We've got the funk!
IS this the funkiest office reception area in Sheffield? Emma Harrison thinks it is.
The boss of the city-based international training and business services company A4e (Action for Employment) has kitted out the ground floor to make it really customer-friendly.
There's a 35-year-old old VW campervan painted in rainbow colours with the dashboard replaced by a couple of PlayStation consoles.
Rescued from a scrapyard in Doncaster, it has building bricks, Connect 4 and other games in the back.
Fancy a cuppa? There's a funky tuk-tuk, one of those little Asian three-wheeled taxis, imported from Mumbai, which has been turned into a serve-yourself drinks bar.
"This is for people who are unemployed and they have never seen anything like it," says chairman Emma, halfway through moving her international HQ a few streets away from St James House to the new offices, at Queens House on Queen Street.
The theme is 'home from home' and she's asked the company's 350 Sheffield staff to bring something from their own home to the office.
The furniture has been recycled from old pubs and there's one of millionaire Emma's sofas from her home at Thornbridge Hall, near Ashford in the Water.
Designer Matt Rawlinson, who looked after the decor of her and husband Jim's stately pad, has been responsible for the Queens House makeover.
"This was a horrible chicken box but we could see the fantastic potential. It's quite the opposite of the scruffy, down at heel reception areas you can see!" says Emma.
They had to knock down a corner of the building to create a new entrance and even then the campervan only squeezed in by inches.
"We've got our own van for festivals and make the children sleep in tents," adds Emma, who hopes that clients seeking work can bring their children who will play happily while they look for jobs.
There are free computer terminals inside old picture frames to go online and job search.
The recycling theme is continued with the company's logo made by sculptor Johnny White from the piping at Bessemer Road, A4e's first home 24 years ago when it set up in business finding work for redundant steelworkers. One of the walls is embroidered with some of the key words the company uses, such as Love, Trust and Achievement.
Within two weeks A4e will have completed the move to Queens House, which incorporates all four of its Sheffield offices. It has 250 offices around the world.
"It's our headquarters and, as important, the flagship of what we do," says Emma.
But she hasn't got her own office. " Mark Lovell (executive chairman) has a lovely one but I don't. I'll just come down and make myself a drink," she says.
"My job is going around the world talking to people and I can't do that sitting in an office."
Following her CBE in the New Year's Honours Emma, who has already been awarded three honorary doctorates, has been nicknamed D3CBE. "It sound like some sort of friendly Star Wars character," she says on her blog.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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