Employee preferences for WFH means workplaces need to utilise office spaces as a tool to connect with staff. In Better Workplaces, AdNews looks at how agencies use office design to entice staff to come in and create a company culture worth staying for.
During peak COVID, Howatson took over the vibrant Longrain modern Thai restaurant on Commonwealth St, Surry Hills, in April 2021. Stripping out the old restaurant, from gas burners to stainless steel benchtops, down to bare bones the agency hired design company Noun and building company Klassic for the renovations which only took four months.
At the same time, Howatson leased its Melbourne office on Chapel St, Windsor, and renovated both in the exact same style, everything in Sydney is replicated from the furniture down to the skirting boards.
Chris Howatson, founder and CEO of Howatson+Company, told AdNews both of the offices are on street level to pull the energy of the outside in and feel a part of the culture of the area.
“Both offices are designed in the same way to give the sense that geography is not a thing - it doesn't matter where you are,” Howatson said.
Desks to the left and a casual seating are for staff which overlooks the Surry Hills street.
Structurally the Sydney office is a classic-aged Surry Hills building where nothing is level, the actual floor changes height by about 10 centimetres. As a result, Howatson had to get relatively every inch of the office custom built - from the desks to the glass walls.
Renee Hyde, managing director at Howatson+Company, told AdNews the agency kept the history of the Longrain restaurant alive in their renovation.
The agency tried to keep as many original features of the building, with the bathrooms being completely original, as well as the floors, exposed beams, and all the lights.
Overview of the staff kitchen area.
The office is so similar to the old restaurant that many visitors get Longrain flashbacks and ask Hyde for a cosmo or a lychee caprioska to relive those memories.
“There was a long communal dining table that ran down the middle of the restaurant which slightly inspired our staff desks,” Hyde said.
Picture of Longrain Sydney, via Sydney Morning Herald.
“What we like is to have lots of people in a small space because just like those Asian restaurants,” Howatson said, “where you get contagious energy because the closer the atoms are put together the more they move - it suits us.
“We want to be close together, so we can hear each other, joke with and help each other.”
Desk seating is organised by intersectional teams - with people working on some accounts sitting next to and across from each other - but also by discipline and capability with all video editors sitting in a production team.
Staff desks.
And every staff member has their own desk, as Howatson believes hot desking is the fastest way to kill culture and has not implemented a work from home policy.
“We’re strongly of the belief that chemistry is created in person,” Howatson said, “and that’s when we do our best work so instead we have a flexible policy.
“So staff you can work wherever they want, whenever they want, but they do it in the best interest of your colleagues and your clients.
“Hot desking is actually an impediment to flexibility, because it creates this rush of who can get to work first - there's nothing more stressful than because you have to drop the kids off at school, you're gonna have a seat next to your team.”
In fact, with 70 employees in Sydney and around 50 employees in Melbourne, the agency has outgrown the current office and has purchased the floor below in the building to put more staff desks and build a communal lunch area.
Currently the office has a long kitchen bench for staff to enjoy meals, despite the small space it's many of the staff's favourite area of the office due to its communality, Georgia Price business Director at Howatson+Company said.
Overview of kitchen bench, endless barista coffee made by the agency's front of house is also available to staff.
"Staff tend to congregate in the kitchen especially in the morning because we always have an omelette station, people come in to make brekkie and get a coffee first before we start the day which is nice," Price said.
At the very least the agency goes through 90 eggs a week, Howatson said, with the kitchen always stocked with eggs, bacon, spinach, onion, capscium, mushrooms, cheese, tomatoes, hot sauce and anything else staff may desire.
“We do this because everything in Surry Hills is so fancy, vegemite on toast costs about $13,” Howatson said, “so it’s a nice thing to do for staff and there’s no locks on anything - anyone can have anything at anytime.”
Staff enjoying scones and jam for an event.
Meeting rooms
Each meeting room was deliberately designed for a different type of engagement and the different types of conversation you want to have.
Above, outside the back corner office. Below, inside the back corner office.
What was a private dining room in the prior restaurant, this meeting room tucked into the back corner of the agency's office is a spacious meeting room with lush sofas, a 90 inch screen for video calls and a felt board to stick notes on.
“The whole idea of that room is to put your feet on the couch and lounge around a bit that allows for good brainstorming and less formality,” Howatson said.
Another casual meeting room.
“This room is quite good for casual client conversations that don’t require drawing or any presentations,” Howatson said.
The office also has a classic boardroom space with a big table, seats and a big screen, but the twist is a strip of seating that runs along the wall outside of the table seating.
“Quite often staff will want to sit in on the meeting but not be a part of it, so the extra sitting allows people to hang out there,” Howatson said.
1-2 person breakout spaces.
The office also features a lot of little breakout spaces designed for smaller meetings. With the breakout booths perfect for two or three people on a team's call. And also Room booths that are soundproof ideal for a single person needing to have a private conversation.
There is also a health and wellness room that is full all the time. The private room is set up for multiple purposes such as breastfeeding, a prayer room or typically what the room is used for is for staff personal time out - “to have a cry, call your boyfriend or whatever it might be,” Howatson said, “it's the room where you can go and be yourself and be.”
The agency also takes advantage of the building’s rooftop where they often hold meetings.
Howatson+Co group picture.
“The whole idea is that our agency is here forever, we're not trying to make it fat to sell it. So that means we can invest more in the space and more in people because we are trying to make the company feel like home," Howatson said.
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