A socially sustainable and healthy workplace
Paulette’s keynote address covered personal observations about what makes Denmark a top scorer in happiness, work life balance and productivity (such as GDP per hour worked). Denmark has some unique natural advantages such as being small, and therefore geared for change, and a Danish culture of innovation and collaboration, which is great for beating global disruption. Also a strong democratic society characterized by trust and openness, and an education system based on team building and creative problem solving, help explain why Denmark has a socially sustainable and healthy workplace, and can develop it to an even higher, pioneering level.
Social spaces to collaborate increase knowledge sharing, well being and productivity
Paulette gave concrete examples of typical Danish workplace traditions that Australians could be inspired by, including social phenomena like the canteen, company sports clubs and a vast diversity of attractive spaces to collaborate at work – all social spaces that create value for organizations by increasing knowledge sharing, productivity and employee engagement. In addition, Denmark has outstanding examples of well-designed atrium buildings that welcome visitors to their lively lower levels, whilst unifying organisations and enhancing communication through their connected open volumes.
Openness and flexibility are advantages for both organizations and individual motivation
Other cultural factors such as an openness and a flat management structure are advantages in a modern world characterized by change and disruption. These factors support an organizational culture where flexibility and trust help to quickly integrate new partnerships and cooperations that uncover both business opportunities and employee development potential (that is, enhanced motivation and productivity).
Contributing to the urban context - policies and certification systems pave the way
The focus on creating socially valuable architecture that contributes to a better life for everyone is integrated into Danish legislation, through our city planning processes and work environment authority (AT) . As an example, the Copenhagen City Architect strongly enforces a policy of lively and transparent streetscapes where office buildings must strive to contribute more to the urban context than a mere coffee shop on the ground floor. Combined with the architecture policy of larger cities, Denmark has an ambitious DGNB sustainable building certification system, where a building’s sociocultural and functional qualities are equally balanced with economic and environmental factors (unlike several international systems that have either a primary focus on the social or the environmental factors.)
Nordic designed work life – an export product
All of this, founded on a Nordic design ethos and understanding of human-centred design makes Danish workplace design, and work life, an inspirational, and valuable, export product.
You can follow discussions and ideas after the Work Place / Work Life conference by joining the LinkedIn group “Offices are for People”.
