Reconversion of work spaces: the key to the human factor

Variables such as new technologies, the emergence of hybrid work and concern for environmental sustainability are here to stay and are generating new design guidelines for spaces, but, above all, an impact on the way of thinking and experiencing work.

Companies adapt their facilities to new work dynamics, seeking to accompany the business and its people with comfort, design, efficiency, quality, sustainability and technology. Beyond companies redefining their marketing networks, we see these changes in scope mainly in corporate offices (due to hybrid remote-in-person work) and in logistics operations - warehouses and warehouses - (due to B2C and last mile distribution) and they include an important and representative group of collaborators. The change in ways of working, in dynamics and in people implies change in the environment and physical space. We need to restart the way of designing spaces to promote activation in the way of creating, innovating, and thinking. It's time to develop networks, connect, co-create and exchange ideas. Workplaces and desks need to be reconfigured to create spaces that promote community building and interaction.

Meeting moments are less structured and the space configuration must synergize with these changing opportunities through diverse and configurable spaces.

«Drivers» of the changes

To carry out the design of flexible offices that move away from the concept of a standard and uniform space, we must know the needs of those who inhabit them considering the impulse and emotional value that people give to shared experiences in the workplace and the strengthening of the feeling of belonging that has been blurred in recent years by reducing the moments of joint interaction in the same physical space.

3 great drivers from people

• The hyperconnectivity.
• The rapid adaptation of people to working from their own home.
• The less attractiveness of moving versus the richness of the encounter.

3 great drivers from organizations

• Optimize the occupied spaces(save square meters).
• Promote or proactively a place for group meeting, collaboration, innovation and especially generating identity (the space makes the identity).
• Sustain the government and make the leadership tangible.

Let's add to these drivers the trend of decentralizing work spaces: from a central office to distributed work spaces and, increasingly common, the coworking space.

This process of change implies not only a change of scope, but it is a one-way path towards a new way of working. In addition to reducing square meters and focusing on productivity, the emotional aspects are considered, "enjoyment".

For them, new modalities are implemented that encourage the creation of ideas, learning and collaborative work, allowing the office It is a meeting place, where people want to go to the office and do not miss the comfort of their home, spaces that in recent years people have customized according to their own needs.

New spaces for new organizations

Among the benefits of this process, we can highlight the integration of organizational culture, dynamics and processes; the implementation of the concept of the office as a meeting point in a warm, relaxed, familiar and safe environment; optimizing the employee experience, at all times and in all places (both in-person and remote).

Different premises for the new offices from a more integrative perspective: shared spaces, inviting to name the positions from a hybrid face-to-face and home office modality; optimize the use of natural light and interior green spaces; sustainability (energy savings, less water consumed and a lower carbon footprint due to reduced attendance at the venue).

It seeks to cover all the needs of people and teams by promoting «rules of coexistence» (noise, hygiene and safety, storage spaces), ensuring having the appropriate technology for the best experience, suggesting the appropriate use of each type of space (collaborative tables, individual spaces, call booths, meeting rooms, dining room, etc.).

The challenge is to achieve new ways of organizing, operating and mainly interacting and relating through capitalizing moving processes. Changes mobilize and drive changes. Processes change, the way of doing things changes. That is why the focus must be on people.