How many times in 2020 did you hear about office spaces being redundant and working from home will be the norm?
It’s a prediction that many will say needs more time to come into fruition. But with employees splitting their time between an office and their homes, it seems that a hybrid environment is where most organisations will be moving to, so it may seem like an odd move to announce a new office.
But that’s exactly what CTI & CRM integration specialists, Mondago, have done unveiling a new double-level, 5,000 square foot Peterborough headquarters. Their new HQ has given Mondago an opportunity to demonstrate how their suite of solutions can be deployed in more than one scenario.
“Given the technology that we provide, these environments are something that we’re focused on,” says Mondago Chief Operating and Financial Officer, Francois Roux.
“This office demonstrates how we prioritise innovation, functionality and user experience. When our co-workers are home working or sitting in the office, the principle is somewhat the same, but the experiences that they have within each environment are different, which leads us to make necessary adjustments”
“Our philosophy as the Leaders in CTI & CRM Integration is that we continue to fulfill the requirements of our global marketplace. Therefore, we continue to innovate and create an environment for our office that’s very versatile and effective, yet feels like home. We look into every scenario to make sure that the user’s experience is the priority focus, for our Partners and our employees regardless of where they are. During the time of hybrid working, we were able to measure this through the success of our solutions.”
UX HQ
As Roux said, at the heart of all the Mondago solutions is the user’s experience, ensuring that customer employees can be productive and efficient in any situation.
Much of the same philosophy has been applied to the design of the new headquarters. During the planning phase, Mondago identified that employees work in different ways throughout the day and have built various workspaces to accommodate these different working methods.
Roux said that building these different zones has led to a more productive workforce, with less formally organised collaboration and gives more room for informal chats while working together in communal areas.
“What we’ve done is we’ve split the new HQ into two different distinct zones” said Roux.
“Upstairs area is where there are the traditional desks and monitors, for all of our local and global remote co-workers, but we’ve incorporated into those areas an open floor plan with communal drinks, snacks, and coffee areas and a standing meeting space which are all used as quick collaboration spaces”
“Downstairs is where we have formal meeting rooms but we’ve also created four additional informal meeting zones that are not necessarily where you close the door behind you, but are used throughout the day for different functions.
“One of the things we wanted to achieve was to encourage people to move around and not be confined to the traditional desk and monitor but find a comfortable area within the environment where they can best function and feel most relaxed. If there needs to be a meeting between colleagues, why should it be in a meeting room? I’ve had some fantastic meetings with people one on one, over a game of pool. So we’re encouraging people to think differently about how they work.”
Employee consultation
This new design has come as a result of extensive research and consultation with Mondago employees. Through anonymous and in person surveys Roux and his team were able to build an office that works for all of their employees based on their feedback.
“Ultimately, we asked our team to take two very extensive surveys. One was an anonymous survey, which asked ‘what do you want out of an office?’ And the other part of the survey was relating to our department heads, asking what they felt they needed to function efficiently.
“It was always important to us from day one to understand what our colleagues wanted to experience in this new space. We focused hard to provide multiple zones that our teams had wished for and also take into account the industry analysis.”
Here’s the full gallery of Mondago’s New HQ.
