Studies by Microsoft revealed that 50% of their enclosed meeting rooms were generally only occupied by one person – even large rooms.

A Waste of Space

In their offices Microsoft aims to create spaces that fit well for how people actually use them – with the aim of designing for the best user experience. The company undertook an overhaul of its 800 offices around the world. In the Milan office they completed a time-use study to see how employees were using the space (Designing for the employee experience-Doug Lowrie, Global Workplace Product Manager, Microsoft, The Leader, March 2018). Using data points collected over 180 days through Wi-Fi they were able to track how people were using the spaces.

Creating the Right Balance of Human Energy

How They Solved It

To solve the problem, more small focus rooms and small enclosed spaces resembling phone booths were made available for team members to use individually for focused task work, or for virtual or face to face collaboration in pairs.

To encourage collaboration without enclosed walls, larger spaces were made available in the Milan office that allowed formal collaboration in a more open environment. It was acknowledged that it was important to get the design of these spaces right as “The location can’t be too public, or it won’t get used.” Successful designs needed to offer a measure of both visual and auditory privacy.

Workplace planning firm DEGW set up areas in the Microsoft office known as ‘Creative Gardens’. These are private areas with high-performance acoustics designed for teamwork and brainstorming and are framed with lightweight wooden structures and embellished with plants and greenery.

The extinction of the Conference Room?

These examples of furniture as architecture, as opposed to spaces being defined purely by walls, are increasingly common in many organisations. Conference room spaces are disappearing and being replaced by collaboration settings in an open plan environment.

These are even being used for client meetings, where it is seen as beneficial for visiting customers to experience the buzz of their host’s culture. Of course there is still a need for some large scale enclosed spaces – but this is less and less the norm – and organisations like Microsoft are reaping both financial and cultural benefits from the change.

Furniture settings in these types of environments benefit from being mobile (able to be moved easily as they are either light or on castors), flexible (multipurpose and customisable with accessories depending on the activity) and scalable (suitable for a single user or able to be increased in size or fittings for multiple users).

Happy Employees. Happy Clients.

Ultimately, forward thinking companies such as Microsoft aim to have buildings adapt to the needs and preferences of the employees who work in them. The hope is that an increase in employee engagement will translate to a corresponding increase in the engagement and satisfaction of their clients.