Dairy Farmers of America Kansas City, KS Case Study

Case Study: Dairy Farmers of America

3/18

Formed in 1998, Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) is a leading milk marketing cooperative that has grown to serve and empower more than 14,500 dairy farmer members nationwide. With this growth came the need for a new space to house its Kansas City headquarters. DFA prides itself on being member-focused, smart, responsive, forward-thinking, and reliable. For their new office, DFA staff wanted to create a modern, interactive, and collaborative environment that would help build these points of pride into their culture, bringing them to life for current employees and job seekers, alike. This meant leaving their leased Kansas City, Missouri property, crossing the river, and constructing a brand new threestory, 110,000-square-foot building in Kansas City, Kansas. And of course, this impressive, state-of-the-art facility needed employee amenities, flexible workspaces, and unique furnishings to match.

2

Case Study: Dairy Farmers of America

3/18

Moving DFA Forward

Engaging Employees in the Redesign

DFA had outgrown its leased office space in both size and purpose. Its previous headquarters occupied seven floors of a tall, dark building, with no room to expand, limited access to daylight and no real opportunities for employees to work outside. DFA simply needed a new space of its own, with room to grow—a space tailored to its collaborative needs and the culture senior leaders wanted to promote for the future of the organization.

DFA leadership wanted their new headquarters to be reflective of a modern work environment and what today’s employees want from their workplace. They created about 15 different engagement committees, providing all employees the opportunity to participate in research, discussions, and recommendations for the new office. Each committee had a unique focus, concentrating on topics such as branding, workstations, alternative workspaces, collaboration, meeting areas, and outdoor spaces, as well as amenities like the fitness center and café. The committees generated ideas to bring the space to life in a way that actually supported DFA’s forwardthinking, community-oriented culture, rather than working against it.

By reducing the number of floors from seven to three, DFA’s new building eliminated the inherent disconnection of employees being separated by floors. The new building also maximizes the use of its open floorplan with shared space, scaling back the number of private offices to just 10 from the original 175. New workstations with access to abundant daylight were designed to facilitate easy, natural communication and collaboration between individual employees, as well.

3

Case Study: Dairy Farmers of America

3/18

Bringing People Together Knowing that both leaders and employees wanted to improve communication and collaboration within the organization, DFA began plans to create a better, more connected work environment. Various informal spaces were added throughout the building, allowing employees to work openly, encouraging conversations, and facilitating collaborative activities that can lead to increased creativity and innovation. Home-like “living room” areas were created on each floor, inviting employees to freely gather, meet up, collaborate, and connect away from their workstations. Small conference rooms are available across the floorplan, as well, for times when more intense concentration and small-group collaboration is needed. Larger conference rooms, featuring farm and dairy-themed design elements, were also added for formal meetings, collaborative activities, and client presentations. Rooms currently range in size from one-on-one spots to one that can house the entire DFA office, and they can be easily changed in size or moved. Outdoor spaces with access to wi-fi create areas for employees to work, meet, eat, play, or relax in a recharging environment with access to nature, fresh air, sunlight, and comfortable furniture. Employees can even enjoy some healthy competition with one another on a regulation-size bocci ball court.

Forty Years of Future Proofing Set on the new headquarters reflecting their forward-thinking culture, DFA leadership treated the project as a long-term investment. They intended the space to have the ability to evolve and change to meet their organizational needs for the next 40 years—and still have the look, feel, and function of a modern office. With this in mind, raised access flooring was installed in the entire building to house heating and cooling ducts, as well as wiring, allowing for easier moves and space reconfigurations when needed. Demountable walls provide the privacy needed for conference rooms, meeting rooms, etc., yet make it simple to readily change room sizes and locations. Workstations have been designed from a standard kit of parts that can be assembled in different ways to create multiple configurations depending on need.

“One of the important aspects of future proofing the project was Dairy Farmers of America’s desire to treat this as a 40-year investment. That ultimately changed the dialogue intensely, and we thought about everything from sustainability to making sure that they had a platform that allowed them to move, add, and change as easily as possible.” –– Peter Sloan, Principal at HOK

4

Case Study: Dairy Farmers of America

3/18

Modern Workspaces With input from the people who use them, DFA’s new workstations were designed with the total employee experience in mind. The benching system with lower wall panels allows team members easy access to one another, while offering just enough of a perceived barrier to provide personal space. “Now you can easily take a look around and see folks are right there,” said Darren Brehm, DFA Senior Director of Materials Procurement. “You can see conversations happening. You can see an opportunity to run down and ask an easy question. That’s incredibly valuable.” Workstations also have multifunctional pedestal storage units that double as temporary seating for people dropping by for those quick questions or impromptu conversations.

The new workstations better support the comfort and workstyles of the teams using them. Pull-out pantries provide added privacy, access to power for charging mobile devices, as well as display and storage for personal items. Ergonomic seating, height-adjustable desks, and accessories, such as monitor arms for their new dualmonitor setup, allow for more user control and personalization for a variety of workstyles. “We really tailored what we offered based on feedback from [employees] on what they needed, not just, ‘Oh, this looks really nice,’ but what would be functional in their space,” said Kristen Coady, DFA Vice President of Corporate Communications.

5

Case Study: Dairy Farmers of America

3/18

Paying Homage to Farm Families

A Desirable Collaborative Community

DFA has strong ties to the dairy farming families they serve, so they wanted to honor them in the office design. The branding engagement committee concluded that office design should reflect the entire scope of DFA—from farms and milk production, to plants and processing facilities, to the dairy products people around the world use every day.

DFA set out to create a new, engaging headquarters space that supported employees in their jobs and as people—a place they really wanted to work, and where they could do their best work. “What we were really looking for was to move far away from that traditional office space, and move into a space where collaboration and a heartbeat center of the building was evident when you came in,” said Monica Massey, DFA Senior Vice President and Chief of Staff.

Throughout the spaces, you’ll find textiles, patterns, and unique design elements that do just that. Cheese graters, cow tags, and milk bottles form three-dimensional patterns on accent walls. Pendant lighting has been created using milk bottles and rustic lightbulbs. Leather and cow prints are used in informal spaces. “As we began really looking at the materials—knowing that a lot of the design moves come together with this kind of tactile quality—there always needs to be a sense of heritage with every move we make,” said Eric Linebarger, Project Designer from HOK. “So, we wanted to honor that feeling that this has an agrarian root, has a certain honesty in the way things are detailed. We wanted something old, something rustic, something real, mixed with something very smooth, very polished.”

With their new building, DFA staff were no longer limited by a leased space and they were able to create a future-proof, modern office with an open floorplan that better supported the collaboration and communication their employees needed, while paying homage to farmer members. Common spaces, like the grand stair area with its pouring milk sculpture, and the Milk Bar have quickly become favorite places for people to socialize, facilitating communication, while bringing DFA employees together as a team. “We wanted to make sure we focused on creating a more collaborative, more inclusive environment that facilitated unintentional, as well as intentional, interaction among colleagues. And that’s proven to be the case, said Alex Bachelor, DFA General Counsel and Senior Vice President.

The Milk Bar is another fun dairy-themed feature of the new building. This space embraces DFA’s culture and showcases the base of their business. With a cold glass of milk always on tap to enjoy and a casual café atmosphere, the Milk Bar offers a unique brand experience and a place to talk and meet with clients when they visit the headquarters.

Even the individual workstations are bringing people together by making it easier for them to communicate and get work done. Collaboration and communication just started happening naturally. There is still space for employees to do focus work, but the new workstations are also helping with workflow and

6

Case Study: Dairy Farmers of America

3/18

productivity. “Things that used to take a lot of time to do just fall away,” said Brehm. “Now you can easily take a look around and folks are right there. It’s just really easy to get a lot of quick stuff done, in a fast way.”

“As you walk around, you’ll see branding that shows our food, milk, and ice cream business; reflects back to the plant; then reflects back to the farm. That was a key driver from the employees, saying they wanted to tell all of DFA’s story throughout the building.” Everything brings together the forward-thinking community culture and heritage DFA wants its employees to experience every day.

Fully supporting its employees’ well-being with modern, world-class amenities and giving them flexibility in their work schedule, DFA has become a more attractive company for today’s workforce. Darren Brehm continued, “I think across the board, from my team and others, we’ve heard nothing but positive remarks about the added features: the cafeteria, the gym. With the mindset shift around owning your work and the flexible day, my team feels much more empowered than they did before. And I think we’re getting more productivity as a group. I think all of those things have really contributed to an uplift in the way folks feel about being here.”

“This project, which more than I ever expected, is a beacon, and it stands proud both from the exterior and the interior. It reflects the perspective that [DFA] very much wanted and articulated many, many, many years ago. To see the joy of the people working here, and realize that this is, for us as a design firm, a result that can translate the bricks and mortar into something of great purpose and value. It’s super exciting.”

And of course, the entire office and grounds are rooted in DFA’s culture and brand. “We really wanted this building to reflect the entire scope of DFA—from farm to table,” said Coady.

–– Peter Sloan, Principal at HOK

7

Case Study: Dairy Farmers of America

3/18

Customer Profile

Haworth Product

Architecture + Design Firm

Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) is a leading milk marketing cooperative and dairy food processor that serves and is owned by over 14,500 members nationwide. It was established in 1998 to unite smaller regional cooperatives and help farm families survive in an increasingly competitive global marketplace. This combined cooperative offers programs and services that make it easier and more profitable for members to farm. Today, DFA has become one of the country’s most diversified manufacturers of dairy products, food components, and ingredients, providing dairy products for purchase by families around the world.

• • • • • •

HOK Kansas City, MO

• • • • • •

Tec Crete® Raised Access Flooring Enclose® Moveable Walls Compose® Panels and Storage Planes® Collaborative Tables Everyday Office Tables (EDO) Haworth Collection™: Ginger™ chairs, Hi Pad™ stools Immerse® Ledge Tables Suite™ Casegoods X-Series® Storage, Common Tops, and Lockers X-Series Common Tops Beside® Storage Pantry Belong® Slat Tiles and Accessories

Haworth’s Integrated Palette includes Compose,® Enclose,® Patterns,™ Planes,® Reside,® Beside,® and Belong.™ Haworth is a registered trademark of Haworth, Inc. | ©Haworth, Inc. 2018 03.18 haworth.com | 800.344.2600

8

Haworth Furniture Dealer encompas Kansas City, MO

General Contractor JE Dunn Kansas City, MO

Photographer Michael Robinson Photography Overland Park, KS