An office where employees go home with more energy han when they arrived: Mcaw didn’t settle for less. By combining the disciplines concept, creation, science and the re-use of furniture, interior designers McKellar of Glasgow has  realised the new Office for Mcaw.

Mcaw was founded in 1994 in Glasgow and is an IT-service provider that specialices in Microsoft applications and technology. Over the years, the company has developed into a full service digital partner. As early as 2016 McKellar was asked to draw up a concept for their new office. To fully exploit this concept to take it on with the vision and goals of Mcaw it was decided to move to a brand new office building in Glasgow. The new Office has an area of 4.500 square foot and was completted in 2018.

An Office that gives energy

“In our vision, our staff is central. We are proud that we’ve been named ‘best employer of Scotland’  four times now, most recently in 2017 and we are still in the top 10 every year, “said Ron McLaughlin, CFO of Mcaw. 
“In the current IT market staff is hard to find and reataining staff is a major challenge”, continues McLaughlin. “A workplace that is attractive and really helps you do a good job supports us in this. We want to be and remain an attractive employer. In addition, we are convinced that the workplace has great influence on the well-being of our employees. We want to create a working environment that fully supports the health and happiness of employees and enables every colleague to perform in an optimum way.”

Photography: Vincent Hartman

“Going home at the end of the day with more energy, that’s what our new office should offer” said the CFO. “So do we want from our own employees make our largest recruitment channel. We have therefore joined forces with D/DOCK, that has created an Office concept that is able to help us to achieve this goal: the Healing Offices. ” 
According to McLaughlin, both the building and the environment are much better equipped for work and leisure. “The interior design encourages movement and more personal contact and cooperation. Will we now once again be voted ‘best employer of Scotland? ‘ I don’t know, but I’m sure it will help us to win a couple of places. And much more important: health and happiness will be a bigger part of our corporate culture and DNA. “

Mcaw believes that the  reuse of furniture strengthens the relationship with the staff . “Mcaw has an eye for this kind of business and thinks things through before old furniture is thrown away. So when quality furniture is available in the market, then that must be considered. The chosen products are carefully ‘up-styled’ and fit perfectly in the design for Mcaw.”

By a cooperation between McKellar and Samuel Bruce, approximately 65 percent of the furniture has been reused. For example, two large tables, which are made from an old gymnasium floor coming from a school in Glasgow. The lines of the playing fields are still clearly visible on the sheet. Also the board room table is used before. It is an oval table with rustic oak wood top, sawn from a large sheet and painted with a paint of natural raw materials. 
The entire interior is designed according to the Design Qualities of the Healing Office concept, which means that all work typologies, the flow, the materials chosen and the forms are validated by the guidelines of environmental psychology. McKellar’s second life furniture design is also applied. McLaughlin: “Besides involvement for our CSR goals, it also affects the pride of employees: ‘ I work for an organisation that has an eye for this sort of thing.”