Redesigning the Workplace: Repurposing Offices to Reflect a Modern, Hybrid Workforce

Originally published in 2022 for SSON/WorkX

The pandemic fundamentally changed the way we work by allowing for more freedom and flexibility. Unfortunately, due to the emergency nature of lockdowns, operations were forced to transform overnight, and businesses have not kept up with the speed of metamorphosis. Initially heralded by business owners as a utopian solution to rising rent and office costs, managers embraced remote working technologies and reported positive results. However, in recent months, more companies have insisted that their workforce ‘return to office’ on a full or part-time basis: what’s changed?

Some businesses have seen a reduction in performance and worker output, leading managers to believe that working from home produces suboptimal outcomes. In reality, however, we have been fighting against a struggling economy, a competitive labor market, a shift in generational mindsets (The Great Resignation and Quiet Quitting), more remote and hybrid work opportunities, and an upheaval in workplace expectations.

“Employee engagement and retention took a nosedive in 2020, and it does not seem to be improving,” says Denise Smith, Human Resources Director, Metal Finishing Technologies LLC. “More individuals want to work less and make more, and they are no longer afraid to "job jump" until they find that ideal work environment. The pandemic created a perfect storm in the workplace, and now we are all trying to navigate these new waters and creatively pivot.”

Bringing together some of the world's leading business pioneers to dissect, discuss, debate, and strategize the future of work, we proudly introduce the upcoming About WorkX event. Over 160 directions, VPs, and Heads of Workplace and HR from companies including Wells Fargo, Prudential Financial, Tripadvisor, and Walmart will network and meet with solution providers that can assist in driving an engaging employee experience, enhancing internal communications, and more. In this piece, we feature some of the session leaders and keynote speakers from the event who provide multifaceted perspectives and potential solutions to the problems the employment industry is facing.

Unearthing faults

Instantaneous change highlighted previously unknown internal frailties. Weak management, poor business processes, and incompatibly skilled workers have failed to successfully execute remote work - but now that they've tasted freedom, attracting talent back to the physical office is no simple feat. Deemed unnecessary, the pre-pandemic workplace is neither alluring nor negotiable for workers today, but remote work fails to provide specific virtues that many employees need to thrive, such as; socialization, routine, collaboration, and motivation.

Currently unable to recreate the same dynamic environment at home, companies are frantically trying to determine what the future of work looks like and how to get the best out of their staff. Effectively entering a large-scale experiment, many companies have welcomed hybrid working with the hope of infusing the best of remote work with effective in-office practices. In theory, the staff chooses when they’d like to work from home to exploit “deep work” hours and schedule meetings in-office to maximize productivity and teamwork.

Finding the right ratio

While the hybrid structure poses many perceived benefits, in practice, it’s not going so seamlessly. Many companies are confused about which ratio of at-home and in-office days they think is best. Industries such as finance and consulting are leaning more towards four days in-office and one day at home, while others operate the complete reverse. Finding a universally appropriate balance across a workforce is almost impossible, as hybrid work carries different emotional impacts.

Predominantly favoring younger employees who struggle working in isolation, live in poor situations, or have never met their colleagues, hybrid work provides a much-needed emotional boost where employees feel invigorated to reconnect with their colleagues. But this isn’t universally true; for some, hybrid work is emotionally exhausting, and switching back and forth between two types of schedules and workplaces is proving incredibly draining. “It’s a psychological shift,” says Klara, a UK-based office worker. “The change of setting every day is tiring. There is a constant feeling of never being settled, stressed, and my productive home-working always being disrupted.”

The best - or worst - of both worlds?

In response, some employees have left companies that force their return, and many workers have called these meet-in-the-middle set-ups ‘duds’. In one high-profile case, Apple lost top-tier talent to returning to the office initiatives, and research is beginning to disprove that three days is the correct in-office number. According to Harvard Business School, the sweet spot for office days is as few as one a week.

“My company began with a phased return starting with one day a week, which was the most miserable day of my life. It went up to two days, and now they are asking for three days. I wouldn't go somewhere I would want to visit because of the rising cost of fuel, but now I have to go the same distance three times a week to a place I don’t need to visit to use the same equipment and do the same job,” says Dave, a UK-based worker.

The utopian workplace

The purpose of the office has changed. There is no ideal work setup, and people have very different needs, making it challenging to design a fully inclusive hybrid work plan. As a result, some companies have recognized their need to be flexible and accommodating to recruit and retain a diverse workforce because if they don’t, they risk alienating entire groups of employees.

Over a hundred years old, the open office plan was popular in 1906 when Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Larkin Administration Building in New York City. The idea to re-configure and transform the archaic office structure quickly took shape at the beginning of the pandemic, with experts speculating that hybrid work would change how the office is used and what it will physically look like.

The aim was to make the office support remote work by providing a place for employees to cement relationships and introduce people. The utopian vision included fewer desks, more social, team-focused spaces, and areas designed to encourage unstructured collaboration away from formal meetings. The idea was to reframe the office into a destination rather than an obligation.

In 2021, Nicola Gillen, workplace strategy and design specialist, said that people would no longer commute into city centers “to work by themselves in rows [or] be monitored in an old-fashioned presenteeism style of management invented more than 100 years ago. Instead, they will come to the office more purposefully for specific reasons.”

The reality

Two and a half years down the line, and as normal life resumes, the utopian workplace fails to meet expectations. The idea of a centralized gathering place to combat isolation has exacerbated the situation. With hot-desking, top-down scheduling, and interdepartmental absences, employees can't find their flow, feel disgruntled and unsettled with constant moving, and reduced morale due to the uncertainty of who they’re working with.

“I strongly believe people need to be in a physical room together to get the best level of efficiency and productivity,” says Brian Esposito, CEO & Founder of Esposito Intellectual Enterprises. “But I also don't believe that great talent and the workforce should be wasting a big portion of their day commuting or putting themselves in stressful situations by coming into the office.”

After having complete control of their schedule and working environment at home, some staff report feeling more socially anxious and nervous about being surrounded by other people - meanwhile, others have pent-up energy from days of isolation and have forgotten traditional office etiquette. Likened to puppies and encouraged by collaborative initiatives and socialization, excited staff find themselves breaking social rules and distracting colleagues with boisterous behavior that sometimes lacks decorum.

Anna Shen, venture partner at VC firm Raiven Capital says, “It's almost like they’re overcompensating for the time that they were not able to see each other face to face, and it does feel like they have forgotten basic manners and basic social norms.”

In addition, many younger employees that entered the workforce during the pandemic have never experienced traditional office customs. They are learning acceptable behaviors from a disordered workforce during a very confusing time and are not entirely sure what is expected of them. As a result, employees feel annoyed, frustrated, and stressed trying to find their personal routine in an inhospitable environment.

Make it make sense

“Despite the cost of living increasing and the cost of fuel going through the roof, they had to bring people back to the office for three days a week - which is completely pointless,” says Dave. “For three days of the week, I have to get up an extra hour and a half early and then drive in traffic to an office to sit on my own where my desk faces a white, plain wall, with no one else. I am more alone in the office than at home, where I can speak to my wife and friends.”

“The office feels like I’m in a bunker,” he continues. “People are doing the same job, but instead of speaking on the phone, they’re shouting at each other across the office. How am I supposed to concentrate when they’re filling the room with noise? When we have a team meeting, we all have to put our webcams on - as we would at home - even though we’re in the office. There’s no point to it.”

Companies can ease staff stress by affording employees and managers control of their schedules instead of imposing dictated rosters from outside departments. Prashanth Chandrasekar, CEO of Stack Overflow, says many hybrid and remote work issues hinge on a new management model; “for decades, we’ve had a top-down, lots of direction and control type of model when it comes to managing employees.”

Believing we have reached a turning point, leaders must now accept that true flexibility, even in the hybrid model, is the key to empowering and retaining employees. “It doesn’t mean not holding workers accountable with goals,” he adds. It's about “giving them space and trust to get the job done. You can have a yearly meeting or a quarterly get-together, but asking them to spend one or two hours in a car or subway commuting just to have them in the office a certain number of days a week, just doesn’t make sense anymore.”

Culture comes from people

Culture is not created from the building - it’s from the people in it. Employees have not declared that they never want to be in the office - in fact, 64% say they want to spend at least some hours in the workplace as opposed to being fully remote. But the system must be redesigned and approached differently. “Celebrating and creating an environment where each person gets recognized and celebrated has created a culture that everyone wants to be a part of and present in the office for,” says Denise.

Metal Finishing Technologies prioritized this notion by placing everyone’s cubicles strategically to open up more conversations. Denise describes an updated office culture; “we have “gamified” the workplace; employees get points tallied for things such as attendance, clean work environments, going above and beyond, and helping other departments. People collect these points and turn them in for prizes such as gift cards and physical prizes.”

In addition, they have created a cultural awareness campaign that celebrates each employee’s culture every month. “We give each employee who wishes to share their culture with us some money to create a local dish that we feature in a potluck lunch for the company. We decorate to honor the various cultures and religions, and then we create some information slides to share.”

Attracting people back to the office

“Adapt or die,” says Brian, “it’s more important today than at any time in our history.”

Enticing staff back to the office requires a clearly communicated purpose, careful planning, allocation of teams, transparent targets, and better support systems. Going back to the office is expensive for everyone, so it has to be worthwhile for all participants. Companies must determine the cost-benefit analysis of in-person, hybrid, and remote employees, then create an inclusive office environment driven by data, strategy, and employee feedback.

Taking the time to reevaluate the talent market to understand the talent acquisition and retention issues, Denise explained that more investment was needed on the production floor to remain connected with the production staff. Opting to create a “structure, within a structure,” Metal Finishing Technologies built a set of office spaces, conference rooms, and an on-site classroom for teaching hands-on manufacturing concepts within the facility, which helps to train new employees and enhance the knowledge and skills of current employees.

Quiet quitting is the latest phenomenon where staff welcome the application of work-to-rule. Employees are defining and engaging in work-related activities solely within those hours. Despite the name, quiet quitting does not result in resignation. Instead, it explains that employees no longer believe their work positively influences their life or instills a sense of purpose.

Without two-way communication, clearly and accurately defined job roles, company culture, a sense of belonging, or a clear pathway, employees struggle to take pride in their work and put in the extra effort. “We are tackling the constant struggle of talent acquisition, retention, and silent quitting by ensuring that the right people and culture tools and solutions are in place,” says Andrew Zuckerman, VP at Rentable.

The future of the workplace

Workplace design must be far more employee-focused to lure the right talent for the business. Headcount, collaboration and personal space, and Covid mitigation and compliance must be prioritized, along with bike storage, fitness classes, nap pods, and consideration for appropriate lighting and color choices.

Companies must align themselves with employee concerns, including the climate, well-being, work-life balance, and community. Organizations that have embedded and adopted sustainable habits to achieve carbon net zero, environmentally friendly practices, internationally-accredited sustainability standards and objectives that align with CSR and ESG commitments, reuse and recycling, and a focus on energy efficiency will benefit most.

Activity-based workplace designs go beyond choosing the right furniture. It’s about creating a space with all the features, functionality, and technology to empower staff. “We’re investing in virtual meetings such as the metaverse,” says Brian. “Technology is catching up to almost matching the real thing, allowing productivity, creativity, development, and strategy sessions to be at their peak levels.”

By transforming the office into a service and shifting from an arbitrary place to visit, companies can place collaboration and socialization front and center and enhance performance by strengthening the connection between what your employees do and why they are doing it. A thoughtful approach to work creates a greater sense of purpose, and managers and HR teams can deploy OKR frameworks to bridge the gap between strategy and execution.

Effective leadership fosters loyalty, productivity, and happier employees. “I do not look at fad or temporary wins. I look for long-term opportunities that include humble, hungry, driven, and ethical leaders and management,” says Brian. However, many leaders cannot effectively lead a hybrid team - because it’s seldom been done before.

Finding best practices through various tools and tech stacks can help managers create additional checkpoints and boost internal team communication without creating more work for everyone. Clear expectations, accountability, organized work schedules, and efficient office floorplans help to strike a balance between high-touch and high-tech teams that engages employees regardless of location.

Forcing employees to adopt technology solutions without listening to their concerns and feedback leads to a disgruntled and frustrated workforce opting to use alternative solutions. Using different platforms diminishes collaboration and leads to disconnected people and projects and a confused leadership team not understanding why their staff is unhappy. Through journey mapping, employee experience data, and personas, organizations can ensure they have created appropriate workspaces their employees want to use.

Be purposeful

It would be dangerous to be seduced into believing that halfway-house measures will bridge the gaps in remote work or compensate for inadequate management practices. While it may be comforting to assume going back to what worked before - it would be naive. The workforce and their expectations, needs, and desires have changed, and failing to cater to these transformations leaves scope for disappointment. Organizations will benefit most when they build excellent support systems and afford their staff autonomy to choose which working style works best for them, leading to increased staff retention, higher productivity, and heightened success. After all, would successful remote management forego the need for a hybrid solution?

About WorkX

It’s no secret that the workplace has vastly transformed over the past couple of years, which has prompted us to transform Future Offices Winter into WorkX. This event will welcome 160+ Directors, VPs and Heads of Workplace and HR from companies like Wells Fargo, Prudential Financial, Tripadvisor, Walmart and more are coming together to network and meet with solution providers.

Join us to get valuable networking opportunities and discussions around the changing office dynamic, workspace design, internal communications, talent management and the employee experience.

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