Hot-desking and cool lighting

(This new column will feature different workplaces and capture their culture, the quirks and eccentricities that make different offices unique. While it will talk about office design and what makes them special, this column will also capture the spirit behind what makes these workplaces tick and hum.)

A warmly lit, spacious reception with plants greets you as you walk into Philips India's Gurgaon office on the ninth floor of DLF Cyber city. Some nifty spotlighting draws the visitor's attention to the funky LED lamps displayed on one wall and to the household appliances exhibited behind the seating area.

The fancy, intelligent lighting — that dim when a space empties out — is only what you would expect at the India headquarters of the Rs 4,000-crore-plus lighting to consumer electronics major. What's unexpected is the free seating concept. No employee can grow roots at his or her workstation.

“It's first come, first served seating — and anybody can sit anywhere,” explains Moushumi Dutt, head, corporate communication, who is my guide around the 92,500 sq ft office spread over two floors. When she sees me raising my eyebrows at her casual attire — jeans, T-shirt and sneakers — she grins, explaining: “Oh, it's not my usual work clothes — it's Friday dressing, you will find the whole office in casuals today.”

Moving to the left of the reception, past a small café area, on to the open hall beyond where rows of staffers are busy working at smart tables, one thing leaps out at the visitor — the complete absence of clutter. No papers or files lying about. In fact, the tables do not have drawers. The storage cluster is located elsewhere with employees given lockers to put away their stuff.

“Every day, when we finish work, we have to clean out the desk we used and log out of the phones so that the next person occupying it finds a clean workstation,” says Amit Tiwari, General Manager, Media.

Completely Wi-Fi enabled, laptops can be plugged in anywhere in the office, and any phone can be made an employee's extension number by punching in a password on the handset.

Team leaders get semi-enclosed spaces, while functional heads get cabins — but the minute they go out on meetings or tours, the cabin ceases to be their domain. “I cannot call this my room — it's one of the workplaces available to me,” explains Vivek Sharma, Head, Marketing, Vice-President, India subcontinent. “You will notice that there are no family pictures and personal memorabilia here,” he says, as he waves his hand around his cabin and his gaze falls on the Ganesha idol he has placed there.

It's a concept known as hot-desking in the West. The idea behind the concept is to encourage anytime, anywhere work and discourage possessiveness. Also, the assumption that Philips made when designing the Gurgaon office — which incidentally was a global pilot for the Dutch firm's workplace innovation programme — was that 25 per cent of the workforce would be out of office at any given time, so it could save on creating excess work space. About 400 employees are stationed here, but the place can accommodate up to 500.

According to Dutt, the free flowing design — stemming from Philips' brand promise of sense and simplicity — is also designed to remove hierarchical barriers. “I would be angry if anybody calls me Sir,” says Sharma pointing out how the work culture is informal, yet respectful.

Musical chairs — does it work?

But, isn't it unnerving to have to hunt for a seat each morning? “Oh, there is no hunting involved — there are enough and more places available,” says Tiwari. He says for him, the advantage with this design is that it encourages cross-functional interaction. Pointing to his own role — he is into media planning and buying — he says, how on the days he has to work with the marketing intelligence or research team, he can plan ahead and fix up seating with them. “In this office, we have people from three sectors — lighting, consumer electronics and healthcare — now people from all three sectors or different functional roles often sit together,” he adds.

What about the downsides? How much time did it take for older employees to adapt to this new design (this office became functional in 2009). “Oh, every organisation has some people who are resistant to change. And then, there will be some with bad work ethics or manners who will try and bag the best place or leave a workstation untidy,” says Tiwari, brushing these aside as inconsequential problems.

Also, Tiwari points out how the quantum of work could decide his seating for the day. “If I have a lot of work to finish without disturbance and distraction, I could choose to use the touchdown room,” he says.

Touchdown rooms are little cubby holes with a single desk and chair, in hidden corners of the office where staffers can lock themselves in. Conversely, on days with lighter schedules, employees can hang out in the break out zones (there are a good many of those) or the fun room.

The fun room is a cheerily furnished room — decorated by the employees themselves — with a variety of games from caroms to Monopoly and chessboards. “Although it is mostly play here, some of our most creative brainstorming sessions have also taken place here,” says Dutt, who also leads the Funaholics group of the office. This is a band of employee volunteers who organise fun events at the workplace around birthdays and special days such as Diwali or Christmas. “If you were here last Friday, you could have seen the Funkiest T-Shirt contest we held,” she says.

At the break out zones — some of these have bean bags, others lounge chairs, besides tea and coffee machines — a TV continuously streams Philips global happenings. “We hope that even as employees lounge around here, subconsciously, the news registers with them,” says Dutt.

At one of the breakout zones, there is a listening post — a cubicle with a computer and speakers. This is where staffers can get a live feel of what customers are saying about Philips' products. The call centre complaints that are recorded are constantly fed into this computer and by punching in a few keys, employees can listen in to the conversations and gain insights.

Holy Grails

Interestingly, there are some departments in the office that have fixed seating. The accounts department is housed in a closed access area — entry is through special swipe cards. Further down, the creative bunch — design professionals working on the next mixie shape or lamp silhouette — are housed in a large lab that is quite cluttered. Books piled up, memos pinned on the pinboard, arty posters near the door.

Employees also have the benefit of a fully equipped medical room and gym membership at the Gold Gym located downstairs in the Cybercity building. The bathrooms at the Philips office have shower and changing facilities, so staffers can pop in to the gym at any time during the day. “Hours are flexible here — and on occasion, one can even work from home,” says Dutt.

It is time for lunch and we troop into the sprawling cafeteria painted in cheerful red and white — the blinds are up and the glass wall affords a great view of Gurgaon. Everybody from the CEO down queues up for a meal here. There are two meal options — a light meal (minus dessert) for Rs 30 and a full meal for Rs 50. Besides, there are also sinful walnut cakes available at the deli – and bar stools at a side enclosure where you can chill out in the evenings. “I have been trying to do a wine and cheese evening here but can't get around the no liquor policy,” complains Vivek Sharma. As the others laugh at him, he says with mock seriousness. “Ogilvy says wine and creativity go together.”

“Our town hall meetings are held here — this hall also has projector facilities and doubles up a giant meeting room,” says Dutt. Occasionally dance parties are also held here — at the touch of a switch, the lighting can change to suit the occasion — soft and dim for parties, bright for meetings and so on.

As one heads out of the office, one can see some action at the large lounge near the reception. “This is the space we reserve for NGOs to organise collections from employees – for instance, Goonj collects old clothes from here. Or even card companies and insurance companies who want to make a pitch to employees can do it here,” says Dutt.

When it comes to offices, Philips has clearly seen the light!

HR SPEAK

Seems like a workplace that is “too good to be true”. So, you ask Yashwant Mahadik, Vice-President, HR, Philips India, how much a ‘feel good’ office contributes to worker productivity. Has it stopped attrition? “Our attrition numbers are far lower than the industry average,” he says. According to him, in the healthcare division, the rate is 5-6 per cent (8-10 per cent in the industry), while it is below 20 per cent in the durables division (25-30 per cent). He says Philips has innovated with a robust HR policy. “We do a lot of workforce planning — for instance, while charting out the company’s growth story, we also anticipate what might be the workforce requirement to manage this growth and how they can grow along with it,” he explains.