The event featured (among others) enlightening roundtable discussions on topics such as:<\/p>\n
All-in-all, there were plenty of valuable observations for companies of all shapes and sizes to benefit from, but here are 9 of the most prevalent points <\/strong>you should definitely keep an eye on in the months to come.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Over the course of this pandemic, employees learned first-hand that much of their work can get done from anywhere. Naturally, this has made their old office-based working arrangements seem a lot less necessary and enticing than they once were. As Tim Gobran, Principal Director of Talent and Organization at Accenture pointed out,<\/p>\n 83% of people surveyed preferred working in a hybrid model, and not only that, we actually found that those who experienced hybrid during this pandemic period had better mental health, stronger work relationships, and were better off working for their organizations than their fully remote or fully onsite peers.<\/em><\/p>\n For offices to remain worthwhile to both companies and their employees as we move into the future, a determined shift in how they\u2019re approached needs to take place.<\/p>\n Otherwise, organizations will soon find themselves dealing with frustrated workers who feel trapped in antiquated office models that serve little practical purpose. Or as David McGuiness, Head of Business Development at Openpath Security Inc put it,<\/p>\n The office used to be where you go to get work done, and we\u2019ve proven we can get work done in other places… So, the role of the office now has shifted. Now it\u2019s around collaboration. It\u2019s around building and maintaining culture. It\u2019s a connectivity point for all of us, and addressing the concerns or needs of health and wellness become now paramount to getting people to come in.<\/em><\/p>\n David McGuiness, Head of Business Development, Openpath Security Inc.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n In short, hybrid work is the inevitable future of the workplace, and so offices must be adapted accordingly. The trick for companies now is figuring out how to make hybrid workspaces function best for them.<\/p>\n Coming into the office and working alongside our co-workers is a fundamentally social experience that, until the pandemic struck, many of us likely took for granted.<\/p>\n Yes, the novel freedoms of remote working positions were thoroughly enjoyed by many at first, but over time the mental fatigue of prolonged isolation began to take its toll. While some people managed to satisfy the sudden social lapses of their professional lives with those who lived beside them at home, many others were largely left alone.<\/p>\n It makes sense then, how it was only a matter of time before isolated workers became eager to return to their previous, more social, work arrangements. As Tracy Brower, Principal of Applied Research and Consulting at Steelcase explained,<\/p>\n Whether we\u2019re introverts or extroverts, we may have different needs for more or less time with people. But our social needs are absolutely critical to us as humans. <\/em> Tracy Brower, Principal, Applied Research and Consulting, Steelcase<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n While some of the effects of social deprivation can certainly be offset by video chat technologies like Zoom, such software doesn\u2019t offer the irreplicable benefits of direct and physical proximity. In turn, the way hybrid arrangements combine the freedoms of remote work and the social benefits of office spaces have become highlighted much more so than in the past.<\/p>\n But at the same time, it\u2019s also important to note that the office isn\u2019t the only place such social hybrid work benefits can take place. As Robert Thiemann, Director and Founder of Frame, noted,<\/p>\n It is important to meet physically, but that doesn\u2019t need to necessarily take place in the office space. You can do that in any hotel, restaurant, park, on the beach, wherever.<\/em><\/p>\n Robert Thiemann, Director and Founder, Frame<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n With the constant lockdowns and waves of shifting regulations we\u2019ve all faced, the scramble to make remote work actually<\/em> work for businesses during this pandemic had employees adapting to unique working arrangements rapidly, and frequently.<\/p>\n During those transitions, it quickly became clear how good communication and equitable employee treatment were key ingredients to smoothly make such speedy changes time and time again. Now, employees have very much come to appreciate their transparent and respectful treatment.<\/p>\n Moving forward, the expectation that such treatment continue is not going to go away. As Tracy Brower said,<\/p>\n In making hybrid work, one key element is going to be fairness. If we look at third party research, fairness is critical to people\u2019s state of mind and their engagement. There\u2019s so much research that says people will disengage if they don\u2019t feel like there\u2019s fairness… <\/em> Tracy Brower, Principal, Applied Research and Consulting, Steelcase<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The remote working conditions employees recently experienced gave them tons of agency in terms of how they could approach their working days. From the times when they woke up, to what they wore, to how they scheduled their productivity hours throughout the day, everything was at the whims of the employees.<\/p>\n What\u2019s most notable about that flexibility, is that it functioned better than traditional office arrangements ever have in terms of fostering productivity. So, to maintain these desired levels of productivity into the future world of hybrid work, the fact that everyone is unique and performs at their best in different ways must be catered to.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As Winnie Okonkwo, Head of Facilities and Property Operations at Mediacom, affirmed,<\/p>\n One design does not fit all. How our finance team works, versus how our client team works, is going to be different. So, we need to hear that feedback, and it needs to be a continuous conversation. It really needs to be agile and fluid in its truest sense of the form.<\/em><\/p>\n Winnie Okonkwo, Head of Facilities and Property Operations, Mediacom<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Everyone is unique, and that reality must be embraced in order to make hybrid work. More than that, the traditional overarching policies of the old office spaces have been proven to be outdated beyond a doubt.<\/span><\/p>\n To maximize what can be done today, the effective methods of each and every contributor to an organization should be analyzed and encouraged according to their own strengths and weaknesses. Or, as Tim Gobran expressed it,<\/span> We need to meet each person where they are individually, and then have dialogues that say \u2018Look, its fundamentally about getting results. You\u2019ve got to be productive, you\u2019ve got to be effective, but do it in the way that works for you.\u2019<\/em> Tim Gobran, Principal Director, Talent and Organization, Accenture<\/span> While COVID-19 won\u2019t stay around forever, the health and safety concerns that the pandemic brought to the forefront of people\u2019s minds are sure to stay with the generations it has forever impacted.<\/p>\n Moving forward, the image of a good employer will no longer just be someone who shows respect at the workplace and pays well, but one who demonstrates a genuine concern for the physical and mental wellbeing of their personnel. As Joanna Frank, President and CEO of the Center for Active Design, explained,<\/p>\n In people\u2019s minds, health and wellness is now up there with other aspects of carbon reduction or governance issues. So, health and wellness has really gone from something that was on the fringe or a nice to have before COVID, to something that you now HAVE to be reporting on. You HAVE to be measuring how you are impacting the health and wellness of the occupants of your building and your employees.<\/em><\/p>\n Joanna Frank, President and CEO, Center for Active Design<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n This isn\u2019t just a concern for those that find themselves directly within the office either. New studies show that roughly 90% of investors will prioritize health and wellness metrics when investing in organizations and their properties.<\/p>\n Additionally, words alone will no longer cut it. Too many workers have seen the deadly results of disingenuous promises given by careless employers during this pandemic. No matter what level of an organization people are at, their safety is going to be a key demand. As Joanna continued to explain, It isn\u2019t good enough just to say that you\u2019ve done it. Now, you need somebody else to say that you\u2019ve done it, and that you\u2019ve met a standard, and that it\u2019s evidence based. This is a huge change in the health and wellness space. This need for the data, and the verified data as well.<\/em><\/p>\n Joanna Frank, President and CEO, Center for Active Design<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The need for flexibility and trust were driving topics behind most discussions.<\/p>\n But that should come as no surprise. Flexibility is a major element that companies need to ensure ever since COVID-19 accelerated the evolution of their workplaces. Meanwhile, without two-way trust between employees and leaders alike, progress is sure to stagnate\u2014especially when considering the freeform \u2018whatever functions best\u2019 nature that\u2019s inherent to hybrid work arrangements.<\/p>\n As stated earlier, the face of the office is transforming like we\u2019ve never seen before. Employees no longer expect to show up and work at designated spaces just because \u2018it\u2019s the office\u2019.<\/p>\n Rather, to derive real value from offices, companies need to design their workspaces so they are not only attractive enough to bring employees out from their home offices and other remote locations where work can get done, but so they serve specific functions that wouldn\u2019t be as efficiently handled otherwise. After all, as Peter Ankerstjerne, Chief Strategy Officer at Planon Software and the Chairman of the Board of Directors at IFMA, made clear,<\/p>\n Work is not a destination, it\u2019s what you do, and you can do that from multiple locations… We as employers, as building owners, and businesses, need to allow for the flexibility where you are able to scale up and scale down based on the need of the workforce at any given point in time.<\/em><\/p>\n Peter Ankerstjerne, Chief Strategy Officer at Planon Software and Chairman of the Board of Directors at IFMA<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n To that end, the purposeful use of offices came up over and over, where it was made clear that future office spaces will be best used for employees to:<\/p>\n But again, for workers to thrive under these efforts, offices need to be designed with more intention than in the past. Like Brian Kropp, Chief Researcher at Gartner\u2019s <\/a>HR Practice, said,<\/p>\n Ironically, in order for flexibility to work, we have to become dramatically more intentional about what we are doing. That is, intentional about what we\u2019re communicating to people, intentional about what tasks we need to be in the office for, and intentional in thinking about what the purpose of the office even is.<\/em><\/p>\n Brian Kropp, Chief Researcher, HR Practice, Gartner<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Hybrid workspaces are dynamic by their very nature. That means organizations need to constantly stay tuned in to what\u2019s working, and what isn\u2019t, to make the adjustments that best situate their operations for success.<\/p>\n To do that efficiently, companies will need to make a concerted effort to gather feedback from everyone across their organization, from general employees, to management, and even the remote workers that will never once set foot inside the office. But for that information to be most effective, it can\u2019t just be leadership looking it over.<\/p>\n In the future workspace, everyone needs to be as informed as possible to perform as best as they can together. Mark Hill, Strategy and Transformation Director at Sodexo<\/a>, may have put it best when he stated,<\/p>\nWhat companies discovered over the pandemic…<\/h1>\n
1. The definition of \u2018what the office is really for\u2019 has forever changed<\/h2>\n
2. Social connections are necessities shared workspaces can provide<\/h2>\n
\nWhen we have more face-to-face interaction, we have lower levels of morbidity, we have lower levels of mortality, we have greater levels of mental health. We as human beings need each other.<\/em><\/p>\n3. Equity and fairness are more important employee values than ever<\/h2>\n
\nIt\u2019s impossible to be completely equal, but things do need to be equitable… From a hybrid standpoint, we have to be principal oriented. Let’s establish some principals, and then be super transparent about those principles.<\/em><\/p>\n4. Personalized employee approaches are becoming paramount<\/span><\/h2>\n
\n<\/span><\/p>\n
\nIt\u2019s about autonomy, it\u2019s about flexibility. It\u2019s about, creating the conditions that create that environment as leaders.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nWhat companies need to prioritize in 2025 and beyond…<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n
5. Focus on health and safety above all else<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n
\n<\/span><\/p>\n6. Build flexibility and foster trust between employees and leadership<\/span><\/h2>\n
7. Create more purposeful physical workspaces<\/span><\/h2>\n
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8. Gather and share information much more openly<\/h2>\n