5 ways to design a more successful hybrid workplace

With all the advancements in technology over the last two years, it has made integrating remote spaces and office spaces a nearly effortless task. Creating a comfortable working place is an important task, especially when you consider that people will work better and far more efficiently when they are comfortable. Uncomfortable and uninspiring workspaces are not conducive to high standards of work. Even in a remote environment, you will not work as well if your remote space is untidy or set up in a way that does not promote comfort and ease.

Hybrid Workspaces?

Say goodbye to the love-hate relationship with your work environment. It has been an incredibly long time since the first workplaces were established, and the old configurations of these office spaces are just not up to date with what’s possible and most productive. With the return of office life upon us once again,  most of your time will be spent in the office environment, and there are a lot of things that can be done to improve the overall atmosphere within the space. Seeing as working remotely does require work, organizations and companies need to think of alternative methods of using and properly utilizing the office spaces to best suit their employees. Here are five ways you can incorporate them into your own personal design while you work towards a more successful hybrid workspace.

Start with a Survey

Find out what your workforce wants, and if they are not eager to return to the office space you can already start implementing changes that will save you a lot of money and please your employees. There are a lot of factors that need to be thought about when you are trying to make a hybrid workplace run effectively, and finding out the majority of the obstacles will expedite the process tremendously.

Finding out what will fit your workforce is essential, especially when considering hardware costs. You cannot rely on every employee being fully equipped to work remotely, so the office space may still have value for them. Once you have all the results from the survey, it will give you a clearer view of what needs to be done moving forward to create the successful hybrid workspace your employees deserve.

Open Plan

Modernize your office while also preparing it for the other coming changes. Open plan setups not only look modern but also promote collaboration and group efforts. Rid yourself of those old cubicles that section off your employees. Not only is it taking up unnecessary space, but also, as you move into integrating remote workspaces, the need for the common office space set up is no longer viable. Save yourself some money by making the office a more group-oriented space by minimizing the need for individual workstations. Using a little natural light, some creative architecture and nature, are really all it takes to change the entire mood attached to your company. Creating a modern and comfortable place like this will make it easier for you to attract new talent and keep the employees you have. It also makes it easier for you to compete with salaries being offered by your competitors because regardless of a difference in salary, a person is more inclined to stay and want to work in an environment that is more comfortable. This refreshing design style will be healthier and more comfortable for everyone to experience while brainstorming and collaborating together.

Change the Purpose of Coming In

It has already been proven that the remote work environment is efficient and effective. The real use of the office is no longer as essential as it once was. Since the office is no longer the place you need to be every day, there is no reason to treat it that way. Your office space can become streamlined so you can focus on priorities. For example, most menial office duties and admin can be taken care of on whatever spec of a laptop or PC your employees have at home. For more sensitive work like Zoom calls with clients, it is not going to be done best in that environment, especially if they have children. This makes it a perfect opportunity to implement an open plan set up with a couple of offices dedicated to conference calls specifically. Here is where equipment comes in – desks that are not your employee’s kitchen tables and webcams that are not from 2010, are necessary. This has integrated the remote workforce and the office workforce to suit everyone’s needs while keeping costs down, as it is not a viable option to just give your staff the necessary hardware to work from home. This way, you can secure the equipment and boost the value of the office space by giving actual reasons to come in rather than just to do work that can be completed anywhere as long as you have a laptop or PC available.

Embrace Change

The odds are your first hybrid workspace model will need some tweaking. This is completely natural. Realizing that this is a new way of designing workspaces is imperative to understand that change is necessary to find a successful hybrid environment for you. Repeating surveys and finding out about new problems are all part of the process, and the biggest thing you need to be ready for is embracing the change, because eventually, once you have created the workspace you’ve been working towards, you will never want to go back.

Integrate Technology

In this day and age, there is no reason for your offices to be dated. Integrating technology is a must if remote workers and office workers are to collaborate and communicate independently. Even though having work accessible at any time, from anywhere, is something all companies moving into the hybrid work environment should be looking at, project managers can do their duties far more efficiently if there is a hub that is being used by the entire workforce to submit and manage their work. Technology should be used as the bridge that connects everyone in the company to one another and, more importantly, the rest of the world.

Hybrids are the future

The design of old office spaces is going out of style by instinct. There are not many reasons to stay behind, especially with the amount of evidence that remote work is a viable alternative to the majority of the tasks employees have been forced to come into the office to complete. The benefits of hybrid workspaces simply outweigh all the factors that the old style of office life has to offer.