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[Photos] A peek into StoreHub Stadium: Functional, flexible, and people-first

[Photos] A peek into StoreHub Stadium: Functional, flexible, and people-first

In March this year, Malaysian technology provider StoreHub opened its new regional HQ, known as the StoreHub Stadium, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Spanning 27,000sqft, the space is expected to eventually house up to 500 members of the company's local and international teams.

Commenting on this move, in a press releaseFong Wai Hong, CEO and Co-founder of StoreHub, described the Stadium as a "flexible, functional space where inspired Hubbers will thrive in innovating and developing purpose-driven solutions that ultimately benefit thousands of businesses in Malaysia and across Southeast Asia."

"This space is also part of our long-term commitment to investing in our home country to help accelerate Malaysia's digital transformation as a country, and the digital empowerment of businesses here as they grow."

He also added that regional functions supporting this growth are part of the open job positions in Malaysia, and that the firm aims to develop local talent in the country to help it expand across the region.

Connecting employees to nature

Taking into account the importance of increasing employee wellbeing, Fong shared: "StoreHub Stadium was designed with an emphasis that began with one of the most important and yet underlooked elements of what makes a space great - natural light."

The idea of using the space's natural lighting to increase the wellbeing of employees by making them feel more connected to nature, was core to how it was laid out. Artificial lighting enhanced this, as does the generous space allowances between areas and the various special-purpose corners and private areas that allow Hubbers to do their best work, comfortably, he added. [Continue reading...]

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Following the opening, Human Resources Online reached out to Fong to find out more about the space, in an exclusive Q&A below.

Q How does creating an innovative and interactive workplace help with the company culture?

We referred to the science of how environmental factors can affect people on a day to day basis. Our work environment has a drastic impact on how we work, how we live, and how we behave in general.

And because we wanted to encourage and promote innovation and interaction between teams in different countries - we had to create a space that communicates that message on a regular basis.

We ensured that our new space has necessary things like WiFi at a high-speed level and soundproofed meeting rooms. We also designed the space to revolve around the idea of enabling people to want to have more meaningful conversations.

Q Does this help improve productivity?

One of our core principles when designing our workspace was “Function Over Form”, which allowed us to really take into consideration what our Hubbers will go through and need on a day-to-day basis.

Going into the details such as what kind of ergonomic chairs, sufficient lighting, strong wifi, easily accessible plug points on the tables and even ensuring we had a meeting room booking system that really helped with the overall flow of our day to day life. We felt that these core functions of the office were much more important to us than aesthetics and fun-only features.

Another principle we had was the “People First” design. We put all work stations on the outside and meeting rooms at the core. The reason for this is so that there’s more natural sunlight for our people, and they get to enjoy the beautiful view as well. This is somewhat different from what we typically see in offices, where the manager’s or director’s rooms always get the best view. By designing this way, we’re using our space to communicate to our people that they come first and they are valuable.

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Q What advice would you give other companies that are planning on redecorating their offices?

It is not only important to be mindful of how the place looks in general but it is also important to focus on the messaging. We had two messages we wanted to keep in mind at all times “Function Over Form” and “People First” - so we ensured that our team was surrounded by the most natural sunlight and that they got to enjoy the view the most - rather than just leaving managers/directors with the best views. We used our space to communicate that our people come first and they are valued here at StoreHub.

At the end of the day, to us, it wasn’t about having the best-looking space. If it’s frustrating to manoeuvre from day to day, then it would not be an office that people would want to be in and be proud of.

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 Photos / provided

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