Design to thrive: How to bring resilience & positivity to the workplace
Organisational resilience has become integral during these complex times, a quality that depends significantly on the well-being of their workforce. After all, positivity and well-being improve the ability to solve problems, make decisions, get along with others, and collaborate towards meeting organisational goals. It also buffers the team from the adverse effects of stress, enhancing productivity and innovation and helping the business thrive.
Now, as we return to the office after a long hiatus, leaders need to create an environment where employees feel safe, comfortable and positive. More than ever, the workplace needs to offer employees some choice over what activities to do, and when, where and with whom to execute them.
How to give your workforce control over their work environment?
To bring choice and control to the office, you need to know what people want. Earlier in 2020, we issued a survey to better understand concerns about returning to work. The results tell us that key protocols from before the pandemic need to be relooked, such as work from home and sick leave policies. While safety continues to be vital, employees also seek face-to-face interactions and technology to enable collaboration. So, how can you facilitate such demands through your workplace design?
Provide choices & the ability to focus
As most employees work from home and office, they will need a variety of settings to do uninterrupted work, heads-down work. As your workforce returns, your office must balance the need to focus on the task at hand with the need for collaboration and face-to-face interaction. When we partnered with BrowserStack for their Mumbai office, our experts delivered a space that gave employees the freedom to take on multiple roles and activities without compromising transparency and collaboration.
Create a sense of well-being & belonging
Health and protocols are paramount to building confidence in the return to the workplace today. But during the long period of remote working, we've also become more appreciative of comfort in reducing workplace stress and improving productivity. For Rubrik's Bangalore office, our focus fell on the physical comfort of the employee. We designed a smart fitness-driven strategy, incorporating height-adjustable monitors, dynamic desks which can be converted to standing heights and flexible seating options throughout the office interiors and even helped establish a culture of healthy eating.
Accelerate growth with technology
Technology has become a key enabler during this pandemic. Organisations are now accelerating their digital transformation journey to drive innovation and engagement. Our experiential facility in Gurgaon, Beta Lab, uses the latest IoT technology platform to integrate building and lighting management systems with workplace technologies and AV systems. They allow the employees to regulate and customise their immediate microenvironment.
Impact with workplace experience
Technology can shape a positive, future-forward workplace experience for both employees and clients and guests. For example, when it comes to our Beta Lab, the workplace experience starts long before clients or guests step inside. Our SpaceXP app logs in new guests and their identification details when the meeting is confirmed. Once they arrive, the app helps them to find their way to the workspace.
Communicate community & organisation values
Of all the functions the physical workplace fulfils for business leaders, this is perhaps the most important one — transmitting organisational values and creating a sense of community and camaraderie. A good rapport with one's colleagues, getting together to bond, laugh and socialise, and feeling like one belongs are essential motivating factors. Our workplace design for Boston Consulting Group (BCG) creates space for recreation, enjoyment and social interactions with multiple kiosks, a juice bar, a live kitchen, and a food truck. The employees often unwind over a game of table tennis or pool, or turn the giant screen on a wall into a theatre to host movie nights for the team.
Identify what your workforce needs from the workplace
The pandemic has adversely impacted the sense of control that people have over their lives, and work is one such area that has been affected. But at the same time, 2020 is the year of The Great Reset, with many businesses and people using this opportunity to pivot towards a new business model, new formats of work or new work environments.
Moving forward, in a world where we will all be offered the choice of coming to the office or working from home, it becomes essential to design the workplace for physical, functional, and psychological comfort.
Here at Space Matrix, we’re helping organisations and leadership teams identify what people really need from a changing workplace, and using our Five Point Path Workplace Strategy to redefine the post-pandemic office and meet organisational goals. Reach out to discuss how your workplace can support your business impact roadmap.