海角视频

The pandemic shifted the way many of us work. The temporary enforced working from home of the 2020 lockdowns, quickly gave rise to a realisation that hybrid working offered an impactful way for office-based teams to dramatically lower their carbon footprints by cutting down on commuting, while also improving their individual work-life balance.

Post-pandemic, office design is evolving rapidly, partly to reflect lowered occupancy, but also to offer incentives for employees to make their journey into the office 鈥� even if it鈥檚 only for one allocated day each week. Increasingly, 海角视频鈥檚 teams of multidisciplinary experts are being engaged to support clients in reimagining their working environments for this new era.

海角视频 partner and European regional director Rod Manson has worked with some of the biggest tech companies across Europe as they have re-evaluated their spaces.  鈥淭here was certainly a major rethink of workspaces by a lot of our clients during the pandemic,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut post-pandemic there have also been cut-backs in the tech industry. Many companies are reducing headcount globally. Many other localised clients are just getting around to looking [at the evolution of the office]. As lease agreements are up for renewal, they鈥檙e gradually beginning to assess what the impact is for the new ways of working.鈥�

People are still trying to find the right balance between office and home working. But we鈥檒l never go back to the way it was.

Rod Manson, 海角视频, partner and European regional director

New normal

Rod doesn鈥檛 believe most Europeans will ever go back to a 鈥渇ive-days-a-week in the office鈥� way of working, and companies of all sectors are adjusting to that catch-phrase of 2020 鈥� the 鈥渘ew normal鈥� and are rationalising their required floorspace accordingly.

鈥淧eople are still trying to find the right balance between office and home working. But we鈥檒l never go back to the way it was.鈥� he says. 鈥淥f all the clients we work with, none of them work in the office five days a week. They鈥檙e looking at desk sharing, having a lot more break-out spaces in offices, and more social sustainability in terms of the way they operate their business from a space-planning point of view. There鈥檚 a lot going on.鈥�

Many companies are investing in their offices to encourage staff to spend time within their teams each week. 鈥淎 workspace needs to be more attractive than a home office,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut the market is driving a whole range of issues as well, in terms of digitalisation; the ability to have much smarter controls for how you operate facilities; the whole issue of health and wellbeing of staff. Quite often now, for the future planning of workspaces, companies have staff forum groups. Staff are putting pressure on employers to make sure what they are doing is sustainable.鈥� Consequently, there is a lot of emphasis on upgrades to current commercial spaces, rather than new builds.

Rethinking the office

Jan Lichocki leads 海角视频鈥檚 Workspace Technik group in Europe 鈥� working in collaboration with architects that specialise in the workspace area to develop and engineer office designs and fit-outs that better suit the needs of clients in the modern age. He says there is a new urgency from clients as they attempt to reshape themselves to these new ways of working.

鈥淚t is quite often that we get the request for proposal from the client on a Monday, and by the following Monday we are starting the project,鈥� Jan says. 鈥淭hese projects are really fast-paced. After three months it goes to construction, after six months it鈥檚 all completed.

鈥淭here are no standard offices any more on our projects,鈥� he adds. 鈥淥ffices are being reshaped to attract people back. There are always other spaces 鈥� break-out spaces, leisure spaces, mothers鈥� rooms, even pets鈥� room. So many people bought dogs during the lockdowns, it became a barrier to getting people back in the office.鈥�

Rod Manson explains that while organisations manage these sorts of issues differently, there have been significant shifts and trends becoming apparent in workspace planning.

鈥淚f you look at many of our current projects, only 50% of the office footprint is dedicated to actual desk space,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he rest is break-out rooms, leisure rooms, fitness areas, sports facilities, canteens and so on. It鈥檚 been a major move from a call centre-type environment, with 90% of the footprint stuffed with workspaces, to something which is much more verging on the cultural or the leisure sector.鈥�