Every moment matters at Coor’s new head office

Coor’s vision of creating the best working environments in the Nordics – smart, sustainable and joyful – means that the company is now creating the workplace of the future in what is now known as “the new normal”. Since last fall, Coor’s workplace specialists have focused sharply on creating innovative workplace solutions that allow Coor to show the way to the future.

The new head office is being created around the theme ”Make every moment matter”, with a workplace that is designed entirely on the basis of the employees’ and guests’ experiences and feelings.

First out? Sara Ericsson, workplace strategist at Coor Advisory, tells us more about Coor’s future head office in Kista.

“We have applied a customer experience methodology to design the feelings and experiences that our colleagues, guests and customers will have when they come to our office. We asked ourselves the question ”how can we create the most pleasant and functional environment possible, and simultaneously add value for our colleagues who choose to spend time at the office”?

Sara compares the process with developing a user-friendly app, where conclusions, functions and decisions are based on solid data collection and insights from prototypes tested by future users. For Coor, the journey towards the office of the future started with a pilot study where we collected data from office sensors, employee surveys and extensive in-depth interviews. The insights from the study resulted in Coor Advisory producing personas, design principles and concepts optimized for our employees’ needs and wishes.

“If you don’t start with the employees when designing a workplace you risk ending up with an attractive office solution that ultimately does not suit the actual needs of the business,” Sara continues.

In the next step, Coor mapped the employees’ and guests’ journey through the office: how they move through the premises, what touch points there are, what they actually do during a typical working day and how they should feel when they do this.

“Every moment should really mean something. From the welcome, the first cup of coffee and going in to a meeting, to the need to rest and recover, the chance to find creative solutions and effective functionality for digital collaboration. We aim to optimize the conditions for the office to become a valuable experience for a range of different people,” she explains.

Sara emphasizes that this experience is not only created with design – you need to see the whole and combine the design with the services of the future and smart technology to succeed.
“We look beyond the employees’ basic needs and find solutions that facilitate everyday life and engage people, and then you also go the extra mile that they might not always think of.”

How do the employees feel about the project?

“The response has been positive. Everyone sees the value of what we have done and look at, and use, the office differently now. In addition to having a better and more enjoyable office experience, the project also generates a sense of pride.”

The development of the new office is an ongoing project where we continuously evaluate, optimize and adjust the services and functions included.

“We are currently in the implementation phase, where we are creating the framework for the service concepts of the future, setting priorities and testing ideas in the form of concrete solutions. It is important to make carefully considered choices based on the data and to build in flexibility, because we want the solution to thrive over time,” she continues.

In addition to creating added value and experiences that trump our employees’ and guests’ expectations, this provides us with important insights and experiences that can be used when our customers need help with designing their workplaces of tomorrow.

“It is extremely important that we practice what we preach. This office will showcase the workplace and services of the future, test solutions and utilize functions before recommending them to customers. This means that we can really stand behind our solutions and develop our customers’ offices and services in partnership with them based on their specific requirements and circumstances,” Sara concludes.