In this contemporary environment of work, hybrid is the new norm with around 70% of employees looking to continue using the home office or the kitchen table to do their work, for at least part of the week.
Companies that were hesitant to embrace work from home have been strong-armed into it by circumstance – and overall, it has worked.
We have seen how resilient organisations can be and how quickly they have adapted to allow teams to work together while staying apart.
It has become a time of redefining and reimagining.
Working from home can allow for an environment for focus, where individuals can get their own work done outside of the office without needing their colleagues.
It allows employees to be in their own space and work in a way that suits them best. While saving on time like travel to and from the office.
Continuing to give employees the opportunity to work from home can allow for more social distancing in the office – An issue that we will probably be facing for a while to come.
Apart from that, it also allows organisations to think strategically around what their office space requirements actually are now, and the savings that may be reaped through taking on a reduced office footprint.
Considering these advantages, organisations around the world are faced with the question of why and how they will return to the physical office. Yet the unfolding of recent months has also presented to us another thing about remote working – it clearly doesn’t always work.
For some, working from home is not the right environment for focused work. Managing a balance between small children, a heavy work schedule and other home duties that would otherwise have waited until after work have now taken on a whole new meaning.
Home can present a lot of distractions and the lines between work and home can start to blur. Doing that ‘one more email’ is no longer limited by the evening commute, and instead, it can be easy to continue working through the task list long into the night.
And yes, no travel does save time, yet the transit home from the office can be the time for employees to switch off from their work day and add routine to the week.
The physical office still needs to exist and it needs to provide opportunities for focus spaces and collaboration for individuals and for teams to come together – it has
The office environment post-covid is no longer the 5-days-a-week inhabitance we once knew, but now a destination for individuals to come together, in a safe, socially distanced way, to collaborate and socialise with their colleagues.
We know that extended periods of time away from colleagues can have negative impacts on physical and mental wellbeing, so a carefully balanced approach for returning to the office needs to be taken.
The office still remains vital ingredient to successful peer training and learning, particularly for junior employees who gain crucial career development advice when working alongside senior colleagues.
Now more than ever, the workplace needs to become a safe, positive environment for colleagues to come and work together as a team. No longer do we view the office solely as place to fulfil one’s work rituals, but now a destination to collaborate, learn, and immerse oneself in the team culture.
In a world of unpredictable change, its fair to say the workplace we once knew has begun a metamorphosis. No doubt the extent of this will vary between organisations, but from now on, the ‘office’ will always be viewed through a different set of lenses.
Meeting rooms in offices will still need to be available for private discussions but the capacity may reduce drastically, having shrunk along with the smaller number of staff in the building at any one time. But now these rooms are increasingly being equipped to include the presence of virtual meeting attendees.
And in 2024 it is clear that what was a temporary solution has become a new mainstay of this era: flexibility. Having stand up tables and flexible furniture will allow for people to meet and collaborate in a quicker and safer way. The concept of providing staff with the ‘tools’ to create their own space to meet the demands of the current situation is an ever-emerging theme in the design world, and it is this adaptability of workspaces that allows staff to take ownership of their work and thrive.
Ultimately, coming together in the workplace to socialize and collaborate will become the greatest purpose that the new office can fulfill. After months working apart, employees now say the main reason they want to come back to the office is to be with other people, socialize and collaborate in ways that just aren’t possible remotely. That’s why a diverse range of spaces in the office that support these work modes, and collaboration in particular, will not go away. What’s more, they are likely to be even more desired.
In a time where employees have the opportunity to work from anywhere, the office needs to become a destination people want to come to. While perhaps smaller, and no doubt more efficient, the physical space of the future needs to be the nucleus that establishes and maintains your organisational and team identity. It is this ‘sphere’ or ‘hub’ of human interaction and team culture that has forced the workplace to take on a new meaning, and established itself as a destination of choice.
While staff may now have increased choice in working from ‘anywhere’ on certain days, it will be the re-imagined workplace of creativity, collaboration, and flexibility that will establish consistency within the team and ensure a destination for staff where ‘there’s no place like work’.
Join team at Contour Interiors for one of our ‘Future Ways of Working Strategy Sessions’ to further understand workplaces of the future, and this relates specifically to your organization.
In the constantly evolving world of workplace design, there’s been a significant shift towards creating spaces that not only inspire but also foster the elusive state of “flow.” This concept, once primarily associated with artists and athletes, is now recognised as the pinnacle of productivity and well-being in the contemporary office environment.
The human mind excels in identifying patterns, always searching for organisation and meaning in our surroundings. This natural inclination is the reason we see faces in the clouds or recognise common forms amidst nature’s irregularities — our brains are programmed to impose structure on disorder.
This intriguing feature of human observation is central to the study of Gestalt psychology, which investigates the way we perceive and arrange the visual information around us.
In the quest to create more meaningful and productive work environments, the concept of psychogeography offers a fresh perspective, urging designers and organisations to consider the psychological underpinnings of office spaces.
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