As we return to the office after months of working from home, we need to consider how to not only make it a COVID-Safe environment, but how to make it a space that excites team members to visit. The workplace should be a destination, a space that team members want to jump out of bed for every morning and leave feeling content every afternoon.
We predict the office will look a little different in the new year, with a focus on staff – wellbeing, new technologies, safe, hygienic and on-brand finishes and resimerical designs that’ll make the workplace feel like a home away from home.
To welcome the new year we’re diving into our top workplace design trends for 2021. Spoiler alert, they’re guaranteed to bring community, collaboration and a dose of excitement back to your office.
Wellness
This isn’t anything new. We’ve known for a long time that a quality workspace design leads to a less stressful and more productive atmosphere. It’s always been important, but in 2021 it will be even more so, because we want the office to feel exciting and team members to feel safe and supported upon their return.
This will mean implementing COVID-safe designs, with glass dividers, increased reliance on touchless technology, hand sanitizing stations and more. While it might be hard to imagine how these important features can fit within the curated aesthetic of your workspace, our team here at Concept are well versed with the ins and outs of creating COVID-safe solutions to fit within any office.
COVID-safe designs are just one aspect of employee wellness, with emotional wellbeing support also forecasted to be more prominent in the new year. Your staff will need to feel more at home in the office than ever, so creating spaces for them to escape the hustle and bustle of office life is a must for 2021. This could be done through establishing recreation rooms, breakout spaces and wellness areas to provide a homely space for a bit of downtime.
Finishes
Anti-microbial finishes, to be precise.
These finishes prevent the growth of bacteria, make surfaces easy to clean and predominantly use real and raw materials that are environmentally friendly. With COVID-safe plans required for every workspace, there will be new cleaning protocols to help protect the health and wellbeing of your team members that anti-microbial finishes can make easier.
There will be a range of other COVID-safe requirements that may alter the makeup and layout of your workspace, but there are plenty of simple and flexible solutions available to suit your business and help make the transition back to the office easy.
Technology
New technologies will be key in the new year, facilitating the compliance with safety and hygiene requirements while providing for a flexible team environment. With many staff members still working from home at least part of the time, technologies, such as video conference rooms, booking systems and automated workplace organization systems will become critical. These solutions are already available, but businesses should be willing to invest in the new year to encourage a safe and supportive transition back to the office. It’ll provide easy ways to cater to capacity limits, foster collaboration between in-office and at-home staff, and ensure the office is a space that employees feel comfortable, valued and excited to be a part of.
The Destination Workplace
Workplaces will need to become a destination in 2021, with resimerical designs combining commercial and residential elements to transform offices into homely, welcoming spaces. They’ll need to be flexible to allow for continued work from home arrangements, COVID-safe to keep staff safe, and designed with team members in mind so that the office is a place they’re excited to visit.
We understand that every business is different, and we can work with yours to create a COVID-safe, employee-centric, and technologically geared workspace to suit any business model. Speak to one of our workplace design and strategy experts about how we can help you create a destination workplace in 2021.
