HELP USA

A Smarter Workplace

HELP USA is one of the nation’s largest providers of shelter and supportive housing. As its central office worked to support teams across operations, development, finance, HR, legal, IT, and programs, the organization needed a workplace strategy that could address current pain points while planning for modest growth and greater flexibility.

PLASTARC partnered with HELP USA to assess current space use, understand staff work patterns, and develop practical workplace strategies grounded in both demonstrated needs and future potential. The engagement began with discovery and information gathering, including a workplace tour, leadership briefings, and background data review. From there, PLASTARC conducted leadership interviews, gathered manager input through digital interviews, analyzed utilization patterns, and facilitated a visioning process to understand both the current workplace experience and the aspirations staff held for the future.

The research highlighted several opportunities to create a more cohesive, intuitive, and supportive workplace experience. Employees expressed a desire for improved building conditions, more consistent technology, better access to quiet spaces for focused work, and layouts that reduce organizational silos. They also saw room for strengthening in‑person collaboration and aligning hybrid work expectations across different departments. At the same time, the visioning exercise revealed a strong sense of optimism and shared aspiration among employees. Employees articulated a clear vision for a future workplace centered on clarity, connection, flexibility, and a deeper sense of collective purpose.

PLASTARC translated these findings into a set of conceptual design and planning ideas spanning space, technology, and communications or policy. Recommendations included acoustic improvements, better lighting and wayfinding, shared lounge hubs, stronger Wi-Fi, structured technology training, more visible leadership presence, clearer hybrid norms, and better support for cross-team interaction. The team also developed departmental adjacency thinking, future headcount planning, and phased intervention scenarios to help HELP USA weigh tradeoffs between modest changes and more ambitious investments.

The result was a workplace strategy that moved beyond simply fitting people into space. It gave HELP USA a clearer, data-informed path for shaping a more flexible, equitable, and mission-aligned workplace — one better able to support focus, collaboration, growth, and organizational cohesion over time.