Customer Story Softchoice

Empowering Flexibility through Variety

When Softchoice decided to renovate its Toronto and Montreal offices, the redesign team aimed to create environments that would help employees shift to a hybrid work style. The team’s solution was to create diverse spaces, including unassigned workstations, meeting rooms optimized for collaboration, private spaces, and ancillary areas that encourage connection.

This variety empowers people with the flexibility to choose how and where they want to work, and to quickly adjust as plans change throughout the day. For example, in an office with unassigned workstations, it’s important to provide privacy on demand—especially for people in roles where confidentiality is critical. In the redesigned Softchoice offices, people can easily pack up and move to a smaller, enclosed space optimized for private conversations.

The executive leadership team at Softchoice has embraced this fluid work style. They are committed to working at unassigned desks, giving their team members visibility and access to them when needed. When it’s time for a one-on-one or confidential call, they move to a meeting room or smaller private space with visual and acoustic privacy.

Optimizing the Workstation for Collaboration

Softchoice’s workplace strategy, “Work Your Way,” provides its people with the flexibility to plan their workdays in whatever way is best for them. This requires flexible furniture solutions that help people balance personal and professional priorities, collaborate effectively, and respond quickly to colleagues and customers. The workplace experience team selected the new Compose Echo workstation, which was designed for a more agile future of work. These workstations create a “working neighborhood”—a comprehensive system that encourages fluid shifts between individual and collaborative tasks.

The workstations are tethered and on casters, allowing for movement when coworkers want to work together or to return the desk to its defined footprint. They also accommodate personal well-being with height-adjustable desks, storage, ergonomic monitor arms, and curved screens that occupy the same space as two smaller monitors. And with one simple USB-C for display and power, team members don’t need to worry about forgetting a laptop charger.

With so many opportunities for comfort and connection in this “working neighborhood,” the workplace experience team anticipates an uptick in productivity, efficiency, and an enhanced sense of shared culture.

Creating Purposeful Transition Zones

Outside the “working neighborhood,” transitional spaces offer ancillary furnishings that give people options for how and where they want to work. A person can be intentional, reserving a desk or meeting room before they come to the office, or they can choose from various informal spaces.

These include lounge areas where people can relax and take a break, enjoying natural light and views of the outdoors. The offices also feature café spaces for spontaneous connection, seating nooks for casual work, and collaborative meeting spaces outfitted with technology for presentations and brainstorming.

The more formal meeting rooms also include a variety of furniture to support collaborative activities. In one type of meeting room, bar-height seating and tables line the edges of the space, encouraging impromptu break-out sessions away from the main group. In another room, a long, central table supports people directly participating in a board meeting, while small lounge stools along the perimeter allow people to drop in or out without disturbing the rest of the team. 

As more companies transition to a hybrid work model, the need for flexible, future-forward offices is growing. Furniture designed to empower people with choice and enable them to connect, collaborate, and maintain a sense of belonging plays a significant role in drawing people back to the office. Additionally, businesses benefit through improvements in efficiency, productivity, and creativity. 

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