A retrospective of Britvic's journey to 'Dynamic Working'
How have you evolved your workspace, if at all, since the pandemic? Whether you are in a stalemate position, trying to figure it out, tinkering around the edges with incremental improvements or if you have radically rethought your workspace value proposition - we believe in the importance of sharing the learnings and success stories so as an industry we can rethink the workspace norms. And so, we have documented our journey with our client Britvic, who were one of the brave companies that reached out to us mid-pandemic and understood that their workspace needed to be updated to stay relevant for the future.
What was the problem we were tasked to solve?
In 2021, Britvic launched their ‘dynamic working’ vision, a transformative new way of working strategy with a unique employee proposition which offered total freedom of movement in how and where to work. Britvic’s wanted a workspace which would reflect this change and make employees excited about returning to the office post lockdown. The scope was light touch but the impact needed to be big. All physical changes and interventions needed to be used as an opportunity to highlight the brand’s ethos and products to make a stronger connection with the company's purpose and employees needed to feel like they really matter. "We wanted to get people mixing and talking again, to overcome what the pandemic had done to us and our culture." Russell Larrett, Britvic Britvic are based in Breakspear Park in Hemel Hempstead, the building was split into four large wings, connected around a central atrium. The arrival wing was filled with an oversized reception and a flexible meeting suite, the remaining three wings had no distinction and were self contained workspaces; with desks, small meeting rooms and breakout spaces. This meant that people could enter their assigned workspace and never have to see anybody in the other three areas. Not ideal for cross-team bonding, knowledge sharing and collaboration. ‘Space never drives agility and dynamic working, people drive it. But space is a massive facilitator, for me that was the driver.’ Clare Thomas, Britvic The majority of businesses now provide flexible working arrangements with 2-3 days a week being the average maximum time spent in the office rather than 5. Britvic were no different and through consultation had realised that mandating more days was likely to result in a decline of staff retention and attraction. Therefore, the big challenge was how to flatten out the peaks and troughs across the week and also make people feel welcome to come in 5 days a week if they wish - particularly for junior members of the team and new-starters, who had expressed the desire to spend more time in the office in order to learn and develop their skills and careers. How did we approach the project and what did we discover?
As with any project we started by delving deep, talking to people and piecing together an understanding of working practices, company culture and the brand vision. We did this by taking a cross section of people from all teams in all areas of business and gaining an understanding of a day-in-the-life. The common challenge here is to get people thinking about how they could do things and not just how they do things now, made more difficult when we were all stuck in a national lockdown! This enables us to get a varied view on how the company culture is perceived across the business. We then hold visioning workshops with stakeholders and senior members of the company to understand their vision for the future. By combining all of this data with Britvic’s brand pillars we were able to create 3 key objectives:
Everything we design is then compared back against these objectives to ensure we are meeting the brief. These objectives are also supported by the success criteria set by the business which were wellbeing, productivity, digital first and great visual connectivity to the brand.
Based on their attendance pre and during the pandemic we calculated their anticipated return to office occupancy and validated this through staff survey data where people were asked to predict their attendance based on various team agreements. We then strategised (through the use of qualitative and quantitive data) the recommended ratio of desk and alternative working areas based on the anticipated expected occupancy. We carried out the same process for meeting rooms; analyising booking and occupancy data against survey responses to formulate the optimum meeting stock required.
With all the space types defined and sized, our space calculater tool provided us an overview space budget. We compared this against what space we had to play with, and demonstrated a 20% reduction of space was viable. Once we agreed the parameters with the client against their lease agreement, we then think about how best to zone the space to get people moving around the full floorplate.
It was evident that employees were wanting to self-organise and coordinate days in the workspace with their peers and teams and therefore permanent team zones were not required in the future. Instead bookable desks and collaboration spaces for individuals or group working would be more beneficial and ensure that all the varied needs were met. The proposal was anchored around an activity model, where different zones for different types of working were created. And, this was the most significant change, rather than offering everything in every quadrant of the building, each quadrant was unique in tasks performed therefore encouraging people to move around. Three quadrants were required; a quiet working zone, a collaboration zone and a social zone.
The social zone would be the heart of the Britvic experience and would showcase new products to both visitors and employees. A new bar and food offering would enable tastings and events as well as discouraging people from taking their lunch breaks at their desks.
In tandem with the above, we also begin developing the unique design concept for their space which ultimately informs the spatial layout and look and feel. We set to work designing a space that would create excitement around them being back in the office as well as offering them different settings depending on the tasks they were undertaking that day. The key to making this work was technology, we all recognised early on that people would only come back if the technology was as easy to use or better than what they had been used to at home. The design concept: ‘Enjoying life’s everyday moments’. A key part of the brand is related to everyday moments in life. We want to make the future office a journey which celebrates peoples experiences. This concept looks to focus on creating a better social experience between colleagues and provide break out social spaces away from the desk. Using social, wellbeing and brand experience as an attractor to come back to the office. The transition to activity based agile working in a consolidated workspace will provide a variety of space settings designed to suit specific work activities. The proposal also makes the office more fit for purpose by installing cloud-based technological infrastructure to enable agile working within the office and to continue to support home-working. With virtual meetings and collaboration set to continue across the business going forward, IT and AV equipment will need to support hybrid meetings in the office in a variety of settings to enable seamless and effective communication. A booking system that can also monitor office capacity will support flexibility in working arrangements for staff. ‘If I’ve got a big confidential call then I’ve got somewhere to squirrel myself away or I’ve got the focus areas with desks. There are so many different ways I can interact with the site.’ Joni Berrisford, Britvic Facilities
What was the solution to overcome the problem, how did we tailor it to them, their situation and their building?
We applied our concept to their existing building, utilising existing furniture and finishes where possible. This resulted in slightly varying scopes across the 3 quadrants, ensuring that we were spending the money in the areas that would bring them the most value. The result is a space that feels like Britvic on arrival and brings the brand into the everyday lives of the employees, that’s what they’re there for after all. We also showcased Britvic’s sustainability ethos through the use of recycled plastics for the bar fronts and all worktops. The strategy eliminates siloed working, creates more connectivity across teams and offers something that working from home never will, unplanned interaction. ‘The opportunities that the new space creates for unplanned interaction, cross-pollination and silo busting is brilliant.’ Clare Thomas, Britvic
Post occupancy study
Following completion of the build spacelab_ were asked to complete a post-occupancy study for the new space. This was always about testing and learning so we can now use this collected data to inform their ongoing decision making.
The biggest challenge that the data suggests is yet to be resolved is ironing out the weekly peaks and troughs, social and educational activities can be introduced on Mondays and Fridays to try and ease this midweek pressure but we feel more can still be done. One of the big wins though is the new tech bar, lots of positive feedback has suggested employees would much rather come into the office for face-to-face help and instant resolutions for their tech issues rather than doing this remotely.
As well as collecting occupancy data we also ran a survey to gather feedback on the areas mentioned below.
We have also been back to have a more in depth discussion with the client-side team involved in the project to get their thoughts on the new space: ‘Bringing people together over food and drink is a big win for us. Pre-renovation something about the space would make you feel ‘eurgh’, I now feel uplifted when I come in. The colour palette and the light is amazing.’ Clare Thomas, Britvic ‘The visualising tool that spacelab_ used (Revit and Enscape) was really great actually. The flythroughs worked really well for us to enable us to bring other people onboard with us, including the exec. It’s a great tool’. Russell Larrett, Britvic
