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How staff involvement in the design process can produce great working environments

Too often the views of staff are not considered when new workplaces are being designed and procured with the decisions left only to senior management. Companies who do this are missing an opportunity which can have important consequences for staff well being and productivity.

As many studies have shown, getting staff at all levels to participate in the design and decision making process engages employees, increases social cohesion, staff fulfilment and ultimately creates a better place to work.

There are many ways of involving employees in planning and design decisions. Some companies use surveys; others use structured focus groups to react to schematic design proposals. The key is to involve employees in decisions they care about and to demonstrate to them that their ideas actually contribute to the final design decisions.

In 2006 IBA worked with British workplace designer Sevil Peach on Deloitte’s headquarters at Nile House in Prague 8. Part of the briefing process involved consultations with focus groups from all departments. The focus groups themselves included representatives from senior, administrative and junior levels so that the widest views could be sought. These groups provided critical information gathering which helped to inform the design development and also acted as a conduit to disseminate information back to the teams about design progress and the move to the new premises.

As a consequence of this process the resulting workplace was not something handed down from management for the staff to inhabit but an environment that the staff felt they had a hand in shaping – and thereby empowering them. Nearly ten years on staff are still proud of their work space.

It is critical for companies to devote sufficient energy and time to thorough staff consultation and for the designer to be appointed at the project conception stage. In recent years in the Czech market the tendency has been to appoint the designer far too late in the process and to exclude them from the early decision making processes. This is short sited as an experienced workplace designer offers invaluable expertise and successful workplaces are rarely achieved without a close co-operation the designer and the client organisation from the outset of the project.