Pandora's Office

In the end, there was hope.?We’ve been thinking lately about the myriad challenges occupiers now face in defining workplace.?For many leaders, addressing this topic is akin to opening Pandora’s Box.?Indeed, there’s a lot at stake and more ways to get it wrong than right.?

The pandemic shone a bright light on 2 facts:?1) technology enables most information workers to work from anywhere and 2) employees have long been yearning for more flexibility in where and when they work.?The upshot??Formulating a modern, post-pandemic workplace strategy calls for a different kind of thinking, compelling us to answer new questions.?By “workplace” we mean the broad spectrum of options from a fully remote, tech enabled approach to a hybrid model, and extending to the traditional in-office set-up.?Whether considered, or not, the outcome of such a workplace has far-reaching implications on a variety of organizational goals, each bearing a different weight in its importance to the company. And some of these goals inherently conflict with each other, making the quest for the optimal solution a complex undertaking.

Never have the decisions about workplace been so challenging.?Workplace has always had a broad impact, but there was generally an accepted range of approaches within each sector, providing decision makers with the comfort of conformity (e.g., we’re doing it just as everyone else is).?Employees in the financial sector, for example, became accustomed to a specific type of workplace.?Today, there is vast difference, even within sectors, as companies adopt their own unique approaches.?Understandably, the responsibility for crafting a workplace solution has become a bit of a corporate “hot potato”.?Who wants to be responsible for making decisions that will have material impact on productivity, recruiting/retention, company culture, employee well-being, brand perception and overall competitiveness??Don’t all raise your hands at once!?The best outcomes necessarily demand input from an executive trifecta: People, Finance and Workplace/Facilities.

Hope. It’s crucial to remember that these challenges also offer opportunities. Opportunities to reassess traditional work models and carve a future that underscores employee well-being, flexibility, and adaptability. The path forward requires calculated risk. Armed with the right mindset and expertise, by asking the right questions, the post-pandemic workplace portends a better future– be it in a space revived with biophilic design, in the flexibility to work remotely, or in a blend of more than one such option.?We’ve moved past the pre-pandemic office.?Organizations must embrace the new realities of workplace, engaging the entire company in a thoughtful dialogue about the future. They must possess the right language and they must ask the right questions.?Stay tuned (and hopeful) over the coming weeks as we delve into a multi-part series on this topic, dissecting the challenges of defining workplace in the modern context, while providing useful insights and strategies to help you navigate the evolving landscape of work.