j-labs case study

Solutions A description of needs to be met by the future office was handed over to the architects. On about 750 square metres of rented space, in an office building on Zabłocie Street, just 100 metres from the company’s former office, the designers managed to fit as many as 14 unique rooms designed for different kinds of meetings. Most of them were small spaces designed for four people at the most. The biggest one, however, had to comfortably seat up to 12 con- ference participants. In addition, the designers planned a centrally located kitchen surrounded by an open space area which, as had been decided right from the beginning, would be partitioned with designated furniture. To appoint a team of ambassadors for your new office is a great idea. Be sure, however, to include the representatives of all departments in your company. You should also specify the scope of their duties and determine a work schedule. Two mountain chains and one pass At that stage, the company’s management decided to leave fur- ther arrangement of the office in employees’ hands. Firstly, because it was a huge and time-consuming project, and secondly, because, as Katarzyna Bucka argued, engaging people was a way to increase their identification with the new work space: – Quite naturally, certain as- pects such as budget for a new office cannot be decided by everyone altogether, but why not let employees decide about things such as the arrangement of a place they are going to spend a signifi- cant portion of their lives in? After all, it is them who should feel good in the new space in the first place – explains the HR Manager. Team motivation activities were carried out in two stages. At the first stage, employees were asked in a survey to say what they expected of their future office and its various zones. This is how the decision to put a foosball table in one of the rooms and a punch bag in another was taken. The names of the individual meeting rooms were also decided in a vote. – We figured they should all have one underlying theme. Quite a few of us like hiking in the mountains, so we decided that every room should be named af- ter a mountain chain or an Alpine pass. That’s why we have rooms called Bieszczady and Gorce (which are both mountain ranges in Poland), Bernina (a mountain pass in Switzerland) and Stelvio (a pass in Italy) – says Marta Antosiewicz. At the second stage, eight ambassadors for the new office were appointed from among the employees. The fundamental princi- ple was: no pressure. – We didn’t force anyone to join that group. We wanted only those who felt they would be good in that role to become members. As it turned out, we didn’t have any problem finding candidates. People were really happy to become engaged. You could feel the expectation, even the excitement of working on the new office project. It was equally important to ensure that the composition of the group of ambassadors reflected the structure of the com- pany’s departments: IT engineers, administration, sales and HR. That was a success too. In the course of further work, a volunteer was elected as the leader of the ‘lucky dogs’, as the group called themselves. The tongue-in-cheek name made the serious-sound- ing function of ambassador seem less pompous. It also placed emphasis on a sense of ease as a very important part of the com- pany’s DNA. – The people at the company loved the name. We sent them emails to keep them up to date about the progress of the work. We know they smiled when they reached the end of an email, because we always signed off with the words: ‘Greetings from your lucky dogs’ – recalls Katarzyna Bucka, one of the ‘dogs’. — analyse the baseline situation — involve your employees — select a well-proven partner — choose solutions to facilitate your work — celebrate the relocation 10