Dauphin Workheart: how to successfully plan an office in terms of social factors

Brand story by Markus Hieke
Offenhausen, Germany
25.07.23

The office needs heart, is the message from the Dauphin HumanDesign Group, which provides an updated concept for contemporary workspace planning under the title ‘Dauphin Workheart’. The future means the office as the centre of the company – and in our networked age, even more so…

Creating flexible spaces for a flexible mindset: the ‘Dauphin Workheart’ concept provides numerous insights, ideas and suggestions as to how this can be achieved

How accustomed have we become to working at home or on the road? At the latest with the pandemic, many became aware of the advantages of the home office. But, whether improvised at the kitchen table or gradually perfected with a desk, office chair, etc., the home is and remains a place of work which also brings with it disadvantages. And this is true for employers as well as employees. How do companies deal with their duty of care towards their employees? How to create a sense of ‘we’ when everyone is scattered? How to switch off the private mode when domestic tasks are waiting all around you?

Spontaneous and informal exchanges can be initiated in different ways depending on the company. The decisive factor is that colleagues generate something in the office which is far more abstract from the home office, namely cohesion

From super-private to super-social

In many companies, the question has long been how to lure employees back into the office. After all, teams should act as a close-knit community and find their way back to an atmosphere of collegial togetherness and spontaneous discussions which, as experience has shown, produce good ideas. One answer is provided by the Dauphin HumanDesign Group, and its new ‘Dauphin Workheart’ concept, which takes into account the needs of the individual as well as those of the company. It was developed in collaboration with the Berlin-based innovation agency Dark Horse.

Training and meeting rooms can also be used for other purposes. Why not use them as a basketball court? This strengthens the family factor of a company

There is no question that hybrid working – i.e. the mix of home office, mobile working and office presence – will remain. However, it is crucial that the office continues to be seen as a focal point in the future and as such, according to the Dauphin Group's recommendation, covers three levels of social interaction: the ‘Me’ area for more focus and concentrated individual work, the ‘Team’ area where work groups come together for collaboration and communication, and the ‘Family’ area where everyone, across departments, meets. The family category is supposed to have the strongest influence on the sense of community – its central meeting place is the so-called ‘Heartbar’, which is supposed to encourage people to linger and network. With its brands Dauphin, Trendoffice, Züco, Bosse and Dauphin Home, the Group has suitable solutions for these areas and the concept can be experienced in the newly designed Dauphin Workheart Space in Offenbach am Main.