Old-fashioned office life isn’t working. Here are 3 fixes

The 9-to-5 we are all used to is extinct. Now is the time to resurrect it in a way that dovetails with your daily life — complete with butler-bots and random online encounters.

It may not feel like it, but we’re on the cusp of a momentous era — if we do things right. Having spent the past 18 months with the great experiment of remote work forced upon them; businesses now face a choice. How can they build office life back, better than before? The old ways won’t cut it: one survey found that 42 per cent of people would rather quit their job than be forced to head back into the office full-time. Elsewhere, 65 per cent of Americans polled would take a pay cut if it meant they could work remotely.

So what should come next?

I don’t have all the answers, but I do find the question fascinating — and with each question we think we’ve ‘solved’, other surprises may arise. What I’m willing to bet on is that people will soon look back at early 21st century offices and find them the equivalent of an old-fashioned suitcase without wheels — quaint, clunky and impractical, yet still some people’s preference.

Either way, the issue of creating better experiences for your workforce is critical in what some are calling the era of ‘the Great Resignation’. Despite uncertain times, people around the world are quitting their jobs in droves if the conditions don’t work for them. A recent Microsoft survey of 30,000 people in 31 countries was stark: over four in ten people say they are considering leaving their employer in 2021.

So how should we think about designing office 2.0? Every business will approach it differently, but for me it boils down to three key areas, all of which interrelate (picture a Venn diagram of design, sociology and technology, if you will). Get them right, and you’re cooking with gas.

1.????Design spaces fit for purpose

Start with what your company wants to achieve with its premises and build from there. Your average cubicle jungle or hot-desking haven was an accountant’s dream, built primarily to be cost-efficient. If you really want to change things, clean the slate and ask yourself: how do I forge a space that fits my company’s daily activities? Creative types will want group spaces to brainstorm. Coders may want to ‘nest’ somewhere quiet. Different kinds of knowledge work, from the collaborative to the high-tech, need their own zones, so be sure to cater for your whole spectrum of employees.

And don’t forget your clients. It’s all too easy to slip into an entirely virtual relationship with customers and partners. Scheduling regular facetime should still be top of mind — maybe with hologram meetings once a month? The tech is there: live concerts that recreate long-dead rock stars have been around for a few years, after all. Now as a result of the pandemic, more than a few hologram startups will let you beam yourself through laptops and smartphones. It might be a fad, or it might become the norm; time will tell.

What I am pretty sure of is that if you insist that people return to the office (a car crash of an idea — more on that later), you may need to triple the space. Hence why distributed work, where at most a quarter of your team comes in every day, is so attractive. The office becomes more of a hive for specific occasions, an exciting space custom-built for bursts of collaboration. It’s a chance to evolve people’s habits and embrace new ways of working.

That’s why at the Bank, whether a role can be carried out flexibly, (based on the role, responsibility and geography), can be part of the hiring conversation. The same applies for existing roles, where we’re giving people the chance to find a work/life balance that offers an optimum experience. Bottom line, our goal is to provide a hybrid environment as a truly attractive value proposition. You can now get the best of both worlds — home and in the office.

The cost of ignoring this issue:

- Your office turns into a white elephant — a costly, empty beast you never use, and one unlikely to tempt new hires — especially younger ones — to walk through the door.

2.????Get people (and strangers) talking

Okay, you’ve rejigged your physical environment. Now’s the truly crucial part — how are you upgrading your online ‘spaces’?

At Standard Chartered, we’re experimenting with ways to replicate the ‘water cooler’ environment online. Like virtual sessions that are purely social — no shop talk allowed. Or online chats that match two random employees to share their stories and advice. The twist is you go in not knowing the other person’s identity: it could be a CFO or a branch teller. The fun lies in the surprise of the encounter; the chance to gossip or network — just like running into someone at the lifts.

For many companies, their well-intentioned social innovations may wither away if they are carried out as a box-ticking exercise. The key is to not be afraid of a few failures. Keep playing around with formats that work. And more importantly, those that don’t feel like hard work for your teams.

This is a digital environment that will require constant evolution if companies are to keep up with changing tastes of new joiners. As such, the process should become more open (as was the case with our Watercooler Challenge — not “Here’s what we’re doing”, but “What can we do next? Let us know!”). If you’re not finding the fun, then your workforce will find a funky fintech that does. It might help to approach these exercises with less of a business lens. Adopt the point of view of an experience designer or showrunner — someone who wants to delight their audience.

The cost of ignoring this issue:

- Culture starts to fade away — imperceptibly, but with a noted effect on morale and a sense of direction.

3.????Make meetings more inclusive with tech

Okay, you’ve got the ball rolling to get more people talking. How about ensuring everyone’s voice gets heard?

The tech geek in me loves when tech does things we didn’t even realise we wanted. Case in point: if you run a global broadcast on some software, the speaker’s words can automatically be transcribed in something like 70 languages. In real time.?

That same machine learning capability can be enhanced to helpfully guide proceedings. I can see a future where, if I'm running a meeting, a butler-esque bot coaches me to say, “David, this is a topic that Amir has experience in; seek his opinion. Or “You haven't heard from Mary for a while. Why don't you throw her a question? These bots could ensure more voices are heard and things run smoother — think Hal from 2001: a Space Odyssey but, you know, nicer.

My hope is that increasingly technology will make us better leaders, acting as software for our soft skills. They already act as buddies that look out for us, after all. There are tools that will notify you to say, “You’ve got too many meetings scheduled for today, take a break.” Or, thanks to the creation of digital speaker profiles, differently abled people can be supported in meetings, with software telling participants, “So-and-so has sight issues, please be mindful of this.” Inclusive thinking like this doesn’t just make us more productive. As our Group Head of HR has wisely put it, it’s about using technology in a way “that can make people’s experience more, not less, human .”

The cost of ignoring this issue:

- Your brand will slowly become less relevant, in an era when everyone is realising that diversity and inclusivity is a superpower.

Final thoughts: is working apart bringing us closer?

It’s funny how working solo encourages us to think about others. At the Bank, when we all worked in the same building, we would still interact with colleagues thousands of miles away. But naturally enough, it felt like these long-distance co-workers were one step removed. Now we’re less blinkered about what’s going on in Dubai or Shanghai or London because we’re all in the same digital melting pot. Now that everyone is distant, everyone feels closer.

Let’s hope we can keep some of that spark in whatever lies next for office life. My hunch is that if we keep daring to fail, reinvent and improve those areas of design, sociology and technology, we’re moving in the right direction.

I’ll end there – my bot is telling me I should take a coffee break.

So, the office of the future: I’d love to hear your thoughts. What do you want to become the new norms of flexible working? Do you miss anything about office life? What will you nickname your butler-bot??