Case study: How Hall Wilcox reshaped its office layout and culture

Hall & Wilcox has made a successful transition to an innovative, open-plan office at its Melbourne headquarters. Chief operating officer Sumith Perera explains the reason for the switch, the model that has been rolled out and the benefits it is delivering.

The rationale for change
Perera says Hall & Wilcox wanted to use the opportunity of an office move as a catalyst for innovation across the firm. “We think we have created an environment where our clients and our people experience working with and within a more progressive professional services firm,” he says. “Our new workspace also enables us to be innovative with our business model because we have introduced a flexible and adaptable space that can evolve as we do.”

After taking out a lease on a property in Melbourne a decade ago, the rapid growth of Hall & Wilcox forced it to enter into a non-contiguous lease to get extra space, with the result that its teams were split across different floors. That had an impact on collaboration and efficiency within the office. “We’d have lots of times when people weren’t bumping into each other and not really knowing their other teammates on other floors,” Perera explains. “So we thought it was important to try to bring the firm together again.” That led to a decision to rethink the office layout and embrace a modern, truly open-plan environment for the benefit of the firm’s people and clients.

The first steps towards change
Hall & Wilcox knew from past experience that inflexible workspaces were difficult to manage. So from the outset of the redesign, the emphasis was on creating an office where people could work in a multitude of settings and not necessarily be tied to a desk. “This isn’t hot-desking,” Perera says. “Everybody has an allocated spot in an open-plan environment.” However, rather than having a sea of desks in an office – like many other open-plan designs – the new Hall & Wilcox layout features a range of spaces. They include alternative work points, meeting rooms, booths and quiet corners, which means there are private zones when required. Perera says: “It gives people the comfort to know that they can still have group meetings or personal or confidential phone calls in a private zone.”

Strong feedback
The firm evaluated a range of different designs for about 12 months as it sought to create an office that could grow and evolve with the firm. Prototypes were developed and refined before the doors opened to the new office over the 2014-15 Christmas-New Year break. The Hall & Wilcox team has been working in the new office for a couple of months now, with Perera saying the feedback has been very positive. “Our people were a bit nervous about going into open-planned space from a privacy viewpoint and whether there was enough room and space for storage,” he says. “But they have been pleasantly surprised.”

Focus on innovation
The project has been about more than just layouts, space and storage, though. Perera says innovation and technology have been important drivers and have allowed people to work more flexibly. All the spaces in the office are completely wireless and in-office screens have wireless-detection capabilities so that anyone can walk into a room and quickly connect their devices to a screen and share content with colleagues or handle markups electronically.

There are also softphone options for people who do not want to use a desk phone; instead, they can work off a laptop wherever they want and have calls diverted to it. “Those sorts of things just make the space a lot more flexible and functional, so you can be working in a breakout space, a kitchen space, a work point or a meeting room,” Perera says.

Space saver
One clear benefit of the new layout for Hall & Wilcox has been a reduction in office space, and the associated savings that go with it. Perera notes: “We have dropped from about 5500sq m to 4200sq m with no reduction in headcount.”

Client-friendly, too
Perera says it is crucial to include the needs of clients when contemplating any office redesign. In Hall & Wilcox’s case, it has elements such as quiet lounges where clients can meet with their legal team or work on their own in between meetings or if they arrive early for appointments. The new workspace design also supports improved client service as lawyers can work directly with clients using the firm’s Microsoft Lync technology to video conference and collaboratively work on documents in real time. “Our people working together on client matters means there will be a consistency of service due to better communication and knowledge sharing between the various teams within the firm,” Perera says. “It has to result in better service and more value for clients.”

Hierarchies out, collaboration in
A feature of the new open-plan layout is that partners, junior lawyers and secretaries sit and work side by side. Such a move would represent a major cultural shift for most firms, but Hall & Wilcox’s people have taken it in their stride. “All of our partners are sitting here in the same desk as anyone else,” Perera says. “There’s no hierarchy of desks and that reflects our firm – the culture of our firm really supports that approach.”

One of the key advantages of this approach is that younger lawyers learn more from their peers and feel as though they are part of the team. “In the past one of the frustrations would have been that a junior lawyer would walk into a partner’s office, be briefed, run out and go and do the work and go back and make sure it’s right, whereas now it’s happening in real time at a desk or a work point,” Perera says. “It’s more conducive to working together.”

So far, so good
The transition to the new office setup has been “incredibly smooth”, Perera says. Nervousness about the switch from a paper-heavy office to a “paper-light” environment has proven unwarranted, with quick acceptance of a new digital storage system. While employees still keep paper files for work on the go, the files of record are now kept electronically. Comfort levels around security and privacy are high because the firm engaged closely with vendors in the transition to ensure robust safety standards.

Lessons for other firms
For other firms considering such a move, Perera stresses that an adaptive culture and mindset is critical for success. “Hall & Wilcox’s culture is very adaptable and we’d like to think we’re a pretty progressive firm and we recruit people of that mindset, so it has been a fairly easy transition for our people to adapt and start using new technology and working in a new environment. It’s reflective of us.”

Another key component of the transition has been deciding which technology devices to use. While the firm considered giving people individual choices, it ultimately decided to provide a couple of technology options. This has delivered two benefits: it is easier to handle from the perspective of IT management; and it gives the firm added buying power when negotiating with technology vendors.

The evolution will continue
With the office changes starting to bed down, Hall & Wilcox understands that it will have to keep innovating and evolving. The flexibility of the new office means it can be reconfigured quickly as the firm changes in the future. There is no sense of complacency. “As a firm we think being ahead of the curve and being innovative is just so important to the future success of law firms in a rapidly changing market,” Perera says.

The way forward
Perera says the firm will continue to pursue intelligent, inventive strategies.
“We are looking for points of difference where we can really differentiate ourselves as a smarter, more innovative firm and we think that’s consistent with what we are doing.”