As the global community navigates the Coronavirus crisis, the nature of the workplace will be more important than ever. We have been working remotely on an unprecedented scale, and the benefits are clear – flexibility, time with family, and reduced commuting as a start. In some form, working from home is here to stay, even as returning to the physical office becomes possible. However, we have also discovered the limitations to remote working. While teams have been able to stay connected virtually, this cannot substitute for face-to-face collaboration, which is essential to fostering innovation.
Work is an inherently social activity, and the array of in person interactions we rely on can be difficult, or even impossible, to facilitate remotely. The post-COVID workplace must be reinvented to fulfil these needs, without compromising the health and safety of employees.
Although many will be craving a return to normal, going back to a pre-COVID workplace may not be possible – and, equally, may not be desirable. At this crucial juncture, we have the power and opportunity to reshape the workplace for the better, bringing offices into the future. While imminent, this change cannot be instant, but instead will happen in stages: Now, Near, and Far. With each of these phases, it is vital that we make offices of the future as safe as possible: well-designed and resilient for the challenges we may face.
Responding in the now
The immediate priority for many businesses, universities and health organisations is to bring people back to work as quickly and safely as possible. Not only do spaces need to meet health guidelines, but they also need to be designed to help individuals feel safe at work. To accomplish this, organisations will be – and, indeed, already are – retrofitting their workplace with what they have today, moving desks apart and adding barriers, to keep the first wave of returning workers safe.
Employees in this first wave may amount to 50% of the workforce, with the rest continuing to work from home. Distancing will be possible due to the abundance of space per employee. Many businesses will look to institute new policies around cleaning – especially cleaning shared spaces. While hotdesking throughout the day is unlikely to resume anytime soon, these desks may still be occupied by different employees from one day to the next, with an established “clean in, clean out” policy to ensure the safety of users.
Office geometry will have an entirely new look. The standard linear rows of desks and chairs that many of us are familiar with make physical distancing difficult, so a new approach is needed. Simply by rotating desks ninety degrees, we can ensure that employees are facing in different directions, thus restricting the possibility for transmission. Workplaces will also introduce separation elements: physical barriers that ensure health standards are met even when the minimum distance between employees cannot be maintained. Screens and panels will divide up spaces – the higher, wider, and more easily cleaned, the better.