Workplace culture design starts long before a values statement appears on a wall. It starts with how people move through a space, where they pause, who they see and how often informal contact happens. Think back to the first friends you made. School, most likely. University. Those early jobs. Places you did not choose so much as land in.
What those places had in common was not that everyone was especially warm or socially gifted. They were structured around repeated, low-stakes contact. The same building, the same people, again and again, with reasons to interact. Names had to be exchanged. You had to make something, build something, solve something, then do it again the next day. Many close friendships form that way. The ones that follow you out of the building often start with simple proximity.
The workplace still plays a powerful role in how people connect. Research reported by HR Grapevine found that 21% of Brits met their closest friends at work. Gallup has also linked having a best friend at work with stronger engagement, performance, innovation and retention.
Most organisations understand this in theory. They read the research, nod at the findings and then move back to the usual language of collaboration, utilisation and productivity.
However, culture is not only shaped by policies or leadership messages. It is shaped by the daily conditions that make trust easier to build. Familiarity creates comfort. Comfort creates trust. Over time, trust can become friendship.
We often assume friendship is organic. Hire decent people and the rest will sort itself out. That assumption ignores the conditions that made connection possible in the first place.
Remote and hybrid working have made this more complicated. Many people now communicate through Teams, Slack or email for most of the week. These tools are useful, but they can also become noise rather than connection.
Some people view work as transactional. Others prefer to keep their personal lives separate. There is nothing wrong with that. However, it means that when people do come into the office, the environment needs to work harder.
This is where workplace strategy becomes important. A good brief should not only ask how many desks are needed. It should also ask how people meet, move, pause, share knowledge and build trust.
The office used to create connection almost by accident. Shared kitchens, corridors, staircases, print points and reception areas brought people together without anyone needing to schedule it.
Then many offices became more efficient. Departments were separated. People were given their own zones, their own meeting rooms and their own facilities. In the process, some workplaces removed the very conditions that made informal connection possible.
A floor plan can either help people find each other or make that harder. It can encourage movement across teams, or it can let people arrive, sit, work and leave without speaking to anyone outside their immediate group.
That is why workplace culture design should be considered at the earliest stage of planning. Culture is not simply something that happens inside a space. It is influenced by the space itself.
Designing for connection does not mean forcing people into constant interaction. It means creating moments where contact can happen naturally.
- Shared amenities should pull people together rather than keep them in separate corners of the office. - Central social spaces should feel different from formal work areas, so people feel able to pause and relax. - Circulation routes should connect teams rather than route people around them. - Linger spaces should give people a reason to stay for a few minutes without needing a meeting. - Clear sightlines can keep people visible to each other without making the office feel exposed or crowded.
These are small decisions, but they shape behaviour. Over time, they influence whether an office feels connected, fragmented, welcoming or difficult to use.
When Eight Financial Advice came to Spectrum for its new headquarters, the brief centred on client experience and a professional working environment. Those things mattered, and they needed to be delivered well.
As the design developed, another layer became clear. The layout needed to do more than impress visitors. It also needed to support the people using the space every day.
Alongside advisory offices and client-facing areas, the completed Eight Financial Advice headquarters includes breakout areas, collaborative zones and informal meeting spaces. These are not just visual features. They create opportunities for interaction that are not attached to a formal agenda.
That is where culture often lives. Not only in the boardroom or the team meeting, but in the quieter moments that help people become familiar with each other over weeks and months.
If you are reviewing your workplace, planning an office relocation or trying to understand why a recent change did not land, ask one simple question:
Is this office designed to help people find each other?
Not in a forced or organised way. Nobody wants friendship scheduled into their calendar. The question is subtler than that.
- Are there spaces people naturally drift towards? - Do routes mix teams or keep them apart? - Are shared areas easy to reach, visible and comfortable? - Does the space support both planned collaboration and informal contact? - Are people being helped to understand and use the space properly?
That final point matters. Workplace onboarding and integration can help teams understand how a new environment is intended to work, so the design does not rely on guesswork after handover.
About Spectrum Workplace
Spectrum acts as a strategic partner, guiding your organisation through the full workplace journey from initial brief to successful occupation. We work closely with leadership and staff to define how your workplace should support your business, building a clear, aligned brief from the outset. Our integrated approach combines strategy, design and delivery, supported by ongoing cost validation, governance and technical coordination to reduce risk and maintain control. Throughout the process, we engage your team and manage all aspects of delivery, ensuring the workplace is not only delivered efficiently, but fully adopted and performing from day one.
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Caroline Roles, Design Principal at Spectrum Workplace, has given her insights into the industry.
I’ve wanted to be a designer for as long as I can remember. Growing up, I was always creating—whether that was making things by hand or painting—and I naturally became interested in interiors through helping my dad decorate our homes. That early exposure made me aware of how a space can change how people feel and live. Over time, that creative instinct combined with my enjoyment of problem-solving, led me to pursue interior design as a career.
What I enjoy most is the balance between creativity and functionality. I love the conceptual stage—developing ideas, materials, and palettes—but equally, I enjoy resolving the practical challenges that come with delivering a project. Ultimately, the most rewarding part is transforming a space so it not only looks good but works better for the people using it. I enjoy the process of understanding a client’s needs and translating that into a thoughtful, functional design.
Over the past year, leading the design team at Spectrum Workplace has been a real highlight. Seeing projects come together collaboratively and watching the team grow and develop has been incredibly rewarding. I tend to take a supportive and empathetic approach to leadership, so creating an environment where individuals feel understood, valued, and able to contribute has been particularly important to me. Delivering workplace environments that genuinely improve how people work and interact stands out as a key achievement— The Southern Co-operative Ltd project is a perfect example of this—but equally, seeing the confidence and capability of the team grow along the way has made it especially memorable.
I particularly enjoy workplace projects because they have such a direct impact on people’s daily lives, with real opportunities to influence wellbeing, productivity, and culture through design. An excellent showcase of this is our workplace transformation project for Gen II Fund Services, LLC. That said, having worked across residential, hospitality, education, and public sectors, I value the variety each one brings, as every sector presents different challenges and keeps the work fresh.
Balancing creativity with constraints is always a challenge—whether that’s budget, time, or technical limitations. Managing client expectations while maintaining design integrity can also be complex. As a Design Principal, another challenge is ensuring consistency and quality across multiple projects while supporting and leading a team.
I think understanding just how much of the role involves coordination, communication, and problem-solving—not just design—would have been useful early on. Interior design is as much about managing people, processes, and details as it is about creativity.
Stay curious and keep creating. Develop your creativity outside of work as well as within it. But also build strong organisational and communication skills as being able to turn ideas into reality is what sets a good designer apart.
I think the interior design industry will continue to focus strongly on wellbeing, flexibility, and sustainability, particularly within workplace design. Spaces need to work harder than ever, supporting different ways of working while also creating meaningful experiences that draw people in. Offices are increasingly being designed as destinations for collaboration and focus work, with hybrid working, and hospitality-led experiences shaping the brief.
Being an SBID Accredited Interior Designer and Design Practice is a great achievement, and represents a commitment to professionalism, quality, and continuous development. It’s an important benchmark that demonstrates credibility within the industry and reassurance for clients that they’re working with a qualified and experienced designer.
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