In the two and a half years since Boris Johnson called the first national lockdown to stop the spread of Covid-19, people’s attitudes towards the office have changed dramatically, and employers are having to play catch-up with their workspaces to maintain staff satisfaction.
The traditional one-person-one-desk mindset is all many businesses know, but designing by desks is no longer fit for purpose – people’s attitudes, behaviours and working styles should be prioritised over object metrics.
The growing, cross-industry consensus is that a hybrid approach of working two or three days in the office - with the rest of the week working remotely - has become the norm. Our research has shown that office occupation builds to a peak in midweek, before tailing off by Friday.
This trend is consistent with industry data, with a survey of more than 50,000 office workers undertaken by Consultancy Advanced Workplace Associates showing a peak of 39% attendance mid-week, with a low of just 13% on a Friday.
In practice, this means workplaces are having to cope with large fluctuations in occupancy and the need to tailor their spaces accordingly.
This also includes considering the type of tasks that will be undertaken in an office environment. While home working is more conducive to individual, focused tasks that require a quieter or more controlled environment, the office setting is better suited to those acoustic-agnostic tasks such as team-working, learning and mentoring – essentially, anything that thrives on face-to-face communication.
As a result, engagement with those using the workplace is critical in understanding what requirements it needs to fulfil, and that is a balance of culture – both what you have now, and what you are looking to create – and the constraints of the property you are working with.
Whether the occupier is a council looking for big, multi-functional spaces or an SME searching for the right balance between individual areas, amenities and collaborative working, the unifying factor is that people are looking for facilities that entice them into the office and provide them with something they lack when working from home.
As employers look to make sure their spaces are fit for a post-pandemic workforce, it is critical that they move away from the one-person-one-desk mindset and allow workplaces to be destinations that support staff wellbeing, allow for flexibility, and work in the best way possible. Offices and workspaces can be inspiring environments tailored to our specific needs, allowing users to come together and collaborate.
The key to doing this is the workplace equation – making offices work harder and smarter for us, be more inviting and accessible to all and, ultimately, be places we want to spend time in.
Michael Simpson is associate director and workplace consultant at GT3 Architects
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