Telecom Central
ONE PLACE. MANY WAYS. The internal towering atrium, exposed ceilings, funky furniture and Wellington film graphics are all part of Telecom’s desire to make their new 19,000m2 building on Willis Street dynamic for staff from day one.
The journey to bring 1,850 Telecom people together from disparate buildings around the Capital started pre 2007. Jim Robb, Telecom Head of Corporate Property explains “Telecom’s annual staff engagement survey ranked accommodation quite poorly. The Executive (of the time) recognised that a significant step change would be needed to change staff’s perception of accommodation being an enabler to the business and instilling a sense of staff pride in their space. Bringing the various divisions together under one roof would be essential to bust the historical divisive culture and support the new ONE Telecom culture. The pending structural separation of Telecom and Chorus coupled with the unwavering support of the ‘new’ Executive team has supported and been supported by the property solution.”
There’s an artist’s rendition of No 8 wire on one wall, and it was down to the wire to get Telecom Central across the line for its mid September opening. Jim Robb comments: “The project was complex in that the developer retained some of the base building project management responsibilities. Telecom engaged TBIG to project manage its responsibilities. TBIG’s Wellington engagement followed on from Telecom’s Auckland project so they got off to a flying start in understanding Telecom’s brief, design principles and deliverables. As the project intensified Telecom needed additional project management help to deliver related matters which TBIG had the capacity to resource. Delivery of the new build was core, but accelerating the exit strategies from current buildings and minimising the double rent overlap could save a lot of time and cost. As did minimising the end of lease reinstatement activity. They did an outstanding job of managing the whole exit and surrender process.”
“Like all big projects, the predictable proved unpredictable but the opportunity to be Telecom’s project managers has been very satisfying,” says Andrew Cooper, Project Director for The Building Intelligence Group.
Hot desking is another feature at Telecom Central. Jim Robb explains “Most Government departments typically work at between 15-20m2 per person. Couple that metric to the traditional fixed desk model where everyone has a dedicated desk then factor in absence through travel, project mobility, leave and you quickly get to 25-30m2 per person actual used space. With our hot desking model we’ve pushed it down to about 12.5m2 per desk and 10.5m2 per person, and that’s a great value proposition.” “It’s really the only way Telecom could justify the significant investment in a new building. We had to find a solution to ensure the efficient use and derive value from the new accommodation.”
As a people driven work place, Telecom Central ticks all the boxes. It’s technology toolset is outstanding with wireless data connectivity, secure Follow-Me printing, state of the art Smart Meeting Centres, big screens in the atrium and surprisingly for a Telco – no fixed phones, it’s all through softphone technology via laptops which simultaneously ring to a (XT) mobile phone.
Email this article
Print