A future workplace: District Council case study

Discover: pre-Covid-19

Aberley was appointed first to undertake a feasibility study to release space held by a district council to sublet.

Interviews, Utilisation and Restacking: in 2019, we undertook staff interviews to understand what the teams needed; their adjacency requirements and aspirations for future working.  We updated existing drawings; ran utilisation surveys and storage audits before drawing up new office designs to release under- utilised space. The new plans also enabled teams to be co-located to work better together.

Engage: during Covid-19

2020: when the rules changed with the start of the Covid-19 lockdown.  For the first time, teams could see that a totally different approach to the office was possible, as many people found working remotely (usually at home) had real benefits.  This opened up the honest conversation about what the office would be for in the future.

Taking a more radical look at the office of the future, understanding that many people would want the hybrid option of working some days from home and others from the office

Plan

Design options: Working with our interiors architect, we presented options and settled on the “Village”.  In this, each quadrant of a floor is given over to a workstyle: quiet, interactive, social or collaborative, just as a village has its library, green, pub or hall. An further important design factor was the alignment of the space to meet the needs of the teams, therefore improving service levels. 

The look and feel and furniture in each will be very distinct.  The way people work in each will be clear and agreed: People are encouraged to choose the right area for their task: laptops, full Wi-Fi and flood-wiring supports that approach.

Implement:

We are delivering the project management of the new environment to enable the Council’s new smarter working as they return to the office in the early part of 2021, working with Covid-19 and beyond.

Benefits to our client:

• Creating and implementing the Council’s new hybrid working model
• The new space is fit for the period of living with CV-19 and will support the council beyond CV-19
• Excitement to work in the office of the future to enable even better services to the community
• The right environment for the new hybrid working model