Improving Office Environments in 2023

Hello!

I am Tsun-Tsun, a member of the Labor Affairs and General Affairs team in the Human Resources group. We are working to improve office spaces while listening to the voices of our employees. Today, I will talk about what we improved in 2023.

Nihonbashi Muromachi Office

Placing Miniature Toyota Cars at the Reception Area

KINTO Technologies mainly develops mobility services under the KINTO brand, including a vehicle subscription service. One day, an employee said, "We're a vehicle company, but there aren't a lot of vehicle-related elements around the office." I thought, "In that case, let's put some miniature cars."

🔻16F reception area


These are Toyota models. They made the reception area lively, but sorry! They're not for sale. By the way, do you know what models they are? Upper row, from left: GR Supra, Sienta, Voxy, GR Yaris, Harrier, Land Cruiser Lower row, from left: Prius, Crown, bZ4X, Corolla Sport, RAV4

🔻7F reception area


From the rear left: Harrier, Yaris, Corolla Cross, Passo, and Alphard

From the rear left: Corolla, Aqua, GR Yaris, C-HR, Yaris, Roomy

Reviewing Work Styles After COVID-19 Was Reclassified as a Class 5 Disease

When COVID-19 was reclassified as a Class 5 disease in Japan, the company relaxed some of its restrictions on going to the office, and we used a hybrid work style that involved both working at home and working at the office. Because the restrictions were relaxed, more employees started going back to the offices. We got requests from employees like “I want private booths” and “we need bigger meeting rooms." So, we added more meeting rooms and made two areas for casual meetings.

For the meeting rooms, we furnished two unused rooms with smoked glass and air conditioners and added a reservation system for them.

These two rooms can be used now anytime.

We've introduced two types of informal meeting spaces. The first is private booths. We use KOKUYO's Fore series.

The area with the booths has windows, so to keep the booths from getting too hot in the summer, we chose a type that wasn't surrounded on all four sides.

The second type of meeting area has desks. We use KOKUYO's Join series.

Bottom picture

The chairs have a round bottom and move like a balance ball.

Jinbocho Office Greening Plan

The Muromachi Office has plants in resting areas, the entrance, and other areas, but the Jimbocho Office has barely any greenery. Some employees commented that they were sad without any plants, so the Jimbocho Office started a greening plan to increase the number of houseplants.

Below is a picture of the greening plan for the office and conference room.

Continuing to Improve Office Environments

Next year, we will work on more improvements to our office. We have plans to renovate the break room as part of our initiative to improve communication internally. When they are complete, we will announce it here on the Tech Blog too. I go around the office every day, and I can sense the company growing.

The Office Changes with the Times

I feel that more and more companies are adopting hybrid work styles after the COVID-19 pandemic. I predict that there will be a demand for offices that support hybrid work styles and to crate spaces that make people want to be there. In particular, since our company has employees of various ages and nationalities, we want to create an office environment that accommodates all kinds of people with different values.

Lastly, since it is hard to find information on how other companies' facilities are, I wrote this with the hope that it may serve as a helpful reference for others.

The KINTO Technologies Advent Calendar is still going on, so I hope you look forward to what’s in store tomorrow!