Engagement Is Open Space's Driving Force

IRVINE, CA—Different degrees of open space in an office environment are acceptable to different firms, and it's the design team's job to determine the which degree matches the clients' needs best, Heidi Hendy, founding principal of H. Hendy Associates, tells GlobeSt.com. But a uniting force behind all degrees of open-space work environments is the need for engagement among staff members.

As GlobeSt.com reported in May, the locally based interior architecture firm has completed the construction of Monster Energy's new headquarters building at 1010 Railroad St. in Corona, CA. The firm designed the workspace to bring the energy-drink manufacturer's extreme-sports-focused “unleash the beast” brand to life, and the project began with Hendy studying and fully grasping the firm's culture before the design process began.

“The design firms need to establish the client's cultural threshold before putting them in any environment,” Hendy says. “I'm very passionate about the thread between what we do for a living and what we do for our clients. We need to spend more time understanding the needs of our clients, their culture and their leadership style.”

Culture is like a cloud that tells the whole organization, “This is how we do things around here,” Hendy explains. “If people don't see their boss, for example, going into the lunchroom and talking to people, they're probably not going to do it either. We need to look at how people are receiving their perks in the office.”

Bringing the organization into a more open environment will only be as successful as the degree of engagement sought by its leaders. “We have to be very cognizant of the fact that as a design firm, we can only push as far as leadership is willing to contribute,” says Hendy. “Also, we're looking at what their process is and what type of business they're in. We're moving from 70% private offices and 30% community space like offices designed in the 1990s and 2000s, to 40% private/60% community space. We've seen this flip because of how companies are processing.”

The shift from more hierarchical control of an office to equalizing the organization is where the office environment is heading, but Hendy acknowledges that not everyone is on board yet—and it has to do with a firm's leadership. Still, those who resist this shift will suffer, she says. “They're under-developing their core, which will be the heartbeat of organizations to produce effectively.”

The workplace is going to be key as Baby-Boomers retire and Millennials come into the workforce, Hendy adds. But that doesn't mean that Baby-Boomers aren't on board as a demographic group with the need for engagement. “We're finding that the Boomers that are left are very open. They want to be part of it. They want to learn, and we're not seeing the resistance we saw back in 2008. That idea is passé.”

Hendy acknowledges that government institutional offices and very policy-driven companies may require more closed and less collaborative space, but this is totally common sense. “It's a matter of understanding what their business is and what they're processing—that's a very important element.”

While GlobeSt.com reported earlier this week that open floor plans don't work for all firms and that, indeed, some employees in noisy open environments take to wearing headsets in order to achieve the privacy they need, Hendy says that's OK. “75% of all communication is visual. Just knowing that people are there, they smile back and forth—that's part of the engagement. There are degrees of opening up so that when people come out of their office, they're engaged.”

Many firms are choosing to change office space even when they don't need more or less square footage, and Hendy says the moves are motivated by firms' desire to “shed their shell” and institute change. “People anticipate change when their office moves, and moving is a huge leverage to make that change happen quickly. When you start looking at what I call commodity space, it's very difficult to remodel. It's very disruptive and causes firms to lose money because they're not billing out as much—which is very important in a service-oriented community like we see in Orange County. More importantly, if organizations are going to shift to a new way of working that's based on how they really process, it's a huge opportunity for direct buy-in.”

Not all firms are initially ready for an open plan, even if they would eventually find it beneficial. With one recent project, the redesign of JLL's offices here, Hendy says, “We really had to push. But we never push further than we believe their leadership is ready for because otherwise you fail. That's where not enough research or prep is done prior to the shift.”

Regarding the project, Louis Tomaselli, senior managing director at JLL, says, “The idea was to create a culture of team communication and collaboration, by co-locating related groups and being thoughtful about encouraging random encounters. The encounters that happen in our large, open kitchen benefit connections between different departments. It's a key way to develop new business ideas.”

Hendy points out that studies have been done on what workers do during “discretionary time” at work—the time between working on time-sensitive projects. She says studies show that people who are engaged and happy in their work environment are more likely to tackle tasks during their discretionary time that will benefit the organization than other types of tasks like checking their Facebook page or seeing if their laundry is ready. Those workers also tend to earn more than workers who are not engaged in their work environment.