Hollard: The Office Move

Description

Hollard: The Office Move: Abstract

By April 2009, Hollard Insurance had been in Arcadia, its new building, for a little over three years. A key motive behind the move had been to draw all Hollard employees together, so as to sustain and reinforce a common culture and facilitate communication across business units. Now, Hollard’s CEO, Nic Kohler, had a few things to consider: had the new building had an impact on Hollard’s culture, and on balance; had this been positive; and should he now move the company’s call centres to a smaller town, where competition for talent would be less intense? This might improve employee retention and better enable the company to invest in its call centre employees. At the same time, it would lower the salary bill. But would it also alienate the call centre employees, who provided a critical interface with Hollard’s customers? If Hollard did decide to move them off-site, what should he do to minimise the potential negative effects of doing this?

Teaching objectives

The purpose of the case is to examine the link between building architecture and social architecture and if and how organisational leaders can use building architecture to impact social architecture (that is culture and the way people interact).