Challenge

‘Solidariteit voor het Gezin’ is an autonomous organisation that provides home care services with about 500 administrative employees that manage and support no less than 5,000 ambulant carers. Home care is changing fundamentally (evolving from supply driven to demand driven and thus more flexible services for families and patients), so it was decided in mid-2014 to introduce the principles of the “New Way of Working” in future offices. The organisation decided to implement a fundamental change process and align its philosophy of “customised care” with its own employees so that they can work more flexibly than ever before. Bulvano had one year to roll out this organisational “reset” in four departments that needed to relocate.

Solution

Each of the locations was different, so Bulvano developed a basic concept with team workplaces: office space was and will be set up so that about twelve employees can work in a work space. To address the motto “customised working”, Bulvano designed movable acoustic partition walls that provide additional flexibility. Based on the changed composition of the teams, the workplaces can be divided up for groups of four to six people. The passageway to functional facilities (printing and filing) and “human facilities” (for consultations and meetings) were always seamlessly integrated. In addition, the use of large images on the walls is customised and stresses the organisation’s commitment to both clients and employees.

Result

The 350 office workers at its headquarters in Ghent and at the departments at Lokeren, Oudenaarde and Bruges now work in offices where the sense of space is always maximised and where they – again with customisation – choose the most suitable working environment. Moreover, Bulvano ensured that the logistics of delivery, assembly and the final relocation of the staff barely took half a day. This approach minimised the impact of internal changes on clients. Together with Solidarity for the Family, Bulvano proved that the “new way of working” is at the very least a catch-all term that results in new ergonomic furniture. The remaining departments will follow suit in the course of 2015 and 2016.