Change spaces to change people

Employees work at the Fursys Gwanghwamun Business Center at the D Tower in Jongno, central Seoul. This is a second office the furniture company based in Songpa-gu's Ogeum-dong has established in the city center for its sales workforce last month. / Courtesy of Fursys

By Yun Suh-young

Have you ever thought that your level of stress or happiness could be influenced by the structure of the space you inhabit?

If you say yes, you're already thinking like an innovator.

When designing their offices, forward-thinking companies are extremely conscious of ergonomics. They pay meticulous attention to the details of movement and behavior of their employees to provide the best possible environment they can for them.

Their intention? Of course to increase their employees' productivity, but in order to achieve that, they must first make their employees happy.

Studies over the years have revealed a variety of interesting facts show the direct correlation between space, work efficiency and employee satisfaction. For instance, according to a report published by a group of professors at Stockholm University in the Journal of Environmental Psychology in 2014, "the higher the number of employees who work in an office, the higher the reported mean level of distraction and cognitive stress and given that distraction may divert focus from task-relevant behavior, it should affect personal efficiency." The study also reveals "better health of employees in cell (enclosed spaces occupied by one person each where every room has a window) and flex offices (flexible workspaces without fixed workstations) are likely to be related to the element of choice."

Here's a case in point.

Before The Korea Times moved to its current location, it occupied a smaller space in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul. When it first moved there from its previous location in Chungmuro, the density of the employees in the office rose by three times as the office shrank in size to one third of its previous size. If a person made a phone call at one end of the office, others could hear the conversation clearly from the opposite end. People's voices were heard more loudly as they sat more closely to each other. As time went by, many started having strained faces and temperamental tones in their voices. The reporter had the strong conviction that all this was due to an environmental cause _ the density in the office and the way desks were laid out.

When her point was raised, however, people dismissed the argument as "interesting," but not scientifically convincing.

When the company moved to its current location near Seoul Station, the interior and design of the newsroom improved along with the layout. Spaces between desks enlarged and the occasional columns and space-dividing walls prevented everyone from seeing everyone or hearing everyone. The reporter noticed that the faces of employees became more relaxed and the pitch of the voices lowered.

"It's true, density plays a huge impact in office culture," said Park Jung-hee, leader of Workplace Solution Planning Team at Fursys, during an interview with The Korea Times in early June, following a seminar on the impact of office design on culture organized by Fursys at its headquarters. Park is an office environment expert who has studied the field for 20 years.

"Employees who move in and out of the office frequently or have simpler tasks aren't impacted greatly by density, but people who are in the office all day or have jobs that require a lot of intellectual energy are highly impacted by density and can get immensely stressed," said Park.

The interior of the Fursys Gwanghwamun Business Center, where employees can choose workstations flexibly. / Courtesy of Fursys

"What our company is proud of is the low density. When we conducted a survey of our client, what we found interesting was that even with the same furniture, employees' satisfaction differed based on the number of people occupying the surface area. It's the same difference we notice when being on a crowded bus or on a spacious one."

But workspace design isn't just about fixing the density problem. It's everything from the architecture, the lighting, the seating, what types of desks to use, how they're arranged, where to place the coffee lounge, how the lobby is designed and so on and so forth. It's the comprehensive art of reflecting a company's vision and philosophy but at the same time accommodating to its employees to make it a place where they want to stay longer.

Design changes behavior

After the furniture group Fursys consulted companies on renovating their workplaces, testimonials such as "The new office space changed our hierarchical culture. It feels more horizontal now" or "We used to avoid having meetings but now we interact more often" came back.

The impact of design on a company's culture can be immense. Depending on how the workspace is set up, it can make or break a culture.

Some concrete examples include Nestle Korea which has brought down physical barriers between high-ranking officials and junior employees. They literally got rid of partitions and the window seats were yielded to frontline employees while team managers and department leaders were seated in the middle. With an increased number of meeting spaces, the frequency of having conversations increased.

Korea Smart Card, the company that provides transportation cards, wanted to increase the space for relaxation lounges and enlarge personal workspaces for employees. However, they were short of office space. So the executive team decided to yield their office space to build these new spaces. The result? Higher satisfaction and loyalty to the company and an increased sense of collectiveness among the employees. The executives started communicating with the employees as they sat closer to each other.

Retail conglomerate, GS Retail, made its office a flexible space for employees to choose where to work. On a survey (Work and Organizational Process Measure) conducted after their office relocation, 87.5 percent of the employees responded that the company has a better working environment and 72.9 percent answered they felt the company was considerate of its employees.

"A good company culture, I believe, is one whose words match its actions. Even if a company has a great catchphrase, if the employees can't feel it, it's not a good culture. Employees have to feel like they can go out and tell other people that what is said is really true. For instance, our company says we're women-friendly, and we all agree. The company is considerate of working mothers who need to take leaves," said Park.

The relationship between space and culture is reciprocal and interactive, she said.

The office supply area of Fursys Gwanghwamun Business Center where employees share work-related supplies, instead of buying equipment by teams / Courtesy of Fursys

"I think if the space changes, people's behavior changes, and when behaviors change, the space changes in response. It's a cycle."

The furniture company has been a leader in the industry since it was established three decades ago. But it's only this year that they created the tagline "Office environment creates culture" and held a seminar about it for the first time.

"Now people are ready to embrace the concept," said Park. "We knew this was the shared vision within the company but we hadn't really expressed it well to the public. Our team, the Workplace Solution Planning Team, had existed since 1999. I believe we were the first in the industry to use that name. It was hard to get the concept through to our clients until now, because their focus was on the furniture itself. Now they're readily drawing the connections between space and culture."

In order to change a culture, should a space really change?

"Yes. I think it's easier to put it into action instead of words. Sometimes, there are things that are hard to express in words. But if you make it visible for people, they can understand it easily. It's not about saying "we should build this culture." Rather, the company should set up the infrastructure to make people work like that," she said.

"For instance, Hyundai Card settles the hardware (system) first before touching upon the software (culture). If a company wants to establish a "smart office," they should furbish the space with advanced IT infrastructure. Otherwise, people can't work. Same with my company. We recently refurbished the lobby and now employees love working there. But if there was nothing set up there, who would work there? Space is the soil where culture can flourish."

The central workspace area of Fursys Gwanghwamun Business Center is open to employees and guests / Courtesy of Fursys

Initiation from the leadership

The harsh reality is, all of this is impossible without the "go" of the CEO.

At the June seminar, Hyundai Card PR department head Yoo Yong-sang said, "In order for the company to change, the CEO needs to change," referring to the innovative steps its company is taking due to its forward-thinking CEO Chung Tae-young (Ted Chung).

Park agrees.

"The reality is, it's true that the CEOs must change. GS Retail could innovate because the CEO had the will to do so. Our company could change because our executives think culture is important and space, obviously, plays a huge role. Our executives don't have their own rooms. They all rolled up their sleeves to change the culture and they're all out with the employees sitting among them. They try to break the hierarchy themselves."