As organizations open up and work starts getting back to normal amidst the pandemic, only a few workers can physically go to the office and the rest will keep working from home. Big organizations like Facebook have decided to allow full time employees to work from home and this shows how the work culture is becoming hybrid. John Tarzia from Digimark Communications shared with us his thoughts on how organizations can design workspaces to support hybrid collaboration.
I’ve had people say working remotely is like interacting with each other looking through a keyhole. You see a little part of what’s happening but not what’s going on all around you. You miss out on some action.
In a recent video conversation with a friend abroad, I asked, ‘how are you adjusting to reopening of office and WFH. He replies, ‘John, it’s crazy. But I have had to adjust to working without my pyjamas all over again. The office is looking at adopting a hybrid work culture for those who want to adopt it.’
This past year has changed people’s perceptions about the office. Some feel they can be productive at home, but others feel isolated or overwhelmed or even distracted.
Like my friend, many organizations have had to adjust on the design of workspaces, with many planning a degree of hybrid work; meaning some people will work in the office and some will work at home or in a third place. I believe the biggest question is going to be on how to successfully implement it.
I guess the long term question is going to be: how do you design work spaces to support hybrid collaboration and help people in the office and away from the office work together and seamlessly?
The fluidity that all of us go through between individual work, shifting to a sidebar conversation or moving to something more formally scheduled isn’t likely to change. So organizations need to be much more intentional about supporting how their employees move from one work mode to another.
However, understanding how people get their work done is one of those obscure things that companies don’t always have a good handle on. The idea that employees are only going to come into the office to collaborate doesn’t really make a lot of sense because that’s not how they schedule their days.
Employees still need access to privacy, the ability to find their colleagues and to be able to work in their rhythm. By prototyping work space ideas, work becomes very flexible.
In a hybrid mode, people are changing what technology they use and where they use it. Traditionally, companies had rooms set up with all the equipment they needed configured perfectly for a great video call but now people are doing video calls in places they weren’t doing them before. How do you ensure network coverage so this can work everywhere possible?
I guess the long term question is going to be: how do you design work spaces to support hybrid collaboration and help people in the office and away from the office work together and seamlessly?