The global pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline extended the number of employers who have decided to bet on more flexible and mobile working environment and gradually remove inefficient traditional offices. Its office workers are gradually changing their desks and four walls around them for open areas in which they can move freely and choose the best actual place for work individually or in groups. Everyone has a laptop with a built-in phone, a locker for personal items and possibly one cabinet for documents. Even directors of the company's devisions do not have their own offices any more. At present, such a wokplace is being built for 1300 GlaxoSmithKline's employees in Philadelphia. Just before, it was completed in Bogota where 200 people work.
"We found that only 35% of work activity took place in offices and cubes, yet we were dedicating 85% of our space to those," said Edward Danyo, Workplace Strategy Program Manager at GlaxoSmithKline U.S., for Forbes.com. According to him, it is essential to create a working environment where people can provide the best results. Experience has shown that the new mobile workplace can speed up decision making by 45%. After about two weeks the majority of employees say that they would not want to return to the original workplace. For the company it also means significant cost savings on office space.
Forbes.com published a picture of new the GlaxoSmithKline workplace here.
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