From home offices to dining room tables and spare bedrooms, many post-Covid office environments looked much different this year. The shift to remote work highlighted the importance of flexibility, but it also reiterated the value of physical office space. Many clients and partners took immediate action to support virtual collaboration while simultaneously adjusting workspaces to ensure safety in the near-term as some employees slowly returned.<\/p>\n
Why Maintain or Build Office Space?<\/strong> Immediate Solutions for Increased Safety<\/strong> Clear signage on a circulation plan, room capacity, or new processes are simple,\u00a0cost-effective ways to promote a healthy and safe work environment.\u00a0With a consistent plan\u00a0to get from point A to point B throughout the building\u00a0while\u00a0maintaining\u00a0social\u00a0distancing through one-way movement\u00a0has proven to be very helpful.<\/p>\n Properly spacing is\u00a0a\u00a0critical first step, but equally as important is stopping\u00a0further\u00a0spread of the virus.\u00a0Through\u00a0cleaning protocols and touchless technology, organizations\u00a0are able to\u00a0mitigate potential exposures. The first line of defense once again comes back to people practicing\u00a0personal responsibility.\u00a0While most have become accustomed\u00a0to the new pandemic norm, providing easy access\u00a0to\u00a0masks, hand washing\u00a0stations,\u00a0and\u00a0signage reminders to promote healthy behaviors are all simple ways to promote personal responsibility.<\/p>\n In addition, focusing on previously contact heavy spots and making them touch free is a simple way to reduce transmission. While some changes are slightly more capital intensive, most are not.\u202f Foot pedals for doors, touch free water and coffee distribution and AV connectivity\/usage are a few simple and very cost-effective ways to eliminate common touch points. When\u00a0we can eliminate touch points passively, we need to actively make our common touch point surfaces clean and safe. Wiping down surfaces is not difficult, but visibility and communication of the plan while displaying the accountability of housekeeping staff creates a mentally healthy environment for employees.<\/p>\n The Future of Corporate Environments<\/strong> Today\u2019s open work environment is not conducive. Furniture layout and the mix of open \/ closed offices will need to be reviewed with each organization\u2019s\u00a0workflow\u00a0and requirements to create a\u00a0work place\u00a0that maintains 6\u2019 of physical distancing for all\u00a0work spaces. The potential offset of\u00a0required\u00a0added square footage\u00a0per employee\u00a0without adding total square footage will need\u00a0be reviewed and potentially off set by reducing the total number of\u00a0workspaces\u00a0required.\u202f Alternating work start times\u00a0and\u00a0flex schedules (hoteling), supported with proper cleaning protocols\u00a0may\u00a0allow the same size building to service the same number of employees.<\/p>\n Meeting and\u00a0learning\u00a0spaces\u00a0will be adjusted as well.\u00a0This change should be welcomed by us all.\u202f Nobody likes being\u00a0elbow\u00a0to elbow in an enclosed conference room.\u202f Incorporating open collaboration rooms, hybrid in person \/ virtual environments and furniture configuration will allow teams to meet face to face when necessary to promote collaboration and maintain organizational culture.<\/p>\n Controlling air born contaminants will be critical to the reduction of contamination. This is achieved in two steps:<\/p>\n Better Together<\/strong> The pandemic changed the way many people work, but there are tangible benefits to maintaining physical office spaces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":6709,"template":"","meta":{"content-type":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":""},"campaigns":[],"type-of-content_tax":[339],"class_list":["post-6708","blog","type-blog","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","type-of-content_tax-safety-content","expertise_tax-corporate-environments"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jedunn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog\/6708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jedunn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jedunn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/blog"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jedunn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog\/6708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21024,"href":"https:\/\/jedunn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog\/6708\/revisions\/21024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jedunn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jedunn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"campaigns","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jedunn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campaigns?post=6708"},{"taxonomy":"type-of-content_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jedunn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type-of-content_tax?post=6708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe short answer\u00a0is,\u00a0it comes down to people.\u00a0While we\u2014and many companies\u2014are\u00a0equipped to work remotely, the office environment supports many things that can only be done with daily, face-to-face interaction.\u202f\u00a0We need to\u00a0grow\u00a0and nurture are people to develop.\u00a0Part of that nurturing means improving the culture as well, so to\u00a0keep\u00a0our\u00a0most valuable resource engaged, challenged and fulfilled, culture must be maintained.\u202f From top to bottom, our clients and design partners\u00a0have concerns\u00a0about \u201cslippage\u201d of the culture that has taken years to create.\u00a0It\u2019s the culture that drives teamwork, collaboration, and innovation. The ability to\u00a0walk\u00a0down the hall to a team member\u2019s office\u00a0to problem solve or discuss ideas\u00a0drives creativity\u00a0and improves the\u00a0focus to push to the most desired results.\u00a0This is the driving factor for clients and owners in building and bringing employees back to physical offices. The challenge for clients and owners is how to do so safely now and in the future.<\/p>\n
\nIncreasing the safety in offices in the\u00a0immediate\u00a0term\u00a0can\u00a0include spacing and updating protocols. Simple solutions such as\u00a0increased\u00a0signage,\u00a0seating facing the same direction to reduce face-to face exposure and\u00a0limiting public and collaboration space capacity\u00a0immediately alleviate density within the office.<\/p>\n
\nSince\u00a0early on in the\u00a0pandemic, the design community has been diving into what changes need to be made. Fortunately, many of the identified items have been able to be incorporated into active and current office layouts.\u202f There are also a handful of items that will be a design focus moving forward.<\/p>\n\n
\nEmployees across all industries have not only adjusted to remote work, but\u00a0many are\u00a0also accustomed to the new routine. But the tangible benefits of returning to offices\u00a0cannot be replaced by virtual meetings or conference calls. We believe at JE Dunn that we are better together\u2014for the relationships, training, skills, and culture\u00a0that are fostered in person.\u00a0With safety at the forefront, we believe offices and corporate environments are well poised to\u00a0return and meet employees\u2019 changing needs better than ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"