What Is The Futureof The Workplace?

OVER the past two years, employees and employers

have had to adapt to a new ‘working normal’. Many have embraced the ‘work from home’ routine, whilst others, like me, have maintained a preference to work from the office.

After speaking to a range of workers, it is interesting to note how divided people are on where they prefer to work from. Personally, I thrive on working in a team in the office – I love the office banter, the sharing of ideas, and of course, the social interaction. It does seem that the majority want a balance of some days working from the office and the rest of the week working from home.

Working from home/remotely

Employees enjoy the flexibility of being based remotely at home – allowing them to avoid the need to use public transport (still a sometimes precarious decision with the ongoing COVID situation) or to spend long hours in the car during peak hour.

Employees are also enjoying the ability to tailor their work days, allowing for opportunities to exercise during the day, catch up on household chores (a positive and a negative) and more time to spend with family and pets.

Other perks include being able to save on petrol, parking and buying lunches.

As long as one has access to the right technology, it is possible to work from anywhere – video conferencing has become very sophisticated.

On the flipside, working from home has introduced an expectation that one can be contacted at any time of the day, which can unfortunately make it harder to have boundaries between working hours and personal downtime.

Employers are benefitting from having less people in the office, resulting in less overheads and the possibility of downsizing the office space needed.

Working from the office

Working from the office allows for interaction with co-workers and a change of environment, separating home life from work life.

Being in an office environment also facilitates the ease of meeting clients, ease and efficiency of gathering information (reducing the number of emails and phone calls required) and for better team morale and social interaction where colleagues can share and bounce ideas off one another, and where good personal relationships and a sense of belonging can help create a good culture in the office.

In particular, creative industries have found that working from home did not work very well for fostering team culture.

Working from the office also enables more structure and efficiency during working hours. A common complaint of working from home during lockdown was

the difficulty in managing partners also working from home – from noisy Zoom calls to kids schooling from home, it was no doubt a challenge for management to manage a remote workforce.

Adapting to employees returning to the office, some companies are now doing amazing fit-outs to their workspaces, with office kitchens resembling a café with fancy coffee machines. End-of-trip facilities such as showers and bike storage, along with inspiring outdoor terraces, are also becoming commonplace, all aimed at creating stimulating and social work environments.

The future?

As I reflect on the past two years and observe the changes that workplaces are undergoing in response to changing expectations and demands from employees, I find myself pondering: “Is a hybrid solution of combining both working from home and the office one that will keep everyone happy?”

Tamara Gross is the director of retail at Belle Property Commercial. To contact Tamara, email tamara.gross@belleproperty.com