The Business Exchange Bath & Somerset Issue 13: Autumn 2019 | Page 25

Future work: the key to high performing workspaces
High performance companies are characterised by highly collaborative, non-hierarchical teams producing high quality
products and services using innovative techniques. They have high levels of trust and flexibility and their people feel
empowered to make decisions swiftly and easily, whilst providing high levels of wellbeing and job satisfaction.
A high performance workplace is an enabler for helping
businesses improve productivity and value through a wide
number of benefits that focus on employee experience:
encouraging and supporting flexibility and agility; bringing
people and teams together to encourage creativity and
innovation; embedding culture; attracting and retaining staff;
and keeping employees happy and healthy. Importantly, high
performing organisations have a strategic understanding of
how they would like the work environment to perform, and
they achieve this through analysing their current workplace.
Evidence based design and build
Bath-based design and build specialist, Interaction, offers
an extensive programme of workplace research and
consultancy. They observe how current spaces are used and
they look at key stakeholders’ and employees’ attitudes and
behaviours in order to fully understand their requirements.
Deborah Wilder, Head of Research and Insight from
Interaction said: “In the world of workspaces, one size never
fits all. Our research-led approach ensures a strategic
understanding of each business’s individual needs, which we
then translate into the design and build of a fantastic new
space for our clients.”
“Helping businesses understand how they currently use
space, and what more they could do to meet the needs of
their people and business ambitions, provides the foundation
for a performance-boosting workspace. High performance
business leaders quite rightly see the workplace as a
powerful differentiator when competing for talent, and a tool
for driving improved people performance.” and a library style meeting area, there is a spot for everyone
and every need – whether that’s quiet reflection, teamwork,
concentration, knowledge-sharing or simply socialising.”
Choice-led workspaces Technology for growth and innovation
Dramatic technological, business and social changes are
bringing an end to fixed desk working, particularly in open
plan offices, where noise and distraction are often cited
as damaging productivity and wellbeing. Now the focus
is on reflecting how employees work in an agile age and
catering for their needs with a range of different spaces.
High performance businesses recognise this and empower
employees to make their own decisions about how, when and
where they work.
Gary Duguid, Creative Director from Interaction said: “At
Interaction we don’t design ‘open plan’. We design ‘hybrid
plan’ or ‘broken plan’. It’s the evolution of open plan, broken
up or divided with a variety of spaces to offer both privacy and
support for specific tasks or work styles.”
Think of the workspace in terms of primary and secondary
settings with activity-based zones offering freedom and
choice, allowing employees to feel in control of their day.
“Our client Wild and Wolf, a local company that features in
the Bath Top 100 Businesses list, approached us with a brief
to create an inspirational, choice-rich and people-focused
office space. With a wide range of work settings, such as
quiet booths, collaborative desking, social breakout spaces
Workplace technologies are key for high performance
workspaces. With technology now supporting greater agility,
nomadic working, improved collaboration and faster decision
making, it is now one of the key drivers for change in a
modern workplace.
Workplace technology is also changing - video and visual
collaboration technologies, facility management booking
systems and cloud-based applications as well as a wide
variety of collaboration and communication tools, all support
new ways of working.
The ability to flex
Flexible workspaces allow high performance companies to
easily adapt their environments during periods of growth or
contraction, or to support new ways of working.
Many landlords are now offering core space plus
expansion space, this is also known as flex space. This
means that any initial outlay doesn’t need to be huge, yet
there is the potential of overflow space so that when more
people join, and new teams are set up, there is space to grow
in to. Designing spaces which offer a variety of uses delivers
even greater value and ensures high levels of choice and
utilisation. For example, tiered seating embedded within
a breakout space gives the option for staff lunches and
informal internal meetings, as well as an event space for
company presentations – while the use of bi-folding walls or
partitions can allow office footprints to grow and contract as
needs change in the medium to long-term.
High performance workspaces are more than just a place
to house employees. They are environments that are well-
equipped, people-centric and inspirational, and they succeed
because they promote agility, innovation, responsiveness,
wellbeing and as a result they deliver improved people
performance.
To find out more about how you could transform
your office into a high performing workspace, then
please contact Interaction on 01225 485 600 or visit:
www.interaction.uk.com
THE BUSINESS EXCHANGE 2019
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