V Three Studios | April 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed the way many businesses are thinking about the future of their workplace environments. Most are anticipating a return to some semblance of normality in the near future, but not without significant changes to the design and construction of their buildings going forward.
Over the past year, it’s become clear that workplaces cannot simply re-open with little to no physical changes. Instead, they need to be reinvented to properly function in a post-pandemic world.
We are hopeful that the resulting changes to workplace design will push companies further towards prioritizing employee wellness, efficiency, sustainability, and new technology.
Now is the time for companies to invest in design that will allow them to remain productive and provide employees with the flexibility needed to stay safe and healthy.
Re-Thinking the Workplace
With a vaccine around the corner, do we really need to rethink the workplace? The answer to this common question, according to experts and many business leaders, is a resounding yes. With an entire workforce now mostly adjusted to working remotely, the risks and benefits of going back to a traditional, fully occupied office space are no longer practical in the vast majority of situations.
The broad consensus at this point is that work from home is here to stay in one form or another. Employers have recognized that work can be done with similar efficiency in a remote setting, and employees have seen the benefits of no commutes, fewer unnecessary meetings, more flexible schedules, and fewer distractions.
There are, however, problems with working from home that indicate the continued importance of companies maintaining a physical workplace. These include isolation, lack of a dedicated home office, no access to ergonomic furniture, frustration with virtual meeting technology, and the struggle to maintain a healthy work-life balance.
In response, most companies are expected to adopt a hybrid workplace model while also placing a higher priority on employee wellness. This will not only foster a more engaged, talented workforce, it will also alleviate shareholder concerns by taking the appropriate actions in addressing corporate responsibility to avoid further risk. A hybrid model can take a number of forms but is primarily a means of providing employees with the flexibility to choose how—and where—they work.
Workplaces need to be reinvented to properly function in a post-pandemic world.
Changes to Physical Workplaces
The traditional workplace as it has been known for several decades was not designed to mitigate the spread of disease, plain and simple. With many employers adopting hybrid work models as mentioned above, the workplace will need to physically change in several key ways in order to respond to these shifting demands. This reinvented workplace should accomplish the following tasks:
Reduce and distribute the amount of space per employee
Mitigate the impact of future disasters
Accommodate remote workers
Refocus on building company culture
Allow for greater flexibility
In many instances, the “workplace” may not be a single physical space. Many employers have started thinking about their physical offices as a space focused on group work, i.e. open, collaborative spaces, rather than individual work. In some industries, employees can be as productive from the comfort of their own homes as in an office, so companies are understandably hesitant to continue providing those individuals their own dedicated offices. Instead, those companies are investing in more physically distributed, collaborative spaces with smaller footprints, in which employees can safely gather to work together.
To accomplish the tasks above, the physical workplace also needs to integrate technology on a broader scale to fully merge the digital and physical aspects of a modern employee’s day-to-day activities. This may look different depending on the specific industry or job function, but spaces need to be designed to integrate the necessary technology from the early stages of any project rather than as an afterthought.
These physical changes are just part of the puzzle. Many employers are addressing pandemic concerns by not only physically modifying employee workplaces, but changing company policies, upgrading their buildings’ mechanical systems, following stricter building cleaning protocols, and much more.
Future workplaces will likely be less focused on individual work and more on group work.
Offices will never be designed the same way again. The concept of workforce health and wellness has been thrust to the forefront of the workplace conversation, and companies that do not adapt will fall behind. Considering that modern electrical and mechanical upgrades have allowed workplaces to become increasingly energy-efficient since the turn of the century, (average power consumption per square foot has decreased nearly 200%) now is an opportune time for companies to invest in improving their workplaces.
Good design will allow employees to remain productive and give them the flexibility needed to stay safe and healthy. This wake-up call is a huge challenge, but also an opportunity for companies to think ahead and create the workplace of the future, starting now.