What We Can Learn From Working From Home: The Post-COVID Workplace

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It’s no secret that the coronavirus pandemic has turned everything upside down. It has presented new and incredible challenges for millions of workers and employers around the globe. In just a matter of weeks, the workforce at large has quickly and strategically navigated the sudden shift to remote working, while maintaining the symbiotic relationship between business continuity and employee well-being. Now, we’re beginning to wonder how to prepare to bring people back into the office when the crisis subsides. In a time where remote working is a new possibility for teams, how can we embrace fundamental changes in the way we work and let them flourish?

Today’s special episode is a recording of a webinar we participated in in early April, hosted by our retail real estate owner, operator, and developer friends at EDENS. In this webinar, you’ll hear from Norma Morales Perez, Senior Vice President of Brand & Culture at EDENS, and Gensler workplace experts Janet Pogue McLaurin, Workplace Leader and Principal, and Cheryl Duvall, Consulting Practice Area Leader and Associate. Janet and Cheryl discuss how effective remote work environments can spur innovation and create new ways of connecting that may reshape the physical workspace when we return to our offices. They share best practices on how to create great workplaces at home based on their experience designing corporate offices. Cheryl and Janet also explore how we might think about the workplace in new ways after we re-emerge from our distributed locations.

We know from Gensler’s new 2020 U.S. Workplace Survey data that a well-designed workplace is still where people want to be. But before we can ask people to return to the office, we’ve got to make sure they feel safe, healthy, and valued in their workplace. While it’s too early to understand the full extent of the new skills and habits we’re developing while working from home, it’s not too early to start planning for how we can return once the quarantines end.

Gensler is learning in real-time from our Shanghai and Beijing offices, where our people have started a phased and methodical return to the office after nine to 13 weeks of remote work. Meetings have reduced conference room capacity by half, spacing out seating as needed to uphold social distancing practices. In fact, many meeting organizers are still embracing virtual meeting platforms, even when the full staff is in-office, to minimize in-person contact at this time. Employees are encouraged to wear masks and continue washing hands regularly to avoid the potential spread of germs, and buildings in China are taking even greater health and wellness precautions by fitting lobbies for thermal imaging scanners that can flag visitors with higher-than-normal body temperatures that could indicate sickness before entry.

To further understand how people are working from home and anticipate what shifts might be incorporated in office design, Gensler has issued a WPI Work From Home experience survey of 2,500 participants across 10 industries. The survey analyses how people were working pre-COVID, how people are working from home, and gauges opinions on what are the key learnings and new habits that we can capture and build upon and apply it back to the office.

What we have learned during recent weeks is that some aspects of the physical office are still better suited for the in-person experience, and vice versa. No matter what features characterize the new hybrid workplace in the post-COVID marketplace, the remote workplace will be a foundational element. As we all brace for when we begin the gradual return, there are certain intentional steps we can take to create healthier environments and limit the opportunities to transmit viruses and bacteria in the workplace. By revisiting design and policy strategies, building owners and employers can offer people a work experience that supports wellness and productivity from the front door to the workplace through to each and every workstation and office amenity.

All of this means change is inevitable. Although our timing of our return to the office is uncertain, we can start thinking now about the design approaches that prioritize employee health and anticipate how we can welcome people safely back to the office. What initially was seen as one of our darkest moments, might show us that we can become the best versions of ourselves in the face of adversity.

Gensler has been publishing an ongoing series of thought leadership pieces in our weekly Dialogue Now newsletter and on our website based on our ongoing global and local design work, and experience helping clients anticipate both new behaviors and immediate design challenges. We will continue to share new resources weekly, which you can access though our full suite of resources by following this URL: gensler.com/design-responds-to-a-changing-world.