Your office. Continously improved.
Challenge
Workspaces are increasingly being designed to optimally suit the needs of the workforce. Since mobile working and home offices have become established as alternatives for productive knowledge work, organisations must provide their employees and managers with compelling reasons to come into the office.
One software company has already established a contemporary and award-winning model for workspaces. Employees and teams move freely between nine zones equipped for different working modes – from creative workshop rooms to focus zones for individual work. And with good reason: in order to attract software specialists to the company, who are free to choose from a wide range of job offers at any time, a working environment is needed that suits the work and – ideally – inspires. This is all the more important given that the company has a works agreement on 100% mobile working.
Following the successful rollout of the work zone concept, the company now faced the question: how do we keep office spaces, individual work zones and their furnishings attractive and up to date for users?
Solution
Together with the customer organisation, we createde a user feedback system with three main components:
QR codes: with over 3,500 data points in 9 buildings at 5 locations, each work zone that is assessed can be clearly located. At the same time, those providing feedback remain anonymous at all times – keyword: data minimisation.
Short survey via smartphone: scanning a QR code brings up a feedback form tailored to the zone currently in use. Users can rate the zone/their experience and directly enter change requests. This takes less than 30 seconds.
Dashboard: The customer's Company Services team uses a Power BI-based dashboard that aggregates and clearly visualises the data obtained. The team uses these insights to continuously improve the work zone concept. Office space and work zones are further developed to meet the needs of users.
The company designed and implemented the concept, dubbed ‘_spheres(R)’, in a participatory manner from the outset. 50 internal ‘_spheres agents’ acted as sources of inspiration and ideas during the concept phase, as well promoters for _spheres during rollout and sounding board for employee response. The feedback system that has now been established adds an important participatory element: every user of an office at German locations can now contribute to creating the perfect working environment.
Outcome
Tailor-made but modularised: the user feedback system is precisely tailored to the customer's requirements: individual QR codes on site; a survey with sophisticated branching logic and content design; backend architecture and a dashboard for data analytics dashboard. However, the system can be expanded at any time and scaled for the global organisation.
Co-creative: the entire design and development work was carried out in close cooperation with the stakeholders of the customer organisation: Workplace Strategy & Company Services, Facility Management, Works Council, Human Resources and, of course, specialist teams.
Efficient: Since the Covid19 pandemic, unused or poorly used office space has been causing enormous costs. Attractive working environments, on the other hand, continue to be a major draw for talent and an essential asset for innovation and strong employer brands.