Sanofi, a global pharmaceutical company, has more than 100.000 employees worldwide. Julia Ghouti, head of workplace policy at Sanofi, shared her knowledge about the way they designed the workplace for people in the different offices worldwide. As first take away remember that change management is a process and that communication is key. Employees need to get used to the new surroundings and the new rules that might apply in a new ABW office.
Guide them into this process to make ABW a success. Then, accept that there are different type of persons, involve your users in the design process to make a place that suits all your employees. And finally, the most important thing to remember: ABW offices will not be perfect at once: it’s a new concept you are implementing, make sure to keep inventing and testing.
The International Workplace Group (IWG) conducted a worldwide research on flexible working and found out that 75 percent of the respondents worldwide think that flexworking is the way to go. And this is why: 85 percent of the companies interviewed were more productive because of flexworking. 67 percent of those companies even stated that their productivity increased by more than 20 percent. This means that flexworking actually affects the success of a company. IWG surveyed this and the respondents stated that flexworking 1) helps to manage risks (54%), 2) plays a role in the success of the company (79%) and 3) improves the responsiveness to the market (64%). Make sure to continue to read about the advantages of flexworking because it doesn’t end here. We’ve devoted another blog to the effect of flexible working on urban congestion that shows even more reasons why to give the concept a try. The conclusion is that flexworking should be considered as a smart way to save money and deduct the CO² footprint of a company’.
Ellen Harinck, Country Manager France at Vecos, presented how technology in a change management process can empower employees to move freely around the office. In the change management process often important elements are left out, resulting in a failing change management program. This translates in people camping in the office, using the flex desk as a fixed desk. Ellen Harinck stated that your change management process is more likely to succeed when the right technology is used to encourage and coach people by communicating with them. Allowing them to freely move around in the flex office and using the services whenever they want and wherever they are. An example is the implementation of dynamic lockers when you integrate flexible working in your office, so that the employee can sit and store at any location in your office. Do you want to integrate your lockers in your new ABW? Read here how you can choose the best system.
Capgemini inaugurated in July 2019 their new headquarter ‘Le 147’ in Paris. This state-of-the art project that accommodates more than 4100 employees is definitely worth to learn more about. It covers 33 250 m² spread over 8 floors and it has the triple certification of HQE, BREEAM Very Good et Effinergie+. Each space is unique to foster concentration, creativity or exchange. Designed to avoid repetition and allow everyone to work differently, the building adapts to all needs. According to Vincent Moreau, Directeur Immobilier Groupe Capgemini, Le 147 was designed to inspire their customers as well. That this worked out successful is no discussion since they multiplied the proportion of customer meetings in an incredible way.
Le 147 combines all their technological highlights in a workplace application, that helps employees and visitors to get the best out of their visit. Vecos and Capgemini worked together on completing Le 147 by adding dynamic lockers, do you want to know how we did this? Read the story about Capgemini here.
Le 147 is an inspiring example for any person interested in applying flexible working in their offices, make sure to take a look at this project!
Keynote speaker George Edward Muir surprised us with the news that in 2025 our current weekly jobs can be executed in only one single day. AI will replace many of today’s traditional jobs and it will create new forms of jobs and new ways of working. The reality is that 1 billion job titles will disappear before 2025 and 1.7 billion new job titles will emerge before 2025. George Muir expects that we will talk by 2028 about ‘humanism’, where human labor and AI are merged, imagine AI with feelings and brain-machine communication. So what type of job will survive? Jobs like data scientist, AI and machine learning specialist, software developers, security analysists and organizational development specialists are most emerging between now and 2025.