Alex Ellis, Enjoy.
Alex Ellis, Managing Director at Enjoy, explained the reasons for investing in their office space…
“The pandemic sparked a demand for more flexible ways of working and we were eager to respond by retaining our hybrid working policy, while transforming our office into a flexible and collaborative working space that can be shared by both staff and clients, helping us to succeed together.
“As one of the UK’s fastest-growing digital agencies, investing in our office space will be key to accommodating a growing workforce while also attracting the top talent in our industry. I’m really proud of the space we’ve created – a place for both staff and clients to enjoy – and I look forward to this exciting new chapter at our agency.”
Where is it?
23, The Calls, Leeds city centre.
How big is it?
4,500 square feet, stretched across four-stories, housing an open-space loft, 38 hot-spot workstations which flow across four zones, a boardroom and two private meeting rooms, two kitchens (with fully-stocked fridges), and break-out spaces and collaborative areas readily available on every floor.
The heightened ceilings with the original wooden beams and sash windows give the office a real sense of scale while allowing natural light to flood in. They’re also a reminder of the building’s rich heritage, which is juxtaposed by the modern features and fittings, from the wall-mounted TVs and surround sound systems to the living walls, illuminated LED Enjoy logos and custom-murals, designed by our talented creative team.
Who works there?
We’re a multidisciplinary team of 60 digital marketers, market researchers, creatives, developers and technical experts, working together to deliver integrated marketing solutions, from strategy and planning to digital experiences, performance and activations.
We work with vibrant and visionary brands from a range of different industries, using data and insight to create inspiring and immersive digital brand experiences across every
channel.
It’s not just our staff that utilise our office, clients work here too. While our agency and its client partners adapted well to the pandemic and the restrictions that came with it, it’s easier to succeed together, when we are all together, working with a common purpose. Our shared office space helps to inspire collaboration, innovation, and information-sharing,
and can help spark moments of genuine and spontaneous creativity that transcends projects far beyond the brief.
What happens there?
Every Monday, we kick-start the week with our “All Agency Stand-up”. Here, we assemble en-masse to reflect on our progress from the week before and outline the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. This is top and tailed with a segue at the start – where we get our brains in gear with some not so general knowledge questions, riddles or funny facts – followed by shout-outs at the end, where we recognise our top performers from the previous week.
After Monday, where the whole agency gets together in-person, we encourage our staff to spend at least one more day in the office, and the rest from wherever they work best. As our flexible working model illustrates, we don’t offer one-size-fits-all solutions at Enjoy, with each project different from the next; one day we’ll be developing a new digital experience for a homeware brand, the next we’re launching a multi-channel activation for a not-for-profit. Typically though, we’re working on multiple projects simultaneously, spanning the entire digital mix.
At the end of each month, we host our “Last Friday Club”, which consists of a team-building exercise or a talk from a keynote speaker. Sometimes we’ll just set our out-of-offices for the afternoon in search of entertainment and adventure. Whatever the format, Last Friday Club offers us a real opportunity to learn new things and grow stronger as a team. And our social scene doesn’t stop there; we keep our fridges fully-stocked, so that if we’re feeling energetic and somewhat spontaneous at the end of the day, we’ll stick on some tunes, have a few drinks and head out to paint the town red.
Why is the workspace appropriate?
We pride ourselves on creating truly inspirational experiences for our clients and their customers, and so it’s only fitting that our office offers an equally inspirational experience; when our staff sign-off at the end of the day, we want them to leave feeling inspired, accomplished and motivated to go again the next day.
We realise that everyone has different working preferences, which can be role-specific. For example, those in our Client Services or Project Management functions that rely on continuous collaboration, will benefit from working in a more social setting. Other departments, such as our development team, may benefit from having more focus time.
However, generally speaking, our staff prefer a mix of both. To help them be as productive as possible, we’ve designed our office to accommodate these different working preferences, offering collaborative working spaces for quick catch-ups and ideation, private meeting rooms for client-facing conference calls and sessions with those working from other locations, and spaces where staff can simply get their head down and make things happen.
Our values – always innovate, think commercially, be brave and succeed together – are displayed boldly across the walls of our new office space. These underpin everything we do as an agency; defining who we are and how we work. They help us to carve out a niche and find a space beyond just our office, that we can proudly call our own.
