What can we achieve at the office that can’t be done from our home offices?
- Collaboration
- Problem Solving
- Leaning and Development
- Engage with a Community and Culture
Post Covid Challenge
Business directors need to get their employees back to the office. The long-term impacts of Covid-19 have meant the working life of office employees have changed dramatically. While office employees across the globe have proven that raw productivity can be generated from home offices, what are the concrete benefits of commuting to a space to complete work they could easily complete at home?
We can’t force people back to the office, so the trick will be enticing employees in to spaces that are built to be both motivating and healthy. Given office workers have proven they can complete their tasks in their homes, a successful office fit-out will need to compete as a place of enrichment for workers and as an asset for your business’ revenue generation.
The Meaningful Office
To draw the team back to the office, business leaders need to build another ‘home’ for their employees in their office fit-outs. This means curating a culture where employees’ efforts are recognised as vital and where they can learn from colleagues. Physically working side-by-side and a strong team culture can improve both productivity and the morale of the workplace. As social animals, we function and work better knowing that we have a place within a greater whole and that our work has meaning other than our own salaries or the profit margins of the company.
Building spaces that encourage collaboration, mentoring and chance encounters between employees from different teams will contribute to a ‘collegiate’ culture. In other words, the right office will allow employees to grasp how their individual labor is connected to the goals of the team as a whole and help them feel a greater stake in the success of the business. This creates the ideal conditions for sharing of information, mentoring and learning; and for teams to put combine their efforts towards problem solving and collaborating on complex tasks.
Consider:
- Arranging workstations to allow for opportunities for employees to collaborate, exchange resources and learn from one another.
- Grant employee’s freedom of movement in the office to work where they think they’re most productive. A ‘tech bar’, or station storing cables, laptops and equipment that can enable people to work effectively from a number of places can help this.
- Designing congregating/forum spaces for department and team occasions. This will make it possible for teams and companies to set their intention collectively for big projects or the working week.
Health and Wellbeing
Employees might prefer working from home as they can, at arm’s reach, easily manage their nutrition, maintain an exercise routine and retreat to quiet spaces for time-out and contemplation. Access to rooms designated for private meditation and/or prayer as well as healthy food and exercise facilities can lift the experience of commuting to work to one that improves the lives of employees, not simply extract work from them.
Consider:
- Providing healthy meal options in the office by way of a stocked kitchenette, café or nutrition bar
- Installing exercise equipment, or facilitate access to health clubs for office employees
- Allocating private rooms to time for employees seeking solitude, time and space
Want to Know More?
Curious about what we do or work we’ve done?
Click the Projects tab to look at some examples of work we’ve completed in the past for prior and continuing clients.
Click the Build Process tab for a outline of how we build your perfect workplace.
If you’d like to speak to a member of our team, contact us at the office on 1300 886 658.
