Adapting to hybrid working

As we enter the autumn, we at Cityspace are seeing an increasing number of clients now looking to the future and considering the evolving role of the office. As the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic subside, firms are moving forward with plans of how to adapt to a hybrid working model and adopt a blended office approach to create the optimum mix of onsite and remote working. 

A good example of this is a project we have recently completed for Butterfield Mortgages. Located on Cornhill in the heart of the City, the team at Cityspace designed and built new office interiors for Butterfield over two floors in 2017.

Recognising the success of remote working over the past 18 months, Butterfield made the decision to implement a blended office approach and maintain a percentage of staff working part-time from home on an ongoing basis. 

Adopting a blended office approach has a number of advantages. In terms of functionality, it shifts the role of the office to become a hub for interaction and collaboration rather than just a place for individual work, which could now be accomplished by staff working from home. In addition, creating a blended office can also lead to a significant reduction in floor space. With the cost of rent in London second only to salary costs, this can obviously deliver significant savings to the bottom line.

As we enter the autumn, we at Cityspace are seeing an increasing number of clients now looking to the future and considering the evolving role of the office. As the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic subside, firms are moving forward with plans of how to adapt to a hybrid working model and adopt a blended office approach to create the optimum mix of onsite and remote working. 

A good example of this is a project we have recently completed for Butterfield Mortgages. Located on Cornhill in the heart of the City, the team at Cityspace designed and built new office interiors for Butterfield over two floors in 2017.

Recognising the success of remote working over the past 18 months, Butterfield made the decision to implement a blended office approach and maintain a percentage of staff working part-time from home on an ongoing basis. 

Adopting a blended office approach has a number of advantages. In terms of functionality, it shifts the role of the office to become a hub for interaction and collaboration rather than just a place for individual work, which could now be accomplished by staff working from home. In addition, creating a blended office can also lead to a significant reduction in floor space. With the cost of rent in London second only to salary costs, this can obviously deliver significant savings to the bottom line.

Offices are all about people...

One thing that we at Cityspace have always said is that offices are all about people. As companies now plan a return to the office and look to introduce a blended office approach in order to create the right blend of onsite and remote working, the people aspect has never been more important. 

With many people still working from home, a lot of the discussion has been around how much time staff will be allowed to continue working remotely in the future. A survey conducted by our specialist research partner Baker Stuart found that 89% of respondents wanted to work remotely at least some of the time, with 62% wanting to work from home at least two days a week. 

However, a second and equally important question is how the office itself should adapt to this new paradigm. With a percentage of staff working from home, firms are now recognising that the office needs to become a hub for interaction and collaboration, rather than just individual work, but after the anguish and disruption of the past year, it also has to become a place that provides a sense of wellbeing and stimulates the productivity of teams.

It needs to begin with a vision

The starting point for developing a successful blended office concept has to begin with a clear vision. Given the speed of change that has happened to office life over the past year, it’s tempting to believe that things will bounce back and slot into the same routines as before. 

In our discussions with clients, we believe that the change in office life will likely be profound and long-lasting. Not only will staff want to continue to work from home part of the time, when they do return to the office they will also expect an environment that has adapted to the new circumstances.

A key aspect of the office is to create the right culture that reflects the company values and the brand. This will become a lot more difficult to do in an environment that is sparsely populated, still bound by social distancing restrictions, and with a design and layout that was created for a pre-COVID world. There are financial drivers here as well - with the business cost of floorspace in London second only to staff costs, it is imperative that every square foot is used in the most productive way.

Working with clients, the best way to manage this process is to create a clear vision at the outset of where the company and culture is today, and how you would like it to develop over the coming years. By doing so, this can provide management teams with a ‘North Star’ to guide office decision-making in the right direction in what are unprecedented times.     

Office design has to start from the bottom up

The impact of the pandemic has caused a seismic change, not only in the way it has forced people to vacate offices, but also in the way firms now need to plan their return to office life. Previously, decisions about office design and usage were generally top-down, whereby directors and management teams would decide the layout of meeting rooms and the requirements for team areas. 

But now, in order to create a successful return to the office, the decision-making needs to be bottom-up and led by a clear understanding of the issues and concerns of staff members with regard to both returning to and working in the office. The role of HR in office planning has now become crucial.

Three key things that firms need to understand is what are the concerns of people coming back, how will people now interact and work in the new office environment, and how to manage the right balance between onsite and remote working. The only way to get a proper understanding is through an evidence-based approach.

Nowadays, one size fits all thinking is no longer valid. Not only will there be marked differences in attitudes between different firms, there will also be significant differences between teams and demographic groups within a business. Some teams may have coped with the shift to home working much better than others and, within these teams, younger members may be itching to return to the office, while those who commute into London may much prefer to spend a higher proportion of time working from home. All these issues and concerns need to be balanced, but in a way that is also beneficial to the company, to productivity, and to the bottom line.

How Cityspace can help

The team at Cityspace is currently working with clients to help them understand and evaluate the people aspect of this new environment. Working with our research partner Baker Stuart, we can survey your staff to get a clear understanding of how they feel and then help you put an evidence-based plan into action.

If you would like any help, advice or further information, please give us a call on 0207 638 4250 or email info@cityspacemanagement.co.uk.

Don’t just remodel - it’s now time to reimagine the office...

The role of the office is now changing and evolving. As we near the end to what we hope will be the final lockdown, firms are now planning the future shape and size of their offices and how best to create a seamless blend between teams working within the office and those working from home.

But in creating this new ‘blended office’ approach, a key factor companies need to keep in mind is this - it's not just about remodelling your office to accommodate on site and remote working, it's about reimagining how your office will work both post pandemic and five years into the future. This has consequences in how you should think about and approach a blended office concept, in order to deliver the best results for your company, your staff and your bottom line.

Reimagining your office

With many companies planning to retain a proportion of time spent working from home, the role of the office is naturally evolving. Gone will be the need to accommodate all staff on a daily basis, meaning that the old desk-per-person policy may no longer be required. As a result, occupational density will fall, less desks will be required, making way for floor space to be used in different and more productive ways. 

The office of the future will therefore be about creating a space for people to meet and gather, to exchange ideas, launch new projects, and collaborate in both formal and informal ways. This, in turn, will require a reimagining of how meeting rooms, formal and informal spaces and collaboration zones are laid out and used, and how they seamlessly connect to team members working remotely.

However, individual work and workspaces will continue to be an important aspect of the office. After getting together for meetings, teams will still need a head-down space to work, and individuals will still require quiet zones in which to retreat to either work or Zoom.

For most companies, the cost of your office floor space is second only to the cost of employee salaries, meaning that it is imperative to use it in the most productive and cost effective way.

Culture is key

Moving towards a blended office concept has important cultural aspects that also need to be taken into account. After all, offices are all about people and an important goal of the office space is to create an environment that optimises the happiness and productivity of teams.

To create the right culture in your post-pandemic workplace, it is important to first understand your staff’s issue and concerns with regard to both returning to and working in the office, and their feelings about continuing to work remotely on a more permanent part-time basis.

Working with clients, we have found that there are not only differences between companies but also between staff groups within companies, meaning that bespoke solutions need to be applied.

Remembering those working from home

In tandem with reimagining the office, companies also need to consider their duty of care to staff working from home. Initially, working from home under COVID-19 was just a stopgap solution with employers sending staff home, often with a little thought about their home working environments. 

This has not only been bad news from individuals' posture, health and wellbeing, but also for employers' duty of care - under the law, companies are responsible for the equipment their staff use irrespective of where they are using it. Companies therefore now need to think longer term about their employees’ safety and welfare, and ensure they are using equipment which is ergonomically designed and meets Health & Safety (HSE) and Display Screen Equipment (DSE) regulations.

How Cityspace can help

The team at Cityspace is currently working with a number of clients to help them reimagine their office space and create a new blended office that meets their organisational needs.

We can help you understand how your staff really feel by conducting staff surveys in conjunction with our specialist research partner, Baker Stuart, one of only 10 companies in the world who are accredited for the WELL building standard.  

We can help you meet your duty of care as an employer by conducting home working DSE assessments through our partner DSE Assessments Ltd, which are comprehensive in identifying risk and recommending actions for improvement. And, through our sister company Homespace, we can provide you with the best homeworking packages suitable for full-time work (please visit www.homespaceoffice.co.uk).

If you would like any help, advice or further information, please give us a call on 0207 638 4250 or email info@cityspacemanagement.co.uk. 

The future of the office is bright… and blended

With so much upheaval to office life and working practices over the past year, one thing has been a constant - the need to remain flexible. 

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, both firms and their staff had no time to think as they hurriedly transitioned to working from home and social distancing within the office. What has become clear is that this massive home working experiment has worked much better than many companies initially expected.

As an end to the pandemic is now hopefully in sight, firms now have more time to reflect and consider planning the future of their office, and how to create the right blend in order to make onsite and remote locations work seamlessly in tandem.

What is now the role of the office? 

Many companies are planning to retain elements of working from home in the future and, as a consequence, the role of the office is changing. Rather than just utilising a singular site for business, working has now gone plural, consisting of a mix of office attendance and remote working.

Accompanying this change, the office now needs to adapt and become more flexible. It has to move from the concept of a site where each employee has their own desk, to become a space where people meet and gather to exchange ideas, launch projects and collaborate in both formal and informal ways. By doing so, firms will be able to increase the happiness and productivity of their teams, and at the same time make the most effective use of the office floorspace that they rent.

For those businesses who are already advanced in their thinking, there are a number of simple and cost-effective solutions to create a blended office approach, which we outlined in our earlier blog 5 Ways to bring back the buzz to your COVID-secure office.

But for many firms, how to take this next step may not be so clear; they need help formulating their plans and the team at Cityspace is currently working with clients to do this.

How Cityspace can help

Creating your new blended office does not begin with moving walls and designing floor plans. It starts with an approach and plan that is tailor made for your organisation to ensure the best outcomes. 

Here is how the Cityspace space team can help:

• Creating evidence based standards for workplace organisational fitness - our workplace and change management expert, Dr Linda Seward, will gladly talk you through our approach, ideas and outcomes based on experiences with other clients.

• Understanding your staff’s issues and concerns - we can show you how your teams really feel by conducting staff surveys, in conjunction with our specialist research partner, Baker Stuart, one of only 10 companies in the world who are accredited for the WELL building standard.  

• Meeting your duty of care as an employer - under the law, companies are responsible for the equipment their staff use, irrespective of where they are using it. We can help you meet your duty of care by conducting home working DSE assessments through our partner DSE Assessments Ltd, which are comprehensive in identifying risk and recommending actions for improvement.

• Bringing you the best homeworking packages suitable for full time work - through our sister company, Homespace, we have assessed and selected from across the entire market the best designs, functionality and value for money homeworking products. Please visit www.homespaceoffice.co.uk.

• Refocusing, reconfiguring or redesigning your existing office space - we believe one size does not fit all, so we work differently to others with a truly consultative approach to deliver the blended office that is right for you.

If you would like any help, advice or further information, please give us a call on 0207 638 4250 or email info@cityspacemanagement.co.uk.

5 ways to bring back the buzz to your COVID-secure office

As autumn begins, more and more businesses have successfully brought limited numbers of staff back into the office. For sure, this has been a major achievement by management teams to complete risk assessments and make their office spaces socially distanced and COVID-19 secure for both employees and staff.

But unfortunately, today as staff and those in charge of businesses look out over the new office environment, many of them will be struck by the feeling that it’s just not the same - the office space is now sparsely populated, with some areas like ghost towns and others sectioned off with tape that resemble crime scenes. COVID-19 has not, as some initially speculated, led to the death of the office but it has certainly been a buzzkill.

To combat this, the team at Cityspace is today sharing 5 simple and cost-effective ways to bring back the buzz into the office environment by moving towards a ‘blended office’ approach, in order to make the mix of onsite and remote locations work seamlessly in tandem with each other.

#1  Refocus your larger meeting rooms

Pre-COVID, the main focus of these spaces was to gather groups of people together in one place to meet and collaborate around a large table.

With social distancing requirements and a majority of staff still working from home, these spaces can be easily adapted to better rebalance smaller numbers of people now being present in the room with much larger numbers working remotely. 

To accommodate mixed location working, meeting rooms can be easily changed to facilitate both office attendees and their remote working colleagues. To do this, we have been helping clients by reviewing the existing screen size, the table's position and the camera angle, in order to bring whole teams together once more by providing the illusion of one single gathering. This can be accomplished regardless of the preferred technology platform being deployed.   

By doing so, the traditional board or conference room can now become a vital new part of the ‘blended office’ concept.

#2  Make sharing desks a better experience

For many people, having your own specific desk and a sense of personal real estate is an important aspect of office life. With offices now having to adopt desk sharing and an end of day clear desk policy for cleaning, this cultural sense of having your own space is now diminished.

A practical and cost-effective way to improve this is to make the experience of desk sharing better for staff. We at Cityspace have been helping clients do this by introducing easy to use software packages that staff can use to book their desired desk each day when required, and installing lockers with containers which staff can use to transport their belongings in order to set up their own personal deskspace on a daily basis.

#3  Bring office-based and remote teams together

With desk seating now arranged in a social-distanced zig-zag pattern, where for instance a bank of 8 desks has now become a space for 4 people, this has had a significant impact on peoples’ sense of being part of a team.

Yes, video conferencing software such as Zoom has been successful at bringing teams together for meetings, but many staff still miss the more informal across desk interaction that took place between teams throughout the day.  

To counter this, we have been installing screens on banks of desks that allow teams to run Zoom continuously during the day, connecting together those working in the office with colleagues at home. By doing so, companies can successfully leverage technology to bring back the more informal interaction, collaboration and conversations that traditionally take between teams working together. 

#4  Repurpose smaller meeting spaces

The close proximity of smaller meeting rooms has made these spaces impractical for social distancing. Even with reduced numbers occupying the room, many staff may be reticent in spending periods of time in such enclosed spaces.

Smaller meeting spaces can be refurnished for use as quiet rooms for concentrated tasks or simply adapted to provide rooms for collaborative working with remote colleagues. By adding in smart screens, software apps such as Zoom or Teams can be deployed with the simple addition of a £60 camera.

#5  Reconfigure social spaces

In recent years, the trend in office design has been to create informal zones within the office as breakout spaces for conversations, sharing ideas and social interaction. Currently, within the office many of these informal areas may not meet social distancing rules.

The changes here do not have to be dramatic - simply reducing seat numbers for social distancing and respacing furniture allows greater widths between furniture clusters enabling these spaces to be used once more.

At Cityspace, we believe that even under COVID-19 the office should still be a critical hub for collaboration and driving teams’ ideas, interactions and productivity. If you would like any help or advice on ways to bring back the buzz to your office, please give us a call on 0207 638 4250 or email info@cityspacemanagement.co.uk.