Hybrid office & the requirements of the future

Numerous studies and surveys have now shown that hybrid working will be the new normal for most companies in the future. One of the many questions is how companies should deal with their office space if employees are free to choose their place of work in the future and fewer people come into the office on a permanent basis. We are therefore looking at the requirements for the hybrid office of the future.

Focus on people

The majority of employees state that they no longer want to give up the opportunity to work outside the office. According to a study by BCG and The Network(link to study), 89 percent of respondents say they will work outside the office at least one day in the future. After all, working from home or remotely offers numerous advantages, while productivity remains the same or even increases. From this point of view, the key question in future will therefore be: What does the office offer me that I don't have in any other place to do my work?

Any company interested in attracting its employees to the office must therefore focus more on people and their needs and make the office an attractive place for its users, the employees. On the one hand, the office of the future will offer a high quality of stay. At the same time, the aim must be to design functional workspaces. After all, the question is not where I feel most comfortable, but where I can best and most effectively carry out my tasks.

Specialization instead of generalization

For a long time, the open-plan office was considered the perfect office concept. While some people work productively at their desks, the open-plan design enables communication between colleagues and individual teams. The open space is complemented by a meeting area separated by partitions and the multifunctional all-in-one solution is complete. Today we know that in the end, neither one nor the other works - the open space is the worst of both worlds.

The hybrid office is a return to the past and pays the necessary attention to the different requirements of each task. Basically, the office of the future must fulfill three requirements:

1. place of social exchange

Contrary to many fears, most employees quickly came to terms with the situation and working from home. However, it quickly became clear that social contact and interaction with one another are essential for employee satisfaction. Whether over coffee in the kitchen or through a brief conversation with the person sitting next to you, social interaction increases satisfaction, but is also essential to promote the corporate culture and strengthen employees' loyalty to the company.
Hybrid work - The new demands on the office - Social exchange

A suitably furnished office kitchen, cafeteria or lounge area offers a relaxed environment for conversations with colleagues. A central marketplace can serve as a place for chance encounters. After all, exchanges outside your own cosmos, i.e. with people from other departments, often provide new perspectives and creative food for thought.

Town halls are the ideal place to bring the entire workforce together for large-scale meetings. Using the latest technology, everyone working outside the office can be connected. This ensures transparency and strengthens the sense of togetherness.

2. creative exchange & collaboration

In principle, any place in the world is suitable for standard tasks that can be completed independently. For this reason, the switch to working from home forced by the coronavirus has not led to the feared loss of productivity in many companies. On the other hand, a company's innovative strength is heavily dependent on collaboration and creative exchange between employees.

Creating the right collaboration and meeting spaces for employees will be the main task for companies as they transform into hybrid organizations. However, the different forms of collaboration should be taken into account here. After all, morning stand-ups of agile teams have different requirements in terms of design and equipment than creative brainstorming sessions for campaign planning in marketing.

Hybrid work - The new demands on the office - Collaboration

The design options are correspondingly large. They range from meeting points equipped with smartboards and traditional conference rooms to play areas and classroom-like spaces for onboarding new employees. And here, too, you should always ask yourself how remote workers can be adequately integrated.

3. concentrated work

Last but not least, it must still be possible to concentrate on work in the office. After all, not every employee wants to work outside the office or has the opportunity to focus while working from home, for example because children are waiting at home, construction work is taking place or street noise is disturbing.
Hybrid work - The new demands on the office - Concentrated working

In addition to the classic cubicle offices with 2 to 4 workstations, many companies already have silent rooms. Another option is telephone boxes, which offer a retreat as a room-in-room solution. Libraries can also be a way of creating quiet working areas without employees feeling isolated from the rest of the workforce.

In addition, the office of the future takes as dynamic an approach as possible to planning. This means that the areas can be adapted to the current circumstances depending on the workload. For example, if employees with children can no longer work undisturbed at home during the school vacations, additional areas for concentrated work can easily be created in a dynamically designed office.

Tips for planning your workspaces

Planning the office is a complex task. We would like to give you 4 tips that will help you transform your workspaces and have proven their worth in numerous projects with our clients in the past.

First the work, then the planning

Your office should offer your employees the best possible working environment. To do this, it is important to understand what work needs to be done and what is required for this. After all, the marketing department naturally has different requirements for its workspaces than sales or logistics. Only once you have gained a comprehensive picture of your company should you start planning your office spaces and ask yourself how you can best meet the needs of the respective tasks.

Involve employees

The employees are the ones who use your workspaces on a daily basis. So it's only logical that they should be the focus of your planning. After all, they should be equally productive and satisfied later on. Last but not least, they are the ones who can best answer questions about what it takes to work effectively. Involve your colleagues in your planning right from the start, get feedback and test things out to understand what is already working well and what is not.

Remote First approach

There will be no return to the status quo that prevailed before the coronavirus pandemic. Wherever possible, people will increasingly want to work from anywhere and at any time. You need to take this into account when planning your office. Especially for collaboration zones, you should always ask yourself how all colleagues, whether in or out of the office, can come together optimally.

Adapt yourself

The world of work with all its processes is not a rigid construct. New external guidelines or changing working methods also mean new requirements for the design and equipment of your work areas. So always question the current status and, if necessary, make appropriate adjustments.
Collecting data can be very useful here in order to make informed decisions. Digital solutions help you to understand which rooms and workstations are used frequently or only rarely. This information can be used to make targeted changes.
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Julius Bolz

Julius Bolz

Julius Bolz, Founder & Managing Director at Lendis, writes here. Infected with the start-up idea at an early age, Julius made his start-up dream come true after working for Rocket Internet and the Boston Consulting Group. With Lendis, he wants to shape the working world of tomorrow and make the start-up the number one in workplace management in Europe. In his articles, he looks at trends relating to the future of work and the office.