An office that can even beat a home office!

One of the hidden gems of OCCO’s latest furnishing project is located in a historic renovated limestone building in Tallinn, where the Health and Welfare Information Systems Center or TEHIK, the fastest growing IT house in Estonia, has established itself.

According to Karilin Engelbrecht, the head of communication at TEHIK, people have worked in the new office for almost half a year, and by that time people have already started to feel quite at home.

“Many people are certainly used to the benefits of a home office, but that is why it was important for us to create an environment that is so comfortable and well-thought-out that it can compete with people’s homes,” said Engelbrecht.

In the case of the interior design of the new office, TEHIK’s work family had a clear vision.

“It can be said that we provided fairly precise directions, which we consider to be important for us. For example, smart solutions, environmental friendliness, well-thought-out planning and general compatibility with the colors and messages of our brand. This means that we wanted a technologically well-thought-out spatial plan, enough meeting rooms with different sizes and possibilities, and functional furniture,” explained Engelbrecht.

The office also has a multi-purpose and spacious lounge area, with table football and tennis tables in addition to the kitchen and dining area, which can also be used as large dining tables. LÄVI’s interior design solution and OCCO-supplied interior offer excellent opportunities for communication, brainstorming, exchange of ideas and sharing of experiences.

According to Engelbrecht, the furnishing of the premises realized many of the employees’ dreams. “Before moving, we gathered smart ideas among the employees, where everyone could express what could be in the new place. We wanted our people to have a work environment that is most conducive to their development and where every opportunity was created for all employees to feel good. The large common lounge was one of the most important starting points for the design,” said Engelbrecht.

Of course, the aesthetic side cannot be left out – we wanted the spaces to reflect us in every sense and to pass on our values. It was certainly a good challenge for the interior design to be compatible with the general look of the building – this is how innovative interior design solutions and a dignified historical limestone building came together,” said Engelbrecht.

TEHIK favors hybrid and other flexible work. “We are currently three employees shy of 200 and have about the same amount of desks. As we need to fill a couple of dozen new positions this year, they may no longer be given a daily desk and the opportunities for hybrid or teleworking will have to be used,” she added.

“In addition, we favor shared desks on the use of which colleagues can agree on. We decided that everyone who visits the office more than three days a week will get their own desk, because in that case it would be too difficult to agree on a schedule for sharing. For occasional visitors, we also have lockers in the corridors, where you can leave your own keyboard, coffee cup or slippers, for example, so that you don’t have to carry these things with you, but it would still be nice to have in the office.”

TEHIK has both single offices and large open areas for up to twenty people. “In doing so, we took into account the wishes and needs of each team, while realizing that everyone should get the workspace that favors their development the most. We talked about the floor plan inside the house for months,” said Engelbrecht.

“An interesting detail is that we do not have trash cans under the desks, because office workers with a sedentary lifestyle should move more if possible. In addition, we want to sort the waste and be more environmentally conscious – it seemed unreasonable to buy sorters in every room. They are located in the kitchens on each floor,” she said.

All tables are ergonomic and, in principle, the entire office can work standing up – even the tallest people. It is also possible to use both wobble stools and gymnastic balls to work behind the table, which ensures significantly better conditions in terms of health, because, as physiotherapists say, “the best position is the next position!”

In the TEHIK office, plant boxes on wheels add greenery, which also improves the acoustics. “We believe that greenery makes people happy, improves air quality and contributes to productivity and creativity. Thus, the office has 300 plants that clean the air in different sizes and varieties,” added Engelbrecht.

About TEHIK

TEHIK creates various health, social and work IT services in the area of government of the Ministry of Social Affairs. The center manages more than 40 state databases and various services are created for the whole of Estonia – directly for citizens, state agencies as well as for tens of thousands of health care workers and local governments. Thanks to the information systems developed by the center, more than three billion euros a year flow into the bank accounts of Estonian people in the form of various benefits, subsidies and pensions. TEHIK is a technological leader in the country in terms of both cloud solutions and micro-services.