±±¾©Èü³µpk10

St Luke's is moving its office from Euston to Covent Garden, and will have sound-proofed booths, Zoom-enabled meeting rooms and lounge areas. 

The move will allow the agency to have all of its 40 staff on one floor and will be designed as a co-working space where clients can also work in the office with the agency team. 

The new office is slightly smaller than its previous space at 3,475 square feet but will be able to accommodate more people (up to 80) because of the "efficiency of the space and the flexible way we are using it", chief executive Neil Henderson explained.

It takes over one floor in Imperial House on Kean Street, compared with three floors at the previous office, and has an outdoor terrace. However this does not mean that Henderson wants a big open plan space.

He said: "Pure open plan doesn't work well enough. Yes it encourages interaction, rapid communication and office buzz, but it damages creativity and productivity."

Henderson added that the move is something that he was considering before the Covid-19 outbreak.

The agency will host a "back to school" meeting on 10 September, as well as a socially-distanced party for all staff.

Henderson said that the space will be kitted out with the technology that employees need but plans won't be finalised until October or November once he's had a chance to understand how exactly people will be using the office.

The agency will be testing flexible working options such as working from anywhere on a Friday so all meetings on that day will be virtual and working from anywhere on one more day in the week.

Henderson added: "With the space and meeting rooms designed to conduct Zoom calls for every meeting, we will explore full flexibility all week. It is perfectly possible to work in a different country for a week and be fully on top of the work. We have already seen this in action."

He is calling the office the "ultimate work-from-anywhere hub" that will have environments to boost creativity and productivity.

"Nurturing creativity is about creating a wide variety of environments for teams and individuals to work in," he explained. "Being able to choose the right environment for the task at hand is key to productivity, inspiration and motivation.

"Our internal survey revealed creative teams in particular needed spaces where they could talk nonsense to each other in pursuit of great ideas, but without being overheard.

"So instead of being stuck at their desks, teams and individuals will have access to soundproofed booths of different sizes, semi-private acoustic booths, a lounge area for informal meetings, a café area for eating and meeting, a private terrace to work outside, as well as department tables and Zoom-enabled meeting rooms.

"There is also space designed for talks, agency get-togethers and yoga."