Transparency can be a clear success for UAE offices

The Life: Some companies are boosting workplace happiness and productivity by focusing on a surprising area: office design.

From left, Nabil Farahat, Obadah Obesi, Renier Andre Saayman and Karim Elsaid in a communal work space at the Microsoft office in Dubai Internet City. Microsoft works to create environments within itsShow more

When people are evaluating places to work, not many think about how the office is designed. At least consciously.

"Employees want things that are open and transparent, and how an office is designed can communicate a lot about transparency," says Michael Burchell, a partner and director of The Great Place to Work Institute UAE, a human resource consultancy based in Dubai. "Do executives have offices on the outside, where all the windows are? Are employees inside, in the centre, with little cubicles? Are the doors closed to management?"

These are the types of details Mr Burchell and other experts in the field of office design scrutinise. Next month, at The Office Exhibition at the Dubai World Trade Centre, industry experts are scheduled to speak about how a thoughtfully designed workplace can increase the bottom line.

Proponents of the movement argue that while human resource professionals have highlighted how increasing employee morale can help businesses in times of economic recovery, little attention has been paid to how creating the right office space can also boost productivity.

Sometimes a successful design boils down to how an existing office space actually gets used on a regular basis.

At Google, says Mr Burchell, the cafeteria gets cleared every Friday so senior leaders such as the company's chief executive and founders can answer questions directly from employees. "Small companies can go ahead and do a lot to create openness and collaboration," contends Mr Burchell. One office with 120 employees that he is working with has desks that employees can plug to their computer but roll anywhere in the room to easily collaborate on projects. "The place always changes," says Mr Burchell.

But what about even smaller offices? Mr Burchell says businesses with as few as five employees in the Emirates can still implement these kinds of strategies. Rather than having a corner office for the manager, for example, use that space as an idea generator where everyone can meet and brainstorm, or hold private meetings with clients. If a manager prefers not to have their desk in the same space as his or her underlings, however, then setting up a small kitchen with a table and coffee machine might suffice.

What's admittedly harder to measure, experts say, is how much of a difference all of this makes. Yet it can be done. At the Dubai office of Microsoft Gulf FZ, Reiner Andre Saayman surveyed employees both before and after a major redesign. The company's area portfolio manager for the Middle East and Africa says that before the renovation, most workspaces in the office were underutilised. "You had very low mobility of how people moved around in the office," says Mr Saayman.

Then the company converted its 38 closed offices and 9 meeting rooms into a mix of 55 enclosed collaborative spaces. Nobody has an office anymore, and even the firm's executives and department heads sit in the same space surrounded by informal meeting spots.

"We found people are much more inclined to be in those spaces than a formal work environment," says Mr Saayman. And since employees could still easily plug in their laptops and smartphones while working away from their desk, they engaged with one another more regularly and still completed their work. Mr Saayman says productivity has since inched up a few percentage points, while workplace satisfaction has shot up 10 per cent and collaboration has improved more than 20 per cent. "Managers say they're much more in tune with their people," says Mr Saayman. "They're much more approachable."