Design Your Work Place Experience: The Impact of a Flexible Work Environment

Work environment and work culture can affect your day-to-day productivity including when and how you work. Positive work environments provide employees with a comfortable space to maximize their productivity and help achieve success when it aligns with the employees’ values. At enFocus, we entrust our employees to build work environments that create a work culture of autonomy and personal connection.

The work environment at enFocus includes three physical office locations and virtual work for our employees. With Indiana offices in South Bend and Elkhart, and a southwest Michigan office in Niles, we interact with a variety of communities and stakeholders at our physical locations. The offices themselves do not have cubicles or specific offices for team members, but have open tables for collaborative work, and private office space for phone or video calls. Meeting space is also available to hold in-person and online meetings at every location. Each of the physical offices encourages teamwork and breaks down barriers between interns, Fellows, project managers, and leadership. The open environment prompts people to ask questions and spurs curiosity.

In addition to our physical office spaces, our employees participate in hybrid work. They are required to work on-site or in-person at the office where their project work is located at least two days a week. Other than in-person meetings and enFocus events, team members may choose to work remotely three days out of their traditional work week. The freedom to work from different locations is expanded by our partnership with iNDustry Labs at Notre Dame that also offers a quiet workspace with cubicles, monitors, and other resources.

The flexible work environment translates to our work culture. Furthermore, the flexibility that enFocus team members possess contributes to the autonomous work activities our Fellows perform. It helps young professionals solve challenges on their own, and they receive guidance from leadership when they hit project roadblocks.

Whether in-person or online, our Fellows have more control in choosing what office environment works best for them when completing deliverables. A variety of safe and comfortable work environments ensures the quality of the deliverables. Additionally, it helps Fellows who are pursuing other ventures and avenues of education.

Riley Ellingsen, a second year Fellow, shares the added benefit for those pursuing entrepreneurial ventures. He says, “At enFocus, I’ve been entrusted with and empowered by the freedom and autonomy to assume full ownership of my projects and catalyze meaningful change for our sponsors, while enjoying the flexibility to manage my schedule in a way that allows me to simultaneously run my own company.”

Fellows have autonomy over their individual work activities, but that does not limit the connection and relationship building at enFocus. Project managers serve as a resource and support Fellows as they navigate the obstacles of project work. Collaborating with project managers help Fellows develop project management skills and nurtures a working relationship that can then be applied to project facilitation. Other office activities like periodic social and networking events contribute to the Fellowship experience by allowing Fellow cohort members to get to know each other on a more personal level.

Alexis Hu shares, “At enFocus, the culture is incredibly nurturing, with colleagues constantly eager to lend a helping hand. My managers serve as more than just supervisors; they are mentors committed to facilitating my professional growth through invaluable learning resources and opportunities.” As Alexis mentions, enFocus is committed to providing a Fellowship experience where team members feel supported in their work and as a person who is learning through experience.

At enFocus, we understand that work environments contribute largely to the work culture. Our flexible work environment breaks down traditional barriers and trusts team members to deliver high quality work. Our malleable work environment fosters autonomy and rapport among team members increasing the quality of work delivered.

If you are interested in designing your workplace experience to enhance your greatest potential, apply to enFocus today.