Sutton Winson likes to concentrate on developing its employees to the best of their ability as well as improving an environment they work in. With continuous staff growth over the last few years, our Twickenham office was in a need of a refurbishment so plans were drawn up for exterior and interior improvements. Ripping the whole building down would have been a slightly over-the-top approach, but it may have been easier in the long run and a lot more fun to watch! However, in view of the fact that we quite liked the look of St James House, a plan was devised to replace, repair, reseal, install and improve our building instead.
Apart from the fact that trying to control scaffolders is a similar experience to herding cats (just with more swearing involved), there were hundreds of things to consider for a big project like this and a conservative estimate of the amount of them which went wrong, mostly beyond our control, was approximately 99%.
Okay, it was probably a lesser percentage, but it certainly felt that way on some days. Such as, arranging our staff to get in and out of the building without using 'luxuries' like stairs, or the front door, for weeks on end.
"When the external works are complete, the interior decoration will be fairly easy to oversee."
This was the killer line, uttered about a week before some Biblical rainfall dampened more than just the spirits of our IT & Operations team. Rather than see this as a reason to sit in a dark room, rocking back and forth, we brought forward proposals to add a staff area and decorate the stairwells and reception - all designed and conceived in-house. With modern and contemporary meeting rooms decorated by bespoke corporate art, a welcoming reception and new dedicated staff area, which includes a lounge, kitchen and shower room, we now have an office to be proud of.
The alterations were above and beyond what was originally planned. In essence, we have ended up putting in more time and effort into the job, but we finished with a far superior result. And in the words of more than one senior member of staff, "We are now accurately reflecting the image of the company we have been performing like for years” – a company who have been growing in staff numbers and turnover year-on-year.
