Construction company Porter Davis is radically overhauling its workplace with the help of a former US forensic detective and prisons expert.

Porter Davis moved into its new offices in the Docklands last November, which were designed in collaboration with former US forensic detective turned workplace consultant Monica Parker.

Replete with themed workstations from around the world, contemplative spaces where employees can rest and rejuvenate and a Las Vegas themed games room, the new office has been designed to specifically go against the grain of prison like cubicles so often seen in large-scale offices.

Porter Davis worked with Parker, who spent many years working to save the lives of death row prisoners. While it might seem a world away from her current position as founder of workplace consultancy Hatch, Monica sees it as a natural continuum.

“I have seen the effect that space has on people’s behaviour, how space creates who we are and I have seen what happens when you remove control from people and what that does to their behaviour,” says Monica. “People aren’t meant to sit in cubicles and dark places yet this is how a large number of organisations are still structured, especially small to media size enterprises.”

The new workplace sees other initiatives implemented including complete workplace mobility within and outside the office, no offices or fixed desks, all employees supplied with laptops and mobile phones, and stand up work stations.

Head of Brand and Marketing at Porter Davis, Joanne Bradley says Porter Davis wants to be at the leading edge of the construction industry.

“Porter Davis wants to employ and retain the best in the industry and increase productivity and work place satisfaction and we knew that in order to do that we had to create an optimum workplace environment. While some multi-nationals have implemented work place transformation programs it is rarely done in medium size enterprises and never in the construction industry which is traditionally quite conservative,” says Joanne.

Porter Davis and Monica Parker worked with leading designers The Bold Collective to design the new office and ensure it supported Porter Davis objectives and branding.

The office space will see the amalgamation of seven offices around Melbourne to one central office reducing the office space from 7000 to 3000 square metres, the result of an audit into the usage of offices spaces and desks.

Porter Davis
porterdavis.com.au