Dear Kizzi,
There’s no doubt that the workplace has been completely reframed by the global pandemic. We won’t be going back to how things were, instead, we’ll be moving forwards and taking all the changes experienced to date and positive learnings with us.
The workplace of the future will be redesigned with collaboration, connection, productivity and socialising at the forefront. But it will still need to have spaces for quiet, focused work for those who can’t, or don’t want to create this environment remotely, either at home or elsewhere.
Agility and flexibility are the new buzz words. Work will become more agile and people will have greater flexibility to choose where this takes place depending on what tasks they have in hand. True activity-based working will be realised. There will also be a heavy focus on making people’s time in the office as productive as possible. Workplace building and facilities management professionals will have to learn to ‘market’ the office as a place to work and make it an attractive option for staff. The office will become one of many places where people can choose to do their jobs.
Covid-19 has accelerated the remote working model that many organisations were very slowly beginning to adopt in varied ways. Working from home will surely continue in some capacity but we are already seeing working-from-home fatigue. It’s certainly not going to be the only option moving forwards. Offices will absolutely become our main place to work again, but with more home working and flexibility than before.
Alistair Craig, Managing Director, Anabas
