S3.E10. 每個人都在一個平台上 Everyone at one desk

數位化轉型正在改變世界上工作的方式。速度和橫向思維，合作關係和溝通都是必要的，因此在殷格翰比伯拉赫(Biberach)、里昂(Lyon)，維也納(Vienna)和里奇菲爾德(Ridgefield)的辦公室裡正在進行不同改造，透過公司總部的BI CUBE，這種靈活的工作方式甚至擁有自己的一席之地。

任何穿過百靈佳殷格翰總部園區的人，都會注意到餐廳旁邊一棟看起來像一個幽浮，橢圓形狀，屋頂平坦，窗戶黑暗的白色建築：BI CUBE。

然而，內部沒有任何有關太空的東西。相反的是，整棟建築聞起來有新木材的味道，大廳裡擺設著沙發還有大墊子跟咖啡桌，一片大玻璃將前廊和裡面看起來非常舒適的起居室與三間工作室的活動區分隔開來，透明玻璃窗格上可以清楚的看到員工正在切割紙張，在白板上書寫並在牆上貼上筆記。

BI CUBE目前是百靈佳殷格翰公司總部、也是整個集團內部裡最具遠見的建築，它表達一種新的工作模式，因為數位化正在改變流程、方法和觀念。智慧工作是關鍵，「市場開發時間週期越來越短，競爭越來越激烈，客戶的需求也在不斷變化」，Kreißelmeier說。今天的需求很可能在明天被淘汰，「公司再也無法花多年時間去孕育一個想法。」與所有在醫療領域的其他公司一樣，百靈佳殷格翰因此需要更短的途徑和更少的階級化分，以及橫向思考的人。

畢竟，該公司長期以來不只與其他製藥公司競爭，蘋果、Google和亞馬遜等大科技公司也進入了醫療保健技術的領域。這不僅僅與客戶有關，還關乎員工的招聘，各地都需要數位化人才。他們所需的是合作，自主和透明化，因此，新的思維和創新是必備的。這種另類的工作方式極具吸引力，既適用於招聘新人才，也適用於現有員工。

BI CUBE將成為新思維方式孕育的地方。建築和房間概念是百靈佳殷格翰近年來在各種設施中學到的，包括在美國里奇菲爾德(Ridgefield)的工廠，在里昂(Lyon)和比伯拉赫(Biberach)的前Merial工廠，這些地方的員工已經實踐「智慧工作」的概念。基本前提是有彈性的工作環境，而不是單獨的辦公室和長長的走廊。「我們透過創造一個具有靈感啟發的工作環境來為不斷變化的數位化世界提供答案」，企業房地產主管Uta Dotzauer說。「我們理解在新的數位化世界中，仍然需要一個個人合作和溝通的空間來支持生活中快速數位化的轉型。」

里奇菲爾德(Ridgefield)的員工已經實踐這個概念五年了，他們不是在封閉的辦公室工作，而是在開放空間的桌面上工作。需要開會的時候，他們會到專門為此設計的房間，大部分工作都是以數位化方式完成，每位員工都有筆記型電腦、耳機、手機和Skype，成堆的紙張不存在這裡！數位化工作模式的優點是員工理論上可以在任何一個設施中工作，他們的電腦會自動連接到Wi-Fi，然後離開的時候自動關閉。簡而言之，里奇菲爾德(Ridgefield)的工作人員在世界中百靈佳殷格翰的任何地方都可以工作。

儘管有數位工具，但今天員工之間的溝通變更多。法國基礎設施，安全，環境和工程(ISEE)部門負責人Benedikt Kraus回憶說：這和我們當時擁有各別辦公室的時候有很大的不同，「即使辦公室門是開著的，我們仍有這個障礙。在擁有新概念的工作場合中，工作人員主動交流更多了─我們希望鼓勵這一點。」正如Kraus所知，開放式工作空間激勵合作，互動和溝通產生了新的想法，最終，這確保了更高的生產力。

一切從頭開始

當百靈佳殷格翰於2016年底收購法國製藥集團賽諾菲的動物保健業務Merial時，它為公司提供了一個重大機會：法國南部城市里昂(Lyon)的舊Merial大樓不再符合我們的需求，必須發展新的東西。因此，建築師能夠以創新思維來設計，發展出來的Boreal，是第一個百靈佳殷格翰專為智慧工作而設計的建築。「我們很快意識到在里奇菲爾德(Ridgefield)，我們只能在一定程度上修改房間。」自2018年6月以來一直負責里昂(Lyon)ISEE部門的Kraus說道。「我們利用這個機會，按照新的工作方式來設計整個建築。」

「無論他們是實習生還是經理，里昂(Lyon)的750名員工都在實踐「智慧工作的概念」。每個樓層都有不同的區域，中心是交流區，有飲料和可以休息的家具，工作人員可以一起喝咖啡，互相聊天。根據法國動物健康負責人Erick Lelouche的說法，這空間有個優勢：「我在這裡前幾週與人交談的次數多過於在舊建築裡的每一個月。」工作室分為幾區，每個區域平均有20人同時工作，辦公桌分別是大大小小可容納多人的長桌，如果有人不想被打擾，他們可以到小房間。此外，每層樓都有幾個電話亭和會議室。智慧工作核心概念是沒有人擁有固定的工作位置，每個員工可以選擇不同的工作位置，以便他們在工作中得到最佳支持。員工在每天結束時都會清理辦公桌，每個人都有一個灰色的籃子和一個特定物品儲物櫃。

這個概念深受員工歡迎，「雖然我每天都在不同的辦公桌工作，但我們所有團隊成員都坐在一起，所以我們可以更快的溝通」，ISEE部門員工Mathieu Condette說。「近距離的交流幫助我們工作。」Condette仍然是少數使用筆和紙工作的人之一。然而，這通常會重複工作，就像他承認：他經常掃描他所有的文件。「如此一來我可以攜帶更少的東西」這位38歲的員工說。

「我在這裡前幾週與人交談的次數多過於在舊建築裡的每一個月。」
──ERICK LELOUCH

從經驗中學習

開放式辦公空間需要一段時間才能適應，員工必須學會如何在一個大房間裡正常交談：「大家為顧及同事幾乎太過於安靜」，Lelouche的動物健康負責人說。因此，主管們以身作則，鼓勵員工進行更多的對話。從那時起，他們克服了這個困難，員工互相交談，開彼此玩笑。他們在不同區域之間來回移動，有時帶著筆電，有時則沒有。

管理者參與其中

自2018年5月以來，在比伯拉赫(Biberach)的D125辦公室裡，百靈佳殷格翰的員工落實智慧工作概念─這裡結合一切在里奇菲爾德(Ridgefield)和里昂(Lyon)學到的內容。與Boreal一樣，D125有各種不同的房間，包括共同合作，集中工作和會議不同需求的房型。在里昂(Lyon)辦公室的「群集」，在比伯拉赫(Biberach)被稱為「社區」：一共有十個單位，包括IT，生物製藥和研發，每個單位都有大約70名員工，沒有人有固定的辦公桌。「當我們第一次提出D125的想法時，員工們抱持懷疑的態度」，德國人力資源專家中心負責人Sandra Laegner回憶說道。「但現在大多數人無法想像有個別的辦公室。」

許多人對新建築感到好奇：在殷格翰的BI CUBE會議室通常都被預訂光。在里昂(Lyon)，其他地方的員工也會定期訪問此地。比伯拉赫(Biberach)還有很多事情同時在進行，「我們最近有一個開放辦公室的日子，那天這個地方擠滿了人」，Laegner說。人力資源副主管堅信，智慧工作的概念增加了百靈佳殷格翰作為雇主的吸引力。「員工可以在任何設施中自由的工作，很多東西都是數位化的，房間的使用也都很自由。」

該公司現在將越來越多的辦公地區轉變為智慧工作的型態，例如，現在正在殷格翰建設的VGN行政大樓。這些改造不只是一種新的思維方式，也代表一種數位化開拓的精神，而這些改變根本不會發生在個別緊閉的辦公室。

「當我們第一次提出D125的想法時，員工們抱持懷疑的態度，但現在大多數人無法想像有個別的辦公室。」
──SANDRA LAEGNER

The digital transformation is changing the world of work. Speed and lateral thinking are needed, partnership and communication are desired. And so offices are changing – in Ingelheim and Biberach, Lyon, Vienna, and in Ridgefield. With the BI CUBE at the company headquarters, agile working even has a place of its own.

A nyone who crosses the campus in Ingelheim cannot fail to notice the new white building beside the canteen: the BI CUBE looks like a UFO, oval-shaped with a flat roof and dark windows. However, there is nothing spaceship-like about the interior. On the contrary, it smells of new wood, and the hall is a landscape of sofas with large cushions and coffee tables. A glass front is all that separates the living-room cosiness in the corridor from the bustling activity in the three work rooms. The glass panes provide a clear view of employees who are cutting out paper figures, writing on whiteboards and sticking up notes on the walls.

The BI CUBE is a place for alternative working: agile and without hierarchies. Boehringer Ingelheim employees share their thoughts, give each other feedback and build on ideas – and thanks to agile methods like scrum and design thinking, they manage to do all of this within the shortest of times. The BI CUBE has a total area of 700 square metres and is equipped with everything needed to support creative working: writable walls, movable furniture, art supplies. If anyone needs more space, the three conference rooms can be quickly turned into a single large one. “Conventional meetings with PowerPoint battles don’t exist here,” explains Dr Andrea Kreißelmeier, one of some 30 Agile Facilitators at Boehringer Ingelheim. She helps her colleagues to apply agile methods.

The BI CUBE is currently the most visionary building at the company headquarters in Ingelheim – indeed, within the entire Group. It is the expression of a new form of working, since digitalisation is changing processes, approaches and concepts. Smart working is the key word here: “Market development times are getting shorter and shorter, competition more intense, and customers’ needs are continuously changing,” says Kreißelmeier. What is in demand today could well be obsolete tomorrow. “Companies can simply no longer afford to brood over an idea for years.” Like all other companies in the healthcare sector, Boehringer Ingelheim therefore needs shorter channels and flatter hierarchies, and lateral thinkers.

After all, the company has long been competing with more than just other pharmaceutical companies. Large technology companies like Apple, Google and Amazon have also entered the race for healthcare technologies. It is not just about customers here, but also about employee recruitment: digital talent itself is needed everywhere. Collaboration, autonomy and transparency are what they want. For this reason, too, new ways of thinking and innovative approaches are required. Quite simply, alternative working is highly attractive -that applies both to the recruitment of new talent and to existing employees.

The BI CUBE is to be an incubator for the new way of thinking. The architecture and room concept are based on numerous lessons that Boehringer Ingelheim has learned in recent years at various facilities, including the Ridgefield site in the US, the former Merial facility in Lyon and Biberach. The employees at these locations are already practising the “smart working” concept. The basic premise is a flexible work environment rather than individual offices and long corridors. “We are providing answers to the changing digital world by creating an inspiring work environment,” says Uta Dotzauer, Head of Corporate Real Estate. “We understand that in the new digital world, a home for personal collaboration and communication is still required to fill the rapid digital transformation with life.”

The employees in Ridgefield have been practising the concept for five years now. Instead of working in enclosed offices, they work, inter alia, at desk islands in an open space. For meetings, they withdraw to the rooms specifically created for this purpose. Much of the work is done digitally: every employee has a notebook, headset, mobile phone and Skype access. Stacks of paper? Not here! The advantage is that the employees can theoretically work from any facility. Their computer automatically connects to the Wi-Fi, and off they go. In short, the staff members from Ridgefield are at home anywhere in the world of Boehringer Ingelheim.

In spite of digital tools, however, the employees there today communicate more with each other. This was different when there were still individual offices, recalls Benedikt Kraus, Head of the Infrastructure, Safety, Environment and Engineering (ISEE) department in France: “Even if the doors were open, there was still this barrier. As a result of the new workplace concept, the staff members automatically talk to each other more – and we want to encourage that.” As Kraus knows, open work spaces encourage collaboration. Interaction and communication give rise to new ideas. In the end, that ensures greater productivity.

Everything from scratch

When Boehringer Ingelheim acquired Merial – the animal health business of the French pharmaceutical group Sanofi – at the end of 2016, it provided the company with a major opportunity: the old Merial

building in the southern French city of Lyon was no longer fit for purpose, and something new had to be created. As a result, the architects were able to think innovatively. The result was the Boreal building, the first Boehringer property designed for smart working from top to bottom. “We quickly realised in Ridgefield that we were only able to modify rooms to a certain extent,” says Kraus, who has been in charge of the ISEE department in Lyon since June 2018. “We took advantage of the opportunity here to design the entire building in line with the new way of working.”

Whether they are a trainee or a manager, all 750 employees in Lyon practise the “smart working”concept. Each floor consists of various zones: The centrepiece is the Community Center, with beverage dispensers and lounge furniture, where staff can drink a coffee together and chat to each other. According to French Head of Animal Health, Erick Lelouche, this is an advantage: “I got talking to more people in the first few weeks here than in all the months in the old building.” The work rooms are divided into clusters. An average of 20 people work in each cluster, and the desks are arranged in both small and big island formations. If someone does not want to be disturbed, they can withdraw to the focus rooms. In addition, each floor has several phone booths and conference rooms. The core of the smart working concept is that nobody has a fixed workstation, but each employee has different options for working so that they are optimally supported in their current work. The employees clear their desks at the end of every day. Everyone has a grey basket and a designated locker for their belongings.

The concept is popular with the employees: “Although I work at a different desk each day, all of our team members sit near each other, so we can communicate more quickly,” says Mathieu Condette, an employee in the ISEE department. “The physical proximity supports our way of working.” Condette is one of the few who still use pen and paper. However, this usually creates duplicate work for him, as he admits: He regularly scans all his documents. “I then have to carry less stuff around with me,” says the 38-year-old.

“I got talking to more people in the first few weeks here than in all the months in the old building.”

ERICK LELOUCHE

Learning from experience

The open office spaces also took a while to get used to. The employees had to learn how to talk normally in a large room: “The employees were almost too quiet out of consideration for their colleagues,” says Head of Animal Health, Lelouche. So the managers led by example and encouraged the staff members to engage in more conversation. The initial difficulties have since been overcome: the employees talk to each other and make jokes. They move back and forth between the individual zones, sometimes with their notebooks, sometimes without.

Bosses get involved

Boehringer Ingelheim staff members in Biberach have also been using the smart working concept since May 2018, in building D125 – the place where much of what was learned in Ridgefield and Lyon has been incorporated. As is the case with Boreal, there are various room zones in D125, including for co-working, concentrated working and meetings. The “clusters” in Lyon are called “neighbourhoods” in Biberach: there are a total of ten units – including IT, biopharmaceuticals and R&D – each with around 70 staff members. Nobody has a fixed desk here either. When we first presented the idea of D125, the employees were sceptical,” recalls Sandra Laegner, Head of the German Center of Expertise in Human Resources. “But most of them cannot imagine having individual offices now.”

Many people are curious about the new buildings: The project rooms in the BI CUBE in Ingelheim are usually booked out. In Lyon, staff members regularly visit from other facilities. There is a lot going on in Biberach, too: “We recently had an open day, and the place was packed with visitors,” says Laegner. The Deputy Head of HR firmly believes that smart working is increasing Boehringer Ingelheim’s attractiveness as an employer. “Employees can work without problems at any facilities. A lot of things are digital, and use of the rooms is flexible.”

The company is now increasingly switching areas to smart working – for example, the VGN administration building, now under construction on the Ingelheim campus. The changes are about nothing less than a new way of thinking, a digital pioneering spirit. And that simply will not happen behind the closed doors of individual offices.

“When we first presented the idea of the D125, the employees were skeptical. But most of them cannot imagine having their individual offices now.”
SANDRA LAEGNER