When we moved into Ashbourne House in early 2019, we had no idea what the next two years would bring. We designed our new office in a time when people came into the office five days a week, meetings were generally in person and video conferencing was unusual and not quite trusted.
Then came the Covid pandemic and everything changed. After less than a year in Ashbourne House, we were forbidden to come in and everybody worked from home. Online meetings became the norm and paper files became a thing of the past.
When we eventually returned to the office, it was to a new way of working. We now have hybrid working arrangements and online meetings have continued to be a regular feature in the working day. This led us to look at our office and realise that it was not fit for the way our Team now worked.
After many meetings and discussions, with lots of different opinions (we are Accountants not Office Designers so the process was not easy!) we had a plan for our new office layout. We packed up our old office and returned three weeks later to a transformed workspace.
We now have hot desking, allowing people to choose their “desk for the day” to suit their plans, whether it be collaborating with their colleagues or getting their head down for some focussed work. We have an area dedicated to staff recreation, with table tennis, table football and games, with a well stocked refreshment stand. We believe keeping our staff happy is very important! We turned the old file store into a collaboration zone, got new modern desks and introduced lots of plants to improve the office environment and make it a space we all want to spend time in.
We revealed the space to the team with fizz and pastries and everyone was very excited and impressed with the changes. We look forward to showing off the new office to our clients and contacts – we hope you like it as much as we do!
