Large international corporations often have a hard time investing in their talent on a regional level. It’s difficult to do because of the sheer scale of their workforces, coupled with cultural differences that naturally occur when your numbers reach the thousands.
Executing a workplace strategy that reaches through to every team member takes a major commitment on many levels of leadership within the company.
After a grand unveiling of its new North American headquarters in Schaumburg, IL, Zurich Insurance Group officially moved into its new home a few months ago. Numbered among the largest corporate projects completed in North America over the past few years, the new workspace is home to nearly 3,000 Zurich employees, who Zurich hopes will see the new space as a thoughtful investment back into its employees.
“The company has had a big impact on a lot of people’s lives over the course of its long history,” said Mark Hirons, design principal and design director for the corporate interiors practice at CannonDesign. “With the new space, they want to occupy a space of being a global leader – in talent retention and inspiring their staff through thoughtful research and a focus on wellbeing.”
CannonDesign, which completed the project in collaboration with Goettsch Partners, designed 783,000 square feet of interiors spread across three interconnected levels.
From the beginning, the CannonDesign team used Zurich’s identity as a data- and analytics-driven organization to communicate the reasoning behind its recommendations for certain strategies and design choices.
“It was important for them to work through the process that way, and so we wanted to tap into that part of their culture to meet them on common ground.”
Zurich and CannonDesign collaborated on extensive workplace testing and employee engagement programs, crowdsourcing ideas from Zurich employees years prior to the project’s completion.
In the workplace testing effort, 150 Zurich employees spent three months testing four unique office “neighborhood” build-outs. During that 12-week testing time, employees split time between individual workstations and shared spaces throughout a pilot floor, testing everything from office furniture to meeting spaces, enclaves and conference room configurations. Through surveys, observation, focus groups and town hall meetings, Zurich employees provided feedback to their leadership and the CannonDesign team.
The workplace testing efforts revealed Zurich employees’ affinity for natural light, enclaves, and sit-to-stand desk furniture. And by applying its proprietary workplace metrics to the testing efforts, CannonDesign found four valuable insights about Zurich employees:
> Frequency of interaction within teams in the workplace test increased 19%.
>Satisfaction with flexibility to use different spaces throughout the day increased 64%.
>Satisfaction with the workplace pilot space increased for all generations.
>64% of those involved said communication with their group improved.
Zurich’s new workspaces exude a sense of proportion and a sense of connectedness.
The exterior of the building takes form in three offset bars braced by internal support. That architectural form carries into the interior of the building with thoughtfully interconnecting open stairways, including two extending from the main lobby.
From the workplace testing, CannonDesign created a kit of parts organized into neighborhoods of 25-30 people, each featuring assigned open office workstations, collaboration enclaves and teaming areas, focus and conference rooms, and a social hub. 8% of individual workspaces are private offices, a progressive number for an insurance company.
The new environment features a first-floor conference center with conference rooms of all sizes, larger partitioned areas that can accommodate 200 people, and more informal break areas.
Other amenities include a large piazza of flexible space, an auditorium, coffee bar and retail concourse, and café and dining atrium. In line with its focus on wellbeing, Zurich dedicated a large footprint to a fitness center, complete with full-scale locker rooms and a juice bar.
Hugging the building’s exterior are extensive campus grounds that employees are encouraged to enjoy, including walking paths, a pavilion area, deck terraces, rooftop gardens and water features. A section of the grounds holds a memorial garden honoring the four Zurich employees who passed away in the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Zurich also chose to invest in an expensive, large-scale story wall communicating the company’s story, and its employees’ impact on society.
“Zurich was really attuned to the idea of proactively using the space as an investment in their talent,” said Mr. Hirons. “They wanted to listen to their employees and use all of the different perspectives in building their new space.”
Natural light flows through large windows and atriums, and employees have access to great exterior views in all areas of the building.
The project has earned LEED Platinum certification, a big nod to Zurich’s company-wide attention to sustainability and wellness goals. And following the workplace testing effort, Zurich set up a network of 160 Change Champions – employees who would help make the workplace transition run smoothly, laying the groundwork for implementing the same changes across other U.S. offices.
“This building is a showcase of all we are at Zurich: its excellence in design, its focus on sustainability, and its reflection of our employees,” said Mike Foley, chief executive officer for Zurich North America, in the grand opening announcement.