You don’t change a winning partnership!

Serviceplan, Europe’s leading group of independent communication agencies, once again entrusted Alternativ with the creation and optimisation of 1,000 m2 of workspace designed to be totally flexible. The partnership took the form of a co-creation project that saw numerous Serviceplan employees become involved in designing their working environment. Interview with Nancy Delhalle, co-founder and Chief Marketing Office Serviceplan Benelux.

“This is the fourth project we have entrusted to Alternativ. Our first collaboration was back in 2012,” says Nancy Delhalle, before adding: “As an office design specialist, Alternativ serves as a source of inspiration for the client and offers a highly creative approach. What’s more, their teams provide 3D simulations, which made the decision much easier!”

Serviceplan’s requirements when designing 1,000 m2 of office space could not have been clearer: create a flexible, hybrid workspace for the well-being of their employees. Alternativ’s response to the brief was to decompartmentalise rooms, move the kitchen to a central location, create multi-purpose areas and, at the client’s request, build a “Zen room” to hold yoga and pilates classes. “The human factor and social interaction are at the heart of our thinking,” adds Delhalle.

At the service of the teams

“Our policy is ‘flexi, flexi, flexi’ – everyone works where they want, when they want. Flexibility to work sitting down, standing up, alone, in groups of different sizes, inside, outside, remotely, online, over lunch, during the day, at night, and when having a drink and a get-together too! We wanted to give our employees more choice in line with their changing needs and moods,” says the Chief Marketing Officer of Serviceplan Benelux.

With co-creation!

Involving employees in the design of their workspace often spells success for a project. Serviceplan’s “House of Communication” in Brussels brings together 120 employees from every communication profession under one roof. “We wanted to involve our employees in the creation of their workplace. For example, when looking at samples, we invited volunteers to come and choose the floor covering with us. With Alternativ, we really set up a co-creation process that paid off.”

Frédéric Bouchacourt, Alternativ’s Project Manager who managed the Serviceplan project, is full of praise for “a communication agency that is very much ahead of its time, brimming over with ideas. We had to live up to these ideas and translate this creativity into the workspace!”

Nancy Delhalle is equally enthusiastic and does not hide her satisfaction with the collaboration with Fréderic Bouchacourt. “He is 100% flexible. We changed our minds during the course of the project, and this was no problem for him. That kind of flexibility is reassuring!” Her conclusion: “All our employees love the new office space – it is more functional, brighter and airier. And our customers spend more time with us than before!”

In short, you don’t change a winning partnership!

Project Manager: Frédéric Bouchacourt

Design Team Manager: Laurence Moisse