Insights from the forefront of future of work thought leadership

The impact of the coronavirus on our society has been far-reaching, some changes were temporary and others had a lasting effect. One area that has been significantly affected is the workplace environment and our expectations for the future of offices.

In previous discussions about the future of work in Australia, we have emphasised the challenges posed by skills shortages, the competition for talent, and the need to manage a diverse workforce spanning multiple generations.

These challenges have thrown up a need for organisations to: 

• Increase employee benefits and flexible working options to attract talent
• Compete more readily for talent on a global scale, and
• Reduce focus on degrees, skills and experience in favour of talent and purpose.

In terms of workplace design, we’ve seen businesses adjusting to employee expectations by creating diverse and flexible workspaces, such as quiet zones for deep work, or meeting areas for collaborative teamwork. For employers, this involved an intentional shift to consider the needs of their employees with workspaces that accommodate different types of work and working styles.

3 years after the global pandemic, how has the future of work changed and what can we expect the office of the future to look like?

It’s worth noting that disease and the fear of infection has influenced architecture and the form of our built environments many times in the past. Cholera prompted the introduction of sewerage systems, the bubonic plague in China led to rat-proofing buildings, and tuberculosis is at least partially responsible for the white, clean modernist aesthetic. 

There is little doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has also changing the way we use our workspaces.  

Contactless design

Base building architects and workplace designers are prioritising hands-free and contactless pathways through offices, using technology such as voice activation, sensors, facial recognition and smartphones. Ideally, we will be entering our buildings through sensor doors, calling the lift on our smartphones and using facial recognition to enter your office suite, making it to your desk without the need to needlessly touch surfaces. Embracing these technologies will further future-proof workspaces and increase visitor and employee engagement within the spaces.

Flexibility as we’ve never known it 

Not-withstanding the negative impact COVID-19 had on the world around us, most of us were empowered with trust from our employers overnight – and most responded in an exceptional manner.  Working flexibly and remotely was suddenly normalised and the stigma attached to it has disappeared.  

This period has been enlightening, giving us a fresh perspective on the way we work; a reset of work-life balance as we have not experienced in the recent past. We need to remember that with enlightenment comes responsibilities for us as employees, to work proactively to make the new environment work. As such, we’ve identified some success factors for individuals and teams working in the new normal: 

     1. The ability to work with autonomy

William Shakespeare, as always, makes this point with the least verbiage:  “It is not in the stars to hold our destiny, but in ourselves.” Organisations will benefit greatly from team members that are self-directed and who manage up and drive results rather than being passengers on this journey. 

     2. Physical distance requires – and often builds – trust 

Stronger bonds have been built in teams as we prove to ourselves and to each other that we are reliable and available – despite being physically distanced. 

     3. Flexibility requires an outcome focus 

Work is not a rigid time schedule, but rather is about goals you achieve and tasks you master. Our forced work-from-home time has shown us what we always knew, but were frightened to demonstrate: that it is the output and outcome that matter, not that you were still at your desk at 7pm on a Thursday. 

     4. True connection comes from knowing the people behind the work 

We’ve come to know each other on a deeper level now – being let into each other’s sanctuaries. We’ve seen changes in the way colleagues interact. Emotional barriers have been broken down as we’ve witnessed each other on Zoom calls, managing our work and home lives alongside one another. We’re meeting each other’s pets, kids and housemates; seeing inside their bedrooms, living rooms and kitchens. 

The clear boundaries between work and home have become blurred and this is often for the better, creating more genuine relationships and greater flexibility in response to different employees’ needs. Our relationships are no longer transactional and will hopefully never return to being just that. 

Managers and business leaders have also been innovative in how they support their teams from a distance, with many showing greater concern for employee mental health and wellbeing. As remote workers make up a greater portion of their teams in the future, employers need to continue to facilitate engaging employee onboarding, collaboration and connection.

So what happens next? 

IOur workplaces will always play a crucial role in maintaining cultural placemaking and binding teams together.  This means that organisations will look at their facilities in a different light and not calculate their required office space based on a rough 10 sqm/FTE (full time employee) which has become the norm. The thought that organisations may now appreciate wider thoroughfares and distancing workstations more spaciously is simply a more exciting and human alternative to the dense population approach of 2019. 

Now with hybrid working becoming the norm, focussed work can be done at home, and allowing the workspace as a hub for social connection, incidental conversation and collaboration. The golden moments that are not scheduled and often lead to innovation, happen in the office when no one plans it. By providing an activated, engaged hub which caters for various activities, a new workspace provides a variety of accommodation for staff counts way beyond the traditional 1/10 sqm calculations, whilst decreasing the density of bodies in space at any particular moment in time.

This has lead to some organisations keeping their current leased space but increasing their alternate accommodation, or indeed, decreasing their required space all together. We anticipate that this will need to be assessed for all organisations, based on their unique needs.

COVID-19 accelerated the future of work and the future of workplace design. To help businesses plan their workplace strategy for the future, we have assembled the most crucial future of work knowledge in one place. Check out all you need to know about the future of work here

While new to many organisations, remote working is likely to be here for some time – and managing remote teams with it. However, remote work has actually long been active in several industries and organisations. It was estimated that in 2019, 68 percent of Australian companies were offering some kind of remote work arrangement.

This isn’t surprising, as there are many known benefits of working from home, both for the individual as well as the company.

For the individual, often it means operating on your own schedule. Working during off-hours – either early in the morning or late into the night – is often highly productive thanks to reduced interruptions from colleagues. The research supports this, with 77 percent of remote workers saying they are more productive working remotely than in an office – a clear benefit also for the organisation.

Avoiding the commute is another major benefit of remote work for many employees. Just last year, it was estimated that the average Australian commute is now 66 minutes per day. This is time that remote workers can instead invest in personal health and relationships instead.

Concerned with the bias that can exist in some reports, Forbes recently curated research from Gallup, Harvard University, Global Workplace Analytics, and Stanford University. Forbes found that teleworkers are 35–40 percent more productive than office counterparts, and remote work autonomy promotes higher quality results, with a 40 percent reduction in quality defects. Organisations also save an average of $100,000 per year per part-time telecommuter.

However, working from home also comes with its challenges. 19 percent of employees who work remotely cite loneliness as one of their biggest challenges. Additionally, physical challenges can arise when employees find themselves working at a too-high kitchen table, or in an awkward chair, working with insufficient light, or without decent acoustics for calls – all of which can lead to injuries over time. These create risks for both individuals and employers.

One thing that has become crystal clear during the pandemic, is that employees working from home need tangible physical, technological and emotional support from employers in order to remain engaged, productive and healthy.

Emotional wellbeing

Looking after employees’ wellbeing is similar to looking after your own. Ensuring there is balance in the employees’ lives, and work does not take over everything is essential. Promoting healthy physical behaviours, including exercise and healthy eating, can be done via office perks and subscriptions just as easily at home as a fruit bowl and running club can in the office. Similarly, relevant, constructive rewards and recognition can motivate employees to progress towards their goals.

Strong communication, setting clear expectations, holding regular video conferences and team huddles for formal work interactions help ensure your remote workers understand exactly what is expected. A structured work week is also essential for teams to stay connected, deliver progress updates and also for a sense of mental wellbeing. Letting work filter into homelife and homelife filter into work can both be counterproductive. Virtual lunches and online drinks can also help to ensure individuals feel less isolated and more connected to their team, even while working remotely.

Effective technology

Technologies that support collaboration, communication and transparency between team members are making work from home environments much more productive and comfortable than ever before. Zoom has recently become a verb, and while Slack used to be code for ‘cool tech company’, it is now code for ‘frequently-communicating team’. Enterprise tools such as Microsoft Teams are getting a strong workout daily. Meanwhile, ensuring there is a centralised document platform where employees can access files, such as the G-Suite or any Enterprise Content Management System has become essential to supporting productivity.

Physical Wellbeing

Many employees relocated to their home workspace in March 2020 with nothing more than their laptops. Slated initially as a temporary measure, two weeks have turned into six, and social distancing is to stay for some time yet. This could mean that employees who are working at home now are at risk of injury and strains if they’re not properly set up.

An ergonomic home office set-up is a relatively small investment that can have huge rewards – not least of which is a 25 percent uplift in productivity. Naturally, an ergonomic workspace will also decrease the risk of compensation claims and demonstrate to your employees that you’re taking good care of them.

If setting up ergonomic home offices for your employees is something you’re not sure about, get an expert involved early in your planning and get your business ahead of the competitive curve.

Axiom Workplaces applies principles of ergonomic office design to remote working. We help organisations achieve maximum wellness, engagement and productivity for remote teams. Take a look at our work-from-home solutions.

In recent years, flexible work arrangements have been increasingly sought by the Australian workforce. However, it hasn’t been until the current COVID-19 crisis that many organisations have stumbled upon the overriding benefits of working from home. As a result, and also because people will not soon forget the potentially dangerous impact of personal contact, futurists are predicting that when quarantine ends, remote working will continue for many.

How to set up a home office 

Setting up an ergonomic home working environment is harder than it sounds. While stock imagery frequently features bespectacled models in grey wool, curling up on a trendy sofa with their laptop, the reality for many is far from that. Most of us make do with a makeshift desk, a static chair at the dining table, or perching on a stool at the kitchen bench.

However, if your company is serious about productivity, improving your team’s ergonomic set-up at home should be your top priority. Research completed by the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries in the US recently found that ergonomics is well worth the investment.

The study showed that ergonomics significantly reduces company costs, with a 65 percent reduction in incidence rates and a 75 percent reduction in lost workdays. Additionally, ergonomics can improve employee productivity by up to 25 percent, as well as the quality of work, with a 67 percent average reduction in errors.

Of course, ergonomic workspaces increase employee engagement as staff recognise and appreciate the investment in their safety and comfort—and the numbers in the study support this too.

What exactly is an ergonomic workspace? 

An ergonomic workspace is one that is comfortable enough to improve both wellness and productivity. It can involve the proper arrangement or modification of existing furniture and equipment, or the purchase and installation of supportive items that are designed to align and support the body during work periods.

It usually includes items such as your office chair, key objects like the phone, print equipment and materials, keyboard and mouse, screen, footrest and desk, as well as light and your monitor. It can also extend to items that support helpful behaviours, such as office storage that prevent mess and distractions in your workspace.

Why consider investing in ergonomics at home? 

If remote working is to continue in some form over the coming months and perhaps years, and an ergonomic set-up can provide anywhere up to a 25 percent uplift in productivity, it seems like an obvious choice to invest in some best-practice home office set-ups. Just as commercial office design equips people for work and engagement, so too can remote workspaces.

Building a productive, ergonomic workspace at home

On an individual level, it could be relatively easy to read a guide and set yourself up for success. However, when managed from an organisational perspective, a little forethought, research and expert help can make all the difference.

1. Evaluation 

The first place to start is in evaluating the employee’s set-up. Is there a known issue with their workspace that can be fixed with rearranging furniture, buying ergonomic equipment or fixing lighting? If evaluating more than 20 employees in this way, you’ll need a well-designed survey so you can assess patterns and create a strategy that combats the majority of high-impact issues. Individual issues can be addressed thereafter.

2. Results and recommendations 

Results of your evaluation can mean purchasing equipment, or simply making some small changes to where and how people are currently set up.  A good ergonomic chair is a strong starting point that helps keep the body aligned and allow for some movement. There are many ergonomic options out there on the market, so choose an expert to work with for the best value, best practice options.

Remember – desk and chair position, body position, movement breaks and other behavioural aspects can have a huge impact in instances where you cannot afford to purchase equipment for every, single employee, so don’t discount training.

3. Employee training 

With every investment in a productive workspace comes a corresponding commitment to best practice behaviours from the company, as well as the individual.  Training on the seemingly smallest aspects of behaviour and office set-up can significantly reduce strains and injuries. For example, natural light decreases fatigue and improves feelings of wellbeing and happiness. Keeping a screen perpendicular to a window can reduce glare and therefore eye strain, while providing the required illumination for computer and desk work.

Employee training can deliver many specialist directives that are easy to implement but have a huge impact on wellbeing and output.

What to do next 

While the government is starting to talk about restrictions being lifted, many bodies predict that social distancing measures could continue as long as into 2022. As remote working is also more cost-beneficial to many organisations, this could mean that widespread remote working will continue long after social distancing measures are relaxed.

It may be worth modelling what this looks like for your business in the coming months and years. If remote working even for part of your workforce continues to make sense, you’re going to need to invest in the right equipment and advice for your people.

If setting up ergonomic home offices for your employees is something you’re not sure about, get an expert involved early in your planning and get your business ahead of the competitive curve.

Axiom Workplaces applies principles of ergonomic office design to remote working. We help organisations achieve maximum wellness, engagement and productivity for remote teams around the future of work.

The workplace is changing around us as we speak. With more and more people working remotely or with flexible work arrangements, employers are facing new challenges daily in how they create a positive company culture, enable collaboration, attract new talent and plan for growth.

Because of this, there is a serious conversation happening all over the globe about what the future of work and its workforce will look like. We’re in the middle of a massive overhaul of the workplace as we once knew it. The questions we are constantly being asked, and asking of ourselves, is how we can better shape workplaces to accommodate these shifts, while also future-proofing and facilitating these new ways of working.

With this is mind, we invited Cindy Lenferna De La Motte, Future of Work Strategist and Head of Customer and Community at Harvest Digital Planning, to join Annelie Xenofontos, Axiom’s Senior Workplace Strategist, to lead a conversation on company culture, how to create intelligent workplace design outcomes and the future of the workplace. The answers below are a summary of both their responses during the event.

What are the key challenges of the future workplace?

It’s here, it’s arrived and we are already working in this ‘future’ workplace. The key challenge here is the pace of the evolution, and how businesses and employees are keeping up.

Professional development, once considered a 'nice-to-have,' has now become a critical 'must-have' in the evolving future of work. Future of work strategists emphasize that individuals should dedicate three hours per week to enhancing their skills, ensuring they stay relevant and adaptable in the workplace over the next 25 years. By prioritizing continuous learning, professionals can future-proof their careers and remain competitive in an ever-changing job market.

Upskilling and innovation play a massive role; businesses alone cannot afford or accommodate the pace of upskilling that individuals need to keep up with the digital evolution that’s happening. Employees need to take on this growth mindset and responsibility for themselves, and employers need to wholeheartedly support and facilitate their learning.

Those in senior roles, leading business change and growth, cannot rest on their tried and tested measures. Instead, they must lead the way in updating their knowledge and learning so as to drive innovation both in their businesses and in their staff, ensuring their business remains competitive and up-to-date.

There are numerous meet-ups, short courses, podcasts, reading material and forums to meet up with other people, learn and share information. Gone are the days of doing a university degree that will see you through a job for life and into retirement. The lifetime of learning in degrees is now estimated to be three to five years post-graduation, so adopting a new approach and mindset to lifelong learning, even into retirement, is part of the future of work evolution.

From a workplace perspective, customisation is now a baseline requirement. We don’t want to fit in a box anymore. We are working in more sophisticated ways, and we want and expect a customised work environment that supports innovation, creativity and efficiency.

Businesses need to constantly think about what is next and their workplaces need to be conducive to thriving in this evolution.

What are the top skills needed for the future workplace?

Diversity and inclusion are topics that have been talked about for a while and are certainly on the HR agenda, but they need to be highly prioritised in the workplaces of the future. Workspaces need to be designed to facilitate the collaboration of employees of different ages, cultures and backgrounds, and to enable spontaneous conversations, innovation and learning to occur. The evolution of business practices doesn’t only come from business leaders anymore. It comes from every person in the workforce.

Young people coming into the workforce have a wealth of information to bring, while the current working generations have significant experience to draw on. Encouraging collaboration between generations through smart workplace design and technology allows a business and its staff to bolster and flex its knowledge base for now and into the future. This is where the magic of a diverse workforce happens.

In Australia, we are relatively good when it comes to creating a diverse workforce, particularly in larger cities, however inclusion of a diverse workforce still requires attention. We need to be choosing skills and capabilities over age, location and culture to keep our businesses at the forefront, and upskilling current team members into new roles to keep them relevant.

Is the war for talent real?

We have a skills shortage in Australia and the war for talent is real and fierce. According to the Australian HR Institute, there are almost one million more job opportunities than there are employed people in Australia.

The top companies are offering impressive compensation and benefit packages, which the most talented individuals are honing in on. And businesses are getting clever with what they are offering—thinking not just about more dollars, but also about the ways their staff want to work and live.

Your culture, mission, purpose and workspace have such an impact on your employer value proposition (EVP). From the moment someone walks into your office space, they think about whether it feels like a good company to work for. Is your office representative of your culture and attractive to talent?

A workplace that embodies the culture, mission and purpose of the company lives out its values and starts to hand back autonomy to staff, one of the biggest motivators for top talent. Invest in your employees through creating a space that’s meaningful to them and allows them to do their best work. Creating a comfortable work environment and reducing employee frustration are key metrics in your workspace design, as are:

• Green spaces
• Personalised spaces
• Quiet spaces
• Environmentally friendly processes
• A focus on health and wellbeing
• The opportunity for connection, creativity and deep work

Cindy says, “At Harvest Digital & Planning, we made a conscious decision to source the best candidates for skill and capability regardless of location. The world is literally our oyster and right now our team is 100 percent remote.”

Remote working comes with new challenges, but ones that we are working through, finding new ways to be inclusive and find the emotion in our day-to-day interactions as face-to-face teams do. With remote and flexible working becoming the norm, businesses and workplaces need to find new ways that work for them and their own cultures to address inclusion for remote teams. We don’t have all the answers but we are experimenting together.

What kind of technology and processes can you use to bring remote workers and workspaces together?

This will differ from organisation to organisation depending on your workplace culture and the type of work that you do. But at the heart of it is asking yourself what your team needs in order to stay connected at a human level, as well as at an operational level.

Some businesses initiatives that have worked for businesses we know are:

• Ensuring that all new employee onboarding is done face-to-face, even if that means flying someone to head office for an induction. Ensure that all managers of new staff make the time to make that face-to-face connection as this is the start of inclusion and sets the tone from the outset of the employment relationship.
• Connecting people back in through regular town halls or team-based meetings.
• Communication is critical so have a real-time tool like Slack or Skype for chat. This also helps reinforce culture.
• The “cupcake experience”: always consider who isn’t in the office to receive the cupcakes brought in by a team member. What can you do for those not getting a cupcake? It might seem like a small thing, but it goes miles when it comes to making a remote worker feel included.
• Pizza hour: bringing everyone together to eat pizza.
• Using emojis or gifs in communication allows emotion and sentiment to come through in email and internal comms.

Workplaces can evolve and flourish in businesses with lots of remote workers with some innovative thinking.

At Axiom, we encourage businesses we work with to think about how they might be innovative with their space depending on the outcomes they require. How much space do they really need? How can they reduce their environmental footprint, waste and cost by thinking about the way their staff will use the workspace?

Solutions such as agile working environments that chop and change according to business fluidity, spaces for technology that connect staff members both in-house and remotely, flexible working so spaces might be used differently on different days depending on who is in the office and the outcome they want to achieve, and even lending out space that is not used all the time—not only can it spark creative partnerships and collaborations but it’s also commercially viable.

Where do I start to futureproof my workplace?

Teaching new ways of work requires teaching individuals a growth mindset. For organisations and business owners, start with a small experiment or collaborate with a new partner to challenge your current ways of working.

Ask yourself, am I still doing the right thing? How could I reimagine my workforce connecting, thinking and innovating? Try something different that aligns with your business. Listen and engage your people and implement.

What are the top 3 things that a modern office should have for a thriving environment?

It’s a feeling thing! Each business has a different identity so it’s not a one size fits all approach. You have to tap in and consider what space and technology you need to create the feeling that you want your employees to have when they step into the office. You want staff to love going to work because it feels good.

Although we’re living through a period of rapid change and unprecedented uncertainty, there are still things businesses can do to future-proof their workplaces. Find out more about the future workforce in the Future of Work: A Progressive Leaders Guide To Staying Ahead

“This is an amazing space where everybody can come together in all sorts of different ways. This is how we created real buzz and energy in the organisation through the design and layout.” – Karen, Interior Designer, Axiom Workplaces

Founded in 2006, Cisco Meraki is the industry leader in cloud-managed IT. With more than two million active networks and 5.7 million devices online, the company develops simple yet powerful solutions that help businesses worldwide save time and money.

Before Axiom…

The project focused on Cisco Meraki’s desire to combine US and Australian office cultures into an efficient and productive working environment. The company wanted to build a workplace that effectively blended the best of both worlds. “One of the main challenges was bringing together a San Francisco-based company and a Sydney-based company – asking ourselves: How could we integrate them subtly and intelligently?” explained Karen, an interior designer with Axiom Workplaces.

Cisco Meraki also wanted to create a strong sense of culture and community within the organisation, a goal that was especially important because they were amalgamating two different companies.

Finally, the company needed to address the lack of appropriate meeting rooms and collaboration spaces.

After Axiom…

The team at Axiom did significant research and planning on how to integrate the cultures of the two cities in the colour scheme and design. They studied iconic aspects of both areas, including the shapes and forms of each city and how they could be expressed within a workplace environment.

In the final design, Sydneysiders’ love of fresh air, greenery and sunshine guided the overall palette of natural tones. From the San Francisco side, the team focused on architectural icons, such as the Painted Ladies’ zigzag rooflines and Lombard Street’s famous switchback road. This inspired the angled workstations that reflect the zigzag typologies and create private spaces where people can breakaway and experience a more relaxed work setting.

“The soft colours we found on the Painted Ladies – soft pinks, terracottas and sage greens – integrated beautifully with that Australian aesthetic that we were trying to achieve.” – Karen

A fully functioning commercial kitchen was also designed to hold large breakfasts, lunches and dinners for all staff and visitors. The kitchen opens up to a large breakout area that can facilitate all types of events and conferences.

“We created a workflow that allowed for servery, benches and a coffee area where a barista could come in,” said Donna, another interior designer at Axiom Workplaces.

The kitchen workflow starts with food coming out of the kitchen. People then pick up a plate and walk through the serving areas, reflecting the zigzag configuration. Once done with their meal, everything goes back to the kitchen for cleaning and washing using the commercial equipment. The layout was intended to streamline the process and increase efficiency, especially for large events.

To help build a sense of community within the organisation, Axiom designed workspaces that bring people together, including a coffee bar area and tiered seating purpose-built for the monthly dial-in with San Francisco. Karen described these as “small areas where people can find their individuality among the greater, larger community. We’ve now got an area where everything comes together.”

“Every spot is utilised. There’s somebody in every corner and in every type of furniture. There are people everywhere and they’re really using the space – so that to us is the result that we’re after in the end. That’s the achievement.”

At a glance

• Integrated two cities through colour scheme and design
• Angular workstations to create breakout areas in between
• Fully functioning commercial kitchen and efficient workflow to facilitate large events and meals
• Breakout area that brings people together, enhancing office culture and community

If you’re growing, downsizing or simply need an office refresh, now’s the time to design a workplace that fits your company’s brand and needs. While your staff work remotely, you can refurbish your workspace so it’s ready for their return. Book a free virtual consultation today to see what we can do for you.

Axiom Workplaces combines your commercial fitout and workplace design goals with our experience and expertise in evidence-based office design to create a thriving workplace for you and your workforce.