The prospect of an effective vaccine for COVID-19 has given much needed hope for a return to some form of normality in 2021 for life, the universe and everything – and it couldn’t have come sooner. But what does it mean for the workplace?
The world of work has experienced such a paradigm shift in 2020, that any attempt to revert back to what it was would be foolish, without first pausing for thought about what your future office and way of working should look like.
There have been hundreds of articles written about this very thing, discussing everything from ‘hub and spoke’ property strategies to offices environments as a panacea for collaboration and how we will no longer drive anywhere because of Zoom or Teams, or can just up sticks and move to Cornwall since we don’t need to go into the office anymore.
But let’s take a step back for a moment.
The reality is that many people couldn’t move if they wanted to. Their partner may have a job which doesn’t allow such agility, or they may have children at school. And nobody collaborates for all 7.5 hours of a working day.
Video conferencing makes us stressed and fatigued, and if you could just move anywhere, what this essentially means is that anyone in the world could do your job, for lower wages.
Working from home won’t last forever
We recognise that working from home won’t last forever. According to Leesman whilst there have been a lot of positives about working from home, their surveys consistently tell the story that for one in three of us, working from home is not working. A third of people do not feel connected with their colleagues or organisation, and 30% cannot maintain a healthy work life balance.
Similarly, collaboration and planned meetings don’t work well from home, particularly for many client facing businesses that need to drive projects forwards.
In the context of the above, there is a role for the office to foster those connections; to harness innovation and embed values and culture. However, a plan needs to be put in place to reform the office to avoid the long, slow slide into irrelevance.
How can we go back to better?
In the new normal, the office needs to change. The one-size-fits-all approach of open plan banks of homogeneous desks with a kitchen and some meeting rooms, is no longer fit for purpose.
If you are adopting a flexible working approach of, say, three days in the office and two days at home, the likelihood is that you can probably work towards this in the long term post-social distancing at your next lease event or break clause, to reduce the space you occupy by around 30%.
We need to keep company culture and social interaction alive by giving people a reason to come to the office, by providing a better experience than employees would have at home – regardless of whether they have a dedicated study/workspace, or are working from their dining table.
But this is not just about enhancing spaces for collaboration, and client meetings.
Work also needs to be done to create an environment in the office to support the tasks that work ‘better’ at home. Quiet spaces for concentration work, booths for video conferencing, greater use of soft furnishings and shared tables.
Before the pandemic, we already experienced noisy interruptions which disrupted our working flow. Now, Teams or Zoom calls in open plan spaces take this disruption to a whole new level, making the requirement for acoustic privacy a must.
With this in mind, we need to create new office environments that give employees the best experience to support whatever tasks are being carried out, as well as the flexibility to fulfil the mantra of “work is something you do, not somewhere you go”.
What we absolutely must not do, is go back to the pre-COVID-19 office, even if we do assume that things will return to the way they were pre-vaccine.
We are in constant dialogue with clients helping occupiers to plan their space, and are advising on office layouts and ways of working for a post-COVID-19 world.
For tips on what your business should look out for at your next property event, get in touch.
