When welcoming employees back to the office this year, companies need to rethink their workplace policies and structures to support their employees. The employees being welcomed back don’t have the same needs and professional expectations as they did way back in March 2020 when they left the office for the safety of their homes. Companies like Salesforce have seen the number of employees who expect to work remotely at least some of the time jump from 40% pre-pandemic to 65% post-pandemic.
Supporting this return takes intention and open-mindedness from companies who are new to navigating the potential landmines of hybrid and remote working. (Workplace and real estate teams, listen up!)
There are many factors that dictate the changes your workplace will need to go through to best support this return to work. It depends on the size and shape of your workplaces, the degree and volume of which your employees will be physically returning to the office, and the workplace needs of those who will be commuting into the space at least some of the time.
Regardless of the specifics of these factors as they apply to your company, every organization can make workplace changes that better support the return to the office. A good place to start is by creating places for collaboration in the workplace. Going fully remote this past year actually increased the desire for employees to connect and collaborate with colleagues, with 62% of enterprises indicating meetings have increased since COVID began. As offices reopen, turning offices into collaboration hubs where employees can effectively collaborate in-person and virtually (sometimes simultaneously) will be challenging.
Let’s take a look at a few ways companies can reimagine their office space to support hybrid meeting culture.
There are three factors of preparing conference and meeting rooms to support hybrid work: policies, tech, and design. The meeting policies your organization communicates will get everyone on the same page regarding hybrid meeting best practices. For example, on the tech side of things, companies are already increasing investment in smart office technology and virtual collaboration tools. Finally, companies will be required to transform the design of their meeting spaces to better support hybrid meetings and for the use of hybrid teams.
Before you begin drafting policies for your new hybrid meetings, take the time to survey your employees. Since they are the ones who will be conducting and participating in these meetings, the meeting protocols you put in place should be crafted with their lived experience at the forefront of your mind. Once you’ve taken their perspective and expectations into account, you can begin creating hybrid meeting policies that benefit all parties and support your employee’s new workstyle preferences.
Hybrid meeting best practices include:
Once you decide to rewire your conference and meeting rooms to better support hybrid work, the first thing you’ll need to do is partner with the IT and AV teams at your organization. It is their help that you’ll need when implementing tech changes to existing workspaces and when constructing new tech-supportive spaces. Once you’ve got them on board and aligned with your rewiring vision, you’ll need these hybrid conference room tech essentials:
Once you have all the necessary tech, you may need to rearrange your conference room furniture to be better equipped for hybrid meetings. Gone are the days where conference rooms are dominated by a single, oversized rectangular table. To accommodate hybrid meetings, switch to a round table so all participants have equal opportunity to be seen and heard. Then, use hybrid-friendly video conferencing tech to give all participants (remote included) an opportunity to share.
The goal of hybrid meetings is to create a sense of equity in order to create a more accessible environment for all participants, regardless of location. To do so, invest in the necessary tech and draft hybrid meeting policies that are as progressive and flexible as your employees themselves.
Outside of the conference room, there are many other ways that you can redesign and rethink your office to better support the return to office. If you haven’t yet, this is a time where you will definitely benefit from the input of your employees themselves. Hybrid work is a spectrum, where employees fall on that spectrum (from fully remote to fully in-person with a multitude of hybrid alternatives in between) will dictate their specific workplace needs. To ensure you aren’t neglecting any subgroup of workers, be sure to take their input into account when creating an agile office that supports hybrid workers.
To create the ultimate agile office space that is supportive of hybrid working, consider:
Redesigning your workspace to accommodate more flexible employees requires creative thinking, innovation, and a commitment to dynamic workspaces. Embrace the structure of your existing office and incorporate hybrid elements and features into the space you already have. As long as you make these hybrid-minded changes with intention and with one ear always open to hear feedback from your employees, you’ll have created a workplace environment that successfully supports hybrid work. To review the changing landscape of today’s employee needs, take a look at our 2021 Workplace Impact Report for all the latest stats and trends.