What is hybrid office design, and why has it become so important for the modern office?
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated an already fast-moving trend: more employees working from home, often spread out across locations around the world. But even with the shift to remote work, the office has remained a vital epicenter of operations and productivity. This has ushered in the era of the "hybrid office" – an office designed to support both on-site teams and remote workers.
When done properly, hybrid office design helps teams collaborate, communicate and stay productive no matter where workers are located. In contrast, when hybrid office design is poorly executed, it creates challenging obstacles that leave workers feeling frustrated and unmotivated.
So, what's the secret to creating a hybrid office that works for everyone? Here are a few key tips.
How do your teams "get together" for meetings when they're located all over the place? Likely, they use some form of conferencing solution to meet virtually. But more often than not, this experience is worst for your off-site workers, while the office employees have the advantage of easily hearing everyone in the room.
Meeting equity is the idea that all your meeting participants should have an equal experience, whether they are on-site or remote. This means approaching maximizing technology and office strategies that ensure:
In the following tips, we illustrate some of the hybrid office design elements that can foster that meeting equity.
High-quality video conferencing technology ensures that every moment of the meeting, and every participant, is clearly captured for off-site viewing. So remote workers don't miss a thing, and the overall meeting experience is as good as if they were sitting in the actual room.
Multiple camera installations, bidirectional microphones and ceiling speakers are vital to delivering this experience. This technology should be seamlessly integrated with your meeting software. (Zoom Rooms and Teams Rooms are good examples of this kind of deployment.)
In a hybrid work environment, keeping your on-site employees motivated and productive is just as important as supporting your remote workers. This is where the design of the office plays an important role.
The incorporation of glass architectural walls and partition systems helps to create a more inviting, open and attractive office. The glass allows more natural light to fill the space, which has numerous benefits: increased productivity, better moods and higher levels of energy. The glass also makes the space more conducive to collaboration. End result: your employees are more comfortable at work; they feel better; and they genuinely enjoy coming into the office.
Aside from formal conference rooms, today's hybrid offices should offer additional spaces for people to gather. Huddle rooms, brainstorming areas, open workstations and game rooms are just a few of the many possibilities. The objective of these spaces is to encourage teams to meet in a casual environment and sometimes just step away from their work to reenergize.
Casual meeting spaces are great for not only your full-time on-site workers, but also for the remote employees who only occasionally visit the office.
Contact us today to learn more about creating a smarter hybrid office with architectural walls and other flexible workspace solutions from Rampart.