Without a doubt, the single largest improvement in the new building is also the simplest. We’ve banned eating at desks, and instead encourage everyone to congregate in the reception/kitchen area (to the left). This has had an immense effect on staff interaction and morale, as well as greatly improving communication; many a new idea forms whilst eating a sandwich!
The area is overlooked by the admin office with the curved glass. Naomi and Vivienne sit here, and are looking forward to the arrival of the bespoke desk that is being built to fit in the curve; the arrival of which will precede the demise of the dusty old sofa!
My office lies beyond the admin office, with the remote controlled glass which can be made opaque to hide the unwashed masses beyond from clients, but most of the time we leave transparent so that we keep the place feeling open and connected; something Naomi and Vivienne have really grown to appreciate!
After the communal kitchen area, my favourite spot is the small meeting area in the opposite corner of the floor. Blink and you may miss it! When I first noticed the fire exit (which will hopefully never be used), it seemed such a waste of an area that is almost permanently sun-lit. It’s such a nice little corner, that I had the builders move the door by about four feet and place some more Write-On wallpaper, to make a little meeting area.
One of the biggest challenges architecturally was to give the space plenty of flexibility, without boxing everything in. By placing the admin office inside a glass room, it can be closed off allowing the kitchen/reception area to double as an informal meeting room. By adding the team corner, we gained another ‘free’ meeting area which has enough privacy to allow quick meetings, without closing the office up. When you add the directors office, and my own office, it means we only need one formal ‘board room’ which actually gets used less than the old meeting room at Hollinwood.
The convenience of everything being together, also means its much easier for people to get a sense of what’s going on, again massively improving the communications. It’s helped bring everyone together as a company, and allowed a new cross-fertilisation of ideas.
Looking out over the developer pool, two features dominate. The most noticeable is the manifestation on the directors’ office. Being a bit more of a fun area we added a water effect and bubbles. This was inspired by the nickname it had already gained as ‘the fish tank’, which is what we now call it.
The second large feature is the storage wall that can be seen in the distance. This wall hides the entrance to the toilets and server room, giving much needed privacy, but also providing an incredible amount of storage (hence the name).
The doors for the storage wall are hidden on the other side, creating an open ended corridor. At some point in the future we may put an actual wall behind the storage cabinets to improve the quality of projected images, as we do use it for projecting onto when doing Company Updates, or company-wide meetings. For now it serves its two primary purposes perfectly – giving privacy and storage!
The desks are much further apart, giving the developers a greater sense of space, which is enhanced by the natural light and coolness, even on the hottest summer days. The natural coolness provided by the thick brick walls saved a fortune as the floor does not need any air conditioning to remain cool. Instead the only AC unit is found in the server room, where it carefully maintains a cool 18 degrees, maximising the lifespan of the servers.
The natural light in the building means we rarely switch any lights on, already cutting our electricity bill by a third! That said, when the lights are on, the bespoke fittings provide an incredibly natural down light that minimises glare and creates a great work environment, even in the dullest of winter months. Although a small point, good lighting can have a really positive impact on developer performance, reducing symptoms of SADS and general ‘winter blues’.
The effect of placing the developers in an environment which is open, airy and light has been massive. Collaboration is key to good development and quick, effective support. The new office encourages people to congregate around the problem, working together to find solutions.
One interesting side effect of the wooden floor is the ease with which chairs can be quickly dragged to a colleagues desk. It seems such a small thing, but we never seem to be short of a chair when you need to sit down with someone to work through a problem. Combined with the ability to start scribbling on the nearest wall, it really encourages people to get out of their seats and work together.
We already have garnered an impressive reputation for the quality of support we give our customers, the new building is sure to help us build on that and continue to provide levels of service that will be difficult for our competitors to match.
One of the key drivers for moving office was to improve our network infrastructure, which is now entirely Gigabit internally, and our connectivity, we now have three 20MBit lines, one fibre, two ADSL2+. Such connectivity should allow us to offer more services in the coming months. We also wanted to find a proper home for all our servers that was secure, and climate controlled. This was especially important as we moved towards being entirely dependent on our connectivity and servers for all our communications (including telephony).
Because we fit the building out ourselves, the security is fully controlled by our servers. Amongst other things, it allows us to do cool things, like boot up our PCs when we first swipe in in the morning. More importantly, it gives us very fine grained control of who has access to what and when. With so much negative press about data loss in the last few years, this gives us a real competitive advantage, as we ensure we secure our data very carefully. For example, our cleaners only gain access to the appropriate areas at specific times.
The security doesn’t stop there, we have the usual heavy duty alarm systems, with Police response, though I’m sure you’ll forgive me if I don’t go into details! We also, for the first time, have numerous (more than 10) high quality CCTV cameras working over the IP Network, and recording constantly. This makes the new offices the most secure environment we’ve every had.
Finally, the Directors’ Office provides a spacious and pleasant environment for the directors to work in. Most of the time the door to the adjoining Developer Pool stays open, but it can be quickly closed when need arises. Because the walls are entirely glass, the office feels a part of the developer pool, without sacrificing privacy.
By putting the directors amongst the developers, it contributes to the community spirit and sense of involvement felt by everyone.
Importantly the wall behind Lee’s desk is also covered with Write-On, and is normally covered with potential systems designs or solutions to the latest intractable problem.
As you can probably tell, we’re really proud of our new home, and if you pay us a visit there is a high chance that you will have to suffer through an all to enthusiastic tour! But please, don’t let that put you off!