What About the Office?

• What does the workplace of the future look like?
• Will the company office still play a major role in the future?
• Which new, innovative work environments will be needed?

All of us have been dealing with these questions intensely since the COVID-19 pandemic. New work means that meaningful, creative and agile work is becoming more and more important. The attractiveness of the workplace is increasingly important, especially among young people.

WHY do we need to deal with this topic?

• Corona has strongly influenced the lives of many people and accelerated the digital transformation. Home-working has tremendously increased. This has an impact on work and on the workplace of the future.
• We already see that changes in the workplace and even more changes will come. We need to be prepared.
• To find out what role the work environment will play in the company in the future.
• To find out how we can best support organizations design their workplaces.

WHAT do companies have to do to remain competitive and to provide a modern workplace with attractive working conditions? In addition to home offices, co-working spaces and mobile offices, employees will re-discover the office, especially as a place of identification and a social meeting place.

From our point of view, the organization must ensure that their offices fulfill six distinctive functions in the future:

1. Collaborating with each other on difficult issues
2. Being creative, finding ideas together
3. Networking: meeting others in person
4. Feeling good: enjoying the atmosphere
5. Identification with the company: experiencing the company spirit
6. Focused work, alone: time for concentration

Not every team needs all of these functions always, but overall the companies need to make sure they can all be covered.