Urs Christ, you’ve been working at Lista Office LO for over 30 years, and have been managing the Basel office since the beginning of 2020. What’s your secret for keeping your motivation at work for more than three decades?

Even after all these years, I still find Lista Office LO an exciting company with an extremely interesting field of operations. I had a natural aptitude for interior arrangement before I started working professionally in this sector. Today, I still enjoy shaping modern working environments for businesses and their staff, inspired by innovative products and creative ideas. I love transforming rooms into motivating spaces where people can not only work productively, but truly enjoy going to work.

How has the sector evolved over the decades?

There have been a lot of far-reaching changes. The first open-plan offices were created following the simple principle “knock out the walls and pack in as many people as possible.” But we now know that it’s essential to put time and thought into drawing up a proper plan.

In fact, though, it was the pandemic that triggered the biggest changes for our sector: corporate offices were deserted overnight, but most companies were continuing to offer almost the same services. At the same time, innovation fell by the wayside: new ideas and products are typically born of human interaction and the almost tangible energy of a team.

As a result of the pandemic, work from home increased by around 20%. The digital transformation was also accelerated, which has in turn had a major impact on the world of work. As businesses adjusted to the new world, they had to rethink how their offices were structured. A lot of organisations started to get rid of their empty desks, and turned towards flexible workplaces and the hotdesking principle. This freed up space that could be transformed into workshop rooms, project spaces, quiet zones and discussion areas.

The idea of hotdesking came in back in the nineties, when it was particularly popular with consulting firms where a lot of the consultants would frequently be out in the field. However, humans show a marked tendency to return to the same desk and familiar surroundings. Does this mean that hotdesking results in more disruption than benefits?

A hotdesking scheme certainly means that individuals no longer have their accustomed personal space. To make such a scheme work effectively, a proper change process is essential, with clear planning and support through the process, so that people can understand the benefits of the change, and the issues that may arise.

Associating workplaces with a particular activity, for example by identifying areas for focused work, meeting rooms, collaboration zones, or temporary project areas, can often be more effective in terms of getting things done than assigning individuals a permanent desk.

Tell us about working from home – what do we need to think about?

Working from home is both a blessing and a curse. Many people don’t have a suitable work infrastructure in their house, and not everyone's personal situation is suited to working from home. One of the most important points when setting up a home office is to establish clear boundaries between work and personal life, and to create a healthy atmosphere that is conducive to working effectively. Lots of companies invest heavily in creating an ergonomic environment for the office. It is becoming increasingly common to ask people to provide evidence that they can meet the same standards when working from home.

The journey to work also has an important function of its own. It's not just that it gets the individual moving (even if minimally). It also serves to mark a clear transition between the personal and the professional.

What is your strategy when it comes to designing working environments?

I approach every new project with a completely open mind. Every space, every company and corporate identity is individual, with indivudal business processes and workflows. My task is to record the customer’s needs in every sense, and translate these into an appropriate office setup with suitable products.

Our goal is that every company ends up with exactly the working environment that it needs: an office that suits the company’s identity and fosters a motivating atmosphere that staff enjoy coming to and can be productive in. And that’s also exactly what I want for my own team. It is important to me that everyone arrives at the office in the morning with a smile on their face, and that they feel motivated and gain satisfaction from their work – all the same things we want to achieve for our customers.

Urs Christ is married and has two grown-up daughters. A family man, he loves all sports and plays tennis at interclub tournament level. In his free time, he enjoys being with his family, and nurtures his musical side playing in a brass band.