When we discuss office design, the most common topics include engagement, productivity, and collaboration. More and more workplaces are gravitating towards flexible and creative designs. The rising popularity of smart workplaces has brought the importance and benefits of engaging and culture and empowerment of employees.

But, one question remains. Is your office designed for inclusivity? Does the office work for everyone and take account of the differing needs of your workforce and create a space that’s accessible for everyone?

Inclusion in the workforce is a hot topic right now that goes beyond hiring a diverse team. Diversity and inclusion are often more closely associated with HR practices and company policies. But now, there is a growing awareness of the impact office design can have on fostering an inclusive workplace.

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What is inclusive office design?

An inclusive workspace should provide equal access and opportunities regardless of variables such as age, gender, race, physical ability, and mental health. The one that values individual differences in the workforce, and makes them feel welcome and accepted.

The concept is known as “universal design”. It was originally coined by Ronald L. Mace, an architect, product designer, and educator, and further developed into seven principles of universal design formulated in 1997 by an N.C. State committee, led by Mace.

• Equitable use
• Flexibility in use
• Simple and intuitive use
• Perceptible information
• Tolerance for error
• Low physical effort
• Size and space for approach and use

Since then, the idea has evolved. Designing an inclusive environment is not about focusing on physical differences alone; rather there has to be an equal emphasis on different styles of working as well as on mental health.

It also should be noted that it is impossible to design something that is a perfect fit for the entire population, but inclusive design researches the target market and provides an appropriate response to address the diversity in this target population.

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Features of inclusive office design

In this blog, we will discuss ideas and steps to help you in creating an engaging and inclusive office design that’s tailored to suit employees’ personalities and needs.

Open plan
Open-plan offices help to boost collaboration, build relationships and save on costs. A lack of doors and more open spaces mean that moving through the office is far easier for wheelchair users and those with limited mobility. There should be enough space around desks and in meeting rooms so wheelchair users have enough space to move freely.

Closed fist rule
Storage units and other equipment with U-shaped handles, push latches, side-hinged doors, and other elements that can be operated with a closed fist. Provide lever handles instead of doorknobs, or install doors that can be opened with an elbow that make entering and exiting easy for people.

Versatile and flexible layout
Open-plan offices may not work for everyone, therefore it’s important to cater to individual needs, and provide a flexible layout with different types of workstations to meet employees’ unique working styles… A layout that encompasses private rooms and collaborative areas alongside breakout spaces. Think large walkways and ramp access to ensure that everyone can move around the office freely whenever they may need to.

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Person-centric
People should be the heart of any inclusive design plan. Let the employees have their say in the design. Whether it is the renovation of the entire office or a specific space inside the office, talk to the employees to understand what works best for them.

To get the best from your team, create a safe and open environment where everyone feels comfortable to have their say. As unique individuals, we all have styles and needs that inclusive design should ideally support.

Create communal areas
Offices are not just places of work but also, for interaction, engagement, and bonding. This is definitely a good reason to incorporate a welcoming communal area where employees can relax and be with each other. These spaces create good social morale between workers – leaving them feeling valued and included in the office environment.

Ergonomic agile workspaces
The aim is to create workspaces that are easily adaptable. Height adjustable desks are a great option, as they can be easily changed to accommodate all needs. Ergonomic chairs will be comfortable for everybody and will make moving in and out easier. Invest in nearby storage for all employees, and ergonomic keyboard and computer support.

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A few more tips and ideas for an Inclusive Office Design

• Include plenty of natural light and biophilic elements to reduce stress levels
• Implement acoustic solutions where noise distraction could be an issue
• Consider implementing gender-neutral toilets
• Include ramps instead of — or in addition to — stairs.
• Smart technologies and apps that can help staff adjust lighting and heating as per their own personal preferences
• Textural and different colored walls and surfaces for the visually impaired

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Truth About Open Offices and the Drawbacks

It’s never been easier for workers to collaborate—or so it seems. Open, flexible, activity-based spaces are displacing cubicles, making people more visible. Messaging is displacing phone calls, making people more accessible. Enterprise social media such as Slack and Microsoft Teams are displacing watercooler conversations, making people more connected. Virtual-meeting software such as Zoom, GoToMeeting, and Webex is displacing in-person meetings, making people ever-present. The architecture of collaboration has not changed so quickly since technological advances in lighting and ventilation made tall office buildings feasible, and one could argue that it has never before been so efficient. Designing workplaces for interaction between two or more individuals—or collaboration, from the Latin collaborare, meaning to work together—has never seemed so easy.

But as the physical and technological structures for omnichannel collaboration have spread, evidence suggests they are producing behaviors at odds with designers’ expectations and business managers’ desires. In a number of workplaces we have observed for research projects or consulting assignments, those structures have produced less interaction—or less meaningful interaction—not more.

In this article, we discuss those unintended consequences and provide guidance on conducting experiments to uncover how your employees really interact. That will help you equip them with the spaces and technologies that best support their needs.

The Architecture and the Anatomy of Collaboration
Workers are surrounded by a physical architecture: individual offices, cubicles, or open seating; a single floor, multiple floors, or multiple buildings; a dedicated space for the organization, a space shared with other companies, or a home office. That physical architecture is paired with a digital architecture: email, enterprise social media, mobile messaging, and so forth.

But although knowledge workers are influenced by this architecture, they decide, individually and collectively, when to interact. Even in open spaces with colleagues in close proximity, people who want to eschew interactions have an amazing capacity to do so. They avoid eye contact, discover an immediate need to use the bathroom or take a walk, or become so engrossed in their tasks that they are selectively deaf (perhaps with the help of headphones). Ironically, the proliferation of ways to interact makes it easier not to respond: For example, workers can simply ignore a digital message.

When employees do want to interact, they choose the channel: face-to-face, video conference, phone, social media, email, messaging, and so on. Someone initiating an exchange decides how long it should last and whether it should be synchronous (a meeting or a huddle) or asynchronous (a message or a post). The recipient of, say, an email, a Slack message, or a text decides whether to respond immediately, down the road, or never. These individual behaviors together make up an anatomy of collaboration similar to an anthill or a beehive. It is generated organically as people work and is shaped by the beliefs, assumptions, values, and ways of thinking that define the organization’s culture.

Architecture is easy to observe—you just look at blueprints, models, technology, or the space around you. Until recently the anatomy of collaboration was hard to observe. But technology has made it possible to detect and analyze the flows of communication.

Sensors are all the rage. Sensors in chairs measure how long workers are at their desks. Sensors in the floor measure when and how they move. Sensors in RFID badges and smartphones track where they go. Sensors (in the form of video cameras) track whom they are with. Panasonic has added WiFi sensors to lighting systems, which can monitor face-to-face interactions across entire buildings and workplaces.

When the firms switched to open offices, face-to-face interactions fell by 70%.

Another way to detect interactions is by collecting the digital “breadcrumbs” people leave when they book a meeting, send an email, open a browser window, post on Slack or Teams, or make a call, thanks to systems designed to save communication metadata. Increasingly, employers can use advanced analytics tools to study that data to understand employees’ collective behaviors. Algorithms that assess workers’ movements and interactions can learn to distinguish collaboration from mere copresence. Ones that analyze workers’ past behaviors can learn to predict their next moves, individually and collectively, and estimate the probability of a valuable collision between people.

These advances have allowed us to confirm something many people have suspected: Collaboration’s architecture and anatomy are not lining up. Using advanced wearables and capturing data on all electronic interactions, we—along with Stephen Turban, one of Ethan’s former students, who is currently at Fulbright University Vietnam—tracked face-to-face and digital interactions at the headquarters of two Fortune 500 firms before and after the companies transitioned from cubicles to open offices. We chose the most representative workplaces we could find; we waited until people had settled into their new spaces to track their postmove interactions; and, for accuracy, we varied the length of time over which we tracked them. With the first company, we collected data for three weeks before the redesign, starting one month prior, and for three weeks roughly two months after it. With the second, we collected data for eight weeks before the redesign, starting three months prior, and for eight weeks roughly two months after it. We aligned our data-collection periods with seasonal business cycles for apples-to-apples comparisons—for example, we collected data during the same weeks of the quarter. We found that face-to-face interactions dropped by roughly 70% after the firms transitioned to open offices, while electronic interactions increased to compensate.

Why did that happen? The work of the 18th-century French philosopher Denis Diderot suggests an answer. He wrote that performers should “imagine a huge wall across the front of the stage, separating you from the audience, and behave exactly as if the curtain had never risen.” He called this the fourth wall. It prevents actors from being distracted by the audience and allows them to divorce themselves from what they cannot control (the audience) and focus only on what they can (the scene), much as a basketball player shoots the ball without really seeing the cheering (or booing) fans behind the hoop. It creates the intimacy of what some call public solitude. The larger the audience, the more important the fourth wall.

People in open offices create the fourth wall, and their colleagues come to respect it. If someone is working intently, people don’t interrupt her. If someone starts a conversation and a colleague shoots him a look of annoyance, he won’t do it again. Especially in open spaces, fourth-wall norms spread quickly.

Proximity Matters
A separate finding of our and others’ research is that team members’ location has a big impact on both their physical and their digital interactions. In general, the farther apart people are, the less they communicate. Research that one of us (Ben) was involved in at the MIT Media Lab shows that the probability that any two people on a corporate campus will interact physically or digitally is directly proportional to the distance between their desks. More broadly, one of the most robust findings in sociology—proposed long before we had the technology to prove it through data—is that propinquity, or proximity, predicts social interaction.

Consider a study conducted at the headquarters of a major consumer products company by Humanyze, an organizational analytics software firm headed by one of us (Ben) that helps companies understand how their teams interact. It found that people on the same team were six times as likely to interact if they were on the same floor, and people on different teams were nine times as likely to interact if they were on the same floor. A study we conducted at the main campus of a Fortune 500 retailer with more than a dozen buildings showed that just 10% of all communications occurred between employees whose desks were more than 500 meters apart. These findings suggest that locating people in proximate buildings won’t improve collaboration; to increase interactions, workers should be in the same building, ideally on the same floor.

And remote work, while undeniably cost-effective, tends to significantly inhibit collaboration even over digital channels. While studying a major technology company from 2008 to 2012, we found that remote workers communicated nearly 80% less about their assignments than colocated team members did; in 17% of projects they didn’t communicate at all. The obvious implication: If team members need to interact to achieve project milestones on time, you don’t want them working remotely.

Nourish an Anatomy of Collaboration
Since publishing academic articles on the offices we’ve studied, we have been asked for more details about those spaces. Some people seem to believe that a better blueprint could solve the collaboration conundrum. Architects, property managers, and manufacturers of office systems reinforce that view by using data from employee surveys and prior space utilization to identify individual needs and building “flexible,” “agile,” “activity based” spaces to allow workers to craft their own spaces to suit them. But collaboration is a team sport. Offices that are overly focused on supporting individual preferences are unlikely to do an optimal job of supporting the overall team or the collection of teams that need to work together. So hybrid open-office designs are not a panacea. If you are going to let people choose the spaces that best meet their individual needs, your workers might as well be remote.

Leaders need to make the call about what collective behaviors should be encouraged or discouraged and how. Their means should include not just the design of workspace configurations and technologies but the design of tasks, roles, and culture as well.

If keeping real estate costs in check is the priority, leaders should be honest about that with themselves and their employees. Most office redesigns aren’t undertaken to promote collaboration. They start with objectives like the one described by the head of real estate at a Fortune 50 company: “The leadership team has just given me a mandate to restack our headquarters to fit another 1,000 employees in here.” Tremendous progress has been made designing offices that can accommodate more people in a given space. That’s not necessarily a bad thing: Companies often reinvest the resulting savings in important ways.

A Return to Tight Quarters
During much of the 1990s, organizations hired employees faster than they expanded their offices. With layoffs in the early 2000s recession, and again in 2008, surviving workers regained some space, largely because companies held long-term leases and were loath to invest in office reconfigurations. But as hiring rebounded, leases came due, and redesign budgets recovered, organizations again began fitting their people into smaller and smaller spaces.

If the aim really is to boost collaboration, you need to increase the right kinds of interactions and decrease ineffective ones. You’ll have to carefully choose your trade-offs. That means you need to understand current patterns of interaction and consider how you want to change them. Using sensors and digital data to track interactions at a large German bank, MIT researchers found that in cases where intrateam cohesion was more predictive of productivity and worker satisfaction than cross-team collisions were, increasing interactions between teams undermined performance. So they moved teams into separate rooms. And after using Humanyze technology to track interactions, a major energy company decided to increase communication between departments that had strong process dependencies and reduce communication between other departments by colocating some in a new building and moving others offsite.

If people need uninterrupted time to focus, distractions are costly. When that’s the case, creating more opportunities for collaboration can amplify the cost without providing a corresponding benefit.

Conduct Real Experiments
The best way to find the optimal workplace design for particular groups is to run rigorous experiments. That means collecting and analyzing data on interactions, developing a hypothesis about how to improve them, and testing your hypothesis against a control group. Mori Building, one of the largest property management companies in Japan, did this in early 2016 when it sought to create more-productive collaboration among the teams in its corporate headquarters. The office architecture was open, but by using wearable sensors (some of which were supplied by Humanyze) to track face-to-face interactions, Mori discovered that employees largely communicated only with those on their own team. People generally stayed in their team’s reserved seating area and rarely ventured into the open seating areas—which accounted for some 20% of the space.

So Mori’s building-environment-development division staged an experiment to see whether it could influence anatomy with architecture. It chose a corporate floor on which seating was arranged by team (interior design, real estate consulting, sales, and so on). Part of the space remained the same (the control group), and part was turned into “free address” space—open seating, with no desk assignments. When Mori measured face-to-face interactions in that configuration, the results were clear: Although interactions between teams increased, those within teams fell drastically, with people spending 1.26 times as much of their day working in isolation.

Mori was initially pleased with the results. The rise in cross-team interactions meant that people were going directly to others to resolve issues and get things done—bypassing managers, whom the data had revealed to be “communication bottlenecks.” And although this was an unintended consequence, the reason people spent more time on solo work was that meetings lasting 30 minutes or longer diminished (people just found one another when they needed to talk). But there was a dark side: It turned out that managers were not only communication bottlenecks but also gatekeepers of quality. In bypassing them, workers caused problems downstream; within six months, productivity had dropped and client complaints had risen. And although the reduction in meeting time seemed beneficial, in retrospect it seemed that those who gained more solo work time would have produced better work, more efficiently, if they had attended more meetings to receive guidance, while employees who had relied on meetings to ensure an orderly way of dealing with issues now felt burdened by people coming to them on a whim (until they began hiding out in the coffee shop downstairs). In the end, Mori went back to fixed seating by team and reduced the amount of open space.

By conducting similar experiments, a major software company discovered that 90% of face-to-face interactions took place at people’s desks. Just 3% occurred in common areas (the rest took place in meeting rooms). The company had been planning to move to free-address seating to increase interactions among teams, but it realized that would be highly disruptive to collaboration and abandoned the plan.

Such experiments require time and money, but many organizations find the costs trivial in view of the benefits generated by what they learn. Obviously, it pays to experiment with designs if a company is intending an overhaul to its space like the one GlaxoSmithKline (a Humanyze client) is planning at its corporate headquarters in London. Executives were considering a new office format and decided to build one small portion of it as a pilot, which they call their workplace performance hub. The firm invited academic partners in architecture and behavioral science to help design experiments in the space. It will soon have rotated two teams through the pilot space—one did so during the first nine months of 2019, and a second is being planned as we write this—tracking (relative to a control group) measurements that include steps, heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, lung function, posture, well-being, collaboration, and performance (using everything from wearable devices and Kinect sensors to surveys and traditional performance-management systems). GSK is drawing on this data to tweak all aspects of the space—lighting, temperature, aroma, air quality, acoustic masking, ergonomics, and design—to help its people do (and interact) more by making the space respond to employees’ needs, whether professional or physiological.

A major U.S. financial institution tested dozens of floor designs at various regional offices. It chose the one that created the collaboration and focused-work patterns that best matched its goals and rolled it out across the organization. The cost was not trivial; it amounted to millions of dollars. But the firm was far better off than if it had picked a design without running experiments and subsequently discovered that it had wasted hundreds of millions of dollars on an ineffective configuration.

Just as high-frequency A/B testing is common in marketing and sales, rapid experimentation is key to workplace design. Before it adopted that approach, a major energy company spent seven years and approximately $10 million in design and consulting fees to plan a new office building. Today it can roll out a new plan in six months for about $500,000—quantifying the behaviors it wants to encourage, building out one floor of an existing office as a test, and confirming or disproving its hypothesis that the design will prompt those behaviors. That sounds impressive, but keep in mind that you need to experiment long enough to understand all the dynamics in play. As Mori discovered, initial results can be misleading.

When conducting such experiments, you need to consider the privacy implications of collecting the necessary data. Email and especially sensor metadata is sensitive. In addition to questions about the legality of amassing such information, which depends on local laws and regulations, there are ethical concerns. Companies should be transparent about what data they are collecting and sensitive to employees’ feelings about who owns it—the employee, who provides the raw inputs through his or her interactions, or the organization, which gathers, organizes, processes, and stores those inputs. Companies that ignore or downplay those concerns risk alienating workers and incurring significant reputational damage (see “The Happy Tracked Employee” on HBR.org). Those that transparently demonstrate that their use of the data is limited and is intended to benefit workers may find room for open collaboration with employees to create even better workplace designs.

Less Can Be More
Optimizing collaboration doesn’t have to entail a radical overhaul of office space; tweaks can make a difference, and it pays to test their potential impact. Mori is now collecting data about what size the tables in its corporate headquarters should be. Its initial conclusion: Large tables, prescribed by many new office designs in place of individual desks, are about as good at fostering intimate conversations as expansive dining-room tables are—in other words, not good at all. A manufacturing company found that small changes to furniture can have a big impact. Its headquarters had two types of meeting spaces in the main work areas: ones that were totally open and ones with movable whiteboard barriers on two sides. Over 50% more interactions occurred in the whiteboard areas. Adding more whiteboards was a trivial expense.

Sometimes the best answer doesn’t involve changes to the physical structure. Experiments showed Mori that events deliberately designed to achieve particular interactions between specific individuals and teams had a more precise and valuable impact on interaction patterns than did changes to the office space. Those events can be internal workshops, hackathons, or even barbecues, as long as interactions are measured, using sensors, to show whether the desired patterns emerged. To help integrate new hires during their first week on the job, a midsize technology company puts jars of cookies on their desks and posts a map in the lobby showing the jars’ locations, to encourage people to stop by. Humanyze discovered that the location of its coffee machines significantly influences interactions. If a team needs to focus internally, the company puts a coffee machine in the center of its area. If two teams need to collaborate, it puts the machine between them.

These “software” approaches to architecture can do a lot at a very low price. All that’s needed is a little more collaboration among real estate professionals, HR, and the users of the space. Organizations that get this right typically have a single executive—say, the chief human resources officer or the chief administrative officer—overseeing both HR and real estate.

CONCLUSION
A single best physical or digital workspace architecture will never be found. That’s because more interaction is not necessarily better, nor is less. The goal should be to get the right people interacting with the right richness at the right times.

Many common assumptions about office architecture and collaboration are outdated or wrong. Although the open-office design is intended to encourage us to interact face-to-face, it gives us permission not to. The “accidental collisions” facilitated by open offices and free spaces can be counterproductive. In many instances, “copresence” via an open office or a digital channel does not result in productive collaboration.

Technological advances allow us to test assumptions and understand how groups of workers really interact. The hard data required to prove or disprove theories can be obtained and analyzed. For that to occur on a large scale, the HR, real estate, and finance functions need to embrace the experimentation that has infused marketing and operations. When that happens, physical and virtual workplace design can become a continuous process—one that gives the architecture and the anatomy of collaboration a happy place to meet.

A version of this article appeared in the November–December 2019 issue of Harvard Business Review.

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We may not agree with it completely, but appearances do matter. They say we should not judge a book by its cover. But, if your office is the first thing the clients or the prospective employees physically get to see and feel, the first impressions will surely matter. Even, the satisfaction of current employees depends on how comfortable the office is, which in turn affects your office’s productivity and culture.

Office furniture plays the biggest role in creating an attractive space and communicate the values you imbibe. Stylish office furniture might also be a reflection of your brand’s look and feel. Your office is part of the public image of your brand and company. That’s why it’s critical that your office furniture and decor represent your business, and your goals, well. In today’s time, the most productive offices typically balance the comforts of home with a professional business image.

To understand the impact of office furniture on your business, let’s look at everything your office furniture says about your business.

Conveying Brand Value

What first impressions will old and boring furniture will have on your brand? Not a good one for sure. It is important to have furniture which is attractive and modern, which ensures a better customer experience. It will speak volumes to the prospective customers about your background and your commitment to your work and can be a great tool for building trust.

Color Psychology

Bright colors indicate a place of collaboration and creativity. Green and calming blue – two of the most common colors in Nature’s palette — improve efficiency and focus. High wavelength colors like red show passion and intensity. Mellow yellow, often viewed by color psychologists as the shade of optimism, is energetic and fresh. You can also choose furniture in light, neutral colors, like white, beige, or sage. These colors create a warm, down-to-earth feeling, without being too bright or flashy.

The premium factor

Certain offices need to have premium furniture to have a posh look and feel. If you are a law firm or a consulting company catering to high-profile clients, you may need to create exclusive spaces for your clients. You can choose furniture that exudes class and offer a luxurious ambiance.

Makes you feel welcome

Comfortable armchairs and couches will make those who enter your office feel like you want them there. Creating seating areas where chairs and sofas are close to each other to foster intimacy and communication. Modern office furniture can create multiple spaces that team members can use as suits their style. You might have an open floor plan for some of the team to work together and then offer a separate space where they can make phone calls or have discussions. Everyone has a choice which suits their work.

Culture of collaboration and creativity

Ditch the cubicles and create a collaborative open plan office with benching systems and no high partitions. Big discussion tables and breakout areas for teams will facilitate more interactions and collaboration. Informal spaces with lounge furniture will help people relax and will cast a good picture of your team culture on the minds of your customers.

Shows you care

Low-quality products show that you made very little effort in sourcing comfortable, ergonomically sound furniture. Having ergonomic chairs and furniture will be a boon for the employees. It will ensure a healthy lifestyle and enhance employee experience in the office. It will instrumental in increasing productivity and help you retain talented employees.

High-quality Office furniture defines your Brand positively

No matter what type of business you are in, there’s a modern office furniture layout that will perfectly express who you are. Office furniture is a vital component that affects the productivity of the workforce and also plays an important part when it comes to creating a good impression and building trust with your clients. Choose sturdy office furniture that is built to last. Anybody who enters your office should instantly know that you care about quality, integrity, and most importantly, comfort. High-quality office furniture can help you achieve that.

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The pandemic has changed the way we work forever. As change is the only constant, the expectations of employees and organizations have evolved…no more going back to the old ways of work whereas embracing more flexible work arrangements. The power of technology and digitization has now made it possible for more forward-thinking organizations.

Even as the world returns to a sense of normalcy post-COVID-19, many teams have expressed plans to keep working remotely or in a hybrid scenario. People may confuse between remote and hybrid work thinking they are of the same nature, but there is a huge difference. In this article, we explain how both models work and what advantages and disadvantages they have. Understanding their pros and cons can help managers and business leaders choose the right fit and design more effective workplace strategies.

Differentiating Hybrid or Remote Work

In a remote work setup, employees are asked to work remotely away from the physical office space whereas hybrid working is a combination of both a remote workplace and a conventional office. Let’s look at the differences in work environments in the two models:

Work Type
A hybrid team is more flexible, and employees can decide whether they want to office or work remotely based on the needs of their daily work.

In remote work, employees don’t have any physical office to come in and access various office amenities. In many cases, there is no physical office.

Productivity
In a hybrid approach, having the choice to select the work environment may significantly improve employee productivity.

While working remotely, not everyone can perform well at their home office and that may hamper their productivity.

Communication
A hybrid company needs to create policies and strategies to ensure that all information is distributed consistently to both in-house and remote staff.

In a remote setup, the organization already has a standard system to communicate all information.

Meetings
In a hybrid team, the meetings happen over video-conferencing and in the office.

In a remote company, the meetings are always virtual.

Employee engagement
In a hybrid work model, remote employees may feel left out during team activities.

In remote work, each employee is working remotely, so none feels left out.

Pros of Remote Work

• A remote work model benefits the employer by allowing them to hire global talent without any location restraints.
• Studies show that Remote working significantly increases employee morale and the company’s employee retention rate.
• Full virtual teams have no use for a physical office, that’s a major reduction in operational costs and the carbon footprint.
• With remote working, the daily commute is eliminated completely and allows for a much more relaxed approach to work

Cons of Remote Work

• Remote work is not universal and is not suitable for many kinds of jobs and industries.
• Physical separation of team members can have a serious impact on team spirit and can also affect work dynamics and culture.
• Disrupted communication because of no face-to-face interaction with the employees and issues related to technology.
• Managing a remote team is a learning curve and supervising employees’ work and activities isn’t as easy as in the office.
• The separation of work and leisure time also becomes much more difficult because of distractions due to external factors.

Pros of Hybrid Work

• Employees have a great command over their working hours and work set up which results in increase/maintaining of productivity in all employees.
• Employees greatly appreciate the flexibility and self-determination options that are more convenient for them.
• If the office is only occupied intermittently and on a rotating basis, this allows workplaces to operate on lower square footage and also save costs.
• Having fewer office workers at one time allows you to impose tight social distance and reduce the chances of spreading infections like flu, cold, or even COVID-19
• Meeting on-site allows for more free-flow collaborations for longer periods of time and more team-building opportunities

Cons of Hybrid Work

• Coordinating with team members and managers who are working remotely might be tougher
• A feeling of isolation can quickly arise in remote-only workers if sufficient connection to the in-house team is not ensured.
• Different Time zones will create issues if you have one team within the same time zone and another distributed team in multiple time zones.
• Remote workers often feel undervalued in comparison to office-based employees.

Takeaway: Remote or Hybrid Workplaces

Between hybrid and remote work, hybrid work benefits make it a more viable option for major organizations as the future of the work. Hybrid working is much less complicated, more flexible, easier to implement, and here everyone gets options to choose from. The truth is that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution and one has to think carefully about adopting the right processes, rules, and office furniture systems to support each.

Choosing the best hybrid work model for the organization can improve the employee experience, the employer brand, and even attract more talent.

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Remote working was already finding its footing in workplace strategies. In 2020, everything changed and businesses were forced to shut their offices and switch to running operations from home. Even when lockdown restrictions were eased gradually, companies preferred remote or hybrid working for their employees. But, with the pandemic still going on, industry experts have questions over the future of the office. Is this the end of the physical office?

However, we don’t think so. There are many benefits of working remotely, but it’s important to remember there are still benefits to having an office space that brings people together. While working remotely may become more common from now on, it does not suggest that office spaces will be obsolete in the future.

Remote working strategies differ from company to company. Not every business can have the luxury of going remote.

Let’s look at 7 reasons why physical office space is as important as ever.

Helps in brand perception

Offices help build a brand’s identity. How you create and design your offices, says a lot about your values, culture, and aspirations. It instills confidence in your partners, associates, and customers, and helps determine how your organization is perceived by potential employees and clients.

Promotes professional development

Offices provide better environments for professional development. Junior employees get a first-hand look at experienced employees dealing with different situations and solving problems, which is a great learning experience. There is no substitute for learning on the job and online courses can’t provide that. It helps in their professional development and benefits the organization in the long run.

Easier collaboration

Digital tools for communication and collaboration have helped us in a smoother transition to remote working. But communication is also simpler and more efficient in person. Collaboration is so much easier when your team is in the same room. The give and take of ideas to solve real business problems feel more organic and exciting with team members. Also, employees are less likely to neglect their responsibilities when surrounded by colleagues.

Relationship building

Offices give colleagues the chance to bond and provide great environments for team building. Meeting customers face to face is better for understanding their individual needs. For example, it’s integral for people in sales to meet new people, establish relationships, and create repeat business down the line.

Better security

Data protection is a big issue in remote working. Offices have rigorous firewalls and security protocols, while computers at home do not. Also, if you are working from a shared workspace, getting privacy might be an issue for your confidential calls. In offices, the company’s assets are in a safe place.

More Amenities and fewer distractions

Offices have all the amenities and technologies for in-person and hybrid working, which is not possible to have for remote workers. In offices, you get ergonomic premium furniture, a high-rise view, rooms for personal and social needs, and many other facilities which are not available at home. Also, while working from home and when in need of a focus mode, it’s not easy to completely separate us from the distractions and temptations.

Fosters company culture

The office is the core of a company and gives you a chance to come together and build a culture, practices, and way of working. The culture a company provides for its staff has a huge bearing on the types of talents it retains and attracts. Celebrations, training classes, and team lunches are all better when they are in-person.

Physical Offices are more relevant in today’s Digital World

In this digital age, work and home are getting intertwined and offices provide a separate identity to work. Everyone needs an optimized office space that supports hybrid working catering to the needs of the workers. Physical office spaces are invaluable for both your team and your clients and we cannot underestimate the value of in-person exchange of ideas between people. So, it’s safe to say offices will continue to matter in the foreseeable future.

Reach out today for your Project Roadmap.

Our Roadmap will give you a layout, 3D rendering, and a budget.

Open-plan offices that are free-flowing and have airy workspaces for employees to move through are becoming increasingly popular. Innovative office design and technology will improve workplace safety, productivity, and the general well-being of employees. Current trends in office design focus on safety and comfort but design elements like functionality, sustainability, and aesthetics will continue to dominate in 2022 and beyond.

What can we expect to see when it comes to office design trends in 2022? We invite you to explore the top office design trends for the coming year.

Outdoor spaces

Having a private terrace, courtyard, or rooftop garden is surely a luxury for many companies and office spaces. We will be seeing outdoor spaces go from a “nice to have” to a “must-have” in some cases. For organizations, having a well-designed outdoor space will be a differentiating factor for prospective employees.  The awareness of the health and wellness benefits from contact with nature, a concept known as biophilia, is going to be at the center of designing offices.

Collaboration for hybrid teams

Hybrid offices will be the epicenter of collaboration, culture, and innovative thinking. Future offices will have to be designed to support in-person and remote collaboration and inspire creativity. In many cases, employees will work from home and only come into the office when they need to collaborate with others. Offices need to have different kinds of spaces to support flexibility, functionality, and employee well-being.

The feeling of “home” at work

There is no place like home and more and more office managers and designers are recognizing that. ‘Resimercial design’ talks about the merge of homely comforts into the office design. Comfort can come from any number of things, from softer materials and furniture to rounder shapes. Residential elements such as comfortable sofas, plush carpets,  soft lighting features in common spaces, and artworks are displayed throughout the office. Natural lighting, soft colors, and cozy furniture are introduced in offices to help their employees feel warm, welcome, and safe.

Sustainable materials

The environmental impact of materials matters to Millennials and Gen Zers, and that would impact their preference for organizations they want to be associated with. A responsible company will have an upper hand in attracting new talent.  Hence, businesses will choose eco-conscious manufacturers that use products from sustainable materials and are carbon neutral. Businesses may also start to investigate methods of improving their energy efficiency.

Non-working spaces

There should be spaces dedicated to not working, such as relaxation and meditation rooms, gyms, and game rooms where people can socialize and work on their physical and mental wellness, and facilitate the ‘live and work’ mentality. More offices are looking for fitness and food concepts as a benefit to employees working there. If the office offers something more than just a place to work, it will encourage more people to come in.

Neutrals with a pop of color

Neutrals will never go out of style. In this age of minimalism, using lighter colors with a mixture of greys, beige and neutrals will continue to be the most popular color palette. Softer colors like khaki, light browns, and soft blues remind people of nature, boosting their moods and productivity levels. For a pop of color, take a look at your company’s brand colors to choose the perfect accent.

Multi-functional and flexible spaces

Employees want to feel empowered at their workspaces, so a good office space will have the flexibility for different types of working. The goal of a flexible workspace is options. Businesses will need to make spaces that give workers the freedom and flexibility to choose where and how they want to work based on the task they are trying to complete. Having multi-functional spaces with movable dividing spaces gives employees the ability to try their hand at a multitude of tasks at any given point in time Companies are now opting to have their workers congregate in one shared space to inspire creative thinking and collaboration like a coworking space.

Takeaway: 2022 Office Design Trends

In 2022 and beyond, the focus will be to create workplaces that are more inviting for workers returning to the office. To sum it up, office spaces will be more sustainable, incorporate design elements from homes, prioritize comfort, and work for both remote and in-person workers alike. We all need a healthy and happy place to work. The workplace is changing, and it’s definitely for the better!

Reach out today for your Project Roadmap.

Our Roadmap will give you a layout, 3D rendering, and a budget.

The first time I ever understood my father’s professional success was when he dragged my brother and me to his office one weekend to grab some paperwork he had left behind. His desk sat in one of the few walled-off rooms with windows, clearly setting him apart. Over the years, his office morphed in ways that reflected increases in his responsibilities, title, and status: bigger, brighter, and even higher in altitude. I soon realized that an office could be a symbol of something greater: a person’s worth.

I started my own career in Detroit’s auto industry in the late nineties, the heyday for standardization and cubicles. Ford Motor Company, for example, still had specifications outlining the exact square footage, furnishings, windows and items a person was entitled to, according to his or her level. The more important you were, the better your space. That sentiment is perhaps why cubicles, which were originally designed to be flexible and promote collaboration, ultimately became the very embodiment of soulless corporate sameness, a visual representation of how easily employees could be replaced.

Today, of course, we see corporate America bucking this trend. Offices across the country are embracing the open office concept. No walls, no offices, no cubicles. Just expansive spaces designed to foster collaboration and communication. And yet, even this movement has its fair share of issues. (An open office is no doubt close to torture for the easily distracted or introverted among us.)

While it’s tempting to declare this evolutionary process a series of failed experiments, I believe it’s something more.

The way we work has changed drastically: laptops and smartphones have replaced the typewriters and Dictaphones of my father’s office. Today’s corporate workforce is made up of knowledge workers, whose capacity for creative thinking, problem solving, and analysis is critical to an organization. At the same time, organizations are flatter, yet more complex, operating with more demands and fewer resources. Employees are multi-tasking and working longer hours.

When The Frontier Project, the Richmond-based boutique consulting firm I currently work for, moved into our new studio last fall, we saw it as an opportunity to create a place that not only reflected our brand and ethos but also amplified the output and performance of our employees.

What we knew we needed above all else was flexibility. So we borrowed from the best of traditional office design as well as more creative office concepts to provide a variety of options, places, and configurations our employees could use as they see fit. We thought about the flow of the building in terms of work activity, then designated space accordingly so that we have six distinct functions: coworking, collaboration, concentration, social, private, and in-between (yes, that last one really is a designated space).

Coworking space

Walk through the front door of The Frontier Project, and you’ll see community tables instead of permanent desks. Employees claim a spot when they arrive and toggle between light chatter with colleagues and working on their laptops. Whoever arrives first chooses the music that plays over the speakers, which provides just the right level of ambient noise (70 decibels, according to researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana – Champaign).

The coworking space in our studio is where habitual work that requires small to moderate levels of concentration happens: email, administrative tasks, and the more mundane but necessary aspects of our jobs. The mundane, we’ve found, is a little more fun in this communal setting. As a bonus, the convenience of sitting in close proximity to so many colleagues often means emails are ditched in favor of faster, more productive conversations.

Collaboration space

Most organizations value collaboration but give little thought to how space design actually helps or hinders this sought-after dynamic. In theory, open space like our community tables could serve as a place to collaborate; unfortunately, if there is too much talking in the designated coworking space, earbuds become standard equipment for anyone not participating in a meeting that needs to work. The value of the light chatter is lost.

Instead, we opted for comfortable, lounge-like vignettes for our collaboration areas. Visitors often comment that these living room-esqe spots are nicer than their own homes, which was a very intentional design goal. A study conducted by PWC in 2013 found that 64 percent of millennials want to work from home. Unfortunately, collaboration is contingent on having employees present. So we outfitted our collaboration spaces with furniture and accessories reminiscent of spaces we’d design for our homes (or better yet, our favorite coffee bars and hotel lobbies) in an effort to lure them from home and remote locations.

Concentration space

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s research on flow highlights the importance (and difficulty) of accessing the portion of the brain that houses focus, executive function, reason, and higher thinking for knowledge workers. One key requirement to get into this state of mind is to remove distraction. Many organizations have built huddle rooms as a refuge from distraction for work that requires flow. However, for space-constrained offices, this can be a real-estate intensive option often resulting in employees camping out all day in these designated spaces. So we borrowed a page from an old book and created a library, complete with a rustic wood table lined with table lamps and neutrally-painted walls lined with bookshelves. The design choices were functional. Drawing on Charles Duhigg’s work outlined in The Power of Habit, we knew that a library would serve as an environmental cue that would kick the brain into old habits of quiet, concentrated study and thinking. The rules of the room are clear: no meetings or conversations of any kind, on the phone or in-person. We’re even free to shush someone in the library.

Social space

One of the key drivers of engagement as measured by Gallup’s Employee Engagement Survey is whether or not an employee has a best friend at work. The right space design can facilitate social encounters that give rise to these critical friendships. In our studio, we opted to forgo the ping pong table and design space around the existing social habits of our team. Frontier employees love their coffee and don’t mind cracking open a beer near the end of the day. With that in mind, we built a large, open kitchen boasting a bar that encourages and invites employees to stay and socialize instead of going off-site for food and drink.

Admittedly, there are benefits to social space beyond cultivating friendships that organizations would be well served to promote. In his book Where Good Ideas Come From, Steven Johnsonexplores the space where good ideas are birthed. In looking for patterns of behaviors among hotbeds of creativity across time and cultures, he celebrates the coffee house. Many of us credit caffeine as the fuel of genius; however, Johnson explains that the value of coffee houses lies not in the product they serve but the space it creates for great ideas to bump up against one another and multiply. (Take a look at his TED talk for some great visual illustrations of this concept.)

Private space

Collaboration and coworking are great, but there are both personal and business-related discussions that require discretion. A small room designated as a “phone booth” allows our employees a measure of privacy for quiet conversations without the need to book an entire conference or huddle room, depriving multiple people of meeting space during that time. And while the phone booth is comfortable for a conversation, it is small enough that it doesn’t encourage all-day encampments.

In-between space

The famed Building 20 on MIT’s campus is the stuff of innovation legends. In his book How Buildings Learn, Stewart Brand explains how the building’s rambling nature gave rise to so much innovation, crediting the constant accidental, daily run-ins people from different departments would have with one another. Brand referred to the by-product of these run-ins as “knowledge spillover.” Research conducted at MIT by Thomas Allen illustrates the importance of this physical proximity. The Allen Curve shows that the likelihood of weekly contact between team members drops precipitously when they are more than 10 meters (32.8 feet apart).

In-between spaces can be designed to facilitate these bump-ins. Purposely spacing work areas at distances so employees have to pass through certain corridors can help. Making the corridors functional and interesting can also be transformative. In Frontier’s space, we’ve created day storage where people keep and retrieve their space at the beginning and end of the day. We’ve put mailboxes in a space separate from the day storage. And we’ve partnered with a local museum to display a photo exhibit near our front-door entrance for added visual pops and intrigue.

The flexible workspace has been a boon to the culture and performance here at The Frontier Project. While stylish and hip, the intentional design goes beyond form and actually facilitates function. By borrowing from the best aspects throughout the evolution of workspace design — from the days of my father’s work to the days of cubicles — we’ve created a space that supports the needs of a changing workforce.

Need a little inspiration for your office design? Click here for some ideas.

For more information about the products featured or if you would like to partner with us, please contact us.

The workplace is changing, and unless you’ve been living under a rock (or just working from home) you’ve probably noticed. Fewer cubicles, better perks, even ping pong tables in some cases. Since the physical workplace is no longer mandatory, employers are making it more appealing to be there, and easier than ever to collaborate.

Technology companies are pioneers of this trend. They’ve challenged long-held expectations (for instance that everyone needs his or her own desk and that senior employees get window offices) and defined what the modern workplace looks like. Bean bags aside, their reasoning still stands:
The workplace can and should evolve to be a better partner to employees.

But how do you differentiate between a passing fad and a lasting feature? Are open floor plans good or bad? Is it better to work remotely or is collaborating in person more productive?
Workplace strategy is changing fast, but there are several current trends we expect to stand the test of time. These features consistently deliver on employee output and enjoyment, add value and can be customized for any company—no matter how traditional.

6 workplace trends that won’t go out of style
1. (Semi) open floorplan
Open offices strive for more collaboration, but often miss the mark. Done correctly, a semi-open workspace creates a collaborative community of cross-functional workers. But collaboration shouldn’t come at the expense of concentration. To be effective, you must minimize distractions and maintain a sense of privacy. This can be done with half-walled work booths, a curved layout and glass partitions.

2. Zones
The best open offices account for different work styles. What kinds of work are performed on a regular basis? What type of setting would be best for each? Formal conference rooms, quiet space, private rooms, brainstorming areas? Some offices do away with individual workstations entirely and shift to a membership model. Either way, employees work better when they can choose a setting conducive to their needs.

3. Flexible infrastructure
No matter how well you plan, your needs are going to change. Your layout and furniture should be able to adapt with minimal effort and expense. Modular desks, movable partitions and furniture on casters are all flexible options that make adjustments easier.

4. Unobtrusive technology
Technology has evolved the workplace tremendously, but it’s important that it doesn’t interfere with productivity. Reliable connectivity and ample power outlets are absolute musts, yet many companies continue to fall short on these basics.
In addition to maintaining workflow, technology should enhance it—especially when you’re away from your desk. Better conference scheduling, remote file sharing and mobile adoption can encourage collaboration and minimize wasted time and effort.

5. Culture through branding
Your physical space is critically important in setting the cultural tone. A company with a standard, corporate, “pleasant-but-bland” office environment has a tough time engaging employees and thus inspiring them to support its goals. You don’t have to plaster your logo on the walls, but a great workplace should feel like the company it’s home to and be aligned with core values.

6. Productive green solutions
Creating a sustainable office and one where employees are likely to do their best work are no longer separate activities. Instead of looking at the expense of green initiatives, companies are considering how their footprint affects employee experience. Sustainable office updates like improved acoustics, lighting, ergonomics and thermal comfort are not only cost-effective but also have a remarkable impact on the health and productivity of the people who work there.

Why so much change?
Employees are evolving, and so are their expectations. Companies must deliver vibrant culture, design and technology while balancing the preferences of older workers. They’re bringing separate business functions together to find the best solution to space needs and talent woes. And with recent economic recovery, they can finally afford it.

Just be wary of fads. A customized strategy is what sets successful workplace projects apart from costly ones that don’t produce results. A workplace that’s tailored to its occupants is prepared for the ongoing and unpredictable changes in the way we work. That’s where you find the biggest returns.

For some inspiration and ideas for your next office go here.

Guest post by Jacob Morgan

When I was writing my book, The Future of Work, I created a framework for adapting to coming changes that I call “The Six-Step Process for Adapting to the Future of Work.” (It was inspired in part by John Kotter’s well known “8-Step Process for Leading Change.”) I will be exploring my six-step process on a webinar in a few weeks, but here are the steps and what they entail (They’re best thought of as a never-ending loop):

Challenge Assumptions

The simplest, easiest and most common way that some kind of a new initiative around the future of starts off is by looking at one aspect of how work has always been done and asking “why?” Why is it that we have to review employees once a year? Why is it that employees have to sit in cubicles? Why is it that various departments work in silos? Why do employees have to work 9–5? Why…? We haven’t changed most of our work practices for decades so this question really starts the conversation around why change needs to happen. At Cisco their flexible work program started with this very concept and exploration of “hey, wait a minute, our sales guys are always on the road and don’t always have to come into an office, why can’t we do this across the company?”

Create A Team To Help Lead The Effort

Sometimes initiatives around the future or work are led by HR, IT, a specifically designated task force, or other mix of employees. But the point is that someone needs to be driving these efforts across the organization. More recently I’m seeing HR teams actually lead this change within progressive organizations which is part of the evolution that this function is going through. Whether it’s HR or not, this group will be tasked with things such as experimenting with ideas, educating and training employees, and researching trends shaping the future of work. Companies like Xerox work with ethnographers to truly understand how and why people work.

Define Your “Future Of Work”

The next step in the process is defining what the future of work is going to look like for the organization. A great starting point here is defining a few things: what does it mean to work at your organization? What does it meant to be an employee at your organization? What does it mean to be a manager at your organization? What does your organization value and stand for? Mars Drinks does a great job of this by trying to create a “coffee shop” culture across the entire organization. They revamped their physical space, revisited their values, explored new leadership structures, and everything in between.

Communicate Your “Future Of Work”

Once the organization goes through the “define” step it’s crucial to actually communicate this to employees. The Daily Telegraph has recently been written about quite a bit recently after they installed workplace monitors on the desks of employees to monitor whether or not they actually use them. This effort was quickly killed off after employees revolted against this idea. This was a poor job on behalf of the Daily Telegraph to communicate what the purpose of this was, why they were doing it, and if employees are on board. Unilever is a great example of a company that does this well with their agile working initiative that is proudly displayed on the company career page and is actively promoted and marketed inside of the company.

Experiment And Empower Employees To Take Action

As I’ve written about many times, the only constant that exists is change. So how do you adapt to that type of environment? You have to experiment. Our organizations are structured to be very luck like factories; linear process-centric institutions that don’t care about innovation, engagement, empowerment or the like. Instead we have to think of our organizations like laboratories where employees are empowered to experiment with ideas, get access to resources, and can potentially turn their ideas into products or services. Adobe does a great job of this with their KickStart innovation program where any employee can take a course on innovation and then get a $1,000 pre-paid credit card to build a concept prototype. I’ve written much more about that here.

Implement Broad Based Changed

After running experiments or tests around a particular concept the next step is to implement it across the organization (assuming the results of the experiment were positive). Adapting to the future of work only makes sense when it is looked at across the whole organization. Accenture is a great example of this with their recent initiative to abandon annual performance reviews. What started off as something for a pilot group within the company is now being scaled across hundreds of thousands of employees in under a year which is phenomenal for a company of that size.

If you will notice in the image above this process then repeats by going back to step 1 and then step 3–6. At the most forward thinking and progressive organizations this process is continuous and the questioning around how work gets done occurs regularly. Organizations that follow this process will definitely be ahead of the game when it comes to adapting and preparing for the future of work. If your organization doesn’t think about and prepare for the future of work, then your organization will have no future.

Need a little inspiration for your office design? Click here for some ideas.

For more information about the products featured or if you would like to partner with us, please contact us.