for the
organization and I know how I play into
that and how I can continue to grow as
an individual our importance one of my
former clients is Estee Lauder companies
and they have a really unique way of
doing this it’s a huge global
organization with people that are all
different levels right so you have like
the beauty advisers that are working at
the Clinique counter and then you have
trainers that come in from the different
brands to help them as well as the
c-suite leaders it was really difficult
for them to find exact ways to develop
those people so they implemented a
leadership from every chair approach
meaning that each individual person is
in charge of their own personal and
professional development it actually is
very empowering to the employees because
they know that they can actually set
their own roadmap for how they want to
grow as individuals and then work with
their leaders to do this so a lot of the
things we talked about are really
important you know we do also consider
design importance but one of the things
that can happen in an overly designed
place or a place that has such a strong
aesthetic is it can actually be
disengaging or disenfranchising to some
people an organization that takes really
good notice of this and make sure that
they don’t let that happen
is actually the ritz-carlton hotel
company so when their founder Horst
Schultz he established the company he
wanted to make sure that the ladies and
gentlemen that were working there felt
comfortable in these beautiful buildings
he didn’t just want to create gorgeous
hotels he wanted to make sure that there
was an amazing service experience for
the guests that stayed there so he
ensured that the areas that the staff
work in were well designed and worked
well for them and then he also
implemented the mantra of ladies and
gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen
and what this actually did was it made
the staff peers with the guests so it
enabled them to interact with them on a
different level and it also ensured that
the staff was always comfortable working
in a luxury setting I think this picture
is a really good example of why a
workplace can
we contribute or a culture can
contribute to a space this is an example
of a digital agency and what’s really
really interesting about this is one
employee the employees were great the
culture was great so when you get that
right that’s fantastic but they were
sick of the environment they worked in
they were tired of the white walls so
one employee took it upon himself to
change this and he in his own personal
time pixelated superheroes and then
asked the company give me some money to
buy some post-it notes some glue and
some markers and he encouraged his whole
team to redecorate the office for me
this is good design this is good
workplace because it brings people
together and it brings the environment
together to create an environment that
people will be happy in so other than
this how else can workplace design
contribute well workplace design is
great in terms of how it can contribute
to creating a culture as Erin mentioned
but what is important that we have to
remember who we are because so often I
work with clients and they come to me
and they say we’ve just seen this
picture of this workplace we want our
workplace to look just like that I think
that’s great but is that you you know if
it was a person and you had somebody
come to you as a plastic surgeon saying
I want to look just like this supermodel
you know would everyone think that was a
little strange just a bit but in the
world of corporate workplace that seems
okay you know it and that’s
unfortunately the reality of things
because people have to go on what they
see and it’s a very visually dread thing
piñon what happens is the management
have these great ideas of who they are
or who they like to be or which other
company they would like to be but they
forget in that who they really are and
the question I often ask is have you
asked the employees and the answer is
inevitably why would we do that oh
they’ll just give you loads of different
answers and make no sense but the
reality is to create a good workplace it
really has to
of who the people are who the company
are who the code what the culture there
is so what we really need to focus on is
what employers really want and the
reality is only 3% of employees want a
trendy funky office with slides and
other weird features that aren’t really
functional about 12% want some where
they can go and relax and get this map
if they need to but 38% really care
about the quality of the coffee you know
so why are we spending our money and
what should we be doing the other thing
that I think is really important is
about giving people control so I’m sure
you’ve all been in a situation or has
there any been anybody in the situation
where they have felt out of control and
it doesn’t feel comfortable does it so I
think it’s very interesting then when we
look at workplace why we take more and
more control away from the people that
occupy it as technology evolves we
develop new technology to take yet more
control away has anyone in this room or
does anyone in this room work in an
office where they frequently find
themselves too cold oh my gosh a lot of
me and can you change that can you
change the temperature can you make it
better can you make it comfortable for
you do any of you work in an environment
where the lighting is too bright or it’s
too dim can you change that so are we
really creating workplaces that are
comfortable for people and you know
people are so much more productive if
they’re happy and if they’re comfortable
so why are we doing this ultimately to
create a good workplace that fosters a
good culture it needs to be a place
people want to be how many people in
this room wake up in the morning I think
I can’t wait to get to the office so us
designers are going a bit wrong a couple
of people but yeah I think you know so
we need to try harder at this and the
interesting thing is if we don’t as
designers acknowledge it people will do
it for themselves so as a designer once
upon a time I
really hated people they were a massive
inconvenience in my world they ruined my
designs wholeheartedly ruin them I would
make something slick and beautiful in
one example I designed this amazing
utility point where they keep printers
and stuff and when I returned to do
defects the occupants had turned it into
a Hawaiian bar
can you imagine my dismay had paper
pasted all over it I was just like oh my
god so you know this is what happens now
I’m a changed person and I realize the
reason they do this is to make it
comfortable for them and so as a
designer I need to learn from this and I
need to engage more with the people
understand what makes them comfortable
and make it good for them
so then thinking about these two things
how do we create a great place to work
so the number one thing that you can do
is really listen to people ask them what
they care about and then actually try to
implement it at the end of the day we
have to forget this model of one size
fits all we can’t put every human being
in a box in an office and expect them to
perform we’re all different the next
thing is we really have to remember that
offices are communities right it’s
communal space and what really drives
innovation are people that can actually
work together effectively and as part of
that the designer has to become part of
that community understanding the
community and working with them and
engaging with the people that form that
community and the other thing that we
really have to make sure we’re doing is
we have to communicate so a big part of
the listening piece is when we hear what
people have to say but as businesses we
decide we’re sorry we just can’t do that
change that you want right now because
of budget or some constriction like that
we have to make sure that we’re
communicating that to people if we’re
asking them for feedback or for input
and then never giving them any feedback
on the input that they’ve given us
they’ll eventually stop giving their
input that’s very true but also in terms
of creating a space that supports that
because how do you create a sport their
space that supports communication we
love this idea of taking everybody out
of their offices and dump them in
open-plan and yes that’s a great idea
because people shut away in offices in
isolation all right
communicating but this idea of a
warehouse with endless seas of space
makes people feel insecure on a show on
edge so we really have to think about
the scalability of open spaces
communities happen best when there’s
small groups of people coming together
so we really need to scale the space to
the size of the communities and then the
final thing is really considering how
we’re spending the money and so if we’re
spending money on trendy things instead
of what can really benefit the the
employees we’re probably doing the wrong
thing I’ve worked with organizations
that actually spent more money on
flowers and their businesses than
people’s development in learning
platforms I think this is a great
picture to emphasize the point I’m sure
we can probably all guess whose office
this is but do you miss something in
this picture what’s missing this is an
office know people and yes it’s
beautiful look at all these stunning
wonderful features that make a part of
this office so the company have
obviously spent a fortune they’ve bought
brand-new Vespas just to turn them into
chairs great expenditure on the right
things this is the same office this is
where the people work so really our
company spending money on the right
places yeah and I mean when we think
about it it is actually important that
there is an attractive place to work I’m
we personally believe that the design of
the office isn’t really going to be the
main thing that drives the company
culture at the end of the day it is the
people I think that’s very true but if
the people are miserable because they’re
uncomfortable then it’s very very
important that the environment supports
them and makes them happy a good
workplace should really feel like a
comfortable pair of shoes they should
make you feel good they should make you
feel excited and happy to be wearing
them it should be like your favorite
item of clothing it should fit and feel
good and the trendy offices you can walk
in and they might make you say wow and
that’s actually great for attracting
people because that is an important part
right it’s making sure that people want
to come into that space and it could be
great for PR opportunities as well these
are all things that we recognize are
important when it comes to actually
getting people into the space but as
Larissa said
it really is about what keeps them there
which is more on the side of comfort
yeah it’s a more long-term approach and
really in order to take a long-term
approach I think we really need to be
more considered about what we’re doing
and more engaging with the people that
occupy the space so that we really think
about what is going to look good feel
good and work so there are a lot of
aspects to what we need to do to make a
great place to work
because at the end of the day the goal
really is to retain develop people and
make sure that we’re growing the
organization this is another great
example this is an example that I love
because as a designer it’s perfect it’s
flawless everything is in the right
place everything looks great again
what’s missing
so I think as designers we really need
to start thinking about this and I think
our conclusion is that ultimately to
create a great place to work and the
problem is if we’re following trends or
fashions or if trends and fashion
dominate then culture and people can
really suffer
you
Please follow and like us: