How openness to new ideas helped Domain retool its Sydney headquarters for the hybrid work revolution

Ros Tregurtha called the return to the office “coming back up to the light”. It was a joke, but not entirely: Domain, the real estate search platform and go-to resource for countless Australian homebuyers, had just consolidated three levels of its Sydney headquarters into two, with the sunny fifth level of the converted Pyrmont warehouse receiving the most significant makeover.

In a recent conversation with SmartCompany Plus, Domain’s chief people and sustainability officer explained the thought process behind the redesign, what actually changed, and why the company considered more than natural sunlight when creating a new physical workspace in a hybrid working world. Here’s what businesses can learn from the shake-up.

Lessons from Domain’s headquarters redesign

1. Build around how your employees work, not the other way around

2. Provide benefits for those who still won’t come in

3. Think beyond the ping pong table

Build around how your employees work, not the other way around

Before the pandemic radically altered Australian office work, Domain’s HQ included a ground floor posting, a presence on the building’s first floor, and space on level five. Domain already subleased a majority of the ground floor pre-pandemic, Tregurtha says, but the shift to remote work caused a bigger rethink about how the company utilised its physical office space. As knowledge work shifted away from central hubs, Domain successfully subleased more of its office space through the shutdown period.

At the same time, a survey of employee sentiment led Domain to make a decisive call: it would not force employees back into the office as public health measures dissolved.

“If we are to look globally at the tech world, some organisations did say ‘No, you, we need you in the office three days a week’, and there was basically a staff revolt,” Tregurtha said.

“So we didn’t want a staff revolt, we didn’t want to increase our attrition.”

The decision was bolstered by the fact a large percentage of Domain staff already worked outside of the business’ Sydney hub. Sales representatives may only visit the office one day a week pre-pandemic, she says, and a large number of account managers in regional cities meant the company was already familiar with decentralised teams.

“I’ve had some conversations with my peers about, ‘How are you getting people back into the office? My leadership wants to force them in three days a week,’” she continued.

“And I’m like, ‘If you do that, I wish you the best of luck. Because I guarantee you, they’ll start looking for another job, predominantly.’”

The decision to downsize, combined with a commitment to hybrid working allowances, led the company to think more deeply about how best to arrange its office as workplace restrictions fell away.

Domain headquarters. Source: Supplied.

The result: a space Tregurtha says is tooled to how Domain employees work.

Traditional desks and monitors feature throughout, but interview pods allow workers to dip out of the open-plan expanse for quiet conversations. Break-out areas are there to facilitate impromptu chats with colleagues. A row of high-chair benches allows workers a space to fire off emails or jot down notes before a meeting in one of the office’s many meeting rooms, each kitted out with webcam functionality allowing remote employees to tune in. Tregurtha says a “doggy daycare” area was in the works for those who couldn’t leave their pets alone.

“Does that mean everyone’s gonna rush back to the office?” she asked. “Not necessarily, but it does mean that people can bring their dog here and into a secure space.”

This mixture of spaces helps Domain employees work more intentionally, she says. While developers may prefer to code at home, the occasional in-person meeting can help align teams on their common goals. Sales workers whose job involves repeated phone calls appreciate the silent phone booths, she adds.

Simply having those spaces available and tailored towards interpersonal connection could even spur employees into the office when they choose to take a break from their new work-from-home norm: uncertainty over when a Slack message is appropriate or the fear of missing a Zoom meeting could present a new “additional cognitive load” for some workers, Tregurtha said, making the physical realm a break from the virtual — not the other way around.

Domain headquarters. Source: Supplied.

Provide benefits for those who still won’t come in

Facilitating hybrid work also means providing benefits for employees even if they don’t make their way into the office.

Domain staff are not only permitted to work from home, but are free to spend up to 20 days per financial year working internationally. The company said it bolstered its parental leave allowance to 20 weeks for primary carers, four weeks for secondary carers, and up to 20 weeks for secondary carers becoming primary carers. 

Notably, it also instituted what it calls “wellbeing leave”, a method of ensuring workers take much-needed time off while also whittling down oversized leave balances. Under the scheme, employees which take 20 days of annual leave a financial year and have fewer than 20 days banked up by the Christmas period are given an additional five days of leave the next year.

“It was absolutely about looking at managing our annual leave balances,” Tregurtha admitted.

“But more so than that, it was actually saying to people, ‘We value you, we care about you, your wellbeing is important to us, we want you to take annual leave. And if you do this, we’re actually going to give you this, so you get even more leave’.”

Think beyond the ping pong table

With unemployment at decades-long lows and the battle for talent raging on, companies need more than perks alone to retain the best talent. It’s an openness to new ideas and genuine support for workers which will win in the long run, Tregurtha said.

She pointed to the humble ping pong table as an example. Once a signifier of a low-key, anything-goes startup culture, the ping pong table is now shorthand for companies that think filling their workplaces with fun perks will be enough to keep workers engaged.

“We have a ping pong table here,” she added.

“That ping pong table does not retain people. What retains people agency over their work, feeling like they are supported by their leader, feeling like they belong.

“If people feel like they belong, then they are more likely to show up and bring their whole selves to work. 

“That’s important, because that’s what people are. They’re not robots.”