Thanks to the layout of its new LEGO Campus, The LEGO Group’s strategy for hybrid working has been recognized as a model for other businesses to imitate.
On March 5, 2022, LEGO opened its corporate headquarters in Billund, Denmark, after five years of preparation and construction. Its architects created a 580,00 square foot campus to promote playfulness and production.
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Mini-city that supports hybrid working
According to Quartz reporting, the campus of LEGO, according to Klaus Toustrup, a partner at C.F. Mller Architects, is a “mini-city” featuring streets, villages, and courtyards for the company’s 2,000 local employees and guests from LEGO’s roughly 17,000-person global workforce.
Before the pandemic forced businesses to adopt remote work, LEGO had a campus area designated for hybrid teams.
They constructed a “People’s House” with a gym, art studios, theaters, a health clinic that provides stress-reduction programs and physiotherapy, as well as a community kitchen where coworkers from different departments can socialize or unwind after a hard day.
Workplace designed for each particular working style
The LEGO Group follows a common practice among businesses, such as Google and Apple, in requiring its staff to report to work three days per week while allowing them to work remotely on the other two days.
The strategy taken by the LEGO Group differs in that it appears to take into account the types of work that its workers are performing and provides them with the optimum setting for completing specific roles or tasks.
Together with the architects, LEGO’s in-house anthropologist Anneke Beerkens determined the ideal proportion of areas for group work, socializing, and focused work.
Employees told us that they wanted the freedom to choose an environment that suited them best for whatever they were working on, but also liked to stay close to teammates.
We built team ‘neighborhoods’ which are a mix of individual and collaborative workspaces designed to create a caring environment.
LEGO’s in-house anthropologist Anneke Beerkens
With this strategy in mind, the LEGO Campus was created, consisting of a number of buildings, or “neighborhoods,” arranged around the main atrium.
Each neighborhood has a variety of areas for what the LEGO Group refers to as “activity-based working,” ranging from workstations and personal “phone booths” for each employee to various sizes of larger rooms to allow both large and small gatherings.
Despite the fact that there are no permanent workstations and that it is essentially one big hot-desking community, Timothy Ahrensbach, the company’s head of workplace experience, claims that there are always 1.5 workspaces available for employees.
What makes LEGO’s hybrid working strategy prevail
Inc. writer Jason Aten recently visited LEGO’s new office region, and he claimed the LEGO Group model offers two important lessons:
First, create areas that are tailored to the particular kind of task that the employee is doing.
Secondly, explain how your plan benefits your team. The LEGO Group apparently defines its approach to its employees as the “best of both“, i.e. best for individuals and teams, taking the best elements of both remote and office work and fusing them together.
The point is that you have the choice and flexibility to find a place to work in the office on the basis of what you need to do. And, a couple of days a week, if the best place to get that work done is at home, you can do that too. It really is the best of both.
Inc. writer Jason Aten
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