Office design is a good call

Architects and interior designers have given Vodafone staff an office that meets everyone's needs

The latest trends in office design are aimed at blending management techniques with human resources psychology to create open and happy work environments that improve staff morale and productivity.

"What has happened over the last few years is that the old idea of a lot of separate offices, in many cases on the outside wall to get a view for the senior staff and directors and managers, and then inner zones of ordinary working people, has changed pretty dramatically," says Gordon Moller, the president of the New Zealand Institute of Architects.

His firm, Moller Architects, has been responsible for the look and layout of office environments in central Auckland such as the Price Waterhouse Coopers building in Quay Street; the Ernst and Young building in Shortland Street; and the Minter Ellison Rudd Watts premises in Shortland Street.

"There's two accountants and a law firm taking their offices in quite a new direction - to a much more creative and much more stimulating environment," he says.

"Our office environments are getting much more responsive to new management techniques and the awareness that each company is only as strong as its resources, which is its people.

"So if you make a positive work environment, then people will perform better because they feel better about it."

There is more research on human behaviour and how people work better, how management techniques can help companies be more productive, and when it is best to work or research alone as opposed to group projects.

As business becomes more complex and response times shorten, especially for emails, employers need to provide a responsive environment in which people can manage themselves.

So there are more open plan workplaces and fewer separate offices, Moller says.

"What this tends to do is break down the barriers between management and staff - you get a much stronger relationship across working teams.

"When you have more open-plan offices, you get more support rooms like quiet rooms or meeting rooms or proper cafes."

A positive spin-off for employers is reduced costs.

"If you have more efficiently planned office environments, perhaps with less offices, then you need less amount of space for a given number of people so you can save money in terms of your rental, which can be quite substantial."

More often than not, clients ask architects how they can improve their built environment to help them do business better, says Jasmax's director of interiors Tim Hooson.

His firm has won more than 150 accolades for its commercial designs in recent years and was responsible for the design and layout of the innovative Vodafone offices in Fanshaw Street, central Auckland, alongside an Australian firm Geyer.

Employers are trying to meld attracting and retaining staff with remaining nimble and agile as an organisation and using technology to improve business, Hooson says.

As part of being flexible, firms don't want their office space to be static or inhibiting. So partitions won't reach the ceiling, even if they are high.

Businesses are also trying to create a workplace that captures the organisation's spirit, expressed by the fitout, whether that be the colours or the workspace layout, he says.

Senior managers may no longer have separate offices, but they still have defined space, with high screens providing the ability to easily engage with the nearby team but giving enough privacy and security for confidential work.

Workplace cocoons have evolved - places where employees can go to isolate themselves from distractions when they need to focus on a specific task away from the group environment.

Team tables are situated in the middle of the workplace for collaborative work, but may not necessarily be in a meeting room.

Planning the right mix of collaborative areas and workspace for individuals is a question of evaluating the work done by employees in a specific firm or area, Hooson says.

At Vodafone, three types of workers were identified and each required a different environment.

For example, administrative and support staff, who typically work on their own doing similar tasks each day, needed a permanent workspace.

The sales crew, who are on the road for much of the day, needed mobile technology and a place to drop in to.

The marketing staff, who communicate with many colleagues depending on the task, needed to have a transportable desk so they could join whichever team they needed to for any given period.

The trend is for organisations to provide a variety of workstations for staff with desks, screens and filing cabinets to be assigned depending on people's needs, Hooson says.