Touchless bathrooms, desk-booking tools, cleaning rotas: Agencies outline the future of the office

By Jessica Davies

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It’s your worst nightmare. Imagine throwing a serious amount of money at your new 32,000–square-foot office in Baltimore and then Covid-19 happens. Only a small proportion of staff can come in when it opens and then another spanner is thrown in the works. “It was open for two weeks and then it had to be shut down after the cleaner had Covid,” said Mark Deeprose, vice president of real estate and facilities at digital agency Jellyfish. “It can be demoralizing,” he said of the situation. “Coronavirus has thrown up a lot of challenges.”

Like many people charged with managing offices, Deeprose is encountering headache-inducing problems. With many employees now working from home — in the UK alone, 60% of the UK’s adult population is doing so, according to research by Finder — what does this mean for the role of the office?

“Covid has forced us to rethink,” said Deeprose. “It means the traditional approach of everyone having their own desk is gone. We can’t have a desk that is empty 40% of the year.”

Jellyfish, which expects employees to work from home 40% of the time, will introduce desk-booking software in January to understand how often people are coming in and where they’re sitting. The software will help the company control how many people are in the space, identify which desks need cleaning and those that can be used after 24 hours, he added.

With vaccines being rolled out later this year, employers are looking at ways to make the future of the work hybrid. Many believe that we’ll see the disappearance of the open-plan layout, where spaces are filled with traditional banks of desks.

“The workplace used to be just for work — getting your head down and clocking in and out,” said We Are Social’s New York managing director Ben Arnold. “What we’ve seen in the past nine months is that employers in general have a greater level of trust in employees.” Now the role of the office needs to be reimagined.

Companies need to consider the benefits of a physical office which have included encouraging interpersonal relationships, the social elements, the almost unplanned elements and reconfigure them, Arnold said. For instance, the typical desk layout of lines of desks and pods that currently dominate floor space can be redesigned informal casual breakout spaces designed for time.

What it will result in is a more informal environment that encourages collaboration. “Maybe one with white boarding everywhere and flexible furniture where you can take down the walls,” Arnold said.

Before Covid-19, Sarah Baumann, managing director at digital marketing agency VaynerMedia UK, was already checking out new office space to accommodate the agency’s growth from 60 members of staff at the start of the year to 90. However new considerations have come to light following the pandemic.

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Source:: Digiday