Workplace settings and the office of the future

– Quiet zones

– Collaboration spaces

– Desk space

– Refreshment areas

– Wellbeing spaces

– The great outdoors

– Storage space

– Anchor points

– Empty space

Working from home has exposed people to either the benefit of having privacy and a quiet space to work, or the exact opposite – the need to get to an office to be able to concentrate.

When asked in our OnePulse poll what they missed most about the office, 63 percent of respondents said a quiet space to concentrate. But many existing quiet working spaces in offices may not be fit for purpose or designed with wellbeing in mind. They’re often small, individual pods in corridors where there is little natural light and they sometimes lack good ergonomics. People are forced to sacrifice a comfortable environment with the fundamental desktop technology they need along with any personal interaction to get the peace and quiet they desire. That will change.

More companies now recognise the need to have space dedicated to concentrated work. This is particularly important as work is changing to more digital interaction through virtual meetings which require single-occupancy acoustic pods. Organisations will therefore create pockets of quiet zones, similar to library-style areas. How they look and feel will depend on the organisation’s individual culture. It could be a whole open plan area thoughtfully located which is equipped with good technology and comfortable furniture but that is dedicated for quiet working – similar to the quiet carriage on a train. Or it could be enclosed standing phone pods, acoustic pods or library-style desks in open booths. More likely, workplaces will include a combination of many options in quiet zones on each floor.

Flexible collaboration space is the future of informal workplace collaboration. In the post-Covid world, there’s no one-size-fits-all. People collaborate differently depending on their job role and their learning and management styles.

In tomorrow’s collaboration spaces, people will be empowered to create their own bespoke collaboration spaces by using flexible, easily-configurable furniture. More than half (54 percent) of the people we spoke to in our OnePulse poll wanted to see more furniture that can be easily moved or configured in the post-Covid workplace to allow them to create their own space. Furniture manufacturers are already coming to market with exciting new products to facilitate this flexi-collaboration. This empowerment also enables businesses to better futureproof in an uncertain post-Covid world. They can use these flex spaces to upsize or downsize quickly.

54% of the people we spoke to in our OnePulse poll wanted to see more furniture that can be easily moved or configured in the post-Covid workplace.

Formal meeting rooms will remain a key part of the workplace arsenal but their location and layout may change. A meeting room without integrated video technology will be considered of little use in today’s Zoom culture – 41 percent of people in our survey wanted to see more widely-available video conferencing to communicate with people working elsewhere to reduce the need to travel.

In the past, this video conference technology may have been prioritised and reserved for large formal boardrooms, but it is now a necessity in any formal meeting room set up. Board rooms specifically, were often positioned towards the outside of the floorplate with large glass windows offering spectacular views. But windows and video conferencing facilities don’t always play well together, so we could see meeting facilities shifting to the inside of the floorplate where the lighting can be better controlled and technology used to replicate circadian rhythms through the effect of natural daylight in the space.

In this way, organisations will be able to better influence how they’re perceived on the other end of the video call and be more in control of the setting.

Everyone loves sharing food together. Whether it’s a simple tea point, an informal café, a staff restaurant or a company bar, the ability to bring people together to share food and drink will be crucial post-Covid. Everyone has missed the chance to socialise with their colleagues and social capital will need to be replenished – 90 percent of people questioned in our survey had missed the social contact of the office while 46 percent cited the facilities such as the kitchen space and café areas as being something they had missed while working from home.

People need to feel part of the greater whole again and that can be achieved through well-designed refreshment spaces. When people get together to eat, they automatically relax and it can therefore be a place where they think up great ideas or solutions to problems and collaborate informally on work issues. The aesthetic in refreshment areas needs to complement this approach, providing a break and step away from the working environment by a shift in its décor with a more relaxed hospitality style vibe.

Kitchen space and café areas (46%) was missed by office workers working from home.

Anchor points are feature areas on each floor which encourage people to move around the building and therefore mix with one another. They could be an auditorium on one floor, a huge sofa area with a big AV screen on the wall on another or a staff restaurant on another floor.

They prompt people to move through the building and therefore bump into one another, integrating the community and reinforcing that sense of social capital which has been missing for the past year. These areas will become even more of a focal point in the post-pandemic world.