To attract people back to the office – and keep them there – workplaces need to be high-performance, transformative environments that can compete with emerging technologies and all of the opportunities for mobility that they offer. As a whole, the physical space needs to continue to activate the ad hoc cross-pollination of ideas and the impromptu bump-ins that are crucial to teamwork. Quiet nooks embedded in these more fluid spaces could support work that requires concentration and making Zoom or phone calls.
That means fewer workstations and enclosed offices, and more multifunctional space that offers room for safely distanced collaboration, knowledge-sharing, mentoring and training. We need to embrace an accessible and activity-based physical model, one that prioritizes health and mobility. It doesn’t have a prescribed function and is truly multi-use – meetings, presentations, space for a call. This stepped space allows for impromptu conversations and brief meetings. Second, employee engagement is key this understanding will help managers draw their teams back and will inform the new physical layout of the workplace – one that should still support virtual presence. Values and purpose shouldn’t morph just because the technology has. First, a new workplace model shouldn’t change the DNA of a company. Companies need to have a finger on the pulse of the organization. Now, here’s what we can imagine for the ideal workplace of tomorrow. For many organizations, the office of the future had already been well on its way in and the pandemic was the big push. That said, our urgent response to the shelter-in-place orders served as an acceleration of what was on the horizon – of what we’d already been seeing in our own studies and projects. We’re uncomfortably cooped up inside, unable to venture out for business meetings or lunch at the neighbourhood watering hole.
Months later, it’s operating as efficiently as ever.īut this radical shift, established by emergency, does not reflect a truly flexible work arrangement. Like many organizations, thanks largely in part to our technological tools, we succeeded in creating a virtual office. We implemented the necessary personal hygiene and physical distancing protocols and, within two weeks, assembled a setup for working entirely remotely.
In March, we were jostled out of our task chairs and nudged away from our standing desks as our firm, like most, quickly mobilized to implement measures that put the health and safety of our 450 employees in Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City and New York City first. Meanwhile, there was an emerging interest in changeable work arrangements, collaboration and mobility and a demand for wellness and sustainability initiatives that prioritized better air quality, access to natural light and health programs.Īt Lemay’s Montreal office greenery permeates the indoor space year-round: a living green wall, climbing plant modules improve indoor air quality and balance humidity, while promoting a vital natural connection and fostering well-being. Where there was increased density in workspaces, employee performance suffered. They were also expressing interest in work-location flexibility, in response to their complex schedules of juggling childcare, eldercare and commuting.īased on our research and client feedback, we knew that between 40 to 60 per cent of office space was poorly utilized. Employees, meanwhile, were already vocalizing concerns about their in-office experience and the need for it to provide a healthy and supportive sense of belonging.
#Inside the office how to
The executive leadership in many organizations was thinking about how to optimize space in order to maximize real estate capital costs and increase the performance of the workspace in order to use it as a tool to create more profit.
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