Spaces shape people and architecture shapes behaviors. This is the symbiosis of a unique work that the consulting firm JLL has been developing for the last four years and which recently culminated with the event “The Inclusive Workplace”, which featured pioneering examples in terms of sustainability and inclusion from Natixis Portugal and Cofidis Portugal. . with the participation of Ana Gorriti, Director of DEI for the Built Environment Area of JLL, and organized by Caetano de Bragança, Head of Consulting at JLL Portugal.
Transform workspaces
Companies are changing, brands are changing and JLL follows the trend linked to sustainability and inclusion. Clients demand it and JLL responds within a new concept that seeks the best possible workspace for companies, and the space where employees will spend a large part of their lives.
The new designs, concepts and obligations respect the principles of inclusion and diversity of people in the workplace and accessibility. Profitability is the desire of the entrepreneur and promoter, but none of this is possible without new work models and positioning of the company and the brand. It has become a requirement for those who work to feel good in the company and with the company and, therefore, social initiatives, volunteering and inclusion are essential when deciding to choose the company where they want to work.
JLL, as a real estate project consultant, and through its subsidiary Tétris, has been developing new concepts where it plans according to the specifications of the developer, but where it adds its “Midas touch” and that is nothing more than creating. wellness experiences for employees and visitors and absorb the culture and life concepts of the city, street or neighborhood where you are physically located. JLL projects for companies with great social concern regarding inclusion impact the economic development of areas and create new environments and new centralities. Concept development can begin on a blank sheet within a screen assisted by AutoCAD software or begin with an analysis of what the developer has already done, but where he wants to do more and better, and JLL Design analyzes and recommends based on principles of social integration. , social responsibility and sustainability, both in terms of consumption and raw materials, and in terms of environmental decarbonization in the multiple possible ways.
Diversity and inclusion: more than a trend
And if during the last two centuries what mattered most to human beings was the home, today it is the environment and the street, says Ana Gorriti. The actions in the space in the field of promoting diversity, equity and inclusion are materialized through the design and implementation of a DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) strategy in the buildings, aligned with the corporate policies of each company, and which can affect areas such as the physical accessibility of spaces, age and body inclusion, neurodiversity and mental health, gender equality, ethnicity and culture, sexual orientation and gender identity, and also social responsibility and the feeling of belonging.
Caetano de Bragança says that studies of buildings and surroundings are carried out in a methodical and rigorous manner and with this objective in mind, JLL has been implementing the DEI Framework. Good practices for inclusive spaces, presented by Ana Gorriti, have already been implemented in around 35 countries and have been applied in more than a hundred buildings over the last four years. Using the DEI Framework, Gorriti concluded that 93% of companies have a social value strategy, focusing especially on their own facilities. Diversification is important for people and spaces. The analysis also concludes that 76% of employees prefer to work in an inclusive company, with a third of companies with ethnically diverse teams, and 41% with the same number of men and women workers. Ana Gorriti says that when we talk about inclusive spaces, around 45% of the cases are linked to physical accessibility, inclusion regardless of age and inclusive cases with respect to sexual orientation, since between 8% and 10 % of the population is linked to the LGBT movement.
Inclusion is also reflected in mental health issues, with 20% of the population suffering from the problem, along with social responsibility and belonging (feeling happy as part of a group), ethnicity and culture, and equity. gender. The example of physical accessibility refers to urban access to the office, vertical or horizontal routes, evacuation corridors, gender-neutral bathrooms, the circular economy and recycling initiative, proximity security or simple adjustable office equipment . In terms of methodology, the DEI Framework chooses priorities and moves forward with implementation. In terms of good practices and in the cases studied, situations such as circulation corridors, bathroom equipment and breastfeeding spaces were prioritized. The director of JLL says that when you look at these Frameworks on a global scale you can see how large companies are trying to change their space. And Ana Gorriti emphasizes that implementing changes in Europe has nothing to do with other geographies, such as the Middle East.
Natixis and Cofidis: two national examples
The examples of Natixis and Cofidis in terms of diversity, equity and inclusion were applied in different solutions, one case looking inward, towards its employees and the work/home connection, and another case looking outward, towards the community and through participation. . in the social solution for people without housing and without dignity of life. Natixis Portugal, based in Porto and presented by Nádia Leal Cruz, which started with the goal of employing 600 people and is on its way to three thousand, has reformulated part of its offices, with a unique and disruptive concept by focusing on representation of multiculturalism to create spaces for teamwork, called “Villages”.
The concept of the space is inspired, in some way, by the multicultural and multilingual space of an international airport and is composed of 13 unique zones that represent different cities around the world, using references and allowing employees to experience spaces that can be those of your country. , since the company has 40 different nationalities working, feeling the culture and even the smells within what Nádia Cruz calls living an inclusive and global organizational culture.
The “Villages” project, created with Tétris and carried out at the Campo 24 de Agosto facilities, Porto, is located in an area that was abandoned and is now growing. The pandemic was fundamental in the development of the space and the model to attract employees to return to the physical space, which went from being a space of convenience to a space of experiences. Nádia Cruz highlights that “this collaborative experience occurs through the celebration of 40 nationalities. The “Villages” have their own space with the possibility of functioning in an open space and serving as small “meeting points”. The journey through the “airport space” is a “multi-sensory concept with different effects of touch, sounds and smells.” The building is divided into several floors for fully immersive team building experiences. This work included iconic spaces, trees, landscapes, leafy plants, stone, rock, jungle and forest.
Cofidis Portugal opened to the Natura Towers community, in Lisbon, providing a cafeteria, a restaurant and two small shops for exploitation by social associations, promoting integration between solidarity projects, its employees and the local community. Cofidis hosted Café Joyeux and two projects with the Associação Crescer. The idea of housing was imported from France, specifically from the Bureau du Coeur project, providing two warehouses for the construction of small homes aimed at homeless people, offering them housing for periods of six months, as Laurence Facon explains. Strategic Director, Transformation, Sustainability and Quality, and Isabel Paiva, Head of Sustainability, both from Cofidis Portugal. Laurence Facon states that sustainability “is part of the company’s strategic transformation,” and this sustainability is anchored in the economic, human and ecosystem aspects and absorbs between 25% and 30% of the company’s investment. It stands out that they have an innovative, diverse and inclusive building. Isabel Paiva highlights that this inclusion perceived by the community means that the company’s ecosystem is close to the community.
The company challenged JLL in 2019 to design the Workplace strategy of the Natura Towers, after the organizational and sustainable transformation, which resulted in the objective of opening the building to the outside, and in 2022 the project was completed, after the preexistence was cancelled. It has been completely modified from the inside. The Natura Towers, located in the Telheiras neighborhood, near Lumiar, in Lisbon, included catering spaces that allowed the inclusion of people with cognitive problems and vulnerable situations in the labor market. Facon tells the story of the Bureau du Coeur project in which he opened two vacant commercial spaces to create two T0 apartments that have already housed four guests in the last year, people who came from the streets to transitional homes. Laurence Facon challenges each company to give up 20 m2 of space to solve the problems of people in need. And he concludes that “inclusion and diversity give value to the entrepreneur,” particularly in terms of outreach to the community and improvement of reputation.
This article was published within the framework of the Rota Imobiliária project, in collaboration with JLL: https://observador.pt/seccao/rota-imobiliaria/
Source: Observadora
