NewNorman: The Compact Solution for Working at Home

The coronavirus pandemic has caused lasting changes in the world of work. Here at Uniper, many employees have been working from home for months, which is why we launched the NewNormal project to look at the positives resulting from the pandemic and what more flexible, hybrid working may look like in the future. "We wanted to support our colleagues by providing ergonomic furniture while they are working from home. 

However, we quickly realized that not everyone had the option of setting up an office desk at home. We need something that can be better integrated into our colleagues' homes — something they can put away once they've finished work," says Valentin Balzer, Head of Business Transformation and Head of the NewNormal Program. As part of a spotlight project, six trainees developed a solution from a concept to be ready for market launch in just six months: (New)Norman. Norman is a piece of furniture that makes it easier to work in a small living space. It fits easily into any interior style as it's available in four colors, and has an ergonomic design that meets Uniper’s requirements.

Space Saving Yet Ergonomic

Our spotlight projects have been running every six months since 2016 and are sponsored by various departments. The projects aim to encourage talented graduates with different backgrounds to come up with new, unconventional ideas and give them the opportunity to apply their technical knowledge and creativity to an ongoing business project. The results are clear to see: Folded up, Norman is a narrow, elegant sideboard. With just a few simple steps, it becomes an ergonomic, full-fledged workstation. It doesn't just save space — it is also height-adjustable, enables easy cable management and provides space for safely storing IT devices, stationery and documents.

"Alongside our normal daily work, we have managed to develop and implement an idea that our colleagues really like. This is reflected not only in very positive feedback, but also in demand: 170 employees within Uniper have already ordered a Norman and can now make working from home a more pleasant experience," explains Wiebke Schwalvenberg, Trainee at Uniper. She is part of the core team that developed Norman, alongside five other trainees with diverse backgrounds and expertise: Elin Al Zaim, Burak Cetinkaya, Luiza de Carvalho, Sven Keysers and Prapapapan Suleeporn.

An Agile Approach to Challenges

"The minimum requirements initially posed challenges for our trainees, due to our strongly established health-and-safety culture, regulations around ergonomics and the demands of the manufacturer's procedures. We wanted to ensure maximum health and safety in the workplace, no matter where our colleagues were working," says Valentin Balzer. "To develop the optimal solution from a range of ideas, we started doing sketches ourselves and had some discussions with employees. This allowed us to meet all the criteria," says Luiza de Carvalho. Despite the current shortage of materials, the team was able to convince furniture manufacturers of the idea and went into production. "The trainees have shown how agility can also work in corporations. Turning a very vague idea into a product in a corporate environment within six months is very impressive. Instead of spending a long time designing, they quickly moved on to prototyping. That meant they were able to quickly determine what was actually needed," explains Valentin Balzer.

All Uniper employees can order Norman free of charge. Norman's good reputation already precedes him, even beyond the company's borders. Other companies have already shown interest in Norman, which was actually custom made for Uniper.