Prompted in part by the corona crisis, Proximus decided a few years ago to reduce its office space in its Brussels headquarters whilst providing spaces to foster greater (creative) collaboration and connections between colleagues. The aim was to give the new Brussels headquarters a campus-like atmosphere, with emphasis on inspiring collaboration workspaces and facilitating a strong internal cohesion between employees.
This ambitious change project was co-coordinated at Proximus by David Lytton, Domain and Change Manager in Workspace Transformation. “Our new site, Campus Brussels, will reflect our new and smarter ways of working. To allow for this refurbishment, the Proximus Towers were completely vacated by the end of 2023. Earlier that year, the number of open floors in the Proximus Towers was gradually reduced - achieved by providing increased levels of activity-based working and supported by a digital “Connect” app for workspace booking. During the second half of 2023, all employees moved from the Proximus Towers to a nearby rented building (Boreal), as well as working more in other Proximus buildings in Brussels or in the regions.”
“We were looking for a long-term partnership with an external organisation, with our Campus program coming to fruition with the move to the new temporary headquarters. To make this partnership concrete, we were asking for support for the change management. This change came with the adoption of new behaviours by the employees in the context of three tracks. First of all: a full launch of the Connect tool throughout the organisation, elaborating on the innovation and mindset change needed by our employees. Secondly: moving our colleagues within the Proximus Towers before the move to Boreal. And thirdly: moving everyone to Boreal and working more in an activity-driven way.”
“One of the biggest challenges was the adoption of behaviours linked to our New Ways of Working, such as reserving a workplace, coming to the office more on a Friday and using two different buildings for various kinds of activities (which is not obvious!). The physical move to our new building was the easy part. Another tough challenge to tackle was to implement a new mindset, of ‘sharing is caring’ – sharing floors, lockers and meeting rooms – as a common thread.”
Thanks to an intensive collaboration with the BDO experts in change management, these challenges were tackled successfully.
David: “We needed extra manpower to help us in the development of corporate-led change actions, and to support our change teams in the business. While going through a formal “Request for Proposal” process, the proposal provided by BDO came closest to our needs. It also fitted within the budgetary envelope that had been allocated.”
“BDO's support came on many levels”, David continues. “They supported the pilot and the rollout of our Connect tool to all employees. In addition, they helped us prepare for the move to Boreal. Furthermore, the BDO experts helped us communicate clearly with our colleagues for the move-out. I also refer to the guidance for the piloting of new workspaces before we implemented them in our temporary building. Finally, BDO advised us on how to describe the different workspaces available in Boreal and Evere, and for what activities they can be used.”
“Working together with an experienced team in change management was excellent, marked by weekly progress meetings with the BDO team and project manager, and with senior management in a monthly steerco”, David recalls. “This way of working allowed us to refocus where necessary, identify and manage risks, and keep within the overall budget.”
“If I had to describe our cooperation in three words, I would mention ‘flexible’, ‘integrated’ and ‘relaxed’. On flexibility, we could use different capacities in function of the workload to be done. In terms of integration, the BDO experts were part of our overall change team in Proximus. We had a great working relationship with the BDO project leader who integrated herself fully into the Proximus organisation. This eased the overall way of working, the structure put in place to get the work done, and the team spirit of all involved. And finally, I appreciated the relaxed and informal way of communicating and working together.”
“As a result, the move itself to our new headquarters went very smoothly and when asked for feedback, most employees rated the experience very favourably. This success was helped by the input of the BDO experts, who supported us through this part of the Campus change journey.”
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