Geldards Law Firm appointed Rio in September 2019 as Space Planning Consultant and Interior Designers to fit out their new offices at 4 Capital Quarter, Cardiff.
A key driver for Geldards relocating their Headquarters to Capital Quarter was to create an office space that prioritised staff wellbeing and boosted morale. The opportunity was taken to reflect upon and change the culture of the organisation. Geldards’ supported a rigorous analysis of current working methods and adjacencies, to consider how these could be improved within their new location. Supporting staff retention as well as business growth and future working methods were paramount to the success of the scheme.
During the early stages of the design process, Rio undertook extensive existing building analysis to understand the facilities and working methods of the Law firm. Rio invited all members of staff to participate in a detailed survey and liaised with all team leaders to discuss new working methods, wellbeing aspirations and storage requirements.
Rio supported Geldard’s in modernising working methods and moving towards a paperless operation. Moving all historic data online and reducing paper use allowed a reduction in physical storage by 50%. This provided a cost-saving and additional space, both utilised to create collaborative and flexible areas. This improved the variety of work settings available to the team, working towards enhanced wellbeing.
A move away from individual offices has helped to strengthen the collaborative working environment, the cost savings made by limiting private offices was reinvested to create feature multi-use Client and Staff social spaces.
