"This is not an office, it's our workspace"

Direct Line Group | Employee Experience

Creating workspaces people love

Connecting Direct Line Group‘s colleagues to their strategy through innovative workspace branding

The Challenge

When DLG moved to their Bristol office, they needed to put their own stamp on the new space – and bring the company’s strategy to life in a visually stunning way for employees, every single day.

They asked us to help connect their colleagues with DLG’s brand, vision, values and strategy.

The Solution

We put a simple concept at the heart of our approach: connecting the new workspace to DLG’s brand and strategy by bringing these ideas to life through wall vinyl, signage and complementary furniture solutions.

Working hand in hand with the Internal Communications team, we created a strategic journey through DLG’s range of
spaces – encouraging ideas’ generation, collaboration,
reflection and socialising.

DLG colleague standing in lift decorated with Churchill Insurance-themed wall art

Meeting room with Privilege-themed wall art and bucket-style car seats around a table

Ceiling light made from underside of a car

DLG colleagues playing snooker with graffiti-style wall art

Room decorated with Liquorice Allsorts-style furniture

Restaurant area with brightly coloured wall art

Ideas Lab, lightbulb graphics on floor, wall art, jigsaw-style furniture

Development Den with travel-themed wall art

Ideas Exchange room with coloured jigsaw-style furniture

Ideas Exchange room, diagram of brain on floor and jigsaw-style furniture

Ideas Exchange room, lightbulb graphics on floor and jigsaw-style furniture

Corridor leading to Ideas Exchange room with coloured wall art and furniture

DLG colleagues working in open-plan office featuring two phone box-style glass privacy booths

Workspace with brightly coloured wall art and jigsaw-style furniture

The Result

Together, we’ve created something truly special that captures DLG’s culture and values.

Colleagues have  been inspired by the new space – sharing their thoughts on Yammer daily since the big move. Indeed, Bristol colleagues are also more engaged with the wider business. For example, nominations for the annual Chief Executive Awards scheme are up over 15% from the previous year. Furthermore, employee engagement scores rose from 66% in 2016 to 81% in 2018 once the changes took place.

We’ve created a sustainable model, too – the designs are being made into a workplace-branding catalogue to ensure consistency and a cost-effective model when rolling out across DLG’s other sites.

Our work with DLG has picked up multiple awards:

IoIC National ‘Game changer’ Award of Excellence 2018

IoIC National ‘Innovative Use of Media’ Award of Excellence 2018

At the IoIC Central & North Awards 2019, we won three categories for:

Stand-Out Communication, Design, and The Tom Dawson Award

increase in colleague engagement following EBD

What colleagues said…

Love the atmosphere and the new look. It feels like we are now a proper team.

Customer Service Advisor

Work’s no longer restricted to desks. Now, we get together in huddle areas and meeting pods. This is not an office, it’s our workspace.

Technical Underwriter

I’m loving how new, fresh and bright everything is. Open planning is great and I feel really positive at work.

Commercial Underwriter

Unilever

> Challenge:
To get young people thinking about careers within Unilever’s Manufacturing and Engineering teams.

> Solution:
A multi-channel campaign inviting young people to walk in apprentices’ shoes.

> Result:
A foundation on which to build an inspiring identity for the entire UK apprenticeship programme.

Anchor Hanover

> Challenge:
To develop an engaging, fresh-look magazine for colleagues of the major new care provider Anchor Hanover

> Solution:
arch – a new, three times a year magazine with a celebratory tone of voice, look and feel

> Results:
Thanks in part to arch, 91% of Anchor Hanover colleagues said they understand how they contribute to the new company’s success.

Direct Line Group

> Challenge: To create an immersive environment at DLG’s new Bristol office

> Solution: An engaging, design-led workspace

> Result: More colleague collaboration and involvement in DLG communications

Southeastern Safety Campaign

> Challenge: Revitalise the safety culture among Southeastern colleagues.

> Solution: A fun and engaging campaign, encouraging colleagues to become safety champions.

> Result: Greater awareness and personal responsibility for safety at work.

easyJet

> Challenge: Helping to improve awareness and understanding of easyJet’s customer experience for their 8,000 employees

> Solution: An interactive, multi-channel campaign to cascade the strategy – and get easyJet people talking about it

> Result: 89% of easyJet people understand how their role contributes to the company’s success

Intu

> Challenge: To refresh and reinvigorate employees’ understanding of intu’s ‘joy’ principles.

> Solution: A campaign of workshops and team activities that help colleagues bring ‘joy’ to life.

> Result: High manager engagement plus regular all-staff activities designed to encourage joy in people’s daily work.

Southeastern

> Challenge: A game-changing approach to connecting with 4,278 employees across the railway network from Kent to central London

> Solution: The Southeastern Standard colleague newspaper

> Result: 100% positive feedback on the newspaper’s launch issue

Northumbrian Water Group

> Challenge: Getting colleagues to make safety a part of everything they do

> Solution: A 15-minute virtual reality experience to bring potential hazards to life

> Result: Colleagues are more aware of potential safety risks – and they’re carrying out safety checks unprompted

Avis Budget Group

> Challenge: To connect 30,000 employees to the global strategy

> Solution: ‘Our route to a smarter world’

> Result: Teams worldwide understand their role in delivering the strategy

Britvic

> Challenge: To promote Britvic’s new intranet as a tool to help colleagues to do their jobs easily

> Solution: A straight-talking, guerrilla-style campaign

> Result: 63% of Britvic colleagues viewed the communications in the first three days

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