Insights from the forefront of future of work thought leadership

We see the current climate in Australia as ‘yoyoing’ between working in the office and remotely, all dependent on something largely out of our control. So how can businesses build the necessary resilience to overcome these challenges and come out the other side stronger and more successful?

To answer these questions and more, we spoke with resilience expert, Heidi Dening. Heidi shared some valuable insights on workplace resilience – what it is and why it is important in the current working conditions. She also provided practical strategies on how to build resilient teams and explored what to focus on when designing the office to support workplace resilience.

Resilience has often been defined by the ability to bounce back…but is it?

“I believe resilience is really defined by somebody or a place’s ability to bounce forward, to be able to learn something from the challenge that we have gone through, be able to adapt it to what the new norm is going to be for that workplace, and be able to progress forward, to move forward, to bounce forward.”

– Heidi Denning.

Workplace resilience is often defined as the ability to bounce back from setbacks and handle difficult experiences or events. For the past 18 months, many organisations have been focused on resilience and in building resilient workplaces. They want to navigate through the challenges and changes brought about by the pandemic – until things go back to ‘normal’. If they can survive and bounce back, then the business would be considered a resilient business.

However, Heidi has a different view on resilience. She doesn’t believe we should “measure a person or a workplace by their ability to bounce back.” We all go through fundamental changes when experiencing challenges or adversities in life and at work. Even at a cellular level, we don’t really go back to the way things were. 

We have to adapt to the changes and keep moving forward – to learn from what we, our customers, employees and partners are going through; and not crave that stability and safety we felt before the pandemic began. 

The ‘yoyo’ working environment in Australia

With all the lockdowns over the past 18 months, the climate in Australian workplaces can be described as ‘yoyoing’ from between working in the office and remotely. How is this affecting workers? 

“It’s chipping away at them. Without a doubt,” says Heidi. The current ‘yoyo’ climate is forcing people to adapt to the new normal – working at the office when allowed to do so, and going back to remote working when lockdowns happen. To survive and still get things done, most employees need to change their lifestyles and implement new working habits. The bottom line, everyone is feeling overwhelmed, stressed and exhausted. This makes resilience in the workplace more important than ever in the current yoyo environment.

Why workplace resilience is important

Heidi highlighted that resilience in the workplace allows for creativity and innovation. The future is definitely unpredictable and unknown – but resilience enables you to move forward and think outside the box. It empowers you to do something new, different and unique. 

Resilient teams adapt quicker to the new ways of working, and figure out ways to be more collaborative and productive in a virtual environment. And when leaders build resilient workplaces, it’s a lot easier for them to create new business models, adopt new technologies, and develop new and innovative ways to deal with customers. All these help the business not only survive, but thrive in this uncertain and ever-changing world.

“When you have developed your resilience muscle, you’re actually developing your creativity and innovation muscle. I think this is the greatest benefit for a workplace.”

Building a ‘culture of care’ to help teams be more resilient

Now that we know how important resilience is in this current climate, how can leaders deliver a positive support experience for employees working remotely? Heidi has provided us with a number of ways employers can create a ‘culture of care’ to help teams be more resilient.

Be vulnerable and authentic

As a leader, you always want to appear strong, happy and confident. And sometimes, you need to be but during these uncertain and challenging times, your team also wants to see the ‘human’ side of you. Be vulnerable and authentic enough to admit that working from home is not always easy – that homeschooling and being locked in with your partner is sometimes difficult and can drive you nuts. This way, your team can feel that they’re not alone when they feel stressed and overwhelmed. So others feel okay to say, “I’m not okay.”

Bring a sense of calmness

Yes, you can be vulnerable and say you’re not at your peak at certain moments, but as a leader, you also need to show the team that you are calm and in control. Heidi stressed that “bringing that sense of calm in a world that’s feeling very unsettled is definitely important.”

Deliver relevant and accurate information

In times of crisis, most employees are inundated by news that they get from the media and from friends, families and even colleagues.  However, this information can be inaccurate or totally untrue. Leaders need to be able to disseminate information that is relevant and accurate. They have to figure out what’s real and what’s not – and deliver that information to the team in a timely way. 

Be a visionary

Your team will look to you for assurance and guidance. They will depend on you to create a path through this crisis. As a leader, you need to be a visionary – not in such a way that you can predict the future – but in a way that assures the team “we have what it takes to adapt and we’re going to be okay in this new world.”

Stay connected with your team

Heidi highlighted the need for leaders to “know what to look for, to make sure the team’s doing okay, virtually.” You have to know how people are going. So, make sure you stay connected with your team, through messaging, text or phone. If you would like to learn more about whether your team are resilient enough to cope with all the stress and uncertainty, take this short quiz.

How the office can support resilience

The long-term view is that most workplaces will have a hybrid working environment, where employees divide their time between the office and working remotely. So, the physical workplace may look different in the future, but would still play an important role in building resilient teams.

According to Heidi, there are a number of factors that impact resilience in the office:

Lighting

Light decisions in the workplace can make a huge difference in a person’s ability to sleep well. And sleeping well helps employees to be more productive and perform better during the day. Of course the opposite is also true, and a person will feel tired, exhausted and unable to perform his/her best, if he/she gets even just one bad night’s rest. 

Noise

“Sound is another one, because distraction at work is something that really chips away at our ability to work well.” Heidi noted that when people get distracted, whether it’s because of the sounds around the office or colleagues talking, it can really stress them out. Some are good at zoning out by wearing headphones or simply focusing intently on their work. But the majority of people struggle with sound distractions.

Technology

Technology has a big impact on resilience in the workplace. Whether employees are working at the office or at home, they need the right tools and technology to be able to do their jobs properly. Having the wrong type of tech or if things just don’t work, this can be a source of frustration and stress. “If you’re ambitious, and you want to get things done in a particular time without mistakes, then you need the tech to do that. And if you can’t, again, it’s just chipping away at someone’s ability to work.”

Social spaces

When designing your office, it’s important to create spaces that build connections between people. “Social health is so crucial for a team’s culture.” Heidi mentioned that employees go to the office to connect and collaborate with colleagues – to have a laugh and share life stories. “For many people who live by themselves or in really bad relationships, or, you know, lots of things going on in the background, the workplace can be such a sanctuary.” So, the office needs to be designed in a way that it allows social connection between teams and employees.

Axiom recently worked with ELMO, one of the fastest-growing HR tech companies in the Asia-Pacific region, to build a workspace that would foster connection and community engagement. The office design included a café and community space where staff can relax and socialise, and a wellness room where they can practise yoga and meditation.

If you’d like to learn more on how to better prepare your business and workplace for the future of work, read our Progressive Leader’s Guide to the Future of Work in Australia.

A strong ESG (environmental, social and governance) proposition can create substantial commercial value for your business, including attracting both investors and top talent, plus boosting financial performance. So how can you leverage your workplace strategy to support ESG?

Can you define what ESG really means?

“ESG can sound complicated, but it really isn’t. It’s essentially a reframing of what we mean by sustainability” – Jack Noonan.

Jack Noonan, VP at the International WELL Building Institute, recently spoke to us to delve into what ESG really is, the benefits of a strong ESG position, and how your workplace strategy fits in.

At a top level, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) is a framework for assessing the impact of a company’s sustainability and ethical practices – in the past it has been associated with investors assessing business value.

However, Jack says this is an important framework for us all to use when thinking about sustainable practices: “We need to think about things that are good for the planet, things that are good for people and things that are done in the right way.”

“As someone who’s been a passionate sustainability advocate for over a decade, it’s been difficult to see that sustainability is often associated with this concept of doing ‘less bad’ or harm minimisation – it is often associated with needing to give something up. Because of this, it doesn’t always resonate with the broader community.”

“What ESG does is reframe sustainability as a concept in a more positive, holistic and standardised way so that people can understand what ‘good’ actually looks like.”

Investors and ESG

For investors, the ESG framework is about including non-financial indicators to investment decisions to help better inform potential risk and return.

Jack explained that previously, 70% of the information used to create valuations was financial, and about 30% was non-financial or somewhat intangible (Jessica Cheam, Founder and MD of Eco Business and ESG Committee Member for the Singapore Institute of Directors). That’s now flipped, so about 30% is financial, and about 70% is non-financial, intangible types of indicators like ESG. One of the key drivers of this trend is evidence that employers who focus on health and wellbeing have employees who are more engaged, productive and resilient. This typically results in better financial outcomes over the long term.

So while ESG used to be very niche, according to Bloomberg Intelligence, globally ESG assets may hit $53 trillion by 2025. However, in the early days of ESG frameworks and data, Jack says it is challenging to demonstrate higher social sustainability performance in particular.

“I think for a long time we’ve been able to say what good environmental sustainability looks like, we’ve been able to show what good governance looks like, but social sustainability has been to some degree a bit of a black box,” he explains.

Now it’s a different story: “Due to recent efforts in healthy buildings, corporate social responsibility and the acknowledgement of the positive impacts on human health and wellbeing, as well as broader societal impacts, social sustainability has become more prevalent within global sustainability benchmarking platforms and other frameworks.”

What are the benefits of a strong ESG proposition?

Attract and retain talent with a strong ESG proposition

There is an increasing expectation from employees that their organisation contributes to broader sustainable outcomes and a more environmentally conscious future. Additionally, there is an expectation that the organisation is demonstrating good governance and that the organisation cares about the health and wellbeing of employees.

Jack explains that “up to 76% of employees said they struggle with their health and wellbeing and that stress was a key factor in this, and that was before the global pandemic.”

Employees are increasingly looking to employers to support their health and wellbeing and that of the wider community: “If we spend so many of our waking hours at work, it makes sense to expect our organisations to have our health and wellbeing in mind. And I think another important aspect to this is that we have people increasingly demanding that organisations have the broader community and the health and wellbeing of the planet in mind as well,” Jack reveals.

Attract investors

In recent years there has been a solid focus from the investor community on ESG. Jack cites KPMG, who found that 86% of Australians expect their investments to be responsible and rooted in ethics, with another majority aiming to shift their investments into ethical companies in the near future.

“And they’re not just doing this because it’s the right thing to do; They’re investing because it has better returns,” explains Jack.

“This might sound like something quite obvious, but an organisation that values and supports the health and wellbeing of their employees is an organisation that has employees that are more engaged, productive and resilient, and this results in better financial outcomes for the organisation itself. This is why investors are looking at ESG performance because it just makes financial sense.”

ESG is good for the bottom line

Fundamentally, a strong ESG position has a material benefit to an organisation. Jack told us that “organisations are more likely to have better financial outcomes as a result of strong ESG performance.”

Illustrating this point, Jack explained that Dr Lawrence Loh at the National University of Singapore has found that more robust ESG performance leads to better market value and better brand value.

How can your workplace strategy support your ESG proposition? 

Jack says this is a question that many organisations are thinking about right now, particularly as we begin considering the post-pandemic future, where some of these more intangible aspects of organisational strategy have come to the fore.

“Ultimately, workplaces need to become people-first places, and they need to be focused on providing a positive and inclusive experience for all people, and one that supports all aspects of their health and wellbeing as well,” Jack explains.

What does this look like in practice? Jack says that workplace strategies should include provision for mental health programming, more robust community programmes as well as exceptional indoor environments: “That is, an environment with great air quality, lighting, acoustics, thermal comfort, and that encourages hydration, healthy nourishment and movement through the day.”

“These are all fundamental for organisations to provide a workplace that can support and demonstrate a strong ESG position,” Jack concludes.

Additionally, indoor environments which enable connection and efficiency whilst removing barriers and frustrations will serve to improve productivity and also better your bottom line.

Would you like to learn more about what the future workplace looks like? Explore the progressive leader’s guide to the future of work in Australia to find out more.

Accurate and meaningful data is critical to making informed decisions about your workplace. Now, with the trend towards flexible working, the ability to understand how your space is being used and to accurately forecast future workplace requirements is essential for efficient workplace management. 

It is also important to note that as there has been such a rapid change in the way people work, towards a ‘work from anywhere’ movement, organisational leaders are looking for strong evidence that helps them identify what their workplace should look like in the future, and what will drive employees to come back to the office and re-engage with the vision of the business.

Some of the region’s most strategic minds in workplace strategy came together for our webinar to demonstrate how data can be utilised to drive workplace change. Panelists included: 

• Lisa Copland, Head of Workplace Strategy and Change at Presynct 
• Jo-Anne Mann, GM and SVP Sales, Asia Pacific at SpaceIQ
• Peter Black, Workplace Strategist at Axiom Workplaces 
• Steve Elliott, Head of Property and Facilities at QBE Insurance 

Let’s go deeper into the discussion here, to understand how we can effectively gather and analyse workplace data, and use such insights to make better workplace decisions.

How COVID-19 changed the landscape

Working flexibly and remotely had already been present in many workplaces, prior to COVID-19, it had not really been culturally accepted. 

Changes were slowly happening but it was accelerated as a result of last year. Flexible working became accepted and swiftly normalised. The stigma attached to it seemed to have disappeared overnight. Now tested and proven successful, the evidence that work still happened away from the office means employers need to be open to people working at home or remotely. Where companies once offered it but didn’t really support the cultural shift towards it, employees now expect flexible working as a permanent part of their employment. “No one cares about their desk anymore – they want flexible working instead,” says Lisa.

In fact, an in-webinar poll queried expectations for the average days in the office per week in the immediate future. Nearly 50% responded they expect 3-4 days in the office, and about 40% want only 1-2 days working on site. This clearly shows that flexible working is a majority preference, and that the future workplace will most likely remain a productive hybrid of working from home and at the office. Employers who don’t offer a flexible work practice risk losing a talent pool of great employees to other organisations who do, and will find it harder to attract great talent.

How organisations are gathering and analysing data

Steve Elliott shared how his organisation gathered data through utilisation studies. “We did it 6 weeks before COVID. What we lack now is data that is live and dynamic”.  The company recently invested in a tool that allows them to gather data through the employee check-in process.  Steve mentioned that this will provide them with daily data on the utilisation of the space and desks within the working environment.

Half of the webinar attendees seem to gather data in the same way. A second live poll demonstrated that around 50% of represented organisations measured the utilisation of space in the workplace (including desk and meeting room usage). 

Peter Black identified the challenges for organisations today confirming it was tough gathering data during lockdowns. “We struggled with it because COVID is a big gap – a year at home means you don’t have data.” You have to look at historical data to base future projections on. So, while the environment was completely different, pre-pandemic data is still useful in determining the kinds of spaces employees occupy at different times of the day and week.  

What decisions are being driven by data?  

Right now, most workplace decisions rely on understanding people’s behaviour as they divide their time between working at home and in the office. By engaging in a workplace strategy piece where employees and leaders are asked what they require in order to complete their tasks, and simply observing employee actions – management can have a better view of what people do when they work in the office. 

Currently, we are seeing a trend where employees use the physical workplace to connect and collaborate, then they work from home to engage in more focused tasks. This collaboration with employees enables leaders to identify which activities and projects are better done in the office or at home.

Steve also noted that “managers want to know when teams are coming in.” So, it’s important to get the data from people’s schedules to understand when they’re coming into the office or working remotely. Some employees book their schedules 2 weeks in advance. This data helps managers plan out support and other resources needed for each day. But as Jo-Anne pointed out, the information is not always accurate since “many people check-in, but don’t come in on the day.” 

Another decision that’s driven by data is the actual space and number of desks needed for each day. This is where the utilisation data of desks and space comes into play. Of course, there will always be ‘peak days and peak floors’. People move desks and use different work spaces on the same day. And this can skew the utilisation figures. So can user error: ‘How many people check-in, but don’t come in?’, asks Jo-Anne Mann. 

Both employers and employees are still adjusting to the new ways of working. So it can sometimes be difficult to get accurate data. Steve added that “We’re making decisions in the heat of a pandemic that won’t be here forever.” It’s essential to view the information from a bigger, more practical perspective.

What decisions SHOULD be driven by data?

We’ve seen how data is being used to plan daily activities and help make decisions on the amount of space or number desks needed each day. But the real value of data – where it can have a bigger and more profound impact on the organisation – can be seen when making future workplace decisions, and projecting into the future a working model for the organisation that can withstand changes in circumstances and variations in workflows.

How much change can we bring into the workplace? What headcount and how much growth can the current office space accommodate? To answer these questions, you need to look at the current and historical workplace data plus industry and market conditions. Plus, you need to explore and test out different scenarios. 

Peter highlighted that organisations now have the “intention to grow without growing.” That is to grow revenue and profitability across the business but not growing in staff numbers. To do this, you need to look at automating and streamlining processes, plus outsourcing routine tasks. Many companies tend to overestimate the amount of office space they need. “It’s a better story to expand,” says Peter. “It’s easier to outgrow a smaller space then expand, than to have too much space to begin with.” 

Companies are also able to add more spaces to innovate and socialise than before because when the data confirms they don’t need a desk for every employee, there is opportunity to introduce more variety of working environments within the same amount of space. This is something that may have been prohibited previously by budget and real estate costs.

In making future workplace decisions, It’s important to start by understanding the problem. What are you trying to achieve? The next step is to find and gather the relevant data. Then analyse and gain the insights to make the necessary decisions. But it is worth noting that different organisations have different drivers when it comes to analysing information and making decisions.

How can you redefine a space to create excitement about the office?

As businesses look toward a post-pandemic future and reopen offices, the biggest issue they need to deal with is encouraging people back to a physical workplace. Most employees are comfortable working from home and are not rushing back in. Employers need to redefine the workspace, and find ways to create a magnetic appeal for people to return to the office.

This is a common issue for many businesses, according to Peter. The office can sometimes feel like a morgue because nobody is there. You need to look at opportunities to “curate the office space.” Events, group work and mentoring opportunities – all these can bring the energy back to the workplace. 

If there’s anything that people miss about the office, it’s the active vibe they feel when working with friends and colleagues. The experience cannot be like sitting on your desk on your own and just staring at your screen. You might as well work from home. Employees come to the workplace mainly to connect and collaborate. And a big empty space with rows of individual desks and people working in separate corners won’t help build that buzz or activity.

Steve suggested using data to determine the optimum size of the workspace you need for people to work together and create an energetic vibe – all, of course, within a COVID safe environment.

“Data, data, data. Clearly articulate with rich data. The rest will flow.” That is Steve’s last piece of advice. And it’s a statement that clearly highlights how your business can be better at making critical workplace decisions in the new world of work.

Want to learn more about futureproofing your workplace to ensure success and growth in the future? Read our guide to the future of work in Australia.

The workplace has changed forever and is continuing to evolve after the rapid transformation generated by the pandemic. Whether employees are working in the office or remotely, a successful workplace now needs to be a digitally inclusive workplace. But what does this actually mean, and what needs to be done? 

We posed these questions, and more, to John Corbett, Cisco Workplace and Real Estate Strategist. Our discussion uncovered how offices need to change for a new working world and revealed how Cisco is creating an immersive experience that levels the playing field for all employees – regardless of their location.

The challenges of the hybrid workplace

“We’re starting to notice that working from home has become the norm, and going into the office is ‘extraordinary’” says John.

He says that this in itself throws up some interesting observations. 

“Digital environments are frictionless – the transition between activities and engagement is smooth. By comparison, the office of old was rather clunky. The traditional office is architected to be fixed and time-bound and thus dynamically opposed to digital workflows. The office of now and into the future needs to catch up and we need to be smart at how we go about that.”

So if the traditional office is ‘hard’, how do we make the new workplace as ‘frictionless’ as the digital environment we’ve become accustomed to? 

John explains that this now means a reversal of what we saw 18 months ago, when we first got our stay at home orders. That is, looking at what we’re doing seamlessly and quickly online, and figuring out how we can replicate that speed and seamless efficiency in the office.  

“We’ve become very attracted to working in a dynamic digital-only environment. Meeting with ten people online is easy, but traditionally, at the office, it is complicated. So let’s make connecting the office, to the people in the office and the people outside the office, easy, on-demand and seamless.

“Let’s get the office to become an active contributor to our continuously evolving and transitioning workflow, rather than having to slow down workflow in response to the time bound, fixed nature of the office. 

“Why should we have to book a room to meet with someone? Do we book a laptop at home when we meet with someone? No. So the office should not be any different in our ability to seamlessly connect with other people or resources.”

This has been the focus at Cisco: seamless transitions and ensuring the built environment supports interaction in all its forms.

What does this look like in practice?  

“Say I want to have a video conversation with two of my colleagues. One is with me in the office and the other is remote. Traditionally, I would have to book a room to do that, and in doing so I would roll around in Outlook, etc in order to do that. If we decided to have this meeting on-demand, I might hop into a room and then connect my laptop with a cable, or dial in and enter passwords, etc. What if I could just walk into the room, click the green button on my laptop to start my meeting like I usually would from home, and the equipment in the room automatically connected with me? What if it was fully automated, without touching a thing? 

“My environment should work for me, connecting to me, not me having to put all this effort into connecting to it. This is similar to you navigating across a digital workflow on your laptop. All the applications on your laptop know it’s you. You don’t have to tell them, and those software applications intuitively respond to your demands. The office workflow experience should be no different,”

Another challenge of the hybrid work environment is a lack of visibility. Whereas companies have a thorough understanding of their office’s physical space, they generally don’t have that same understanding of the workspace outside of that.

John says that “the physical office distributes a subliminal service that we take for granted. I.e. Your desk has an ergonomically assessed chair,  power, and competent network connectivity. 

“The distribution of this subliminal service needs to extend beyond the physical office. With 100 of your staff having to work remotely overnight, your office just went from one to 101 offices. If they were in the office you would have line of sight of the ability of the office and its infrastructure to serve your staff in order to help them get their work done. We need to be able to deliver the same level of service beyond the boundaries of a physical office and satisfy ourselves that our company is capable of intuitively servicing our employees’ workflow needs at a hardware and software level, at any time, anywhere.”

At Cisco, this means they are “levelling the playing field” by creating a digitally inclusive workplace

What is digital equality or inclusivity?

“It’s our responsibility to provide [our employees with] a first-class workplace experience whatever their location. And this creates a more inclusive environment,” John emphasises. 

John’s definition of digital equality has two primary components:

“One part is physical. You’ll often find pockets of competency in an office – so good tech in a boardroom, or large meeting rooms but nowhere else for example. It is inevitable that people will gravitate towards “better”, thus creating false economies resulting in uneven demand bottlenecks. A broader, more distributed delivery of seamless, consistent, and easy-to-use competency, in smaller sizes, increases supply elasticity and helps to balance out uneven consumption demand.

“The other part is equity beyond the physical environment. It used to be that if you couldn’t be in the office, you couldn’t work. And while we’ve seen this change during the pandemic, it’s still not good enough. We need to level the playing field further so that those who work from home aren’t viewed as passengers, but active members of the group. Why should a woman who has decided to start a family, be burdened with the uncomfortable choice of a potentially inferior place in the workplace, because she is not physically in the office?.

“For example, equitable equipment, such as the Webex’s background noise suppression AI, removes barriers to communication such as needing to mute and unmute yourself during a call. Therefore, the external environment now no longer impairs or disadvantages the external participant.”

How technology is levelling the playing field

We spoke with John about how technology is helping to overcome the challenges of the hybrid workplace and create a digitally inclusive environment for all employees. 

AI translation

“Instant translation tools are helping us manage differences that arise from cross-cultural connections and workplaces across geographies.”

Searchable meeting recordings

“I frequently work with people on the East Coast of the US who are having meetings at 2am my time. While we have a recording of that meeting, I don’t need to hear the whole thing, if I choose not to. I just need the snippets relevant to me. I can now search keywords and the technology takes me to each place within the meeting, where that topic was discussed… I can also see other areas of the meeting that were considered important to the meeting host, during that meeting. Additionally, I can also raise questions after the fact, too. This technology means, I can manage my time investments as I consider appropriate and I am not having to crumble my own work time boundaries to be an active participant in a global team while still remaining an active member.”

Smart tech used to diagnose connection issues

“Webex, Cisco’s collaboration platform, uses innovative technology to interrogate data and identify why you might be incurring an inferior meeting experience. It “sees” every bit of equipment (and related data) that is contributing to the engagement and can determine if, for example, it’s your headset that’s causing the problem, or something else.”

A look to the future 

What does John see on the horizon of the future of work?

Smart tech in the home office

“Smart devices, such as the Webex Video Endpoint, can continually collect intelligence to pick up on factors that create fatigue such as heat, air quality, or even environmental dangers like carbon monoxide for example.  All of a sudden, something as simple as a Webex video endpoint for the home could be used to help improve the environmental quality of a “workplace beyond the office”.  

Scaling digitally by leveraging the tech we already have

“We need to scale digitally. Technology needs to be distributable and singularly scalable across multiple platforms, devices and locations, including  the physical environment and “lean out” operational processes. We should be looking at how we architect this so we can leverage the technology we already have, and scale more on the “back end” rather than the front end, as an iPhone does for example.”

John concludes that you should “think of your office as one big device that connects people. Just because people are not there doesn’t mean they can’t be connected.”

As people begin returning and spending more time in the office, employers have to make sure that the physical workspace keeps everyone engaged and productive. They not only need to create a company culture that is safe and supportive, but one that also aligns with the company’s purpose and values. 

In this blog post, we look at how you can design a workplace that effectively communicates your values to your team, clients and customers, and why this is important.

How your workplace design can communicate company values

Company values are more important than ever—they set the tone for how employees communicate with their clients and each other and more—but if they’re not communicated well, businesses won’t be able to realise the benefits they bring.

The office is not just a physical space to do work. It’s not just an area with walls, desks, rooms and windows. An office is a place where people can collaborate, socialise and share ideas, views and aspirations. And the actual design of your workplace can have a significant impact in creating a supportive, engaging and productive culture. 

Workplace design creates an environment that supports your brand and tells your story. Each design element can communicate to employees, clients and customers the core values that represent who you are as a company. 

Here are some steps to make your workplace design reflect company values.

1. Define your company values

The workplace design process doesn’t start with choosing the right colours, lighting or layout. It begins with defining and establishing your core values. This is an opportunity for your business to refocus on your mission as a company, determine your ‘why’, and review the values and principles that are essential for both management and staff.

This is a critical step in the process – and should not be skipped. It builds the foundation that guides the way forward. So, take the time to re-examine and define your company values before you start thinking about how to translate them into the physical workplace.

2. Design the workplace to reflect your values

When you have defined and established your core company values, it’s important to communicate them across the whole business. Conduct company-wide presentations and team workshops. Email your values to each employee, and have team managers lead the way in practising those values. 

One important aspect in this step of the process is to have a look around the office and review the physical workspace. Does your office interior design reflect your company values? If not, you’ve missed an important opportunity to communicate your values internally and externally.

Let’s take a set of example values and talk about how we could create a workspace to align and promote them. 

Company values: Empowerment, Real People, Innovation and Customer-Centric.

• Create a front of house area that is prominent and purposely designed to host clients and external visitors to ensure being customer-centric is clear to all. Continue on with this theme by choosing a higher level of finish and furnishing and mood lighting, artwork to emphasise the importance of visitors. More specifically, the choice and style of furnishings also need to portray the appropriate tone and language to anyone who visits your office, e.g. timber veneers and the use of a reasonable amount of glazing reinforces trust and transparency, but also may delineate front of house from back of house, assuring your clients that their IP protected when you work for them.
• Using seamless technology connections focuses on the values of customer-centric, innovation and making the design for real people. How does this work in practice? By designing a workplace where employees can drop into unbookable spaces to accommodate a client that has arrived unannounced and needs a quick meeting. The employee can book the space at the door of the room for 30 minutes with no fuss and hassle, making the experience great for the client. Need to connect to the AV and dial in a virtual team member? No problem. It’s all done at the touch of a button and intended to accommodate and facilitate the client’s needs empowering everyone to collaborate efficiently.
• Include ‘experience centres’ to address innovation and customer-centric needs by facilitating a curated experience for people. How? Design for creative sessions, change the lighting, allow writing and sticking onto all walls, use modular furniture and a variety of settings within a room to create a sense of innovation when combined with high tech solutions in lighting and VC/AV equipment.
• Include right-sized, placed and styled collaboration, entertainment and social spaces to empower employees to host client-centric meetings and workshops that treat everyone like real people.
• Design social spaces that accommodate employee activities – keeping it real for them in how they connect their support services, reinforcing that real people connect with their real needs being met. It might be as simple as a functional kitchen layout with enough recycling bins, sufficient microwaves placed correctly and free access to the filtered water tap without having to impede the packing of the dishwasher.
• Provide choice in work settings i.e. flexibility about when you are in the office to choose the most productive work setting in order to empower and enable customer-centric responses by cutting down response time.
• Include sufficient focus and quiet spaces – this again means real people are getting their real needs met and enables high performance.

3. Consider employee habits and work preferences

Building a values-based workplace and culture would not be successful without the input and support of your employees. Engage them in the workplace design process. Ask them what works, what doesn’t, if the workspace communicates the right mood or perception, and how to best implement any changes. It’s also important to consider work habits and how teams collaborate and work together. 

Designing the best physical space where employees feel comfortable and energised, can do wonders in enhancing work performance and productivity in the long run.

4. Partner with workplace design experts

Let’s face it – creating an environment that reflects your values would require a lot of time planning, coordinating and building. Consider working with workplace strategy and design experts to help you do the job properly and efficiently. Companies like Axiom can help you strategise, design and build a physical workspace that reflects your culture, communicates your core values, and improves staff well-being and performance.  

Why company values are important

Now that we’ve seen how to make your workplace design reflect company values, it’s essential to understand why your core values matter in the first place.

Your company values matter especially in these times of uncertainty and change. They build the foundation of your company culture and serve as a guiding force for both management and employees. Here are a few reasons why company values are important:

Values keep your business unique

Core values not only create the culture within the organisation but also stay consistent with the company’s overall identity. They help communicate the brand story and build on the ‘why’ of the business – why you do what you do, why you’re different from the competition, and why the company was established in the first place.

They unite staff with a common purpose

People want to be inspired. They want to know that their work contributes to something bigger than themselves. Company values can help create that bond between individuals and teams to work together to achieve common goals and fulfil a shared mission or purpose.

They drive team performance

When employees are working together for a common purpose, they feel more engaged with their work; more energised and motivated. Team productivity and performance, therefore, significantly improve. 

Want to learn more about creating the best workplace that reflects your company values? Read our Future of Work guide and see what’s in store for employees, employers and workplaces in 2021 and beyond.

When the world was flung into a mass work-from-home experiment in 2020, American Express Global Business Travel’s employees didn’t lack the tech or training to make it work. In fact, 70 to 80 percent of the 500 strong Australian workforce already worked from home. 

We spoke with Kate Witenden, Head of Human Resources at AMEX Global Business Travel during 2020, about how their virtual-first workforce handled the crisis almost seamlessly. We also explored what shifts still need to occur and what other companies can learn from their business model and company culture. Finally, we talked about what Kate sees as the future of the office.

A snapshot of the business pre-COVID

Pre-COVID, AMEX Global Business Travel had offices in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney, but around 70-80 per cent of staff were designated as ‘virtual employees’ (i.e. not attached in any permanent capacity to a physical office). These virtual employees were fully set up to work from home 100 per cent of the time. They were equipped with the technology and processes to service customers and collaborate with their colleagues remotely.

Kate said this working model was one of the things that attracted her to the business in the first place: “I was intrigued from an HR perspective. Does it actually work? And it did.”

“This is a highly collaborative global organisation that works over many time zones. So they innately built this model so that people could be set up to work from home at the hours required.”

Even those employees who did regularly work from an office were ultimately enabled to also work remotely. 

“We all had the equipment to be able to work from home already because the chances were that nine out of 10 of those people who still chose to turn up to the office had to be on calls with the UK out of normal business hours at home. The work required us to be flexible.”

The AMEX response to the crisis

In March 2020, when Australian office workers were advised to work from home by the government, the AMEX Global Business Travel team didn’t miss a beat. Kate told us there were only five (out of 500!) employees that weren’t ready.

“They were brand new recruits going through training in the office with seasoned consultants or team leaders. While we had the technology to train people remotely, it took some quick thinking from the team to get these ‘newbies’ up and running at home,” Kate explained. 

“But the reality is that’s how quick we were to be able to move with the crisis to 100 percent of employees working from home – and WFH continued throughout the entire year of 2020.”

What needed to evolve

Pre-COVID, AMEX Global Business Travel had town hall-style meetings to provide business updates from the leadership team. But during the pandemic, this level and amount of communication couldn’t keep up with the rapid changes and shifting business landscape – especially in a hard-hit industry like business travel. Instead, town halls started happening more regularly and evolved into a two-way communication channel, with employees able to ask questions of their leaders.

With many employees stood down and a lot of uncertainty, though, more needed to be done. “The leadership team created their own WhatsApp groups so they could pass on messages,” explained Kate.

“It was about adapting and using the right medium for the situation rather than a more traditional corporate channel. So, although the WhatsApp groups won’t be a permanent fixture, they disseminated information quickly and got the job done.”

Although the outlook for the business travel sector is uncertain, Kate said, “Out of horrible adversity came something quite miraculous – it permitted people to act with speed.”

“It’s going to be a long recovery, but having been through it will put the business in such an amazing standing for when lights switch back on in business travel.”

The future of the office

Kate noted that “the danger of going completely virtual is that nothing replaces that face-to-face collaboration, the feeling of energy being created.”

“I think it’s very, very difficult to sustain [100 percent virtual] unless you’ve got excellent tools and practices and discipline. That said, we had a lot of those foundations already in place in our business, which set us up for success.”

We were curious to know what Kate thought the office of the future might look like:

“The office of the future is about collaboration. The rest of the stuff, your emails and solo work, you can do that from home in peace and quiet much more productively. 

“So if you’re going to be in the office, you need to be present. You need to be available, you need to be open, and you need to be there to give something back. Turning up to bring your laptop in for the sake of sitting in the office is not what the office of the future is about.”

If you’d like to explore more about what the future holds for the office, take a look at Leading the Future of Work in Australia: Insights and Strategies. It’s our one-stop resource for all things future of work-related.

Thank you to Kate Witenden for this interview. You can connect with Kate on LinkedIn.