Setting Up Your Startup Workplace for Success
How you setup your office will shape the future of your startup. Here’s how we created the future workplace our startup needed.
On one of the first days of being in our new startup office, I saw an employee printing documents off for me to sign, so that they could be filed in a filing cabinet. They weren’t doing anything wrong. In fact, it was smart and much more organized than I would have been (which is why you hire people in the first place right?).
The trouble was, we needed to not do things the way they had always been done.
My two co-founders and I had come from an agency background. First working in an agency together, then running our own agency for 15 years. Here, we had learned the hard way how agency life worked:
- Always being at the mercy of clients and the next project
2. Having huge overheads that didn’t always match the feast or famine trajectory of the work
3. An office architecture where we didn’t have a proper CRM or integrated accounting package and where docs like contracts, proposals etc were stored in a filing cabinet against the back wall
Then we started building our own projects and eventually launched our startup, ScreenCloud.
We knew that to be the type of technology company we emulated, we had to live and breath what that looked like from the start. Generally speaking, we’re really keen to see how technology is influencing the environments around us and how it will be in the future. Also, the changes in mindset and changes in the way people behave because of this.
For that reason, here are some of the things to consider on how to set your office up for success from our own learnings.
Remote working
We have customers all over the world so it always seemed natural that we would have team members working remotely as well. We have a core team in London, one in Thailand and other employees who work remotely 100% of the time. When one of our lead developers went to California to surf for the summer, he carried on working, just from a new (sunnier) location.
It wasn’t a problem, because our office doesn’t just work when we’re all sitting in the same physical space. We’ve never been set up like that and so there was no shift in culture we had to create. If you want your company to become one that utilizes remote working and a team which is more spread out, don’t begin by assigning everyone a desk in a physical office.
Sometimes it is essential for our team to all be working together. Recently myself and my two co-founders went to Dubai to have a couple of days to focus on the company strategy. This was the mid-way point between Thailand, where Luke is based and the UK, where myself and David are. Sure we could have done it over Slack, but sometimes you need the face-to-face connection.
Automated tools and systems
Before you get any physical office space, think about the digital transformation you want to see in your organization. This means planning out the architecture of what your business is going to look like and how it’s going to run. Everything from how you store information, to how you communicate and what you use to handle systems like HR.
We use a series of SaaS tools, that allow us to manage our office better and this was something we organized from the start. Granted, getting everything working smoothly can be a long process. You have to consider integration between products, training of staff and so on. At an early stage of a company you don’t have to deal with legacy. Being a tech company, our employees were probably also more adaptable and able to adopt the tools we were setting up than those from a non-tech background. However, the system of tools we now have in place saves us countless overheads and time when it comes to making our office run more smoothly.
One example is using Slack for HR. We have a HR room in Slack that works to notify everyone of sick days, holidays and so on. Of course, employees don’t have to put anything sensitive in there but for a quick “I’m going to work from home today” it’s much easier and saves our inboxes from getting clogged.
The tools, systems and setups we use also feed into our entire company culture. For example, we have an unlimited holiday policy because we believe the people working for us are adults who can decide how much time is appropriate to take off. This automatically removes the need for a tool, or person, to track holiday days, request forms and sign-off.
Less reliance on the physical space around us
Our belief is that the future of the workplace is fluid. Already, we’re seeing this trend take hold in coworking spaces, shared offices and “rent a desk” type setups.
At the moment, we’re positioned in R/GA’s offices in London. In the future we may have our own offices, we may share or we may rent. We’re not sure because we’re not reliant on the physical space around us. Everything we do is cloud-managed and as a result, we can practically work anywhere.
Every tool we use is chosen on its ability to connect staff and make our lives easier. If we can’t sign-up for a free trial and test it ourselves in a few minutes, we’re probably not going to want to use it. Sure, we want the space we work in to be nice but we don’t want to have to rely on being sat in it to be able to work.
A physical space which supports our company
Every physical element in our space needs to support our company and our culture. Of course, being ScreenCloud, the screens around us are of utmost importance. If there’s one thing we’re sure about, it’s that technology will be an enabler of communication and mobility wherever work happens.
We see digital screens as a huge part of this. Right now, digital signage is used in offices to show company presentations, sales figures and marketing content. In the future, these screens will be more tailored and personalized. Think of how Spotify nails your Discover Weekly playlist based on your listening habits — there’s no reason why this thinking can’t transpire to your digital screens.
The screens will also facilitate conversation and communication.
At ScreenCloud, Slack is probably our prime tool of communication. It runs the pulse of our company, segmented by area which keeps each thread relevant to the people working in it.
We’ve already developed an app that allows you to send your Slack threads to your digital screens. If it’s information that’s of interest, it makes sense to throw it up where everyone can see it.
As this Wired article states:
“10 years from now, nobody will communicate through a hierarchy unless absolutely necessary. Instead, they will take a message right to the recipient or broadcast it to everyone.”
We see digital screens as being one of the core vehicles of this ‘broadcast’ method, leading to an inclusive, transparent company culture.
When screens are embedded in the walls of every workplace, better communication will be right under our noses.
IoT-enabled workplaces
The individual elements of the physical work space (heating, lighting, security and so on) will also use the trend of IoT to facilitate the future. This might include:
- Smart lighting and heating, based on employee movement and use of space
- A network that tracks power use and uses algorithms to improve efficiency
- Meeting rooms that run schedules and distribute employees for optimal use of space
- An open floor plan, where everyone sits together
- More tracking of employees — whether that’s for health, safety or performance reasons using wearables and RFID-enabled badges
In short, we see the physical workspace of the future becoming smarter through the use of IoT-enabled devices and smarter systems.
At R/GA where we are now, they have a mobile app that onboards new employees and allows them to check, say a display on the wall, and find out what it’s all about. Connecting employees to the space around them, is key in a successful workplace future.
In conclusion
The workplace of the 80s was all about cramming people in and the autonomy of what they could do day in, day out. The workplace of today is an environment that can facilitate ultimate productivity while being a nice place to work and spend time.
With the right tools, systems and technologies, the art of personalization and fluid adaptability becomes the new normal. Some think that the new workplace is already here. We see it as just about to begin.
