Shared Office Spaces in a Post-Pandemic World
COVID-19 has focused in on what the office is now for, as well as making the strengths and limitations of at home work environments visible. As hybrid workplaces take a broader shape, companies need to think about how to facilitate meetings and collaboration with a mix of in-person and remote employees. This concept of finding a hybrid environment has grown more and more appealing as some wish to return to the office while others have found the home work environment more efficient.
Today’s offices are created for an in-person environment. Shared spaces need to be re-designed for technologies implemented and flexible designs to unfold. Collaborative areas - meeting rooms, “flex” spaces, and conference rooms - are the first few of the main environments involved in this transformation.
TELEPRESENCE TECHNOLOGY
The technology required by new conference rooms is much more advanced than the typical microphone and speaker setups.. The aim is to create a holistic and collaborative approach to these spaces with the divide between in-person and remote workers and to allow ideas to be shared among a wider audience, increasing participation and contribution. In the new virtual meetings attention must also implement a method to alllow to focus or inhibit what surrounds the speaker, especially for the remote employee to avoid any possible distributions.
To further improve efficiency, the company can also equip itself with touchscreens that can act as interactive whiteboards with real-time broadcasting.
SCHEDULING
As hybrid work becomes the standard, businesses must provide the technology necessary to ensure every employee has a space to meet, collaborate, and conduct independent work and be productive. An effective scheduling system prevents the team from wandering around the facility, hunting for a space to work.
Scheduling elements to consider include:
BOOKING – In-office work will consist of a mix of hoteling or hotdesking for independent work and meeting space booking for employees to collaborate. As employees come and go on different schedules, managing available spaces will need to be top of mind. Solutions that include both room and desk bookings are optimum.
AVAILABILITY – A system that can identify the right space and determine if rooms are available for ad-hoc meetings is extraordinarily helpful; solutions that include an external indicator such as a light, panel, or shingle let the team quickly determine if a space is available.
UTILIZATION – To make the best decisions about designing your workplace, you need detailed insights about what spaces are used, how they are used, and by whom. If a system provides the proper data analytics, you’ll be able to make more informed planning and budgeting decisions: What type of spaces do we need? How many? Where? To support what activities?
FLEXIBILITY – Does the hardware or infrastructure natively support your preferred scheduling application? If your organizational needs change and you want to change software, you should be able to do so without having to “rip and replace” any of the installed devices.
SCANNING AND SENSING – Does the system include options for badge scanning to start and end a meeting? Can occupancy sensors be added to the mix to gather usage data?
WORKSTATION FLEXIBILITY
The shared spaces that support this purpose also bring a welcomed warmth and energy to the workplace. We’ll continue to be drawn to those spaces that bring us together in more residentially-inspired, comfortable settings which also support our performance.
Shared social and collaborative spaces created in the open, rather than enclosed spaces with fixed walls, can more easily respond to the design challenges by providing greater flexibility for physical distancing and circulation patterns.
The pandemic period has made the need for flexible workplaces even more apparent. The ability to join multiple workspaces together or separate them for smaller work environments. Enable spaces to expand and contract as needed by integrating more individual seating, modularity, flexible pieces and technology to allow these means. Moveable partitions to mimic enclosed areas in a temporary environment thus implementing the use of partition sensors to lighting and AV systems will be more prominent. Partition sensors allow for rooms to grow and shrink and the devices installed within them to incorporate them into action.
A large boardroom that typically seats 10 to 20 people may need multiple displays so that each attendee has clear visual access to content or remote attendees. Cameras will need to effectively capture all the participants. Mic solutions may need to amplify the people within the room, not just those who are attending remotely. Tabletop mics can do double duty in this regard, providing amplification for physical and digital attendees. Any speaker solution will need enough power and headroom to avoid distortion.
WORK PODS
The possibility to have part of the team working remotely represents a potential for the company, which can opt for smaller meeting places alongside the traditional large conference rooms. An enclosed space that is more easily deployable anywhere in open spaces for two or three. Individual lounge seating and personal tables ensure physical distancing while the enclosure provides shielding and privacy from the surrounding environment. The pod will require the capability of digital tools can integrate remote participants. The need for a guest to “BYOD” — “bring your own device” — for a presentation or a pitch enters the equation here, too. As a result, your ecosystem can’t be completely walled-off from these applications, and your collaboration tools should be ready to communicate with a third-party device.
