Armano Real Estate April 2022 Newsletter
New York City Office Re-Occupancy – The Hybrid Workplace
We have entered into an era of hybrid working. Recent evidence is starting to emerge that workplaces that adopt a hybrid office model are most likely to thrive. This April newsletter is presented to our clients and readers to educate them on the hybrid workplace and to help provide design solutions to help with their re-occupancy planning. Please feel free to contact us for further information we will arrange a conference call or Zoom meeting with myself and Steve Andersen, who heads up our workplace design team, to explore how we can help meet your corporate real estate plan and vision.
Many companies have successfully implemented remote work plans. These companies are now asking their employees, who have generally worked remotely from home, to return to the office. The hybrid office model is considered the most likely model and the most likely to succeed. The following presents an outline of most often asked questions and answers about the hybrid office model. We would like to reference K2 Space’s “Hybrid Office Design”. Please see the Armano Real Estate Returning to the Office link for more information and details at the end of the newsletter.
- How do you define a Hybrid Office?
Hybrid office design can be defined as one that simultaneously allows for face-to-face collaboration and remote work. While the hybrid office is by no means a new concept, the Covid-19 pandemic has given fuel to it. It has changed the dynamic to one where employees move seamlessly between home and office work environments. But it also requires a different set of solutions and ideas, some of which include:
- Wi-fi enabled spaces for connecting with staff working from home
- Technology to book meeting rooms and private spaces
- Configurable office furniture that is easy to move around
- A combination of team-working collaborative spaces alongside private spaces
- Does a hybrid office mean a smaller office?
Hybrid design typically involves the reconfiguration of existing office space and furniture to create more collaborative and flexible workspaces. The key principle of hybrid design is to create spaces that transcend physical and social barriers. But that doesn’t necessarily mean less space.
- How does the office act as a social anchor?
The global pandemic forced us to communicate at a distance and led to significant advances in digital communication that transcended the physical office. However, in doing so, it also stripped away face-to-face encounters that allow us to express empathy, emotional connection, and cognition with the world around us. Psychology and neuroscience studies have shown that these social and human interactions play a significant part in how we process signals and learn new information. During the pandemic, scheduled Zoom and Teams meetings replaced the simple act of wandering over to someone’s desk to ask a question. Similarly, natural breaks that helped to manage the ebbs and flows of a day became replaced with back-to-back meetings. While, communicating from a distance allows for greater efficiencies, the office provides an environment that promotes greater social interaction and enhances learning.
- Does hybrid office working increase innovation and productivity versus remote working?
Discussion about remote working and the impact on innovation and productivity in the workplace has become a hot topic in the wake of COVID 19. The orthodox view of the office as the sole place for innovation has been somewhat overturned by the pandemic. In a survey commissioned by Microsoft with 9000 individuals (management and employees), it found 82% of executives said that productivity had remained stable or improved as a result of remote working.
Innovation can also occur in private spaces. In fact, since the start of 2020, in spite of millions of people globally working from home, innovation has thrived with breakthrough business models and new services and product offerings. From the growth of online grocery delivery services to the early adoption of the nonfungible token. We have continued to innovate in spite of isolation.
On the other side of the argument is the view that innovation is restricted in remote settings. It has been demonstrated that as distances between employees approach 50 meters, regular communication begins to break down. Face-to-face meetings or “water cooler” moments provide a greater degree of fluidity and natural interaction. These happenstance meetings and informal chats are where unscripted off-the-cuff ideas are shared and unfiltered exchanges take place.
Creating a hybrid office environment allows for both types of innovation. On the one hand, remote workers have the opportunity to work in isolation; to draft creative ideas and plans in silence, and to avoid distracting thoughts in formulating them. They can also seamlessly engage with workers who are in the office or visit the office to share ideas face-to-face. The combining of these worlds (work and home) may indeed be the best outcome. It is also the most inclusive one; catering to talented staff who are not always able to travel into the office, and being flexible to those needing a work-life balance such as parents who need to drop and pick up their kids from school.
- What are the factors driving hybrid work?
A workplace is not just a place of tasks and processes, it’s a place of relationships and team bonding. Face-to-face meetings in the office deepen professional relationships and may put employees regularly in the office at an advantage over those who are not. In Gensler’s 2020 ‘work from home survey’ (an anonymous survey of 2,300+ U.S. workers across 10 different industries), they found a number of interesting insights that point to what people miss about the office. The most crucial thing employees missed (at 74%) was face-to-face interaction with colleagues. Ranked in terms of importance other factors included:
- Scheduled meetings with colleagues – 54%
- Socializing with colleagues – 54%
- Impromptu face-to-face interaction – 54%
- Being part of the community – 45%
- Access to technology – 44%
- Focusing on work– 40%
- Scheduled meetings with clients – 40%
- Professional development/coaching – 33%
- Access to amenities- 29%
- What are the different types of hybrid models?
A. Remote-First Hybrid Model
On one extreme there’s a ‘remote-first’ or ‘virtual-first’ hybrid working model where a majority of employees work from home while maintaining a physical office where employees can work on-site
B. Standard/Balanced Hybrid Model
The classic hybrid model is one of the dynamic and fluid workspaces where there’s a balance between working from home and working in the office. Companies adopting this model are usually looking to create more collaborative workspaces.
Design considerations for the standard hybrid working model include:
- the creation of open collaborative spaces for high-energy workforces
- team huddle areas for sharing ideas
- areas for whiteboarding sessions
- quite-zones, booths and library areas for focused work
- tables for large team sessions and collaborative work
- small informal areas for one-on-one meetings
- hybrid town halls equipped with screens for hosting team meetings
C. Office-First Hybrid Model
The office-first hybrid model tends more towards traditional office working, but also allows for a degree of working from home. This model is useful where international teams and members are involved, or where flexible working hours and locations are supported to maintain a work-life balance.
Please feel free to contact us regarding your current real estate situation. We can provide a no-fee lease review and analysis and a preliminary space program to help meet your back to work plan and corporate real estate vision. Please see the below link for recent news announcements and our newsletters:
Armano Real Estate Returning to the Office:
Armano Real Estate Returning to the Office
Please see the below links for NYC recovery index:
NYC Economic Recovery Index
Please see the below links for NYC COVID results:
Positive COVID-19 Results by Region
Please see the following link regarding HealthCheck360 COVID-19 Workplace Solutions:
HealthCheck360 COVID-19 Workplace Solutions
