Current global trends in the workplace have forced organizations to radically change how they work. With the move to remote and hybrid working, a massive shift in the workplace culture is underway. Organizations are now reevaluating their priorities and building work environments that ensure workers feel safe, engaged, inspired, and productive. There is a lot of rethinking, consolidating, updating, and upgrading going into the office landscape currently. Real estate movability is now being prioritized as a design initiative that can positively impact workers and their productivity.
How Can Real Estate Players Help Breathe New Life Into Workplace Relevance?
A recent study by Arup Research reveals that real estate businesses that adopt models based on circular economy principles can deliver more flexible, adaptable, and deconstructable buildings that offer new revenue streams and greater residual value. Additionally, the need to achieve a harmonious work/life balance space has led to the development of sustainable solutions that transform office spaces’ design for greater flexibility and adaptability.
Let’s look at the strategies that organizations can use to achieve office mobility:
Implementation of intelligent technologies
Innovative technologies can be integrated to offer great insights into employee behaviors and other variables, including energy use within the building. Such data is critical when making decisions on improvements to increase productivity and maximize space and energy usage.
Leveraging movement sensors and other top-notch tracking devices can help managers and other stakeholders optimize space and adapt them to meet the immediate occupants’ needs. For example, intelligent trackers can turn off the power on rooms and floors not in use to save on energy. Also, workers can use sensors to customize their lighting via custom apps from wherever the employees are located.
Development of flexible workspaces
Several studies reveal young professionals can thrive in flexible workplaces. Essentially, young professionals prefer a combination of private spaces for demanding tasks requiring a high level of concentration and open areas where they can communicate and collaborate with teammates.
Organizations and real estate players should consider this when designing and redesigning modern workplaces. Flexible workspaces can be quickly scaled up and down to fit teams of various sizes or effortlessly rearranged to accommodate changing business objectives. Ideally, these types of dynamic office spaces are designed to enable flexible working arrangements that provide individual workers and teams with the freedom to choose where, when, and how to work.
By choosing their workplaces and schedule, employees enjoy a healthy work-life balance, and they generally become happier and productive. Flexibility in the workplace does not only benefit the employee; the companies also get a chance to reduce costs and maximize available space. Notably, a flexible workplace must meet specific design specifications, including open plan rooms, quiet areas, adaptable workstations, and shared amenities.
A great starting point for businesses already with open spaces could be installing freestanding privacy booths that feature soundproof walls, power outlets, work desks, and adequate ventilation. Such private spaces allow employees to do private work, including video conferencing and phone calls, without disrupting everyone else. Notably, the cost of installing such booths is significantly lower than reconstructing the entire office.
Use of relocatable buildings and systems
Building a new unit requires capital, land, and comprehensive planning, design, and construction processes. In some workplace situations, a relocatable workplace can be a more sensible and flexible choice than building a new unit. A great attribute of the relocatable building is the little time it takes before it becomes available for reuse. A relocatable building has modular components and may be easily deconstructed and moved. Elements of a workplace and move in the same way, such as flooring and other equipment within a larger structure as a businesses reprioritize.
This technology is, therefore, an excellent choice for urgent expansion requirements, for example, the current need to expand office capacity to meet the pandemic rules. It also offers a lot of agility of repurposing them in a different location, including on sloping grounds. Apart from being relocatable, the materials used in the buildings can easily be recycled, thus boosting sustainability efforts.
Matching technology and sustainability
In the current highly connected workplace, securing voice and data communication should be a top priority of any forward-thinking organization. Organizations can achieve this by using exceptional technologies offered by some of the leading IT companies. There are modern systems that offer a new way to integrate wires and cables into a building to enable the kind of flexibility needed to meet the challenges created by ever-evolving workplace technologies. Ideally, such systems are designed to scale effortlessly to meet changing business needs and reduce costs down.
Leveraging adaptable assets
A flexible workplace can only be possible with a more fluid office design that can adapt to change easily. Many companies are now adopting repurpose and reuse designs to support the evolving needs of in-house staff. Consequently, there is a rising need for adaptable assets well aligned within the circular economy concept. Adaptable assets refer to the buildings designed to accommodate more than one specific sue in their lifetime. They are built to be resilient and adjust to the changing needs of future market and social expectations. Notably, a considerable number of buildings are currently prematurely demolished due to a loss of purpose and inability to adjust to the current market needs. Businesses that utilize adaptable assets can enjoy lower costs in converting unused space and create less waste that benefits the environment.
For example, businesses can reuse their existing equipment, such as raised flooring, at a transitional time in the business environment. Gridd® low-profile adaptive raised flooring is one of the great solutions that meet the idea of reuse and reconfiguring. More importantly, Gridd flooring is actually moveable, and it doesn’t attach to the building. This feature makes it endlessly reusable, reconfigurable, and depreciable, which is great for taxes. Ideally, the flooring can be picked up and moved to a new room, building, or state as the business adapts to the priorities of its customers and employees.
Key Takeaway
In a nutshell, modern technology is significantly influencing the way we work today. Innovative technological solutions play a critical role in transformed office spaces that offer more work and life balance. Integrating new technologies with buildings could be an effective way to achieve a flexible workplace, cut costs and increase employee job satisfaction and productivity.
