Management’s Visions Translated into a Flexible Workplace
When the 350 employees at Danfoss Campus in the southern Danish city of Kolding moved into their new offices, they also had to embrace a new culture and a new approach to working called Future Ways of Working (FWoW). The change was brought about in collaboration with the Danfoss management team and the Workplace Innovation department, who staked out the ambitions for the new campus.
These ambitions rest on the principles of sharing: strengthened collaboration, knowledge sharing, being sociable, and working flexibly in the workspaces available. The principles are closely related to the Danfoss business strategy. Management therefore played a key role in both defining the vision for the workplace and living by it on a daily basis.
Activity-Based Work Form
The principles were translated into a well-planned design concept developed by Betina Fredslund, Workspace Designer at Danfoss, in collaboration with HOLMRIS B8. We also supplied and installed all new furnishings, including specially designed conference tables, benches and cabinets where employees can store their belongings.
This means nobody – neither staff nor management – have designated desks at the new campus. The entire building comprises flexible workstations grouped into different zones – one “home zone” for each department, ensuring that, say, engineers or marketing staff can sit together with their team.
This also means there is no longer a desk for every employee. And it is not possible reserve a desk beforehand.
Instead, there is always room to work in the many conference rooms, lounge areas, quiet rooms and phone booths distributed throughout the building. This encourages employees to use the furniture and surroundings that are best suited to the task at hand and to visit other departments.
This flexible approach and free-seating culture requires that employees must clear up every time they leave a workstation. To promote this change in culture, the teams were invited to participate in an internal competition spanning 30 days, the aim of which was to get rid of superfluous objects and documents. The employees were told to throw away one thing on day one, two things on day two, and so forth.
For storing their belongings, each person has been given a felt bag they can lock up in the cabinets specially designed by HOLMRIS B8.
Extended Lifespan and Warranty for Reused Furniture
Danfoss has also reused much of the old furnishings, including canteen furniture, conference chairs, and conference tables. Only the desks required refurbishment. In the process, HOLMRIS B8 inspected more than 200 height-adjustable desk frames, fitted them with new desktops and renewed the warranty, adding many years to their lifespan.
About the collaboration with HOLMRIS B8, Betina Fredslund says:
“With newbuilds there are always delays, but HOLMRIS B8 was super flexible with both deliveries and installation – everything went very smoothly.”
