Empowering knowledge workers to decide where, how and when they work and with whom has long been seen as an important aspect of motivating this talent pool particularly, the X-Y-Z generations and has been one of the drivers underpinning Activity Based Working [ABW]. During the lockdown knowledge workers have been trusted to work independently – this autonomy is desirable to them and it is logical that many will wish to continue working in this manner.

Looking forward & having regard for the war for talent, Companies will need to offer choices to employees who will have a greater say in determining their own work routines based on their job function and the specific work tasks they need to accomplish.

Some jobs will yield a higher productivity working in the office rather than remotely. But it would not be prudent to force the issue. Companies should be both flexible and practical in determining who works in the office.

The workplace will likely emerge as a more dynamic but less densely occupied collaborative hub, that will need to be designed accordingly. Agile workers will transit through the office on their nominated work days for collaboration, face-to-face meetings and, more frequent performance task reviews.

It is important to recognize that employees are not ‘finished’ with the office. It’s clear to many after lockdown that, remote working is not something we wish to do all of the time and indeed it may not work for some at all due to personal circumstances or, productivity inefficiencies.

In a pre-vaccine World, not every employee will necessarily feel comfortable returning to the office particularly, older workers who have a higher health risk. On the other hand, younger employees want to experience the organisation’s corporate culture and accordingly may want to spend more time in the workplace.  

Each Company will need to find its own unique space equilibrium based on their own operating system’s requirements and workforce preferences. Employee engagement will underpin this process.

To find out more about how to re-imagine your workplace through employee engagement call the workplace professionals.

Work isn’t a place, it’s an activity we perform and companies and individuals need to determine which tasks are best done where so as to drive efficiency and effectiveness. “Before the pandemic, the conventional wisdom had been that offices were critical to productivity, culture, and winning the war for talent. “June 08, 2020, Reimagining the office and work life after Covid-19, A Mckinsey Article.

During the pandemic Remote Working became the new normal – in effect CV-19 forced us to work this way however, we could have been working this way already if we choose to - the technology to do so existed!

Once stretched, the rubber band doesn’t return to the same position and neither will our work style.

The office in our opinion is likely to evolve into a more dynamic, less densely populated “culturalised” hub that, connect employees. The “social office” will be capable of supporting blended work activities and will be designed to facilitate; face-to-face interactions, community building, collaboration and brainstorming. It will be much more about “user experience”.

Academic research has revealed that the 6 main reasons people work are; play, purpose, potential, emotional pressure, economic pressure & inertia. The first three motives tend to increase performance whilst the latter three hurt it. Researchers found that, high performing cultures maximize, play, purpose & potential whilst minimizing the other factors .[McGregor & Doshi: HBR 2015].

Set against a backdrop of WFH the reimagined office will need to be designed to incubate the 3 performance drivers as employee’s office time will need to be more meaningful and experiential. The office will need to be a destination where it’s culture, brand, sense of community & connectivity can be experienced.

We believe even in a post vaccine world that, the huge potential savings in travel budgets & carbon emissions which can be enjoyed by leveraging VC will continue to drive the virtual communication trend. When in the office employees will want seamless digital connectivity, great transmission speeds and a range of appropriately sized spaces that can support virtual meetings & presentations across the spectrum of user groups from “WE” to “ME”. We foresee an increase in demand for well purposed spaces which deliver auditory privacy & user comfort particularly in the ≤ 4-person size which space utilization studies have consistently shown are the most statistically frequently used rooms.