open planning
For the new Seoul office, McKinn says Symantec chose an open plan concept, which is something that had not been used in previous office designs. She says the new open desking arrangement, with furniture supplied by
ULTRA, was a big change for the local employees, as it is a very different environment to what they had been used to. McKinn believes the new open plan layout will take some getting used to for some members of staff but says Symantec has accommodated for concerns over loss of privacy by incorporating design features, such as more meeting rooms, into the workplace. She also feels that adding more internal meeting rooms has“enabled the open plan to be more workable”, as staff can, for example, use these areas for client meetings or private phone calls. Symantec has also installed what it calls“phone booths” in the Seoul office. These very small areas have both data connectivity and a phone line, says McKinn.

Symantec is currently looking at hoteling ratios and
where it can instigate hoteling across the business.

Following its implementation at the Seoul office, the new open plan concept is a strategy that Symantec will continue to adopt globally for all its new sites, says McKinn. She adds that the company has been exploring various workplace solutions strategies and that Symantec is currently looking at hoteling ratios and where it can instigate this across the business. For example, in areas where the majority of employees are out of the office for 50 percent or more of the time, McKinn believes that “moving away from traditional work spaces to open plan will lead to greater space utilisation”. She says that it is interesting to walk around some of Symantec’s more traditional offices, where there is so much office space that is not fully utilised, because “half the time the offices are empty”. McKinn says Symantec is really trying to “rationalise” its space and use it “efficiently” and adds that the company is working with consultants and doing benchmarking to make sure that it gets everything right for the future.

aesthetics
Symantec’s standard colours have been used throughout the new office and McKinn says that it wanted to create an “elegant” and “sophisticated” environment. She adds that in contrast to many other software companies and in particular those companies within the IT industry that have adopted a less corporate and “funkier” work environment, Symantec is more traditional. McKinn says the image
Symantec’s working environment portrays is that of “a corporation rather than some funky, jeans and t-shirt type people”.

Staff opinion was not sought on the new office design or furniture. McKinn says “Symantec tends not to do this, as there are so many people working for the company” it could prove very time-consuming. However, she says consultation with the Vice President and senior management at Symantec did take place regarding the Seoul project.

McKinn says that the new Seoul office was a “very fast project” that took approximately 12 weeks to complete. However, she adds that, dependent upon size, this kind of timeframe is normal at Symantec. The project was delivered on time and within budget and McKinn says that“as long as you’ve got your programme well-managed, you can usually get the job done within 12 weeks”.

The image Symantec’s working environment portrays is that of “a
corporation rather than some funky, jeans and t-shirt type people”.

challenges
The main challenge for Symantec in the high growth Asia Pacific markets is finding suitable real estate, says McKinn. She says that when she first joined the company eight years ago, the company used to be able to build out with a five year plan but that “these days you just can’t do that because of the growth within Asia Pacific”. She adds that the focus nowadays is very much on Asia Pacific, as opposed to the European and North American markets where growth has pretty much stabilised. She believes a focus on the Asia Pacific “is an industry thing” that is not unique to Symantec but is instead a global phenomenon.

Overall, says McKinn, the Seoul project was a real success and ran very smoothly. She says there were not really any problems during the process and that she cannot think of anything that she would do differently next time. Most importantly, the feedback that she has received from users of the new Star Tower office has been positive and she says that on the whole staff appear to be “very happy” with the new open plan layout. RFP

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