Throughout the pandemic, government stay-at-home health orders across the country have forced radical change on the workplace and corporate values – beyond just a shift to work from home.
While government economic support continues to be welcomed, it seems where we stand now, coronavirus has changed the rules about how we work and where we work, maybe even forever.
The shift from traditional offices to virtual and technology-based workplaces has perhaps deepened the financial crunch for some and caused chaos for others.
For example, working parents who have been taxed with home education, struggling between being able to put in a full workday, helping their children complete class activities, and fulfilling normal home duties
However, it has also pushed many industries to reinvent themselves with a growing recognition among industry leaders that there will be no shift back to those normal office values and beliefs which have been the convention for the past sixty years.
We have 25 years of experience and education in creating workplace designs and commercial office fitouts, using movement and creativity to drive workspace transformations.
And with workspaces and workplaces changing like never before, so too are we.
We’re asking ourselves: Has the home office just become an extension of an activity-based working strategy? Have we simply discovered we can be flexible beyond what we previously thought possible? Has COVID-19 simply augmented and accelerated the strategies we were moving towards before the pandemic hit? Has the pandemic changed the pivotal values and beliefs of a traditional workspace?
I have faith that our traditional workplaces will always play a vital role in maintaining cultural placemaking and binding teams together – they are the ultimate facilitator of community and collaboration.
This means that organisations will abandon the traditional office in favour of a physical environment which is in a constant state of movement, changing its facilities and technology based on immediate business and project needs.
The thought that due to COVID-safe rules organisations may now need wider thoroughfares and distance workstations more spaciously is simply a more exciting and human alternative to the dense population approach years gone by.
If a balance can therefore be struck, it is highly possible that deep, focussed work can now be done at home, and that this can re-write the rules for the physical workspace as a hub for social connection, incidental conversation and collaboration.
You can never tax success in employees, the golden moments are never scheduled and often lead to even greater innovation, when employees spontaneously collaborating.
By providing an activated, engaged hub which caters for various activities, a new workspace could provide value for a variety of accommodation for staff way beyond the traditional 1/10 sqm calculations, whilst decreasing the density of bodies in space at any particular moment in time.
This may lead to organisations keeping their current space but increasing their alternate accommodation, or indeed, decreasing their required space all together.
We anticipate that will need to be assessed for all organisations, based on their unique needs.
I know no matter what the future workplace looks like, one belief will always remain constant – there will always be community and collaboration – and that’s what we’re striving to create – perhaps just in new and flexible ways.
Shane Hales works as a Managing Director, is a member of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, and an avid volunteer for the Rapid Relief Team.
Two forms of the ‘new normal’ could spin out from a global disruption to the workplace environment.
Regeneration and WFH.
I would like to see Landlords collaborating together to eliminate empty properties due to lost revenue and collaborate with government on a scheme to demolish and rebuild in combined spaces for rehousing/commercial.
Create biodiversity, preserve greenbelt/brownfield sites, enhance the area, make better use of city structural layouts.
WFH on the increase, offices to let…
Instead of overdeveloping green belt and brownfield sites. (Landlords could cash in!) Build/regenerate local community hubs/offices within walking distance which will reduce travel, promote cycling/walking, community social interaction, flexi time, co-workers, exchange ideas, energise and support etc
Is WFH the new paradigm shift in the workplace?
It will ease rush hour congestion
save travel time
save travel expenses
allowing more flexi time with increased productivity factor.
Empowering colleagues with the flexibility to adapt to their best methods for greater results will be a sign of a responsible and caring employer that will reap untold benefits in increased efficiency, performance and loyalty.
I can envisage many office workers returning not to work but too meetings! and then returning to WFH as their designated workplace. The new normal, drop-in co-working spaces, satellite offices and pods could be a solution to the rush hour madness.
Companies can invest in WFH branded offices with accessories to suit their staff comfort zone 😊. You can calculate huge savings with this innovative solution on these company portals that I recommend,
https://www.thehomeofficepod.com/
https://www.hyve-uk.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/haven-contemporary-additional-living-space/
I believe the UK Government should capitalise on it and facilitate its benefits, perhaps with a grant scheme, tax reduction, promotional campaigns as a win win for all.
So you Go2meetings for; Social engagement / Power hour / team building sessions / demonstrations / hands-on training / collaborative interaction / Hot desking.
Make it happen. KR, Ben of FPG.