Direct Group, the insurance company previously also known as Direct pojišťovna, recognized that its innovative “Direct Family” culture was being undermined by rapid growth and split office locations. As the organization approached its tenth anniversary, leadership aimed to realign its physical space with business values, prioritizing connection, innovation, and the flexibility to support both in-person and hybrid teams. To achieve this, they partnered with GPA Czechia | AV Media to transform their workspace.
The project scope included:
- Consolidating diverse business units into a single headquarters
- Enabling seamless hybrid work across all departments
- Creating a workplace that inspires through both human-centered design and intelligent technology
- Embedding cultural and sustainability priorities into both architecture and workplace systems
Before the project, Direct Insurance faced a range of operational and cultural challenges:
- Physical fragmentation: Key teams were spread across aging, separate offices, which limited spontaneous collaboration and diluted culture.
- Barrier to innovation: The inability of teams to easily gather slowed decision-making and hindered creative exchanges.
- Outdated technology infrastructure: Lacked reliable, intuitive solutions for hybrid meetings; technology was often an obstacle rather than an enabler.
- Hybrid inequity: Remote team members could not participate in meetings on an equal footing, impacting cohesion and productivity.
- Missed synergies: The unique “Direct Family” culture, based on autonomy and teamwork, risked being weakened due to a lack of physical proximity.
The challenge was to unite a culturally-driven but geographically fragmented workforce in a single purpose-built headquarters.
To address these obstacles, Direct Insurance and GPA Czechia | AV Media co-designed a workplace strategy that placed user experience and connectivity front and center.
Key Deliverables:
Here’s how you can get on the road to achieving key deliverables like being named ‘Most Beautiful Office of the Year,’ alongside dramatic improvements in collaboration, hybrid meeting performance, and workforce engagement.
- Direct Plaza: Created a central, multi-purpose hub at the heart of the office, supporting group events, informal gatherings, and large-scale hybrid meetings, all powered by robust AV and sound systems.
- Shared Nests: Flexible team-based work zones that allow for adaptation between focused individual work and dynamic collaboration as needed, in this project, cozily referred to as shared nests.
- Meeting Rooms: Equipped with enterprise-grade video conferencing leveraging Microsoft Teams integration, automatic speaker tracking, and intuitive touch-panel control to ensure frictionless hybrid experiences in every room.
- Ease of Use: Unified controls and user interfaces allowed technology to fade into the background, enabling employees to launch meetings, share content, and adjust room settings with minimal training.
- Sustainability and Design: Choose the LEED– and WELL-certified Port 7 building to reinforce sustainability, well-being, and environmental responsibility as core values.
Project Execution:
The collaboration between Direct Insurance and GPA Czechia | AV Media was defined by profound discovery and agile delivery:
- Co-Design Approach: GPA Czechia began with immersive workshops, interviewing team leaders, mapping workflows, and tailoring solutions to Direct’s culture and operational patterns.
- Mock-up Demonstrations: Piloted key technologies in real environments, ensuring they matched practical needs and delivered on performance, before scaling throughout all six office floors.
- Integrated Delivery: Synchronization of AV installation, construction, network deployment, and ongoing change management required close coordination with multiple vendors and stakeholders.
- Resilience Under Pressure: Global supply chain disruptions challenged schedules. The project team adapted procurement and installation strategies to maintain progress.
- Commitment to Excellence: A critical late-stage integration issue, where hybrid meeting camera/audio sync failed under heavy load, was resolved through joint troubleshooting, drawing on GPA’s global expertise and hands-on attention. The solution unlocked flawless performance even in the most demanding scenarios.
The transformation of Direct Insurance’s headquarters was not just a physical relocation but a reimagining of how the organization collaborates, innovates, and thrives. By integrating cutting-edge technology with a design that prioritizes human connection, the new space became a catalyst for cultural and operational excellence. This shift was immediately felt across the organization, setting a new benchmark for what a modern workplace can achieve.
- Seamless Collaboration: All employees now work within a single, interconnected headquarters where face-to-face and hybrid communication flows naturally.
- Hybrid Meetings, Reimagined: Every meeting space offered intuitive, reliable AV and video conferencing. Remote colleagues became first-class meeting participants.
- Cultural Cohesion: Daily serendipity and informal connection returned, supporting the group’s people-centric ethos. Engagement between previously separated companies (insurance, auto, fintech, software, charity) flourished.
- Operational Efficiency: Fast, trouble-free adoption led to positive employee feedback and a measurable uptick in meeting effectiveness.
- Third-Party Recognition: The new headquarters earned “Most Beautiful Office of the Year 2023”, validating that design, culture, and technology are most potent when integrated from the ground up.
- Strategic Asset: Leadership and employees alike report increased pride and renewed energy. The new environment is now a competitive differentiator, supporting recruitment, retention, and the next phase of growth.
Ultimately, the new headquarters stands as a testament to the power of thoughtful design and strategic technology integration. It has not only elevated the daily experiences of employees but also positioned Direct Insurance as a leader in workplace innovation. This transformation is more than a milestone; it’s a foundation for sustained growth, creativity, and success in the years to come.
The Direct Insurance project demonstrates that a modern office is defined by its ability to adapt to the needs of its people. By integrating human-centered design with powerful, reliable technology, GPA Czechia | AV Media helped create a workspace that not only meets the demands of today’s hybrid workforce but also sets a new standard for what a corporate environment can be. The partnership resulted in a flexible, productive, and inspiring space that truly embodies the client’s values and supports their long-term success.
Was it all worth it?
Today, the Direct Plaza buzzes with a sense of possibility. The company’s new home, designed for collaboration, innovation, and sustainable success, stands as a powerful symbol at the heart of the organization, its award trophy on display for all to see. It is described not as an endpoint, but as a launchpad: a magnet to attract top talent, a crucible for ideas, and an infrastructure platform for growth over the next decade and beyond.
GPA Czechia | AV Media’s expertise helped to elevate Direct Insurance’s vision from aspiration to tangible reality, engineering a foundation for progress, purpose, and positive impact on every employee, every day. Now, everyone in the Direct Family can, again, focus on helping their own clients instead of worrying about anything else.
Is this the type of outcome you also want for your offices and workspaces? Don’t delay; contact GPA today, regardless of your location or the number of offices that need to collaborate.
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