What you’ll learn:
- 3 Benefits to one standard office size
- Top 4 trends in Attorney Private Offices
- Social Spaces on the rise
Legal Workplace – Real Estate Optimization
Businesses are struggling to remain financially healthy during the pandemic. Some are focused on surviving until things can return to normal, but others are seizing an opportunity to think differently while engaging their top talent.
Keeping co-workers connected has a direct impact on employee engagement and mental health. If innovation is part of your company culture, look at what comes before innovation occurs – creativity and collaboration.
We’re all getting this digital connection thing down, but it’s not the same as being in-person.
See how Nelson Worldwideis ideating on the future of collaboration- COVID-19 Can’t Cancel Workplace Collaboration
Creativity and Innovation are not synonymous. A new idea is sparked by creativity but taking that idea into something people can use is Innovation.
Workplace design can provide opportunities for creative activities that spark new ideas and foster innovation. Create spaces for focus, rest, and the in-between both for groups and individuals.
Go deeper with this Haworth paper – Optimizing the Workplace for Innovation
1.Protect Focus – full or partial privacy to block external stimuli
2.Time for Restoration – allow for desired distractions and long views
3.Mix of spaces -predictable rituals + flexible environments with totems for inspiration
4.User control of tools to co-create and transition spaces for spontaneous collaboration
The pandemic has sent much of our workforce home. Competing personal and professional demands on remote workers may lead to concentrated time to get work accomplished. This can translate to slouching over a make-shift desk for hours before taking a break. Long periods of standing is not any better than long periods of sitting. Workers are experiencing higher levels of anxiety so a focus on employee wellbeing is critical. Research shows that different types of movement will lead to healthier, engaged, and high-performing employees.
Even low intensity physical activity can impact your wellbeing. Many of us have traded in a workplace that required us to move throughout the day for a stationary desk at home. If employees can break each 30-minute segment of their day into the 3 layers of movement, you will increase productivity, reduce absenteeism, and reduce healthcare costs.
The increased use of technology in our daily work has led to a much more sedentary life. Not only does physical activity benefit the body, but the mind as well. While difficult to control the home office environment, managers can show employees simple ways to layer in movement throughout the day.
These concepts and more are featured in the Haworth 2020 Trend Insights. Also, read this Spark article on the 3 Layers of Movement.
How can companies support employees’ wellbeing, maintain culture and encourage productivity during the changing work landscape? As companies prepare for some staff to return to the workplace, they will be managing a partially occupied office and the variety of home offices their staff also occupy.
Through extensive research, Haworth developed a framework called Affordances. At its core, the Affordances use science to suggest environmental changes to encourage desired behaviors. It is comprised of three main areas; Cognitive, Physical and Emotional. Cognitive relates to doing your “mind’s best work” through supporting information recall, stimulus control and communication. Physical comfort of workers is affected by anthropometrics, lighting and temperature, but also ergonomics and activity. Authenticity, wellbeing, and affinity drive the emotional aspects. A well-designed workplace can contribute to human performance optimization. Right now, employers have lost much of the ability to provide a supportive work environment, forcing employees to manipulate their homes to accommodate full-time work.
Tools & Applications:
Supporting employees’ ability to do their best work starts with managing stimuli that is irrelevant. At home, people may not have the luxury of moving to a quieter spot as in the office. They can identify which tasks need true focus without noise or interruptions and which tasks would benefit from creating a “coffee shop” energy. With workers dispersed into their own homes, employers will have to foster collaboration through virtual platforms encouraging use of video to better facilitate intentional interaction. Empower employees to control their schedule so they can carve out time for focus work and collaborative efforts and recognize they may have to balance the demands of children or other family members at home.
A majority of employees’ work is done on the computer while sitting. At the office, having a variety of work settings gives people choice and variety. This option is likely limited at home. Connect employees with resources to purchase good ergonomic seating, height adjustable desks, a second monitor or other ergonomic tools. Offer a “Work From Home” allowance towards these purchases. Movement from visiting common areas for re-filling coffee, water or making a copy or walking to the different meeting spaces will be greatly diminished at home. Encourage activity breaks throughout the day to replicate that movement through the office. Once people start returning to the workplace, it will likely be not at full capacity thus the movement even there will be less than before.
Recognize this change in people’s lives causes additional stress. It is even more important to give employees a sense of belonging. Ask managers to have weekly 1-on-1 calls with their staff. Provide a sense of security through regular, live communication from leadership even if there is not new information to share. Offer opportunities for fun and wellness inspired activities and ways employees can connect to their community by giving back. Give employees permission throughout the day to take breaks from work and family obligations. If their home office does not have access to natural daylight or views to nature, suggest breaks where they can view the horizon outdoors. These mental breaks are more likely to be taken if they are scheduled as well.
A Preparedness Plan is important to facilitate the logistics of returning to work, ensuring employees that you have their safety in mind. Taking it further by including aspects to the plan that cover the Cognitive, Physical and Emotional impacts on the workplace and home office is equally important. Open a feedback loop for employees to share what’s working and what’s not working. Employee engagement in your return to workplace strategy will safeguard their sense of safety, ensure plan adoption and position your organization for success.
You can also find “Improving the Employee Experience – At Home and At Work” in the June edition of the ALAMN Verdict.
Fluid Interiors is committed to providing a safe and healthy workplace for all our workers.
We are serious about safety, health and keeping our people working at Fluid Interiors. Our Preparedness Plan follows Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) guidelines and federal OSHA standards related to COVID-19 and addresses:
Workers have been informed of and encouraged to self-monitor for signs and symptoms of COVID-19.
Fluid Interiors has implemented leave policies that promote workers staying at home when they are sick, when household members are sick, or when required by a health care provider to isolate or quarantine themselves or a member of their household. Signs will be posted by each entry with a series of questions employees must ask themselves before they enter the workplace. If they answer yes to any of these questions, they have been informed not enter the facility and immediately contact their manager.
Join Betsy Vohs with Studio BV, Jennifer Polzin with Tubman, Bob Gardner with Gardner Builders and our very own moderator Megan Duffy Sananikone as they continue to connect our industry on current topics and share a special project profile on Tubman.
Our Connect Series continues! Join Scott Hierlinger with NELSON Worldwide, Jennifer Stumm with Cushman & Wakefield, Jennifer Somers with Haworth and our very own moderator Megan Duffy Sananikone as they continue to connect our industry on current topics and share a special project profile on Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP.
How are businesses re-evaluating the role of real estate? Is anyone returning to the workplace and what is their plan? What is most important about the future of the physical workplace? Our latest Connect Panel, Return to Work(place), addresses these questions and more! Thank you to our moderator, Megan Duffy Sananikone, and our panelists, Deanne Erpelding with NELSON Worldwide, Jennifer Somers with Haworth, and Roslyn zumBrunnen with NELSON Worldwide for providing their knowledge and expertise during this discussion.
To give space to the important conversations sparked by the horrific death of George Floyd, we have opted to cancel the live panel discussion we had planned on building a community. It is hard work to address racial inequity, but it must be done.
Instead we are offering a recorded version of a meaningful conversation that occurred prior to the recent events around the importance of community in our physical environments that have been so heavily impacted by the pandemic.
Should you have any questions for the panelist please reach out to them directly using the links below.
On our Second Edition of our Connect Series, our very own Megan Duffy Sananikone moderated as we heard from Barry Stoffel with Gardner Builders, Caitlin Wolff with Haworth, Cassandra Griep with IA Interior Architects, and Chas Simcox with Avison Young on the topic of: Working From Home With a Family During a Pandemic.
Check out the discussion below and see our panelists connect on the complexities and blessings that working from home with their families during a pandemic has brought.
If you weren’t able to join us for our first Connect panel discussion, no problem! Check out our recording of the session below to hear from Ann Fritz with ESG | Architecture & Design (Elness Swenson Graham Architects Inc.), Heather Weerheim with Greiner Construction, Jessica Mogilka with JLL, and our very own Megan Duffy Sananikone to learn about how they are navigating what’s next in the world of workspace during these unprecedented times.
The New Normal?
Our current state is not normal. In fact, how can we call it the new normal when it seems to change every other day and sometimes every few hours? People long to go back to the days of normal before the Coronavirus, but most recognize that will not happen. We are changed.
I invite you to learn with me as I explore how the topics below will impact the future of our daily work.
Look for posts in the coming days and weeks. Share with your friends and send me your feedback. First, let’s tackle Social Distancing.
Physical Distancing
I agree with those that are using the phrase Physical Distancing rather than Social Distancing. Human beings are by nature social creatures. Even as we are required to stay at home, we are bridging the physical gap by connecting over the phone and computer. Even before this, the work world was evolving to find a balance between individual focus work and group collaboration. Physical distancing is bringing new challenges. In-person meetings allow users to see each other, take notes or reference content on their personal laptops, share their screens on large monitors that are easy to read, and sketch ideas quickly on an adjacent whiteboard. We have multiple media outlets at our disposable for ideation, sharing, and documentation. We can read visual clues from each other to ensure that everyone is feeling heard.
Now try to take all of that and fit it onto a 15″ laptop screen at your home office or dining room table. You must constantly toggle between reference content on your small screen, mute yourself to eliminate background noise, move your face closer to the screen to see presented content, all while remembering that others can see every strange move you make on camera. Perhaps you’ve even tilted your camera to show a diagram you quickly sketch by hand.
Virtual Meeting Guidelines
There are many virtual meeting platforms, but unless your company made significant use of these tools before, we have been on a steep learning curve to collaborate virtually in effective and meaningful ways. We are learning there is a need to develop best practices around virtual collaboration for today and the future. Here’s what to consider when developing guidelines.
Online whiteboard
Equipment
Virtual conference software
Etiquette
We’re all in this together
Remind everyone to follow typical meeting rules such as starting and ending on time, developing an agenda, and designating someone to distribute notes. Don’t ignore the casual conversations that naturally happen before and after an in-person meeting. Have the facilitator start the meeting a few minutes early to allow informal banter or kick-off the agenda with a check-in. Conclude the formal agenda a few minutes early but leave the meeting room open for comments from the group. Especially during this time of increased social isolation, the value of these interactions is key to mental health.
Adopt an attitude of being in this together. Everyone will be on a different level of familiarity with the virtual tools. Allow for user error and encourage positivity. Providing technical support in the beginning will help make users more comfortable. Recognize how important continuous training will be as platforms launch new features and you receive feedback from users. Bringing people together is more important now than ever. Let’s commit to making the best of virtual tools.
Work is the number one stress inducer according to The Healthy Workplace Nudge. Stress affects everyone and not all stress is bad. It can be a motivator when there is a need to prepare for an important task or even be life-saving in dangerous situations, but long-term stress contributes to chronic disease, depression, and anxiety.
The Global Wellness Institute states that only 25% of employees believe their company offers a wellness program because they care. Over half of employees think their companies’ intent is to lower health care costs or increase productivity. Organizational leaders do care about a healthy and happy staff, but often struggle to find the best way to increase employee well-being. There is an opportunity surrounding us every day that can make a tremendous impact on the happiness and engagement of employees; your physical space.
The evolution of the global economy is changing how and where we work. With the fight to attract and retain talent, businesses are making significant investments in their office space. Current space utilization technologies highlight where people work, but next generation systems will soon transform the employee experience altogether. Once you invest in this software, what do you do with the information? The ever-changing workforce requires companies to adapt even after the initial install. Organizations that embrace this now will be best positioned for the future. Those that wait will find themselves in antiquated surroundings.
The mobile workforce will be 1.87 billion globally by 2022. By 2030, all baby boomers will be older than age 65. That leaves tens years for organizations to facilitate the most substantial knowledge transfer in human history – amongst five distinct generations – during a time of seemingly-constant business model disruption/upheaval.
At Fluid, we believe that organizational transformations like this are best facilitated when IT, HR and Real Estate (RE) groups work together. In the case of space utilization, these three distinct groups find themselves as equal partners/stakeholders. Real-time occupancy data saves workers time in finding a space to work (RE), locating peers for collaboration (HR), and participating in increasingly connected buildings (IT). In the future, floor plans will update themselves, content will become available automatically when & where employees need it, and initiatives such as knowledge transfer will become thoughtfully reflected in the digital experience of the built environment.
It is no longer safe for companies to assume that the space they design and furnish at the beginning of a 10-year lease can remain static. Numerous factors influence how, when and where people do their best work. Forward-thinking organizations will recognize that change is constant and plan an adaptable environment – allowing real estate to be optimized continually. By assessing your current ways of working, space utilization data can inform immediate opportunities to optimize your space. Even within an existing footprint, small adjustments can be made with minimal disruption.
If you’re fortunate enough to have a real estate event in the next 18-24 months, you have a prime opportunity to test potential solutions now with a test group and learn what might work best for your unique organization. Create a work environment for this group and employ space utilization technology as one tool to assess effectiveness.
