People Front And Centre

Mercury, Auckland by Warren and Mahoney Words Photography

Energy retailer and 100 per cent renewable electricity generator Mercury has united its Auckland team of over 560 people from three offices into one, central Newmarket site. Moving from a fixed-desk environment to an activity-based working environment has quickly transformed people’s daily experience and work style.

In this new location, business units once separated and siloed are now mixing and talking more, gaining a deeper and more holistic knowledge of the business. Empowering teams and individuals with greater freedom, mobility and choice, the agile environment promotes wellbeing through movement and access to not only public, bright and social settings, but also to quiet and contemplative ones. Within months of the move, an internal survey found 83 per cent of Mercury people enjoyed working in the new space.

“The project was founded on a singular vision of having the freedom to do our best work together,” says Sarah Holt, Mercury’s workforce strategy manager. “We held interviews, workshops and surveys, which gradually revealed how individuals and teams could set themselves up to do their best work. This grass roots feedback informed our strategic brief with four key aspirations: collaboration, flexibility, wellbeing and openness – decision criteria that informed every step with true clarity of intent.”

Since the change process was so crucial to the project’s success, Mercury enlisted the help of Roz Sowerby and Sarah Gardner from The Change Shop to help set up the governance and structure for the whole relocation project.