Flex Office comes to SCOR

At SCOR, we strive to provide an environment that ensures our employees’ wellbeing, where our teams can work collaboratively, grow, and reach their full potential.

With the new ways of working having emerged in the last few years and new technologies continuing to come to the forefront, flexible office arrangements have become the new norm and many companies, including SCOR, have adopted this approach to better meet employees’ needs.

“Our flex offices really embody the shift in SCOR’s company culture. “‘Care’ is one of the five company values employees selected and it really comes through in these new spaces. We care about our people, so we’re ensuring they have a pleasant working environment. We care about our clients, so we’ve created a dedicated space for them with the client suite. And we care about societies and our planet, so we’re reducing our carbon footprint.”

- Anne-Céline Beaussier, Head of Real Estate, General Services, and Travel Operations at SCOR

SCOR’s transition to a flex office model began in our Singapore office in 2021 and was then implemented in offices such as Zurich, Toronto, and Mumbai. Flex office has now reached our headquarters in Paris, bringing new dynamics to the workplace.

SCOR’s office spaces were remodeled with innovation and teamwork in mind and a variety of workspaces and meeting rooms were carefully designed for each moment of the day: spaces for phone or video-calls, quiet areas for focused work, collaboration and meeting zones, creative spaces for brainstorming and innovation, and areas for recharging, relaxing, or taking breaks.

“Flex is a game changer. With more remote meetings, we need smaller rooms and phone booths to minimize calls from workstations. Flex increases workspace density, creating a livelier, more energetic atmosphere,” Anne-Céline said. “Feedback from our Flex offices shows employees feel energized and have better visibility of colleagues. This change also supports our net-zero carbon strategy by reducing the number of buildings and CO2 emissions."

And, indeed, another major driving force behind the shift to flex office is the desire to reduce the environmental impact of our offices. Flex office and hybrid working have also allowed SCOR to reduce office space, which in turn reduces our electricity consumption and overall carbon footprint. For example, by introducing flex office in Paris, the largest SCOR office in the world, we were able to arrange the office space more efficiently and we no longer need the additional office space we had been renting nearby. Instead of slightly more than 20,000 square meters of office space across three buildings, the same number of employees are now all working in one building of 15,000 square meters.

Because the new flex office design features open floor plans, we were also able to reduce the number of printers from seven to two per floor, saving energy and allowing us to dedicate this space to resources that are more important to modern ways of working.

The renovation work is conducted with a focus on limiting the carbon footprint by recycling and reusing materials wherever possible and the project was undertaken with several ESG certifications in mind, including:

• BREEAM RFO (Refurbishment and Fit-Out): This certification focuses on the way the renovation work is conducted with the goal of recycling and reusing existing materials and furniture.
• BREEAM In-Use: This certification is about the ongoing management and operation of the building, including enhancing energy efficiency and implementing better waste management practices.
• WELL Certification: This certification focuses on the wellbeing of the building's occupants by adding more water fountains, using low-maintenance and allergen-free indoor plants, and creating spaces for activities like yoga and first aid training.

SCOR’s Paris office is currently in the process of being reviewed for these certifications and several of our other offices have already received similar local certifications.

Explore some of the newly unveiled spaces in our Paris office below!

Guided Tour of Our New Spaces

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Open Space
In our open spaces, our employees complete individual work at their desks, 30% of which are adjustable and can serve as standing desks. Teams have assigned spaces to ensure they can always find a desk near each other, but employees are free to use any of the desks when they arrive each morning.

Meeting rooms
We have multiple meeting rooms on each floor, which can accommodate between three to fourteen people. With cameras that adapt to how many people are in the room and where they’re sitting to ensure all participants are visible during video calls and surround sound with microphones that capture your voice from anywhere in the room, these meeting rooms are adapted for in-person and virtual meetings.

Client Suites
Additionally, there is a designated client suite area, dedicated to welcoming our clients with attention and care.

Focus Alcoves
To facilitate deep work, focus alcoves are included in the open spaces. These alcoves are closed areas that help create a more focused work environment when needed.

Phone Booths
For brief calls or online meetings, soundproof phone booths are available.

Huddle
The huddle, like the phonebooths, is used for small meetings and calls. These spaces are designed to have an open layout with plenty of natural light and no screens to motivate in-person interaction and active listening.

Coffee Station
For brief spontaneous interactions or a quick break, the open collaboration space is available to all. There is a coffee machine and water fountains for our collaborators.

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We are thrilled to offer this new, dynamic environment that supports our employees’ diverse needs and drives a future-ready, environmentally friendly working model. Employee feedback has been positive and the benefits are already being felt.

“A person who moved recently to the 4th floor told me, ‘I’ve been waiting for this for more than 15 years. I wanted this new space, modern and light, where I would like to work,’” said Anne-Céline. “We’re very proud to be able to support our employees’ wellbeing with these new spaces.”

Our Paris office has been the latest to adapt to a flex office approach, but it is far from the last as we move forward with a global transformation of the SCOR offices. Welcome to Flex Work!

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