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Business News/ News / Business Of Life/  Making the most of a smart office
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Making the most of a smart office

Open-office plans, more meeting rooms and fewer cabinsnew office spaces could encourage teams to engage with each other in a more cohesive manner

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NEW DELHI :

Cities are not the only urban entities aspiring to become smarter—offices are looking at this too, adopting contemporary “agile working" practices to become more open, collaborative, technology-enabled and space efficient.

Such workspaces can be identified by their open-plan floor plates, with limited or no cabins. Many also subscribe to the concept of flexible seating, or unassigned seating, for all employees. Multiple work settings for different work situations, such as informal and social collaboration spaces, and many more closed meeting rooms, of different sizes, for individual as well as group work, are a defining characteristic of an “agile" facility.

Adjustment issues

But moving into such a “smart office" space can have unintended consequences, such as too much openness. For example, Anuj Puri, the chairman and country head of the Indian arm of global property consultancy firm Jones Lang LaSalle, who moved out of a private cabin to an open-plan workstation in October 2012. “I had a Saridon every day on the way home from work, for the first six months after moving into the new office," he says.

For 15 years, Puri had had a cabin to himself. In the new set-up, he initially found himself too accessible. “In my previous office, when my door was open, it meant you could come and disturb me. If the door was closed, people would be reluctant to approach me. If it was really urgent, then people would knock and come. We had glass doors, so people could see if I was really focused. Here, because I’m so accessible, I cannot protect myself from interruptions or queries," he says, describing the reasons for higher stress levels and daily headaches.

Over time, Puri and his colleagues arrived at a new working protocol, striking a balance between accessibility and productivity. “I began wearing ear plugs when I needed to concentrate. And colleagues and I became more disciplined about fixing up meetings in advance. Or they would ask my assistant if I was free for a few minutes, rather than leaning on my table," he says. So there were fewer interruptions and headaches, and no compromise on visibility.

New working styles

Puri’s experience captures the core challenge of adjusting to a “smarter" space: Individual and group behaviour must adapt to a new facility, and adopt new rules-of-engagement for office life.

Deepa Dey, communications head of the Indian arm of the global pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare, agrees. A year ago, the company moved to a new agile office in Gurgaon, near the Capital, which was characterized by flexible, unassigned seating and open-plan desks for all employees; radically different from its earlier traditional structure of cabins, cubicles and desks.

“While we were very excited about moving to a new office, we realized that there is a mindset we need to address. The traditional way of working with cabins and cubicles is about aspiration, hierarchy and power, unlike the new office, which is flatter and more open. So we started the communication process with employees nine to 10 months before we moved in, while the physical infrastructure was still being built."

The teething process entailed creating a group of 11 “change champions", drawn from diverse functions, who would address concerns of their team members, answering queries such as, “If I don’t have an assigned desk, and I come in late, and desks are full, where will I work". Workshops were conducted on how to use softphones embedded in computers, and to underline the importance of respecting one another and not talking too loudly, she says.

Flexible seating implies that nothing can be stored overnight at one’s desk, with only small lockers available for personal storage. There was thus an ongoing drive to de-clutter and clean desks every three months before moving into the new office, with a mandate that documents were to be sent either to the warehouse for storage, or shredded. Contests were held to reward those with the cleanest desks. “We coaxed team members to do things that were otherwise unpleasant (such as cleaning), but became fun to do. We also brought employees to walk around the new office before they moved in," she adds.

As a result, she believes that “settling down was very fast. We continued our communication in various ways—provided personalized stationery kits on the first welcome day and held a town hall in the cafeteria, created video on how the change happened, and reiterated key points on TV screens throughout the office."

The benefits

Both Puri and Dey are adamant and unambiguous about the benefits of a more agile office. “I wouldn’t go back into a cabin. The interaction with team members is so great, it just feels like transparent, vibrant, easy to communicate. Also, I think that collaboration between various businesses has grown multifold. Earlier, these guys were heads of different business units, they were running their business, very verticalized. Now, all of them sit there, mingling a lot more, barriers have been broken," says Puri.

Agile working entails a redistribution of priorities, says Dey. Earlier, “a majority of space was reserved for individual cabins and cubicles, but only 35% of work took place there. Now, over 40% of office space is devoted to collaboration spaces, through enclosed meeting spaces, informal spaces and social spaces. It becomes easier for employees to work together, and breaks the monotony of work," she says, adding that greater employee satisfaction is reflected in the company’s internal employee surveys.

In other words, if you want to get the best of the hardware (new technology, equipment, physical infrastructure), focus on software implementation (employee and team behaviour, work practices and communication). Smart insight, for any company planning a big office move.

GLAXOSMITHKLINE CONSUMER HEALTHCARE

The new office of GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare in Gurgaon, near Delhi, has a flexible, unassigned seating arrangement.
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The new office of GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare in Gurgaon, near Delhi, has a flexible, unassigned seating arrangement.
The GlaxoSmithKline office (also below) has quiet rooms for private work and a breakout space. Photographs by Pradeep Gaur/Mint
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The GlaxoSmithKline office (also below) has quiet rooms for private work and a breakout space. Photographs by Pradeep Gaur/Mint
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Location

Gurgaon

Area

70,000 sq. ft

Cabins

None

CEO seating

Open-plan workstation

Assigned seating

None; flexible seating

Work settings

Apart from workstations, there are closed meeting rooms of different sizes, team tables, several lounges, breakout areas, and quiet rooms for private work

Storage

Personal storage lockers

Informal or social collaboration spaces

Lounges, breakout spaces, a cafeteria

Technology and communication

A Wi-Fi-enabled office

Seating

75 seats for every 100 people

JONES LANG LASALLE

Jones Lang LaSalle’s Mumbai office has a breakout space to hold informal meetings. Photo: Aniruddha Chowdhury/Mint
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Jones Lang LaSalle’s Mumbai office has a breakout space to hold informal meetings. Photo: Aniruddha Chowdhury/Mint
Personal lockers at the Jones Lang LaSalle office. Photo: Aniruddha Chowdhury/Mint
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Personal lockers at the Jones Lang LaSalle office. Photo: Aniruddha Chowdhury/Mint

Location

Mumbai

Area

13,778 sq. ft

Cabins

Only for the chief financial officer

CEO seating

Open-plan workstation

Assigned seating

None; flexible seating

Work settings

Apart from workstations, there are closed meeting rooms, phone booths, hot-desking tables, quiet rooms and a breakout area

Storage

Personal storage lockers

Informal or social collaboration spaces

Breakout space, a cafeteria

Technology and communication

A Wi-Fi-enabled office

Seating

63 seats for every 100 people

Aparna Piramal Raje is the author of Working Out Of The Box: 40 Stories Of Leading CEOs, a compilation of Head Office columns, published as part of the Mint Business Series.

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Published: 22 Nov 2015, 04:03 PM IST
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