For most of us, making the trip into work every morning was our ‘normal’ way of life, and before the COVID-19 pandemic occurred, we could never have envisaged any other way. COVID changed everything, and many of us became used to working from home during the two lockdown periods. These conditions provided businesses with a huge challenge, as to how to enter a ‘new normal’.
These challenges have thrown up a need for organisations to think about increasing employee benefits and flexible working options to attract talent, competing more readily for talent on a global scale, and reducing focus on degrees, skills, and experience, in favour of talent and purpose.
Similarly, in terms of workplace design, DB Interiors predict that the future will hold more diverse and flexible workspaces, such as quiet zones for deep work, or meeting areas for collaborative teamwork. For employers, this means considering the needs of their employees for workspaces that accommodate different types of work and working styles.
There is little doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic is also changing the way we use our workspaces right now. Working flexibly and remotely has suddenly been normalised and the stigma attached to it has disappeared. This period has been enlightening, giving us a fresh perspective on the way we work; the ability to work with autonomy and flexibility.
Work should not be a rigid time schedule, but rather about the goals you achieve and tasks you master. With 25 to 30% of employees looking forward to continuing to work from home a few days a week in the future and some wanting to do so full-time, it is something that should be considered.
DB Interiors believe that workplaces will always play a crucial role in maintaining cultural place making and binding teams together. This means that organisations will look at their facilities in a different light and not calculate their required office space based on a rough 10sqm/FTE (full-time employee) which has become the norm. The thought that organisations may now appreciate wider thoroughfares and distancing workstations more spaciously is simply a more exciting and human alternative to the dense population approach of 2019.
By providing an activated, engaged hub which caters for various activities, a new workspace could provide a variety of accommodation for staff counts way beyond the traditional 1/10sqm calculations, whilst decreasing the density of bodies in space at any particular moment in time, and DB Interiors anticipate that will need to be assessed for all organisations, based on their unique needs.
DB Interiors deliver the best space solutions for you, so for more information on interior design companies, workplace design and interior design NZ please go to http://dbinteriors.co.nz .
