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Design and marketing agency R/GA has unveiled its new Sydney office, intended to support hybrid working.
R/GA said in a statement that “culture, innovation and collaboration” are the key pillars to the office space as it will be primarily utilised for learning, staff bonding, and events.
Managing director of R/GA Sydney, Victoria Curro, spoke with HR Leader about what R/GA hopes to get out of the new space.
Jack Campbell, journalist at HR Leader: “How will the new Sydney office help with employee engagement?”
Ms Curro: “We wanted our new Sydney office to be a destination; a collaborative and social hub, but with space for quiet work, too. Visually attractive, it’s a balanced workplace which reflects R/GA’s environmental and social beliefs with a focus on wellbeing.”
“Our people asked for a workspace that is flexible, creative, smart, comfortable, offered a community and collaboration, with a physical space that is modular, open, positive and focused,” said Ms Curro.
“The overwhelming response from our people is that they are feeling more engaged and more motivated. They love the variety of different spaces to meet, work or think.”
Ms Curro cited that the business has experienced:
- 97 per cent improved productivity
- 92 per cent improved motivation
Journalist: “Will there be any mandatory days in the office for staff?”
Ms Curro: “We didn’t want to come back from the pandemic and go back to how things were before. We wanted to avoid mandated days, set hours and the long commute every day. Tuesdays and Thursdays are encouraged, but not mandated. With this flexibility we have happier, more motivated people.”
She continued: “Our training and development, workspaces, and processes are designed to foster open collaboration and constructive critique. In 2022, R/GA launched a new approach to Wellbeing, Benefits and Training:
- Health hour - all our people are encouraged to take an hour off for themselves every week.
- Livewell days - Two days a year to spend on additional training (outside of employees’ roles), moving house, attending children's sports day/assemblies.
- Summer days - an extra three days of PTO to be taken over the Christmas period.
- $1,500 individual budget and training and wellbeing budget. Up to $750 can be spent against what ‘wellness’ means to the employee. This can include counselling, surf lessons, facials etc.
- Additional 9 months of Super paid to primary carer whilst on leave.”
Journalist: “How will this office facilitate new ways of working?”
Ms Curro: “The key idea behind our workplace is to provide our people with the things they can’t get working from home; easy collaboration, client meetings, socialisation, face-to-face learning and inspiration and quiet spaces too.”
Ms Curro shared the three aspects of their office redesign as follows:
- A space that represents our brand and purpose
- We wanted to make coming into work the highlight of the week
- We also wanted it to be really functional
Ms Curro continued: “We deliberately moved away from the hustle and bustle of the CBD. Surry Hills is a fantastic suburb on the city fringe (south of the CBD) with a lot of character. There are many other agencies and tech companies already in the neighbourhood, and more exciting business [sic] are moving out of the CBD in this direction.”
She added: “The open spaces have helped spark those incidental conversations that help with inspiration/solve problems. Spaces are clean and thoughtful.”
RELATED TERMS
Professionals can use remote work as a working method to do business away from a regular office setting. It is predicated on the idea that work need not be carried out in a certain location to be successful.
Jack Campbell
Jack is the editor at HR Leader.
