For the past three years, NFL Media employees have worked in a newly designed, sleek office space and studios in Los Angeles that has all the accruements of modern design.
The space, of course, is all about the NFL. It’s an open plan with words like “unbelievable” and “improbable” painted along walkways. Employees have options for working away from the MillerKnoll supplied workstations.
They may choose one of the unique features in the space – office pods made by Finnish company Framery. They are standalone quiet places where multiple people can meet. Employees use them if they need to focus or have a private telephone conversation.
Office pods have become more common in space designed to be cognizant of how employees choose to work as their employers seek to encourage them back to the office post-COVID-19 pandemic.
“Workplace design evolved heavily during the pandemic,” Vince Flickinger, design director and principal in Gensler’s Houston office, says on a video call from an office pod.
With hybrid work models, companies are trying to design space that is more attractive than home for working. With the design, employees have more choices within the office to do their work.
“In high-performing workplaces, 94% of employees have a choice in where they work
within the office,” according to architecture firm Gensler’s annual workplace study. Another key finding – “high-performing workplaces also offer greater access to spaces for critical work activities, and overall have more work settings to choose from beyond individual workspaces and enclosed meeting rooms.”
Companies such as Nvidia, Microsoft, Apple, Lockheed Martin and Tesla have incorporated office pods into their space.
Framery and other pod manufacturers have done well even though office vacancies have been at record highs.
A segment of the market – so-called trophy properties built over the past several years – have done remarkably well. They are near restaurants, shopping and entertainment have leased well. Tenants have built out their space to attract employees back to the office.
Oona Vilermo, strategy director for Framery, says their business increased 30% last year and is on course to do well this year. The company didn’t let any of its employees go and focused on research development. It also increased the company’s U.S. sales force.
“It paid off,” says Anni Hallila, Framer’s head of people and culture.
Pods were gaining traction several years before the COVID-19 pandemic as companies shifted more to an open office environment and away from cubicle farms. But the open office lacked privacy and distractions increased. A 2018 Harvard University study found that employees still found ways to isolate themselves, such as wearing headphones.
Companies turned to a modern version of the old metal-and-glass phone booths that mobile phones killed. Framery invented the modern version and sold the first pod. It seats one person. The company made the pods used in NFL Media’s office space.
Other manufacturers emerged with different versions – Kettal, Thinktanks, Room, TalkBox, SnapCab and others. Framery built bigger versions to give more options.
Flickinger says the pods have a better environmental impact because they are typically made of recycled plastic, and they provide flexibility because they can be dismantled and moved elsewhere in the office if needed. Economies of scale aren’t there yet to replace all offices and conference rooms.
Still, “the idea of pods has come a long way from just a phone booth,” Flickinger says.
