The lessons learned from the recent collective work-from-home experiment will play a critical role in guiding the journey back to the workplace across the globe. Because of the health crisis, companies are strategically rethinking everything about the office as we once knew it — from the physical space to the protocols, people, and organizational culture that define it.
As we plan for this new normal, workplace resilience will require greater organizational intelligence, multidisciplinary planning, effective change management, and strategic design.
The benefits of working remotely and/or having a more distributed workforce have been known for a while. Improved life/work balance, greater autonomy, reduced commuter traffic and associated CO2 emissions, and a reduced office footprint are a few of those perks.
That said, we now know that the overall effectiveness of virtual collaboration relies on a critical factor: human connection. Our recent work-from-home experiment has shown how important virtual collaboration platforms and management tools can be. But nothing can replace face-to-face time with colleagues. Those interactions build social capital and personal connections that can keep you connected outside of the office.
When we transitioned to working from our homes during the lockdown, we entered a new reality with pre-existing social connections among colleagues. Data from the 2020 Gensler U.S. Work from Home Survey reinforces that the primary reason people want to come back to the office is to interact with other people. So, how can the future workplace balance the benefits of remote work and virtual collaboration with the positive, community-based elements of the office?
Focusing on the purpose of the office is essential.
As designers, we see the role of the office as the catalyst for engagement, inspiration, and human connection, a platform for meetings inspired by hospitality, collaboration, and technology that fosters relationships and exchanges. Before the pandemic, awareness was growing around the concept of the hybrid workplace model which promotes collaboration, advanced technology, unassigned seating, and activity-based design, and offers a comfortable atmosphere driven by elements of hospitality. However, in the past, this model was limited by spatial conditions that required designing for a certain capacity, and this, combined with a focus on space efficiency, resulted in increased densities. We have been reducing the amount of space per person/desk consistently over the past 30 years — but the global health crisis is rapidly changing this trend.
Traditional workplace planning is based on capacity and tends to maximize the number of workstations for individual focus work. Collaborative workspaces, community amenities, and other support areas are detached from the number of desks. If we refocus our workplaces to create experience-centric environments we also need to change how we think of the workplace and see it instead as a crucial part of a holistic support system for a distributed workforce. Rather than calculating space based on the number of desks, since the desk is no longer the driving factor for the whole program, we need a different, more granular approach to office planning. Focusing on the number of seats provided will help us plan for a more variate set of spaces to support the workforce’s evolving needs. This approach addresses both supply and demand for spaces and includes areas for focused work and collaborative workspaces.
As the office becomes more of a collaboration hub, planning will evolve from a space-by-desk basis in order to account for the higher ratio of collaboration-driven work that’s expected to bring people back into the office. Since this requires incorporating generous circulation space and support spaces, it means that space per seat will likely be 15 to 30% lower compared to previous workplace planning needs.
The ultimate balance in ratios will depend on an office’s existing space efficiency and the rate of adoption of remote working. Preliminary results suggest this approach leads to a moderate reduction in space, but more importantly, a reduction in density — which translates to more room (30-35%) per person and a better-quality workspace.
New needs will drive new space types in the office.
By putting the employee experience first, we can create new space types within the workplace in order to transform the office into a safe, more community-oriented workplace. To do this, we must think beyond the workstation and create places where we can foster culture, innovation, mentorship, and organic interactions.
With an increased focus on wellbeing and safety, designers will also need to create a flexible separation between private and public spaces that can be opened or closed, depending on the risk scenario. Shared public spaces can act as co-working spaces with a variety of parts – like client meeting rooms, multipurpose rooms, work-cafes, one-to-one meeting spaces, and focus pods.