Ideas & Opinions
Nokia’s new breed of workplace
By Mike on 10 July 2008
The ‘workplace’ is fast evolving beyond traditional recognition, and Nokia is one of the many companies creating radical mould-breaking working environments. Is this change being born purely out of enhanced communication tools and the advent of high-speed Internet culture? Yes, in part.
It’s also clear that there’s a greater human angle to the new approach towards how we work, with core values such as freedom and good health (mental and physical) at the heart of the formula. These new-wave working environments are designed to echo the culture and ethics of a company. So therefore, increased productivity, innovation and results have to come into the equation, don’t they?
Reduced travel with virtual meeting solutions such as Halo, more ergonomic day-to-day equipment, working at home, or home from home with Concierge services. These are real working scenarios at Nokia, and flexibility and well-being underpin them. But can these sorts of working environment promote a true feeling of belonging to a team, and old-school shoulder-to-shoulder camaraderie. Is that what we actually want anymore? Or rather, is it now about enabling us to work in this traditional manner if it works for those involved and the project as a whole, as with the design on the N78 in London, and on the flip side enabling multi-disciplinary teams to converge and collaborate virtually and long distance as was the case with the creation of the N810 Internet tablet?
If you work in a new breed of working environment such as this, whether it’s outside Nokia or inside, let us know what you think in the comments section below.
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Tags | Beijing, Concierge, conversations, freedom, Halo, N78, N810, Nokia, Workplace
July 12th, 2008 at 6:40 am
As someone inside Nokia who works outside in my own home, I count it as a big perk. I used to spend 3-4 hours each day commuting from Fort Worth to Dallas in rush hour each day. In the winter, I would leave my house in the dark, sit in an office, and get home in the dark.
The stress of bumper-to-bumper traffic and discouragement of only seeing the sunlight during my lunch break is enough to drive anyone nuts, and really wears on your concentration, too.
Though the teams I currently work on don’t use video conferencing nearly as much as we could, we do make frequent use of other real-time communication tools to further build the team atmosphere.
I think, if it’s possible, any responsible company should certainly look into allowing more telecommuting. It’s easier on employees (for the most part) and it helps the environment. My wife and I were able to cut back to only owning a single vehicle, and there are other environmental benefits as well.
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