Building a Better Workplace, One Character at a Time

The Brief

As the Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation prepared to move into a new office, they weren’t just changing buildings, they were changing the way people worked. The move introduced a new workplace model built around ideas like neighbourhoods, bookable collaboration spaces, and flexible working environments.

The challenge was fundamentally one of behavioural change. The Guardians needed staff to quickly understand how to work successfully in the new environment, what good behaviours looked like in different spaces, and how everyone could contribute to a positive workplace experience from day one.

Importantly, the communications couldn’t feel overly corporate, or “big brother-ish”. The Guardians wanted a behavioural guide which was engaging and memorable, to encourage people to embrace the new ways of working.

The Solution

Rather than producing a traditional workplace behaviour guide full of rules and instructions, we took a much more human and engaging approach. We created a cast of fun, relatable personas called Team S, representing the diverse personalities that make the Guardians such a unique and vibrant organisation.

The seven personas – Sam, Spark, Sage, Sione, Sky, Sonny, and Scooter – were each aligned to a different environments, including working spaces, collaboration zones, focus rooms, meeting spaces, communal event areas, kitchens, and end-of-trip facilities. Each character has their own personality, story, and behavioural traits that reflect both the positive and negative behaviours associated with using those spaces.

This approach allowed us to talk about workplace expectations in a way that felt light-hearted, inclusive, and entertaining rather than preachy. Staff could recognise themselves, and/or colleagues, in the characters, which made the messages far more relatable. The personas created a safe and playful way to discuss behaviours without creating resistance.

Visually, the work extended the established EVP identity we had developed several years earlier. Using the same five core geometric shapes, vibrant colour palette, and graphic style helped ensure the Good Neighbours programme felt immediately familiar and connected to the wider culture story already embedded across the organisation.

The adaptable nature of the EVP identity system allowed shapes and colours to be applied flexibly to create highly expressive characters and objects full of movement, energy, and individuality, while still feeling unmistakably like the Guardians. 

The Results

The Good Neighbours programme became an important part of building momentum for the move into the new office. Staff strongly engaged with the personas and the playful storytelling approach.

The success of the concept saw the Guardians extend the application of the personas into more formal workplace and office guidance materials, using the characters and graphic system to make dry, detailed operational information feel more approachable and engaging.

The personas also became part of the wider move experience itself, helping staff feel informed, prepared, and excited about the transition. Even after the move, the characters continued to play a role in workplace culture, including appearing as persona cookies in our moving in gift to them.

What started as a behavioural change challenge ultimately became a highly human and engaging culture initiative that reinforced the Guardians’ personality, values, and sense of belonging at an important moment of organisational change.