5 of the best offices in the UK

The UK offices that we wish we could work in

Whilst many offices have stayed the same for years, many have evolved into fun working environments, with lying down work pods, games consoles and even slides instead of stairs.

The concept is designed to create an enjoyable workplace and to provide a fun outlet to motivate and inspire employees to increase productivity for the business.

Here are some of the companies who have rejected the idea of what a traditional office might look like to bring in a new way of working.

The companies with offices designed to inspire and motivate

Google

The tech giants have offices around the world, including their London offices in Bloomsbury. On their website, Google explain that their offices are designed to encourage well-being and collaboration, whilst getting work done. Google’s offices feature a Google themed croquet putting hole, on site gym, staff canteen with smoothie bikes, pool tables, table tennis and sweet shop.

Google have opened their virtual doors to give you a glimpse into the London offices, that you will be able to navigate using Google Maps.

The search giant is also currently in the process of designing their new £1bn London headquarters, complete with swimming pools, roof gardens and games arenas for football or basketball.

AO

AO started life in 2000 as Appliances Online based in Bolton, Greater Manchester, and has since grown into an almost £800m business.

The Bolton offices feature collaborative areas surrounded by whiteboards, a subsidised on site spa, Starbucks and canteen as well as a pool table, table football and table tennis, lunch booths and private meeting rooms.

AO also have offices for sales and marketing in Manchester with a games room, multimedia offices with VR functionality and a logistics site in Crewe with a designated chill out space and an onsite subsidised spa.

Innocent Smoothies

Innocent’s London based headquarters, also known as Fruit Towers, provides an environmentally friendly workplace for the approximately 250 employees who work there.

The offices feature an onsite gym, canteen and balcony that can be seen by using the Innocent virtual tour, but staff also have access to free eggs and avocados, an unlimited amount of smoothies, yoga and Pilates classes and massages at a subsidised rate.

The building also features Astroturf flooring to give a more natural aesthetic, but Innocent have also tried to make their office space as sustainable as possible. This is achieved by reducing energy and water waste, a system which monitors outside temperatures to encourage staff to open a window rather use air con, and a circuit on every floor which turns off non-essential electronics to save energy. The building also features its very own vegetable patch.

Skyscanner

The travel comparison website, Skyscanner was set up in 2001 by company CEO Gareth Williams, who started the company after struggling to find cheap flights to France. Skyscanner moved into their Edinburgh based headquarters in 2004. In 2016 the business was bought by Chinese travel company Ctrip, but their headquarters remain in Edinburgh.

At their headquarters, staff can enjoy meeting rooms with white board walls for collaboration, a pitch and putt feature and innovative technology that allows testing on a variety of tech. On the social side, staff can use cabins for an informaal lunch, subsidised wellbeing sessions, such as yoga, and an office Xbox, table tennis and table football.

Skyscanner also give staff the opportunity to take 15 days of the year to work from any of the other Skyscanner offices, which include Barcelona, Beijing, Budapest, Glasgow, London, Miami, Palo Alto in California, Shenzhen, Singapore and Sofia.

Money.co.uk

Money’s Cirencester based office, aptly named The Castle, is on the site of the former British Army Cecily Hill Barracks.

Money’s site features the Pow Wow room, a mixture of relaxing space and an art gallery. The kitchen is complete with pool table, table football and an arcade machine. There’s also a Star Wars themed cinema, old style library, chalet and ice cave themed meeting rooms along with the designated ‘Bored room’ for senior leadership meetings.

Money’s website features both a video and virtual tour, so that you can take a look around the grand site yourself.