How Joules created a future-proof HQ in the midst of the pandemic

British cloth­ing com­pa­ny Joules was look­ing for­ward to mov­ing into a new pur­pose-built head office at the start of 2019. Pre­vi­ous­ly split over five offices, the move would have rep­re­sent­ed the first time the busi­ness was housed under a sin­gle roof. But then the pan­dem­ic hit. 

Con­struc­tion quick­ly came to a halt and the com­pa­ny took the time to revise its plans for the new 60,000 square foot office space. Joules chief exec­u­tive Nick Jones says: “It allowed us to reflect and ensure the envi­ron­ment was con­ducive to our new ways of work­ing.”

Dur­ing the coro­n­avirus pan­dem­ic, Jones quick­ly saw the ben­e­fits of remote work­ing. He claims the peri­od allowed his employ­ees to oper­ate more effi­cient­ly, effec­tive­ly and chal­lenged the meet­ing cul­ture that the com­pa­ny once had.

“Peo­ple have become more autonomous and empow­ered because work­ing at home forces you to make your own deci­sions — you can’t nip round the cor­ner to ask some­one what they think, so that’s been bril­liant.”

How­ev­er, it also high­light­ed the impor­tance of col­lab­o­ra­tion. He adds: “We are social beings and small con­ver­sa­tions are very impor­tant in cre­at­ing excite­ment and inspi­ra­tion. I’m hop­ing the new work envi­ron­ment will help us be more col­lab­o­ra­tive and encour­age more con­ver­sa­tions.” 

To this end, the new office space — affec­tion­ate­ly referred to as ‘the barn’ — has sought to cap­ture the ben­e­fits of flex­i­ble work­ing, while also help­ing to pro­mote a more col­lab­o­ra­tive atmos­phere. Jones says: “For­tu­nate­ly we had the advan­tage of start­ing with a blank can­vas. So we haven’t had to repur­pose an old build­ing, we’ve been able to reshape or adjust it with flex­i­ble and remote work­ing in mind.”

Capturing the countryside

These changes have allowed the com­pa­ny to expand the cen­tral atri­um and cre­ate more space between desks to pro­mote spon­ta­neous inter­ac­tion between employ­ees. Every meet­ing room is equipped with audio and visu­al equip­ment to allow remote work­ers to call in, while floor-to-ceil­ing win­dows and out­door fea­tures, includ­ing a bug hotel, help to con­nect the space to the company’s coun­try­side her­itage.

“The per­son­al­i­ty of the envi­ron­ment is impor­tant,” Jones adds. “You don’t want to feel like you’re com­ing into a clin­i­cal sober envi­ron­ment where you’re just expect­ed to get on with your work.”

Set in the rur­al town of Mar­ket Har­bor­ough, Jones hopes that the new space will bet­ter reflect the out­door lifestyle brand’s roots. “We want­ed the essence of the brand to run through the space,” he says.

The build­ing shares many of the core design prin­ci­ples of a set of farm barns and this is reflect­ed in small details, from the doors and han­dles to the large barn win­dows. “All of those small design choic­es help to cre­ate a brand iden­ti­ty,” Jones adds.

Creating a new company culture

Although the phys­i­cal changes to the mul­ti-mil­lion pound cam­pus have been wel­comed, a new com­pa­ny cul­ture will be equal­ly impor­tant for the Joules chief exec­u­tive in deter­min­ing the suc­cess of the new head­quar­ters.

“Rethink­ing the prac­ti­cal ways of work­ing is as impor­tant as cre­at­ing a con­ducive space,” Jones says. “You’ve got to pro­mote a new mind­set and cul­ture because if you don’t, you’re not going to make the most of the space. Although the barn is the phys­i­cal rep­re­sen­ta­tion of where we work, the biggest change will be in our ways of work­ing. The build­ing should com­ple­ment that but it can’t be the dri­ver, it’s got to sup­port it.”

Now the con­struc­tion is com­plet­ed, Jones — who was appoint­ed CEO in 2019 — is excit­ed to recon­nect with col­leagues and have con­ver­sa­tions in per­son once more. “I’m look­ing for­ward to being able to walk around the new space and catch up with peo­ple. You’ve got to be able to con­nect.”

Joules employ­ees will be able to book desks in the new HQ from this week onwards, with plans to ful­ly open the build­ing when lock­down restric­tions are eased in June. The office was orig­i­nal­ly designed to accom­mo­date more than 500 mem­bers of staff. How­ev­er, Jones antic­i­pates that, once pent up demand has sub­sided, only around half of that fig­ure will be in the office at once.

Despite con­sul­ta­tions with staff through­out the devel­op­ment peri­od, the Joules CEO accepts that they won’t have got every design choice right, mak­ing the next few months a cru­cial peri­od for the com­pa­ny’s new home. 

Jones says: “Our expe­ri­ences over the past 12 months mean that we’re well placed to have a real­ly pos­i­tive impact mov­ing for­ward. We’re now able to do that in a new build­ing which is future fac­ing, rather than try­ing to redo some­thing that was built for the past.

“But we will def­i­nite­ly have to learn and adjust, to con­tin­u­al­ly improve the space and our ways of work­ing.”