‘If people enjoy work, they do better work’

Jonathan Acott, Head of Experience at Chiswick Park, talks to Sarah Dale about why focusing on people’s wellbeing at work is a win-win for both employees and employers.

“If people enjoy work, they do better work – if they do better work, you have a better business.’

That is the ethos of Chiswick Park, an awardwinning 1.8 million square foot business campus in West London.

Arranged as a necklace of 12 office buildings with a lake at the centre, Chiswick Park provides a range of facilities and services to the businesses it hosts designed to boost the wellbeing of its guests.

“Wellbeing has been baked into our DNA,” says Jonathan Acott, Head of Experience at Chiswick Park.

“When they designed the park and started conceiving it in the 1990s, the lake came first. It was designed to be groundbreaking and it’s our duty as custodians of the park to be as committed to the wellbeing of the guests now as it was when it was designed.”

Chiswick Park provides large office spaces, from 5-person spaces to 900-person offices, and its guests include Warner Brothers Discovery, Starbucks UK and EMEA, Pernod Ricard, Richmond American University London and large media corporations. Sega is moving in next year.

Facilities and services include free bike, scooter and umbrella hire, laundry service, health checks and other concierge services including bike servicing. The site also boasts 24 hr security cleaning and maintenance call out. There is also a serviced office provision with daily fruit and milk deliveries as well as weekly fresh flowers delivered, and all your IT needs catered for.

There is a running club, sustainability club, book club and kitchen garden club as well as a wide-ranging events programme including an annual 1000ft zip line.

“We run a programme of events to get people out of the office and we have food traders to get people away from their desks,” says Jonathan.

“If people are happy, they do better work. 99% of the 1800 park guests surveyed would recommend Chiswick Park to a friend and 98% of the 1800 said that working at

Chiswick-Park makes work better. 98% said it is a warm, welcoming and safe environment. We’re very proud of these statistics.”

The park hosts 54 businesses not counting the organisations which use the co-working spaces on site at Regus and Venture X. It has won a variety of awards including Business of the Year at the West London Business Awards 2022 and FT’s Top 50 Great Places to Work six times.

“Everything we do, everything we have, is to make people’s lives better and more productive,” he says.

“Our guests can borrow a bike or a scooter. We have emergency ties. feminine hygiene products, tights. You can have your suits laundered and your car valeted. It’s all here.”

The park’s sustainability measures include using No2H2O, which provides waterless and eco-friendly car cleaning, and a sustainable feminine hygiene products provider.

The primary challenge of the business park is to ensure they are continually evolving to meet its guests’ “exacting requirements”.

“People have become more exacting and so too have businesses,” says Jonathan.

“Companies want to create an environment where they attract the best people. Their expectations are higher which means our standards have to be higher.

“It’s a hybrid model and we’re competing with homeworking. In a post-Covid world there have been changing work patterns and a rise of hybrid working and the increased demand for guests to have more perks in their work environments.”

Chiswick Park joined West London Chambers of Commerce as Patron members about three months ago.

“Most people join the Chamber for what they can get out of it, but we joined because of what we can give back,” he says.

“We’re a major employer and space provider for employers. We’re in a very privileged position with our geographical location. We looked at how can we help the wider community and help smaller businesses in the area and it made sense to approach that from being a Patron and being a sponsor of the Chamber.

“We do everything we can for our guests and if the Chamber has something that could benefit our guests, then we will look into it. They are an obvious conduit.

“There are a million networking groups that you can go to but I find at the Chamber, you’re going to meet fewer people trying to sell you things and more people trying to connect with you and try to help. It’s about making connections and building relationships and looking at challenges together.

“We will host a networking breakfast here. We are very proud of the park and we can show people around.

“It’s an incredible place to work. Where else can you watch a waterfall at work? It is beautiful and offers a better quality of life.”

Find out more at: www.enjoy-work.com

“Sally, Alan and Lisa experienced the zip wire a few summers ago! This sort of thing is natural habitat for Alan and Lisa, for me, however, it was altogether different. Luckily, I am not scared of heights, and it was such fun to do. Thank you, Enjoy-Work! What a brilliant workplace.”