Collaborative feedback during the design process for IHI’s new space in Boston helped define various work areas that accommodate different work styles.
Despite recent headlines debating the benefits or disadvantages of the open-plan office, collaborative workplace designs—with open-plan layouts, minimal to no individual office space, and, in some cases, unassigned seating—will continue to be the design choice of the future, with some well-informed adjustments.
Call it ‘open plan 2.0.’
There’s a new wave of office design emerging that is better tailored for individual work styles and collaboration needs. This shift follows the initial pushback of the open-plan craze that rolled in quickly, pulling offices and larger workstations out and dropping bench seating in its place.
The open plan of the future now looks beyond the personal footprint to make sure individual work areas are married seamlessly with the surrounding spaces and overall environment to create an authentic sense of community and culture that embraces different types of work styles. Between generational shifts—bringing new preferences on how an office should look and feel—and technology advances—allowing folks to literally work from anywhere—companies are challenged more than ever to create a space that draws employees in, nurtures a sense of community, and supports collaboration.
Because of that, co-working spaces, flexible cafes, and private phone booths have become critical elements to balance an open-plan environment and ensure that employees have a place to go for the various types of work that any typical day could call for—from quiet focused alone time to group brainstorming.
Considering the initial pushback to open offices, it’s no surprise that a company’s decision to move to an open environment can be met with apprehension. Our workplace design teams have employed several tactics to help ease companies into the open plan 2.0 world and ensure employees aren’t just excited about the change but are feeling a sense of ownership and pride.
Tactics like setting up an employee culture committee allows office design conversations to continue after move-in to ensure a new space supports the office and employee needs for the long-term.
The importance of studying
Before taking on any office design change, it’s important to assess current work conditions, employee workplace practices, and areas for improvement to best inform programming for the new space.
We encourage that companies share a preoccupancy survey with employees to gain a better understanding of needs, pain points, and wish list items. Using an online survey tool like SurveyMonkey, we use this survey to gauge how people feel in their current space, so we can identify areas that people are not comfortable with or feel like could be better. Questions focus on elements like personal space and adjacencies, temperature control, light levels, comfort, and productivity within the office space. A lot of times, it’s the lack of meeting room space that we hear loud and clear. Feedback like this helps us gauge programmatic needs and prepare group design workshops as an additional planning tool.
Additionally, we host program meetings where we meet with the head of each department, or a representative from each department, to extract more of the quantitative needs for each group and help account for that within the design. This also allows us to strategically pair all-staff feedback with the goal and vision for each group as a company continues to grow within this space.
Group design workshops
Once the initial workplace analysis and high-level strategy is understood, we lead design workshops where employees are encouraged to shape a vision around the new space. We focus on areas like culture and community, personal space, meeting space, and other programmatic needs that they feel would support the productivity of their work.