OFFICE COLLABORATION

With the rise of hybrid working, the role of the office is changing. More emphasis is being placed on collaboration, which means that many offices will need to be reconfigured to accommodate this, presenting sales opportunities for dealers

hile much of life W appears to be getting back to something like normal since the ending of social distancing measures in the summer, the way many people work seems to have permanently changed, with many seeking a hybrid way of working – spending some time working at home and the remainder of the week in the office.

Indeed, in a report published in June, Business and individual attitudes towards the future of homeworking, UK: April to May 2021, the Office for National Statistics found that, of working adults currently homeworking, 85% wanted to use a hybrid approach of home and office working in future.

CLEAR INTENTIONS

So, it seems that the days of employees going into the office to work at their laptops and check emails will largely be over, as Elisabete Wells, marketing director at ACCO UK Ltd, explains. “With so many organisations adopting a hybrid working approach, with some days spent remote and others in the office, the days staff spend working in the office will likely become more intentional and purposeful,” she says. “More independent tasks are likely to be reserved for homeworking, while we will go in the office with clear intentions and a plan of action that will include meeting with specific people and getting the most out of the day.

“As a result, our idea of how the office will be used, and what these future ‘meetings’ might look like, will change. A year-and-a-half of navigating virtual hiccups, dialling-in in our loungewear, and being forgiving of our colleagues’ background noises or interruptions has changed our idea of how formal our get togethers need to be. We can now expect the traditional, rigid, tightly-structured meeting to be replaced with much more casual, informal and constructive collaboration sessions.”

This means that the office itself will need to evolve to suit this format, Elisabete adds. “Instead of the focus being on individual offices with doors, and private workspaces that primarily promote solo productivity, designs will begin to centre on providing a more fluid, open plan, comfortable environment for teams to collaborate effectively,” she says. “These sessions will no longer be relegated to designated meeting rooms, either. Instead,

brainstorms, catchups and co-working will take place whenever, and in spaces designed to facilitate the production and exchange of ideas.”

Elisabete believes that dealers should expect to see a trend towards office solutions that help make any space into a functional collaborative space. “Nobo has just released its new Move & Meet Mobile Collaboration System of mobile, double-sided, magnetic whiteboards and notice boards that allow teams to work flexibly, productively, and cooperatively from anywhere in the office,” she adds. “The boards can even be used to partition off an area to create a separate, designated workspace if one is desired. As we move into the next era of our professional lives, dealers should seize this opportunity to introduce their customers to solutions which support new ways of working and simplify teamwork.”

Simon Williams, North Europe Shopper Marketing Lead – Office, Education and Channels at 3M, agrees that the physical layout of the office needs to be reassessed. “You have people in one or two days a week so it is maximising the bit we can’t do from home, which is working collaboratively with others and brainstorming. We have things like the Post-It app where you can still do a physical brainstorm with Post-It notes on the wall but everyone can do it from their own location and it comes in centrally.”

Simon adds that, with hybrid, it is likely there will be team meetings where some people are physically in the meeting and some are remote. “Employers need to have a set-up that enables everyone to be on an even footing so that those dialling in don’t feel remote and disadvantaged. One way around this is that everyone dials in on their own monitor so they physically sit round a table with others.”

WELLBEING IS VITAL

Simon Howorth, marketing and design manager at Dams, agrees that there is no going back to the pre-pandemic workplace. “Businesses and individuals have no choice but to discover new ways of working,” he says.

“The wellbeing of employees in the workplace is becoming more vital, and office furniture can play a huge part in helping to keep people happy and healthy when they’re working. There is no single type of optimal work setting to suit everyone; iInstead, it’s about balance. Companies that don’t provide workers with the types of spaces they need to manage the demands and intensity of work will find that this can have a negative impact on employee wellbeing.

“Employees will need spaces designed for collaborative meetings, areas for agile working and opportunities to relax, as well as places to escape to focus on individual tasks. Businesses can design physical workplaces to support this. Different office configurations could be employed depending on whether a group is brainstorming, hosting a training session or conducting a daily meeting. Businesses need to adapt and re-imagine work environments and create a flexible design to cater to the new needs of the workforce.”

Simon adds that, in the long-term, multi-functional spaces will be the reason why people enjoy coming into the office. “These will be the spaces where people can work according to their own needs and preferences and interact with the people around them to feel part of a community. Designed well, these agile social spaces can help to make the office somewhere people want to be.”

Businesses such as Dams can work with dealers to help retro-fit existing products, re-design workspaces, and reimagine the new normal, he says.

With hybrid, it is likely there will be team meetings where some people are physically in the meeting and some are remote

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