SCOTT NEWLAND
Commercial Director, EastOn
FEATURED PROJECT
Crafting a stunning wellness suite for one of Europe’s largest parcel delivery businesses
Client
DPD
Location:
Hinckley, Leicestershire
Project Overview:
The East On team has been focusing on Wellbeing projects across the UK for some time; we see this as a growing trend as businesses move on from primarily working from home to encouraging their teams back into the office.
Collaboration is at the heart of the drive to see colleagues working together and this people-centric approach has also led many businesses to pay greater attention to how their teams feel when they are in the workplace. Our Wellness Pods project for DPD is a perfect example of how this can work in practice – read on to learn more about how the DPD team approached this opportunity and how the East On team responded to the brief.
Photos: Gary Heasman
Scott Newland, Commercial Director at East On Commercial Interiors, has just unveiled the first Wellness pod for long-time client DPD, at their flagship Hub 4 in Hinckley. Adam Moutford, Hub Facilties Manager, tells us how the project came about:
Hi Adam, this has obviously been a major innovation for the DPD business, how did the project come about initially?
“Wellbeing is a huge part of DPD’s People Strategy. We have a Wellbeing team – as well as People Champions at every site across our business – who are responsible for putting their people at the forefront of their mind. We had feedback from our teams about the desire for a quiet, private area. The new Wellbeing Pods were designed to offer a peaceful escape for various needs, allowing people to prioritise their mental health, attend to personal needs and de-stress and recharge.”
How does your role fit into this?
“I look after the infrastructure for all the East Midlands Hubs; this takes in everything from the buildings and yards through to systems, civils and HVAC. Of course I work with our Health and Safety advisors too.
However, I am part of a bigger team at DPD. I’ve been here for 5 years and after roles at other businesses I can confirm it’s a breath of fresh air working at DPD – it’s the people that make it. There are people who have been here for 15, even 25 years, which shows you how fantastic it is here”.
As part of our focus on how the space felt, we melded natural textures with preserved plants -living plants that are harvested at their peak and then stabilised using a natural preservation process. This allows them to retain their colour, texture and form for years — without watering, sunlight or maintenance, an ideal solution for this pod location.
What are the unique aspects of DPD as a workplace?
This is a super-fast-paced business and with 400 employees per hub, we are “always on” with the way we work, especially during key business hours – from 6pm to 3am.
How did your colleagues in the team initiate the project?
We had feedback from our people about their desire for quiet, private areas where they can step away during their workday or pray comfortably. These pods are a direct response to what our employees told us they needed, and we’re incredibly excited to bring them to life.
And this is where Scott and team came in?
Yes, we gave Scott free rein in terms of the solution and design-once we had established the wellbeing requirements themselves and knew what we were looking for. There were a couple of non-negotiables, the main one being that the eventual solutions couldn’t be permanently fixed and had to be a prototype for use elsewhere. Another consideration was that the wellbeing area had to be visible – we wanted it to be used for its intended purpose and not gathering dust.
So what was the process?
Once we had the core wellbeing requirements in place, we started working with Scott’s colleague Fernanda, who is Head of Design. This was then followed through with a feasibility study and separate meetings about design and colour palette; we then met with each manufacturer to discuss the complementary elements and the overall idea of a “pod” came about.
What was the experience of working with Scott and team?
Whenever I get these people involved, I know that I don’t need to worry. I’ve worked with Scott for many years and he knows that I have high expectations which he ensures are met. The company ethos at DPD is that high standards are driven from the top down and this project was no exception – and after all, I have to work here too!
Fernanda managed the project expertly so that I didn’t need to be on site all the time. This was a proper turnkey project that made life easy. Everything from Health and Safety to planning and installation was spot on and I had phone calls and photos of progress at every stage.
Has the first Wellbeing pod lived up to expectations?
Yes! We are very happy with the results. The colours are neutral and calming so that we will all want to be in the pod for some restorative time.
What has really impressed us is the acoustics – these pods are very well insulated and you can almost feel the silence when you close the door behind you.
We’re really looking forward to seeing people use these pods and we believe they will be a valuable addition to our workplace, helping colleagues feel more supported, refreshed and ready to tackle the day.
Fernanda Scholz, East On’s Head of Design and Scott Newland, Commercial Director, tell us more about how this project came to life.
SCOTT NEWLAND
Commercial Director, EastOn
“I’ve worked with DPD for many years and have completed projects across the full spectrum – from purely practical concepts that suit a market-leading logistics operation through to bespoke furniture for the executive suite. This project was different in that the solution itself was likely to lead to a positive change in working practices for the team. Put simply, the client asked us to find a way to offer all colleagues somewhere to rest and recharge that was inviting but more than just a break area.
Rather than start with requesting “can you build us some Wellness pods?”, we were tasked with finding a solution that benefitted everyone at certain DPD depots with absolutely no preconceived ideas. One of the challenges was that we were looking to add this facility to five depots across the Midlands and each of these had a different footprint and availability of space. We wanted to avoid simply partitioning existing offices and we also aimed to provide flexibility and futureproofing to give longevity to whatever we came up with.”
Design inspiration came from many sources - as we looked at textures and colours plus modular and soft seating furniture options, our plans came together, leading to this first draft design for the prototype pod.
FERNANDA SCHOLZ
Head of Design, EastOn
“My initial task was to really get under the skin of how the team members would use a Wellness area. What was so exciting was that the team commissioning this project were going to benefit as well, so every conversation we had was directly relevant to the solution because we were always talking to a potential beneficiary.
The brief was very clear – that this was to be somewhere positive for everyone from the drivers to the office team, in a business that comes to life between 6pm and 3am. What it wasn’t to be was somewhere to have a nap or a bite to eat – we were hoping to support productivity!
Texture was super-important to this; in a business that is highly organised and mechanised, providing something that genuinely catered to human needs was called for. So our initial designs focused on earthy, comforting tones and natural fabric textures from everything from the soft seating to the flooring.”
SCOTT NEWLAND
Commercial Director, EastOn
“Because we had to factor in both flexibility and a solution that worked in five distinct locations, we decided to work with the UK’s leading manufacturer of pods for the office environment, Senator UK.
When you mention the word “pods” to many people, they simply think of the very common privacy pods that became popular a few years ago that are about the size of a phone box but what we came up with here are very different. Fully integrated into power/ lighting (as you can see in our photos of the top of the pods) and sprinkler systems but also completely flexible in location, these double-glazed Wellness pods we have created for DPD are acoustically sound with the opportunity for interior design as needed. We’ve created formal boardrooms in these products previously but here we looked to create something relatively informal.
In the future, should DPD want to relocate any of the pods we’ve installed, our team can simply move them so nothing will be wasted and the whole pod and its contents will be demounted and repositioned.
Fernanda: The final design involved “pops” of DPD’s red in the soft seating and then we picked up on the connection between Wellness and organic textures with a jute rug and natural fibres in fabric plus wooden side tables. Unusually, we used preserved plants to continue the feel of bringing the outside world into the working day (or night). The modular seating we used is infinitely customisable depending on where the team want to sit.
Our colour palette changed subtly from the initial design so that we introduced more variations on the earthy/ mushroom tones – the final touch was a set of sheer curtains in a tonal sage green that gave optional privacy to users but maintained the natural look and field. “
