Creating the destination workplace
Do you have a destination workplace, somewhere employees are eager to come to?
While remote and hybrid working may already be norm for many, a whopping 92% of UK workers say that they work in their workplace either all or some of the time. But while many leading businesses have remote and hybrid working practices well-established, what now is the role of the post-Covid office? And how can you make the office a must-attend destination?
What employees are looking for in the destination workplace
After years of disruption and remote working technology acceleration, its clear that the future work is likely to be hybrid, flexible, and even nomadic for some. At the start of the pandemic many businesses found themselves on the back foot needing to set up remote working practices, and as time wore on noticed that their employees were starting to miss the opportunities for spontaneous conversations and collaboration. Years of enforced remote and hybrid working have left many employees wanting their homes to return to being their sanctuaries and their offices to become destinations for focus and inspiration.
Even pre-Covid, most modern office spaces had already begun to serve as unique destinations to motivate, inspire and represent employee culture. But, as we no longer need to ‘go to work’ to be working, the office building now needs to serve as a destination that draws employees in.
Office spaces can serve as unique destinations to motivate, inspire and represent employee culture
The office pilgrimage will bring back the demand for an experience culture we have all been starved of. Your employees will now want to see a value add they cannot receive at home; connection with others, affinity with your brand and cultural values, and amenities or perks that make the trip to the office that little bit sweeter.
Thoughtful spaces
Creating a great workplace for all is challenging, you have to take into consideration varying working styles, more generations in one workplace than ever before and a society concerned with hygiene, wellbeing, health and safety. Both technology and design will support organisations to create more thoughtful office spaces for the future.
All workspaces will play a role in helping people find connection again. You will see more collaborative workspaces, with integrated videoconferencing options to link up in-person and work-from-home employees. You might see more usage of mobile apps, to monitor and manage shared-space issues such as parking, or meeting-space booking.
Reflecting DHL’s brand, culture and the international nature of the business throughout
the workspace, resulting in a modern and refreshing environment to work in.
The other element at play will be office environment and branding, and this is no longer about putting your logo on the wall. Employees are looking for emotional connection and visible signs that their health and wellbeing has been taken into consideration. Office branding can be implemented to create an inclusive environment and destination for your team. Inclusivity is proven to drive loyalty and wellbeing, which in turn can lead to a happier team. Your team want to feel part of your brand’s DNA. Read more about this here.
Creating FOMO
Once you have an office environment that is a great destination for collaboration and inspiration and helps your team to live and breathe your brand values, you’ll now want to make sure employees come in to work. It feels like every other week there is some media backlash against a large employer issuing a return-to-work-fulltime mandate, and with the war for talent raging on, that’s probably negative sentiment that your employer brand just doesn’t need.
Instead, replace FOTO (fear of the office) with FOMO (fear of missing out). Find out what would encourage your teams to make more regular trips to the office, from in-person perks to personal development opportunities. When supported by flexible working practices and human leadership that empowers your employees to make the best decisions for themselves, no one should be missing out by coming in. We recently worked with one of our clients to create a fun internal game that engaged and challenged employees, producing some light competition, friendly conversation, and office buzz.
Where to start
If you’re overwhelmed, we recommend starting with people-centric planning. First ask: How do your employees use a space? How many people will visit the office? This will allow simple changes like introducing a booking system and direction on how to plan bespoke working environments. More long-term you can ask: How flexible and sustainable does the space need to be so that your office can be adjusted as priorities in the workforce change?
Need a helping hand?
At Something Big, we have helped a number of our clients create a destination workplace. We can help you with creative that allows your workspace to align with the company vision, promote new initiatives and create an inclusive environment, or by producing employee engagement initiatives that create FOMO.
If you’re starting to think about your working environment and want to create a destination workplace, please get in touch and our brand team will be able to support you.
