25.07.08

The Office As Second Home
Anna Kobozeva
HR Manager, Alinga Consulting Group

It is not unusual for people today to spend 56 hours or more per week in the office. This accounts for nearly a third of an employee's adult life, making the office the "home away from home" for contemporary businessmen and women.

When choosing an office space, many companies' guiding criteria is solely the price of rent and they forget about the convenience of the location. An office's location and distance from a metro station, especially in Russia's major cities, can be just as important as the wages being offered in attracting a talented workforce. Some people are willing to sacrifice interesting and better-paying jobs, if the alternative is a 1.5-2 hr. commute involving various modes of public transport.

When looking for an office, the most important criteria should be the needs and desires of both the company and its current and future employees, not the price.

The office is, in many ways, the "business card" of the company. The better it looks and the more professional it feels, the greater the impression it will have on customers, clients, and employees alike. A company's financial situation can be judged by its office location and decor.

However, clients and customers come and go. Employees are in the office constantly: working, handling daily business, thinking creatively, working through conflicts, and hopefully, feeling comfortable and having fun. In short, the office is a second home for them. Every year, the number of companies that give serious consideration to employee comfort and office esthetics is growing, and for good reason: employee efficiency and retention is dependent upon the conditions under which they work.

Interiors influence the creative process; they can create a mood of success, rest or activity. The effectiveness of every employee – and thus the team as a whole – depends on the rational organization of the office space.

Currently there are three common approaches to organizing interior space: the European, American, and Japanese models.

Offices in America most often use the classic "open-space" concept of interior design. Their interiors, while efficient, typically lack imagination. This model was developed at the end of the 1940s/early 1950s when large corporations, such as General Motors, Ford, and Coca-Cola, were attempting to increase worker productivity. The result was an innovative approach to organizing office space that was similar to way factory space was then being laid out: spacious, well-lit facilities were furnished with minimal furniture and without any "personal touches." Later in the century, the "corporate style" became popular, with office space design and décor including company logos, trademarks, and colors. Beyond that, however, the "American" design would typically only include things such as potted plants and a few pieces of contemporary art.

The classic European office is similar to the American, except for one essential difference: the European tendency to partition. Upper and mid- management often have their own isolated offices within the space. The various branches of the companies are divided by section.

The "European" model office also generally contains plenty of furniture and decoration. They may also incorporate elements of national style into their décor. For instance, Germans often prefer ergonomics and orderliness. Italian offices differ in their attention to detail and elegance. Scandinavian style is known for warm tones, natural light, and use of organic materials. The French like a bit of flare, whereas the English are attracted to austere, yet comfortable offices.

The guiding principle behind modern Japanese design is to give a sense of hierarchy while maintaining a sense of harmony, logic, and functionality. Here, open space is also used, but in Japanese design each detail is considered, and generally every square inch is put to use.

Employees are afforded only as much space as their position within the company provides. As a general rule, managers are seated with their back to a window or wall, so that they are facing a row of their subordinates. There are no partitions because nothing should interfere with the manager's control over subordinates.

Russian offices have seemed to use an interesting, but not always effective mix of these styles. For instance, open-space principles are often used, but it is popular for department heads to have separate offices. Departments are also commonly isolated in separate rooms. This is similar to the European style. As in the Japanese style, most of the budget and space are often delegated in Russia to the front office and managers' offices, while the remaining space is left with minimal comfort for ordinary employees. It seems that in Russia, even more perhaps than in other places, layout and decor have largely depended on the preferences of management and, in large part, on the financial condition of the company.

There is, of course, no ideal or universal approach to office design, even within the geographic regions described so far. A new trend is to "domesticate" offices. Remembering that an office should be an expression of the company's mission, designers are striving to create maximally comfortable conditions for workers. So offices are becoming not simply interiors, but resources that allow the company to effectively develop its potential.

Google's offices are trend-setting

This trend in part has come about from companies' desires to find new means to keep employees happy and loyal. When designing the interior space of an office today, emphasis is given to color, light, and – most importantly – the ergonomics of furniture and the quality of materials. "Humanizing" the design of office furniture and the atmosphere of the office means becoming focused on people as unique individuals. The office is transforming from a place where one must come to labor, to a place for meetings and creative problem solving. In many Western companies, large areas are devoted to discussion rooms, break areas, cafes, etc., which encourage informal interactions and brainstorming.

The company Google has some of the most striking examples of modern offices. A Google employee has the right to decorate his/her own workstation any way he/she likes. Open space desktops are interspersed with soft couches; one can find pool tables, table hockey, and aquariums. Family members can be brought to work. Tea, coffee, and cold beverages are available for free, and so is ice cream and candy. Google's co-founder and Technology President, billionaire Sergey Brin, works in the open space together with everyone else.

There is no such thing as an ideal office, but the office is an important part of the company. Therefore every company should strive to create comfortable working conditions that are conducive to the creativity of its personnel. If they do so, they can improve employee-loyalty, raise productivity, and ensure the healthy psychological state of their team.

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