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The Just-Right Redesign: Hybrid Office Adaptations

The Just-Right Redesign: Hybrid Office Adaptations

Yes, the hybrid office is here to stay, and with it comes an opportunity to do a beneficial redesign of the workplace. The soulless twentieth century “cube farms” were dehumanizing, but so were the noisy, crowded open-plan offices that replaced the cubicles. Now designers have a chance to create the perfect balance between too claustrophobic and too unstructured. With some thoughtful innovations, the hybrid office can be the happy medium, like Baby Bear’s oatmeal.

Successful hybrid offices counteract the oversharing open office by providing defined work areas for individual heads-down tasks, and for collaborative team projects. But defined, enclosed areas don’t have to make a space feel crowded. Architectural glass walls and partitions retain an open feel while mitigating the noise interference of open office plans. Additionally, they maintain separation to reduce the potential for infections.

Lockers, too, provide attractive space-defining structures that complement other design choices. Like work spaces, lockers can be reserved for use when teams are in the office, and released for others to use later. Touchless locking mechanisms enhance health protocols, too.

A hybrid redesign is about more than the physical space, of course. Emotional welfare is a significant component of the new workplace. People crave sociability, and working in an office is fundamentally a social activity. When staffers are not in the office, they become anxious about their place in the social order. Providing support for the WFH component of a hybrid office demonstrates management’s trust in employees who aren’t routinely present.

And that support is often in the form of technology. Businesses are providing electronic devices – computers, wifi, cell phones – to employees for their WFH days. Just as important are the digital data resources. Paper-intensive work is now being converted to digital formats. Document conversion, or digitization, gives staff access to information no matter where they are physically located. An additional benefit: With fewer documents to store, storage space can be converted to work spaces, without expanding the office footprint.

The Great Resignation of 2021 has spurred much soul-searching at the C-level. The conclusion of many managers: Make the office a place where people want to spend time, make WFH a valued part of the hybrid workplace, and show support by providing productivity tools. A redesign to achieve these goals is a win for workers and financial stakeholders alike.

Photo © Dariusz Jarzabek / AdobeStock

The Best of Both Worlds: The Hybrid Office “Neighborhood”

The Best of Both Worlds: The Hybrid Office “Neighborhood”

Who doesn’t want to be in a good neighborhood – one that’s aesthetically pleasing, has a controlled traffic flow, with great neighbors close but not too close? The office “neighborhood” is predicted to become the primary workplace model for the new hybrid workstyle.

The hybrid workplace, combining a flexible schedule, WFH (work-from-home), and in-office work, sprang up as a way to reduce the risk of covid transmission. It has delivered unexpected benefits: Surprising productivity increases, along with reduced real estate overhead.

Even with a covid vaccine in sight, the hybrid office isn’t likely to disappear any time soon. According to research this year by workplace design consultants Gensler, 52% of workers want to continue dividing their time between home and office. Only 19% wanted to work in the office full time.

Now designers are defining the shape of the ideal hybrid workplace, and the “neighborhood” format seems to answer all the design criteria. Work activities are clustered into “zones” based on the need for privacy or collaboration, quiet head-down tasks, or work involving conference calls or in-person conversations.

Elizabeth Lowrey of Elkus Manfredi Architects describes the hybrid office neighborhoods as incorporating support tools for remote workers (video conference equipment and imaged documents), and flexibility to manage future workplace change. She emphasizes the need to make the hybrid office a magnet. If the office is a choice, not a mandate, it has to be an attractive one.

Neighborhoods also have to be defined physically. As Robert Frost said, “Good fences make good neighbors.” Guiding foot traffic through the office is especially important for maintaining social distance and for preserving quiet in heads-down neighborhoods.

One option for office boundaries and traffic is a locker structure. Modern lockers have customizable finishes to complement office furnishings, adding to the attractiveness of the workplace. Many include keyless touchless locks to reduce contagious touch surfaces.

And lockers provide essential storage for hybrid workplaces. Employees who aren’t in the office full time tend to bring a lot of stuff with them when they come into the office. Without an assigned workstation or office, all that stuff has to be stored somewhere.

The new hybrid workplace can be defined as a place where people feel welcomed, where they have supportive tech and a sense of social belonging, where their best work can be done. That sounds like a neighborhood we’d all like to live in.

 

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4 Ways to Develop a Digital-Positive Corporate Culture

4 Ways to Develop a Digital-Positive Corporate Culture

Integrating new digital technology in the workplace inevitably creates a change in corporate culture. You may be digitizing documents to build a searchable, secure e-document database. You might be adding an RFID system to link your ERP system to your MES (manufacturing execution system). But workplace change is not always welcome. How can you build a “digital-positive” culture where the tangible benefits override the resistance to change?

If you’re spearheading a digital integration, these tips can make the transition easier:

  • Plan, plan, plan. It would be great to have a crystal ball to tell us what our future needs will be. The next best thing is a cutting-edge industry expert to guide your digital expansion. Work with a vendor-consultant to develop a plan suited to your organization’s specific operations.
  • Promote the digital changeover to staff. A lack of buy-in can sabotage your plans. Sell the digital improvements internally, and get everyone excited about the benefits. Keep communicating throughout the integration, and report the results. Upper management may respond to financial benefits, staffers may be interested in making the work easier, but everyone loves productivity improvements.
  • Provide training and reinforcement.  Some people instinctually understand digital technology. Others don’t. An effective training program tells employees that they are valued, and saves the cost of replacing staffers who might otherwise struggle with digital tech. Further, it ensures that the technology will be used properly and will deliver its promised benefits.
  • Establish boundaries for the “always-on” digital environment. The internet never sleeps. It’s easy to start expecting instant responses no matter the time of day. But workers require an “off” switch; insufficient down time results in reduced productivity and burnout. Create a “digital etiquette” policy to set boundaries on staff accessibility.

Digital technology is ubiquitous, and new digital applications spring up like mushrooms every day. No matter how much digital technology your business already utilizes, you will continue to expand your tech systems regularly. Consulting firm Deloitte recommends taking a proactive approach to each new integration of technology, re-interpreting your corporate culture for the new application. When you keep your corporate culture digital-positive, your business will stay productive, retain employees, and increase the customer base.

Photo © Drobot Dean / AdobeStock

How Leaders Build Return-To-Work Confidence

How Leaders Build Return-To-Work Confidence

With a coronavirus vaccine on the horizon, many businesses are developing return-to-work (RTW) strategies. Some organizations have adapted well to work-from-home and they are opting to continue 100% WFH, with its greatly reduced real estate costs. Some essential industries, however, never moved to WFH. Many others see hybrid offices as the best balance between WFH and a physical business presence.

The latter organizations are making changes to build their teams’ “covid confidence” – the employees’ assurance that their work environment is covid-safe. Some facilities are hiring environmental health directors to establish operational policies and systems that reduce health risks. Others are working with consultants to redesign foot traffic patterns and reduce touch surfaces like door knobs, light switches, and paper.

Physical changes to the workplace are only half of the covid-confidence picture, however. The other half is leadership. Employees must trust their leaders to have everyone’s best interest at heart.

Experts list three trust-building behaviors that good leaders exhibit.

  1. Establish positive relationships with team members. For covid confidence, leaders should routinely check in with their people about their concerns, and work to resolve conflicts.
  2. Demonstrate knowledge and good judgment. Leaders should be up to speed on covid-safe measures, and use this knowledge to make good decisions.
  3. Be consistent. Unpredictability is the enemy of trust. Teams trust leaders who do what they say they will do to create workplace safety.

The U.K. think tank Resolution Foundation recently found that 35% of employees were actively concerned about contracting covid-19 in their places of work, despite their employers’ significant covid-safe changes. This high level of concern points to a need for greater trust in leadership.

For a successful RTW transition, teams must have a high level of trust in their employers’ covid-safe workplace measures. Designers and consultants can provide the policies, systems, and structures to create safety. It’s up to business leaders to build return-to-work trust and covid confidence.

Photo © Maha Heang 245789 / AdobeStock

Lesson Nine: Right Here Right Now Makes Tomorrow Possible

Lesson Nine: Right Here Right Now Makes Tomorrow Possible

This is the final installment in a series exploring Dr. Kristen Lee’s (Northwestern University) nine lessons in personal and collective fortitude. Seen through the lens of a business operation, each lesson has application in the current national health and economic challenges, and for successful endeavors in the future.

We all thought we understood workplace stress. Then the pandemic came along and introduced us a whole new level of stress that we didn’t know existed. Now more than ever we have to build effective stress-management techniques. And it turns out it’s not as hard as you might imagine. One of the best strategies for stress reduction only requires two things. One: Stop multitasking. Two: Become mindful.

Stop multitasking. Everyone used to believe that the more multitasking you could do, the more productive you were. Multitasking gives us the feeling that we’re doing multiple tasks simultaneously. In fact, science has shown that our brains are giving only brief moments of attention to a single task in the multiple array of tasks, then refocusing on another single task in the array. It takes time for our brains to shift focus from one task to the next, then back again to the first task. These incremental losses of time add up. The result: We’re significantly less efficient even though we think we’re being super-productive.

Multitasking is not only unproductive, it’s incredibly stressful. The less efficient you are, the further you fall behind and the more stress you experience.

Start meditating. In the past decade, the practice of mindfulness, or meditation, has become mainstream. Management seminars and team-building retreats include mindfulness instruction. Major tech companies include meditation rooms in their offices. Businesses find that when managers practice mindfulness, they think more creatively, make better decisions, and accomplish more.

Mindfulness allows the brain to do what it does best: Focus. Whatever happened at the last meeting, whatever might happen in your next meeting, all becomes irrelevant. Only the current meeting is important, and nothing else. Right here, right now is what counts. The decisions and insights that come from a focused mind allow you to move forward confidently into tomorrow.

Taking time to engage in a meditative technique like deep breathing, for example, can spark a new idea or de-fuse a negative encounter. Wellness expert Dr. Troy Adams recommends these activities for workplace mindfulness:

  • Pay attention to your surroundings – indoors/outdoors, warm/cold, quiet/noisy.
  • Be present – experience each moment and look for the good within that moment.
  • Accept yourself and treat yourself like you would a good friend.
  • Focus on your breathing; even a minute of deep breathing is helpful.

People are the greatest resource of any business. Stress reduction through mindfulness will keep your people healthy and productive, and keep your organization at peak performance. Consider some of the ways you can encourage mindfulness in the workplace – Zoom meditation sessions? Quiet areas set aside in the office? Mindfulness retreats? If you meditate on how to support mindfulness, you’ll find the right solution.

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