Going to work is the new working from home
Richard Beastall, principal director at TP Bennett, says various factors are making going to work the new working from home, with office design now a welcome topic in the boardroom...
Words by Richard Beastall,
Principal Director at TP Bennett
The role of the workspace has changed over the past couple of decades, falling in and out of favour with employees; buildings became 'brand' status symbols for some, while for others home-working had far more appeal.
These transformations have been inspired in part by generational changes, improvements in employment rights and conditions, and the impact of technological development.
Flexibility made possible by more powerful and more portable computing gave rise to the concept of hot-desking while high-speed internet, affordable technology and the formation of cloud computing made homeworking practical and attractive to executives and their employees.
For Markit, the provider of financial information services, in the City of London. Photo:Markit
But today's office is experiencing a rebirth, undergoing its greatest transformation to date. Increasingly, commercial clients ask me how they can meet the new demands of a workforce who want a 'place from home' to work, a space that is comfortable yet inspirational and flexible, that can accommodate the plethora of personal working practices and offer space that is collaborative yet provides the tranquility needed for thinking time.
As technology and a more communicative generation distort the barriers between work and play, some commercial offices are at a loss as to how to create a workplace to keep up with the fluctuating global trends and a more independent yet collaborative workforce.
It is important to remember that people are social creatures and crave interaction. We learn from working with others; stimulating environments inspire ideas and, irrespective of how advanced cloud-hosted collaboration tools are, we know that face-to-face interaction is the truest form of communication. In addition, employee well-being is now recognised as not only vital to attract and retain talent, but also as an enormously influential factor in profitability.
Office design is now welcome in the boardroom as part of a company's commercial strategy.
For Guardian News and Media, King's Cross, London. Photo: The Guardian News and Media
With strategically designed environments embodying ethos and brand we're seeing companies undertaking large-scale redesigns to attract the best talent. Employers are asking for social spaces and amenities to strengthen working relationships and boost morale, specifying soft furnishings and textures that create a high-end leisure feel. All these factors are coming together to make going to work the new working from home.
Yet even as business spends millions on refurbishments, many are still not getting it quite right. Knee-jerk action to reduce desks, introduce hot-desking and carve out collaboration spaces is regarded as a successful implementation of current trends while reducing costs. But with little thought these spaces often aren't well planned and the result is noisy, disruptive and distracting areas that damage productivity and morale. The collaborative office is becoming the office that people need to escape from to do 'real' work.
Today's work-time has been split into two parts - desk and collaborative - and I believe this is where people are making mistakes. I don't believe desks should be totally removed, but I do believe they should be reduced and the space generated developed into areas for specific activities. The work environment is far more than these two simplistic elements and 'the desk' is not the place where people should be doing quiet work and really concentrated thinking.
There are too many phone calls, too many interruptions. Why else do you think most people would rather draft an article at home than at work?
Instead, we should be talking about activity-based workspaces. A business needs a variety of differing spaces for team catch-ups, large meetings, client meetings, day-to-day e-mailing and phoning, video and teleconferencing, training, quiet contemplation and concentration... And, if space is at a premium, then creativity needs to be combined with the ability to maximise space value to deliver imaginative, flexible areas that successfully adapt to specific needs and work effectively. It's no use having video conferencing where it can distract visually and intrudes aurally. Focus too much on creating a 'buzzy' atmosphere and, while the office extroverts may be in their element, the introverts end up inhibited and interrupted. It's no use putting the social breakout space next door to the quiet zone.
For multinational professional services network PwC, One Embankment Place, Charing Cross, London. Photo: PWC One Embankment Place
I've seen numerous offices with row after row of desks and then a clutch of alternative furniture dropped in haphazardly as a so-called collaboration space. They're often empty or underused, and, when in use, disturbing the people around them. Effective, successful workspaces require intricate planning. Engaging, stimulating and practical collaboration spaces are vital, but just as vital are thoughtfully conceived quiet spaces with no phones. A traditional, quiet library-feel offers a place to escape to and is reminiscent of study. It's about creating the right state of mind as well as a practical space.
A workspace is simply a hierarchy of spaces, and the obsession with the desk and furniture needs to be relegated as they are tools of enablement rather than the building blocks of the office. A hierarchy of spaces starts with circulation and natural desire lines - the routes from entrances to lifts and stairs to WCs and kitchenettes.
Circulation routes, both horizontally and vertically, should define the location of social spaces, collaboration zones and generally noisier areas. These are places where chance meetings lubricate the grey matter as well as the social and corporate cogs, where barriers are broken down and interaction has freer rein. Moving away from these interactive zones, you can define and design semi-quiet day-to-day space and super-quiet concentration areas.
In this way, and only with the full buy-in of management effecting a cultural change, will you create the diversity of workspace and community of workplace needed to attract, retain, motivate and support workers of all ages and personalities of all types and deliver a truly well-balanced office environment.
