Evolving employee expectations prompt office redesign

Gate City Bank embraces modern design and collaborative workspace to attract millennials

BY KRIS BEVILL

Cubicles and closed-off offices don’t really cut it for many of today’s office workers, particularly for the millennial generation, which has been raised to work in collaborative settings rather than individual work stations. So when Gate City Bank began developing renovation plans for the executive offices, human resources, accounting, personal/business loan administration and marketing departments on the sixth floor of its downtown Fargo, N.D., corporate office, project leaders veered away from the long hallways, tall cubicles and walled-off offices traditionally used in financial institution office designs. Instead, they took inspiration from urban facilities that have embraced collaborative work environments to create flexible, open work spaces and an overall design that focuses on making the workplace more inviting to employees.

“We wanted to be progressive in our design process,” says Jay Krabbenhoft, senior vice presi- dent and office services manager. “My goal was to create a place where everyone would want to work.”

Fargo-based architecture and construction firm Wild CRG designed a space to meet the bank’s goals of breaking down the barriers of a traditional office setting. The entry point of the floor was converted into a space which Krabbenhoft likens to a college student union, complete with a stylish kitchenette and coffee bar where employees from throughout the building gather to engage with co-workers. Standard-sized office windows were replaced with floor-to-ceiling windows and many of the interior office walls and doors were replaced with glass to harvest as much natural light as possible. Work from local artists adorns wall spaces throughout the floor, adding to the warm and welcoming nature of the space.

Individual work stations were redesigned to feature lower partitions and a more aesthetic style. The bank is striving for a paperless work environment, so printers were removed from desks and replaced with just two printing machines. Video conferencing technology has been implemented and is frequently utilized for one-on-one discussions, meetings and training purposes.

The overall goal of the renovation was to create a collaborative and transparent environment that feels like a neighborhood. Krabbenhoft believes that goal has been achieved. In fact, the redesign has been so well-received that it is being replicated on the building’s third floor, which will house the bank’s “virtual office,” a call center where employees assist mobile banking customers. That project is expected to be complete later this year.

When researching the modernized work environment, Krabbenhoft and other bank executives toured other facilities that had incorporated similar designs and asked for feedback on what aspects were effective or not effective. They learned that employee acceptance of the new spaces depended largely on their leaders reactions. Fortunately, Gate City Bank Chairman, President and CEO Steve Swiontek fully supported the concept from the start and has embraced all aspects of the new environment. He was one of the first to make the commitment to go paperless and believes strongly in a transparent work environment, even encouraging staff to use the meeting area in his office whenever it is available.

In addition to changing the feel of the space, the extensive renovation project has also allowed the bank to accommodate an expanding workforce without increasing its footprint. The sixth floor now accommodates about 40 workers, double the number of employees previously housed in that workspace. Likewise, the third floor redesign will allow for an additional 35 to 40 workers in its growing e-banking department.

Kim Meyer, executive vice president and director of human resources and marketing, says Gate City strives to be an employer of choice and because the millennial generation is expected to make up 50 percent of the workforce by 2020, the bank is looking to the collaborative work space as a recruitment tool. Krabbenhoft agrees.

“We see it as an investment,” he says. “I want Gate City to have the best of the millennial generation.” PB

Kris Bevill Editor, Prairie Business 701-306-8561, kbevill@prairiebizmag.com