Photography by Magda Biernat.

We worked with Skanska to conduct a Workplace Study of 5 US Locations to develop a plan for their work environment of the future. The goal was to align their US workplace environments closer to their Scandinavian offices and help to create a sense that all their offices are tied together as “ONE Skanska”. We developed an environment that shifted their culture away from a heavily office centric, hierarchical environment to a collaborative and open work environment, one with shared daylight and views for all team members. Our new plan provides tailored workspaces for individual group needs, increases shared collaborative space, and provides multi-functional meeting spaces.

As the first step in the process, we provided an in-depth study of how Skanska previously and currently worked and collaborated with the Skanska team to understand how they wanted to work in the future. We developed new workplace standard, which improves individual and group work processes and generates a workplace environment that reflects the open, non-hierarchical, and collaborative culture and identity of Skanska. 

With the new “One Skanska” workplace, we were able to create a workplace environment where we changed from an office to workspace ratio of 50% to 50% enclosed to open to a totally 100% open environment. Executive Row was replaced with an Executive Leadership Team Area, where the Group Heads are located together in one communal environment for team collaboration and are surrounded by full height clear glass partitions, which allows for full visibility and openness but still provides for voice confidentiality.  Shared Support, Meeting Rooms, Idea Rooms, Support Rooms increased by 60%. 

The ratio of staff to collaboration seating increased from a ratio of 4 associates per every collaboration seat to a ratio of to 1.5 associates per every collaboration seat.  The new space provides for greater flexibility for group expansion and contraction and creates an unfettered workplace that reflects the Skanska’s values of openness, collaboration, and diversity.  All this was achieved while still reducing the overall square footage per person of 350 rentable square feet per person to 202 rentable square feet per person.