FOCUS ERGONOMICS
Patrick Ames, Director of Claremont suggests we need to look to individual
personas to create ergonomic, desirable and eƝ cient workplaces
36 NOVEMBER 2021
A er 20 months of unprecedented
change – businesses are fast realising
the need to reinvent the workplace.
The saying ‘we’re all in the same storm
but not the same boat’ resounded
throughout the pandemic and it put the
focus squarely on the validity of personal
experience. No longer a homogenous
mass of people with the same needs – we
are a distinct set of individuals users,
each with our own working wants and
habits.
According to the International
Ergonomics Association: “Ergonomics is
the scientific discipline concerned with
the understanding of interactions among
humans and other elements of a system,
and the profession that applies theory,
principles, data and methods to design in
order to optimise human wellbeing and
overall system performance.”
In order to optimise human well-being
we need to focus on the individual needs
of workers. Here, Patrick Ames, Director
of nationwide interior design and build
practice Claremont, introduces four
personas whose behaviours are typical
of those shaped by the pandemic and
highlights how FMs can use these to
curate ergonomic, desirable and eŽ icient
workplaces.
MEET CONOR, IRIE, MARK & SHONA
Our own consulting experience has allowed
us to translate the experiences of the last
year into four typical employee personas
– new starter Conor , working parent Irie,
contact centre worker Shona and remote
worker Mark. (Fig 1 and 2)
For Irie, greater flexibility trumps the
typical nine to five and allows her to make
her parental and work responsibilities fit
together seamlessly. Shona’s desire for
sociability and belonging in the oŽ ice
is shared by Mark. Shona experiences
this in a centralised oŽ ice with some
regularity, while Mark is more likely to visit
a local coworking space than head oŽ ice.
For Conor, a newcomer to the working
population, the expectation is he’ll become
a hybrid-worker in time. For now he’s using
the oŽ ice to facilitate learning and forge
connections with others.
These personas highlight how very
diŽ erent the ideal work experience is for
each of us. It’s clear that nine to five no
longer suits everyone, being with others is
a shared requirement and that individuals’
needs ebb and flow (o™ en in correlation
with their home lives) so the act and place
of work must do the same. Perhaps most
crucially, it shows what the oŽ ice has to
become and where its value lies. It has to
provide variety.
PRIORITIES, FOUNDATIONS & VARIETY
According to our research, the top five
budget priorities for FMs embarking on
workplace change are technology (14 per
cent), informal areas to collaborate (10
per cent), social spaces to meet and relax
with colleagues (8 per cent), quiet and
confidential spaces (8 per cent) and areas
for wellbeing (8 per cent). In workplace
terms this can be translated into four
key types of amenity - spaces for: focus
and process, collaboration and meeting,
knowledge and learning and socialising
and restoration.
FMs striving to create future-ready
PERSONAL PREFERENCES