RE-IMAGINING THE HYBRID WORK SPACE

Last week, I published an article about hybrid work and the three pain points I hear most about from HR leaders. I offered a few human-centric thought starters.

Since then, I have received more questions and comments. I am addressing each of them in a separate LinkedIn post.

Today's Question: "What should we consider when it comes to the physical workspace?"

The New York Times recently stated: “Offices have long been something of a tautology: Companies have needed offices because to be a company, you had to have an office. But more than a year of forced work-from-home for corporate America has upended that truism, leaving some CFOs running the numbers on potential savings in rent and some employees loath to return to life as it was.”

Here is the problem: We are back to looking at space from an either/or perspective. It is not a choice between home and office. It is about what is the most helpful to get the job done. We might gain inspiration from how professional writers alternate between spaces. As design thinkers we often consider various dimensions of space - physical space, visual space, time, reflection/thinking space, and co-creation/collaboration space.

Japanese information technology company Fujitsu got creative in re-imagining where their teams get work done:

“Shared offices, which make up most of Fujitsu’s ecosystem of spaces, are located all over Japan, often near or in urban or suburban train stations. They can be used as short stopovers when people are traveling to visit customers, or as alternatives to working at home. They are designed to function as quiet spaces that employees can easily get to, thus minimizing commuting time. The productivity aim here is focus. The shared offices are equipped with desks and internet connections, allowing employees to work independently and undisturbed or to attend online meetings or engage in online learning.” (Lynda Gratton: How to Do Hybrid Right)

As you consider your space choices, explore critical questions: What are ways we can enable more flexibility in how, where, and when employees work? How is space a strategic asset for us vs the default place we come to work? What is the purpose of our business, what do we need to accomplish, what is the role of space, what are cost implications? Which location is most conducive to drive the results we need? How might we provide flexible office space closer to where people live (a distributed campus)? How might we create workspaces that people want to come back to? How might we create equitable home workplace situations? According to Microsoft Work Trends, even after a year working from home, 42 percent of employees say they lack office essentials and one in 10 don’t have an adequate internet connection to do their job. Despite these challenges, only 46 percent of workers say their employer helps them with remote work expenses.

Ahead of the curve in 2018, Google assembled a cross-functional team and embarked on their journey to re-think the workplace, recognizing three key trends: work happens everywhere, not just in the office; what employees need from a workplace is changing constantly, and workplaces need to be more than desks, meeting rooms and amenities. 

?ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Nicole Dessain is the Founder and Chief Talent Experience Designer at talent.imperative inc, an employee experience design consultancy.

Nicole’s creative superpower is “connecting the dots” which she applies to her passion of bringing design thinking to the world of Human Resources through the HR.Hackathon Alliance.