City of Roeselare

In June 2024, staff at the City of Roeselare moved into their new workplace in the town hall. They were actively involved in designing their new office environment, with the goal of becoming the most sustainable town hall in Flanders. They sought IDEWE’s help to achieve this.

The City of Roeselare has worked with IDEWE since 2012. From risk management around fire and electricity to food safety, the City quickly found a suitable partner for designing the office spaces in the new town hall. After all, designing a safe, healthy business premises is no easy task. One thing, however, was certain from the start: the premises had to be tailored to each department, each employee and the citizens of Roeselare.

People, needs and ambitions

The City of Roeselare developed a pathway that focused on people, needs and ambitions. “We distributed booklets to our employees that they could use to write down their thoughts on what is – and isn’t – essential in a workplace. Some people said they would prefer to have calmer office spaces, for example. We therefore implemented a guideline that a room should not hold more than six colleagues at any one time.

The City of Roeselare faced the challenge of housing 300 employees from 19 departments over three floors. To tackle the process efficiently, the City organised a think tank with the range of departments. “We interviewed managers about their frequent cooperation with other departments and assessed how the communication went. We then looked at how we could distribute the staff.” 

When the town hall was demolished, the City of Roeselare encouraged staff to get involved with the creative side of things, such as coming up with songs, writing poems and designing graffiti about the change process. Anyone with an idea could make a contribution to say farewell to the building. “We buried a time capsule under the new building’s concrete floor containing items typical of today’s Roeselare, as well as a list of current staff members and a copy of our staff magazine. If the town hall is demolished in a hundred years’ time, they’re sure to find these artefacts.”

We buried a time capsule under the floor in the new building, along with the staff list and a Rodenbach. If the town hall is demolished in a hundred years’ time, there'll be a lot to find.

Workshops improve engagement

The City of Roeselare organised several workshops in partnership with IDEWE. The first session primarily focused on gathering information. “Our employees had to complete a questionnaire in advance as we wanted to know how they go about their work. You can’t compare staff members who are constantly sitting at their computers with policymakers who meet regularly, for example. It was therefore important for us to know what infrastructure they needed, depending on the profile within that department.”

The second workshop saw each department assigned a floor within the new building. They were also given the opportunity to fit out their workplaces using a catalogue. Afterwards, the project team checked whether what had been written down actually met employees’ needs. Finally, they were able to choose from a number of scenarios based on their approach in the third workshop. “We shared the information learned from the workshops with the design team. They’ve worked with this input and, as an example, the cable ducts came out of the ground where the desks were scheduled to be. It seems obvious, but you need that information.”

The fourth and final workshop took place a few months after the employees had moved into the new office. “This session allowed us to discuss what was going well and what could be improved. After all, there can be a lot of teething issues early on.”

A workplace tailored to every task

The workplace of the future must lend itself perfectly to activity-based work – coordinated with and by each department. This principle assumes that different people perform different activities in their daily work, and have varying needs in terms of their working environment as a result. Each area had to be designed in such a way that staff can work to the best of their ability based on the area’s purpose.

“By developing an environment based on that principle, you don’t just create a space that fits the work. You also create a culture of connections, inspiration, trust and autonomy in order to provide a working environment tailored to each department’s activities and tasks. We firmly believe in its success, as policymakers and the management team are fully committed to this way of working. This simply wouldn’t have been possible without their support. We’re very grateful."