The Office is Dead - Long Live the Creative Powerhouse
New Work @ VON HELDEN UND GESTALTEN- 4 min reading time
Corona has turned our lives upside down. Especially the world of work. And even if you have got used to the new circumstances, one question remains: What happens after Corona? Do we return to the everyday working life before Corona? Or have new work models been established that can be continued? For us, the solution is: creative exchange instead of the classic office routine.
Agencies in general and us in particular are characterised by a strong team spirit. Our culture and mentality are unique - we know that. This special spirit is what makes us as a team, what welds us together and with which we master challenges big and small. The most radical step for us as an agency and as a team: the shift from 100% agency to 100% home office.
In over 16 months, we have learned to connect even better digitally. We tried a lot because we had to. But we also wanted to face the difficult situation. And we wanted to get the best out of it. That's why we tested different tools, defined processes, rethought them and changed them again. What did we manage to do? To set ourselves up digitally in such a way that we could quickly establish: We also do our job well digitally.
Efficient work also works from home - we noticed that ourselves. So it's hard to imagine the future without a home office. Working at home has surprised us in a positive way. But there are also downsides. Digital meetings can replace some things, but not one thing: human proximity.
New Work made by VON HELDEN UND GESTALTEN
So how do we continue? Our answer to that: we want to bring together the best of the Corona era with the classic working world. Because working digitally from home also has advantages. In addition to the better compatibility of family and work, many things run more efficiently and pragmatically digitally.
And what does that mean for us? New Work at VON HELDEN UND GESTALTEN means a mixture of home office and on-site presence. The agency is becoming a creative place. In the future, we want to offer generous home office options. But the creative exchange in the agency should not be neglected in the future. To this end, we have rebuilt our creative area and created a flexible workstation there.
From now on, every employee can simply plug in his or her laptop and work directly - wherever he or she wants. New themed rooms with different focal points will make exchange even easier in the future. For the project teams, there are new opportunities to sit down together and work on projects. Together instead of alone. In this way, we promote what makes us special as an agency: creative sparring in a feel-good atmosphere with inspiring people.
To this end, we have not only invested in new furniture and created new rooms. We also use the latest video conferencing technology. But time has also made us realise how important health is. Also at the workplace. That's why, in addition to orthopaedic office chairs, we also use height-adjustable desks.
Many employees have become accustomed to mobile working over the months. We therefore want to offer new incentives to come back to the agency offices. This is the only way to re-establish our culture. It doesn't matter whether learnings are passed on from senior to junior, trainees are guided or colleagues exchange ideas directly again: The strongest ideas for our clients come about with a lot of closeness.
Conclusion:
Corona has presented us with challenges. At the same time, the pandemic has also given us an opportunity. And that is for flexible working. At home and in the agency. This is made possible by new processes, newly designed workplaces and spaces for meetings. There will be no more classic office work at our agency. We are a creative powerhouse, our heart is creative exchange - flexibly from home or together on site.
