Meet 2023 Next Work Environment Competition Hybrid Work Environment category winners, ATB Financial.
We connected with ATB Financial to see how their submission has evolved since entering the competition:
ATB Financial: The hybrid work environment and culture that ATB fosters is truly unique and optimizes for both performance and employee experience. When creating our hybrid spaces, we leaned into autonomy of choice and empowerment, creating a variety of space options and technologies to support activity based working. While we have seen great success and utilization of our hybrid spaces, we have also learned that not all of our creative ideas worked. Collecting real-time data and team member feedback through this the initial process is providing valuable insights and will inform future efforts. We are adapting to team member preferences around the functionality of furniture, the inclusion of power, increased confidentiality and different meeting spaces. Additionally, we continue to work through the rollout and learnings of new technology and the stakeholder adoption therein as we progress our efforts.
Ultimately, the workplace is not just physical space in isolation, but is in fact, space, people and technology coming together harmoniously to deliver outcomes for our team members. At ATB we continue to look towards the future for what work and the workplace should be, rather than seeking to return to a normal that used to be. We are excited about what is next!
This project was a large team effort led by Krista Lauridsen, ATB’s Associate Vice President of People, Places and Spaces. Keep up with what’s next for ATB Financial by following them on Instagram and LinkedIn.
Check out the slideshow, video and summary of the submission below:
At ATB, we fundamentally believe that space matters. This is one of the underlying principles that we used to establish our hybrid work spaces. Even prior to the pandemic, ATB recognized the importance of flexibility as part of our workplace value proposition and offered a flexible work environment for over a decade. However, we saw the importance of providing something different when asking team members to return to space post-pandemic.
We took this opportunity to re-define what it is that would bring, and keep, our team members in a space to connect, collaborate, celebrate and innovate. We enhanced our modern workplace policies and intentionally curated the conditions and environments that our team members needed to thrive and deliver on a differentiated experience – no matter where they work. As a result, in April 2022 we launched pilot hybrid spaces at ATB’s four major corporate locations.
From a physical space perspective, ensuring flexibility, agility and variety was foundational in our design. Our integrated signage and infographics help to navigate through our coloured zones, which foster choice and align with different activity based work principles. We created a variety of different meeting and collaboration spaces, as well as dedicated quiet zones that support focused work while offering an environment with reduced stimuli that might affect our neurodivergent team members. Diversity and inclusion are at the forefront of all that we do and were key considerations in our designs. Our spaces provide a variety of different volumes, lighting, sound, smell and privacy levels to align with individual preferences. We also incorporated residential elements throughout our planning as we know our team members grew accustomed to an informal workplace setting through the pandemic.
Having the right technology and digital infrastructure was also a key part of our planning process and is instrumental in enabling an effective and seamless hybrid environment. While on site at our hybrid locations, team members are able to reserve workstations or meeting rooms using our space booking software and convenient QR codes assigned to various spaces. We’ve also integrated space utilization sensors that provide real-time data and allow us to track and inform future optimization efforts. In addition to our on-site technology, we provide ergonomic assessments and a home workplace setup allowance to ensure the safety and well-being of our team members at their desired place of work.
For the past seven years, ATB has been named a top employer by Great Places to Work Canada. We have also been recognized as one of Canada’s best Hybrid places to work, based on our spatial design and people policies working in tandem. We will continue to push the boundaries and rethink how we work based on feedback and data we are gathering from our pilot hybrid spaces. This will allow us to continuously iterate as workplace demands and technology advancements evolve. We believe that elevating the workplace experience and offering an effective hybrid model allows ATB to recruit top talent and positions us to drive greater value over the long term.
Special thanks to our 2023 Innovative Brand Partners:
