Valtech's workspace is designed to make employees want to leave the home office
In the wake of Covid, Valtech are welcoming back their employees to a new workspace in Aarhus; a space that no longer qualifies to be called an “office” but aims to be an “experience hub” to employees, partners, and clients alike.
Valtech’s new Aarhus office is designed as a flexible and creative space which invites you to transform the room and use it for many different purposes, all in one day: The space is divided into zones, each focusing on different activities. Furniture and surroundings allow the zones to have several applications, e.g., a working zone with high tables transforms into a workshop space. An area for informal meetings doubles as a display for Valtech’s work. “It is a physical manifestation of our brand,” says Kenneth Miepe, Vice President People & Culture EMEA. “At Valtech we ‘Transform by doing’, and the flexibility in our new workspace is designed to reflect that.” The new workspace is equally designed to cater to diverse personalities. “We recognize that people are different, and thrive in different surroundings,” says Kenneth Miepe. To accommodate to that, employees can switch between quiet zones, café-like areas, and collaboration zones with flexible work desks depending on where they feel most comfortable and productive during a workday.
A workspace for the new normal
Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, Valtech initiated discussions about ‘Future ways of working’. While Covid made it perfectly clear that running a business without being physically together is possible; “we don’t believe that being entirely apart is the best solution for a business like ours,” says Kenneth Miepe. “Close cross-functional collaboration is in our DNA, and our ability to innovate and help our clients transform their businesses, depends on us being physically together – that is when the magic happens. So, our mantra for this new normal is: We want to be more together than apart.”
Valtech’s new workspace is designed to cater to 60-70 % of the company’s employees at a time, expecting that the remaining Valtechies will work from our client’s office or from home. Instead of using the expected decrease in occupancy to downsize the office, Kenneth Miepe and his team used the opportunity to rethink which demands a post-pandemic office space should meet. “We expect to triple our size within the next couple of years, so we need a space that can grow with us,” says Kenneth Miepe. “We imagined a space that primarily would be used for collaboration. A space where you don’t have a designated desk, but a space that offers something you can’t have at home, so you would want to meet your team face-to-face. We wanted to move away from the concept of an “office” and turn our locations into experience hubs for our employees, potential candidates, partners, and clients. Our hope is that in time, our clients will find our spaces so inspiring that they want to host their events at our address instead of their own,” says Kenneth Miepe.
Green conscience and room for excitement
Valtech teamed up with Ambiente, an interior design agency specialized in bringing brands and their DNA to life in physical spaces. “Valtech has a strong and well-thought-out environmental profile, which is why many decisions in designing the space have been made with sustainability in mind,” explains Helle Dahl Peters, Account Manager Corporate Spaces at Ambiente. Local suppliers and furniture designs were selected in order to reduce carbon footprints, and there was a strong focus on upcycling in the project: “Some furniture has been recycled and given new life in the new interior décor, just as new furniture is produced in FSC-certified wood with high durability. You’ll find upcycled concrete walls with old graffiti in the rooms as well, which add to the raw, yet lived-in feeling of the space,” says Helle Dahl Peters.
Acoustics and fresh air have also had top priority in the design: “We wanted a space with an urban feel but without the poor sound that comes with concrete walls,” says Kenneth Miepe. “Our environment has to be humming with life to foster innovation. By investing in great acoustics and air, we hope to encourage that our people continue to express their excitement loudly and often!”
More information:
If you would like to know more, feel free to get in touch:
Kenneth Miepe, VP People & Culture: +45 5360 9414
