[Photos] How PERSOLKELLY's City House office creates an environment where staff can work and smile

Earlier this year, PERSOLKELLY moved into its new office at City House which was redesigned to reflect its employee engagement strategy across the Asia Pacific region– to create an environment where staff can “Work, and Smile”.

The new 12,000 sqft office is home to more than 100 employees.

In line with this, Human Resources reached out to Francis Koh, Chief Operating Officer, PERSOLKELLY, to find out more about this new space.

Here’s what he had to say:

Q What was the concept when designing this new off ice?

PERSOLKELLY’s new office at City House reflects our employee engagement strategy across our Asia Pacific region– to create an environment where they can “Work, and Smile”. This stems from our belief that you should enjoy what you do, and do what you enjoy.

“Work, and Smile” is the embodiment of PERSOLKELLY’s five corporate values: authentic, customer-focused, professionalism, teamwork, innovative. To bring these qualities to life, we recently had employees from each office in the region nominate and vote for their peers who best championed each value.

We designed our new office in Singapore with vibrant and engaging features that encourage collaboration and community. For instance, it has an open layout, which allows for more cross-team interaction and engagement. Where our employees were previously separated in cubicles, we have now removed these partitions, allowing them to more easily communicate with each other.

Our new office also has a “Work, and Smile” photo wall. This is a wall that displays a collage of smiling faces of our employees from our office to help build a sense of belonging and camaraderie.

“Work, and Smile”icons are also displayed across the office. The energetic designs help brighten up the office and create an atmosphere of positivity. In fact, a row of our smiling icons is the first thing that greets our employees and visitors as they enter the office.

 

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

Having an innovative and interactive workplace creates opportunities for cross-cultural pollination. With our employees increasingly working across offices, and between countries, we want to knock down the "walls" that separate employees from different markets, to enable our employees to better interact with their foreign counterparts, and help propagate PERSOLKELLY's corporate values and culture across our brands.

Additionally, the workplace is rapidly changing, with Millennials now accounting for more than half of the population. Correspondingly, companies must adapt to the changing needs of their employees and engage them at the touch points that matter most. Our new office highlights our willingness to listen to our employees. By catering to their needs, our employees have a healthier morale, and are better motivated to exemplify PERSOLKELLY’s values.

 

Q Does having an engaging office space help improve productivity, and why?

Having a vibrant and engaging working environment is a key factor in sustaining high employee morale. Happy employees are more likely to put in greater effort into their work, be more productive, and work better with others – these all help them exceed performance expectations and drive company growth.

Office spaces can play key roles in encouraging innovation and collaboration through the use of effective group spaces. Our office is equipped with a wide variety of collaborative spaces to allow for group meetings. For instance, we have non-traditional, café-style meeting spaces to allow employees to come together in less formal capacities. Many of our spaces are also equipped with multi-modal visual sharing formats such as LCD screens, projectors, and whiteboards.

 

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

Involve employees and consider their opinions in the decision-making process. The benefits are two-fold: not only will you be able to effectively design features that cater to their needs and preferences, you will also give employees an outlet to share their views.

Photo /provided