Private productivity: the new key to attracting talent
Over the past year or two we’ve seen scores of businesses relocating and reopening their offices, and staff returning to the office. While the transition back to work has been successful overall, it certainly has come with its share of challenges.
One of the major difficulties for many companies has been to uphold the feeling of privacy in the office that employees had in their work from home environment. The modern office space has become increasingly more open and generic in the age of remote working and hybrid work models making it all the more important to develop an ergonomic office layout that favours a positive and productive hybrid workforce.
Workers returning to the office want to feel that they have a place in the building to call their own where they can work effectively without feeling pressured to “take up less space” in every sense of the word.
Let’s take a look at some strategies that managers can implement to ensure privacy and a sense of belonging in their teams.
Privacy is a major incentive for returning workers
There’s no doubt that personal privacy is extremely important for all of us, and this has become even more apparent after the work from home era.
After years of working from the privacy of their own homes or enjoying flexible working conditions, employees are keen to maintain a sense of personal space and ownership of their time as they return to the office.
A recent survey by Giantleap revealed these priorities on the minds of employees:
- 64% – Spaces for hybrid collaboration
- 62% – Single-person enclaves for hybrid meetings
- 61% – Privacy
- 58% – Workstations with full or partial enclosure
- 57% – Reservable workspaces
The data indicates a strong preference for space and privacy to carry out tasks, jump on Zoom calls, and focus on strategic objectives.
However, while workers were carrying out their tasks remotely over the past few years, many businesses took the decision to downsize their physical workspace and implement shared desks and hotelling set ups, whereby allocated seats gave way to a first come first serve system.
For the typical worker, this meant arriving at the office and grabbing the first seat that was available. This game of musical chairs can spark a number of seemingly minor issues that weigh heavily on employees’ minds:
Cleanliness and hygiene
- Anyone who is old enough to have used an Internet Café can probably remember the unfortunate experience of typing on grimy keyboards been handled by countless other users.
- Even in the bring-your-own-device era, where workers are using their personal tablets or laptops, keeping the workspace clean can be a challenge for office managers.
Privacy and security
- Having an assigned desk with a drawer that you can use to store business and personal items is something we used to take for granted – and certainly something most have in our home offices.
- This is not easy to achieve with a non-assigned workspace, and it takes away a sense of ownership from the users of shared desks.
Overbooking and inconvenience
- Transitioning from a work from home or hybrid system to an in office set up means ensuring that there’s one desk per employee.
- Some managers have opted to reduce the total amount of desk space, relying on the fact that workers will stagger their attendance at the office over five or six days of the week. But on mandatory in-office days, workers may arrive at the office to find that there are no desks and seats available.
Noise and disruptions of online work
- With online meetings and client presentations still taking place, employees need a quiet and professional space to present the best version of themselves to customers.
- Dedicated teleconferencing spaces are essential in this regard, and ideally, they should be far enough away from common areas to avoid noise and distraction – to both your team and the clients on the other side of the call.
Given these challenges, it’s not surprising that many companies are looking to return to permanent desks as they return to the office. But that’s not the only thing that manages can do to ensure the teams come up to speed quickly and have a positive and productive day at the office.
Creating a sense of privacy and belonging all at once
There’s an interesting dichotomy between being part of a dynamic team that collaborates for success and feeling a strong need for privacy at the office.
For employees returning to full-time work after the relative isolation of remote working, striking this balance can be challenging at first. That’s why a proactive approach that places the thoughts and needs of employees first can help to smooth the transition.
The first consideration when returning your team to the office is whether to revert to fixed seating or not.
- There’s no doubt that having an assigned desk gives employees a sense of belonging which could lead to an increased sense of ownership of their work.
- On the other hand, management may be keen to take advantage of the cost savings that they’ve been enjoying from flexible seating arrangements.
Instead of guessing which approach will work, it’s often best to find out directly through an employee survey or one on one feedback sessions with management.
Once you’ve gauged employee opinion on the issue of desks, you can either take the decision to revert to pre-pandemic fixed seating or tweak your flexible arrangements to give regular office users priority, while letting workers who come into the office only occasionally settle for unallocated seating.
Office design layout is another area where you can optimise the balance between team and self. Creating a number of spaces for different types of collaboration as well as private work areas is one of the simplest and most effective ways to achieve this.
Privacy is one part of a successful HR approach
In terms of HR and office policy, it may not be realistic to expect workers to revert to a strict, rules based approach with the work from home era still top of mind.
This is especially true of office furniture, desk layout, and decoration, and desk time expectations.
- Managers may want to take a flexible approach which allows workers to simulate the work from home experience by making them as comfortable as possible, and reduce over the shoulder monitoring by opting for results-based analysis and mentoring.
- Employees who feel appreciated and supported, not necessarily watched continuously, may be more likely to perform at their best since they perceive management to be a trusting partner in both their success and that of the business.
- At the same time, performance monitoring continues to be essential, and managers should take advantage of in office time to touch base with employees and mentor them to perform their best while fostering a culture that creates employee happiness and productivity
Ultimately, returning to the office with flexibility and the knowledge that your efforts are appreciated and rewarded is what every employee wants. Providing this, while ensuring that teams are focused on tangible results, could be a game changing advantage for any business.
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As you position your business for success, we’d love to partner with you to find the ideal office premises. Contact us today to view our portfolio of premier commercial buildings in Cape Town.
