News: Students set sights on grand designs

Students from Sheffield Hallam University have been applying their newly developed skills and expertise in a bid to help leading South Yorkshire law firm Atteys maximise their use of office space and improve the working environment for their staff. It is the first project of its kind to be undertaken in the region and was pioneered by Dr Barry Haynes and Nick Nunnington from the Faculty of Development and Society of Sheffield Hallam University and Atteys Managing Partner Gill Knight. The project was based on similar work Nick has undertaken as a consultant in Scandinavia and Barry with a number of local and national government organisations and an Australian bank. The winning team came up with a number of ideas aimed at helping to maximise the firm's use of space as well as enhancing the way in which the firm operates. Ideas including the introduction of new IT systems, creating and enhancing staff social areas, as well as creating a more open plan layout within each of the offices. Over the past few weeks, nine teams of students, currently working towards degrees in Business Property Management, have been visiting the firm's offices across South Yorkshire, surveying working space, preparing and analysing satisfaction questionnaires and space utilisation records and interviewing members of staff in order to prepare reports and recommendations on how the business could achieve its goals by better use of its premises. Managing Partner Gill Knight said: "This project has been a really worthwhile partnership with benefits all round. It has been a real privilege to work with Sheffield Hallam University, and it's clear from the quality of work produced that the students have been working hard on their proposals. Each group produced some really innovative ideas and there is no doubt that they provoked a debate within the firm about how we use our premises to create a better working environment. "Nine groups of students presented a number of different ideas to us. What particularly impressed me was that each group came up with quite different solutions. I will certainly be looking at the viability of implementing a number of their recommendations in the near future."

Sheffield Hallam website
Rotherham