It’s certainly interesting to be hired into a workplace leadership role when the workplace is lightly occupied due to a global pandemic and remote or flexible work is the new standard.
Shortly after we resumed flexible, in-person office activities, we quickly determined that our headquarters in San Diego — outfitted with a dedicated workstation for each employee—was no longer a good fit. The role of physical office space evolved during the pandemic, and we knew we needed a more agile site.
But what exactly did we need? How would the office serve our people in a post-pandemic world? What direction would we take?
We needed to listen and learn. I read everything I could find on the “workplace of the future.” I spoke with peers in CoreNet, my trusted industry group. And I started a search for a workplace strategy and design partner, which we found in Unispace, the global strategy, design, and construction firm. Unispace brought strategy and research to the table, but their “special sauce” was their ability as a design-build firm to craft solutions that fit our needs as a growth company.
Seismic Employee Input
The next step was to deeply understand how our people want to utilize an office in this new era of work. We convened focus groups with employees representing all departments and career tenures, which produced diverse ideas about how and when to use the office. Our c-suite and marketing team also provided input into the process of developing a workplace strategy.
Many focus group participants recalled a pandemic-era all-hands meeting where our CEO Doug Winter shared the sentiment that the office is no longer just a place where you go to do your work. The office is a destination for shared experiences, brand experiences, and high-fidelity collaboration. This sentiment drove our planning and raised the bar for what employees would find in our future space.
We collected feedback, iterated with consultants, and produced our flexible workplace strategy anchored on five tenets: collaboration, connections, inclusion, flexibility, and wellness.
A new place to work
Wellness
In our search for a new office, we looked for a space that supported wellness and inclusion with onsite amenities and a convenient location. Torrey Plaza has an onsite cafe, full fitness center, conference center, and adjacent childcare.
Inside the suite we have a quiet library area with great light, views of the ocean, and a few balconies. A wellness lounge has soft seating, a curtain, and laptop desks for those who want a private conversation or a change of scenery. Plants are infused throughout the space on top of recycling units.
Connection and Collaboration
Our new workplace is designed to bring employees into a social space with entry into the Balboa Commons, our kitchen, and assembly point. Just off that are innovation rooms; designed to allow for hackathons or business process reviews. Down the hallway, you’ll find the formal meeting rooms, then smaller huddle rooms designed for hybrid meetings, and finally into our collaboration corner, where teams can arrange the furniture to fit their needs around moveable whiteboards. Many of our dispersed teams meet quarterly for strategic planning and these spaces flex to support how they want to work together.
Flexibility
In designing space for tasks and solo work, we took to heart the need for variety. We pivoted to activity-based zones rather than assigned spaces. Employees can choose from focus pods, sit-to-stand workstations, call rooms, or insulated phone booths.
Seamless technology is critical to a workplace where you may change locations multiple times daily. Our IT team set up workstations so that a single cord gets team members up and running on two monitors in seconds. The Cisco Video Conferencing units we deployed are similarly user-friendly with wireless or one-cord connections.
Inclusion
We wanted the office to reflect the local team and area. 3-D printed surfboards hang from the ceiling. The huddle rooms are named for different surf terms. Meeting rooms are named for local landmarks. Employees in our Communities of Belonging helped design artwork recognizing local civil rights leaders.
As employees feel more comfortable bringing their whole selves to work, our spaces need to accommodate them. The variety of work points and opportunities for low stimulus environments helps employees who may be neurodivergent. There is an enclosed quiet wellness room that employees can use for prayer, meditation, or stretching.
Closing
Our vision of a successful in-office day for our San Diego team is something like this: team members converging for a morning of planning meetings, breaking for lunch at the on-site cafe, catching up on their tasks for a few hours after lunch, having a one-on-one meeting in the wellness lounge, then hitting the fitness center or nearby trails and beaches to end their day.
The days of the cubicle as your eight-hour work location seem like ancient history now. As an organization, we’ve rethought the workplace, built it, and now will remake it with our employees. So far, no one is asking for their own 6×6 cube!
We’d like to thank our partners: Unispace, Bycor (general contractor) Cultura (furniture), Paladin Technologies (AV and Security), and American Assets (landlord/property manager). Every construction project has its share of hurdles, but this team was excited by the challenge, and delivered an exceptional product!
Check out our photos and video or, better yet, check our careers page and see if Seismic is the place for you to grow your career!
