Guest blog by Melissa Marsden, Director and Founder, COMUNiTI
Reimagining Your Workplace to Inspire Human Potential: Your Blueprint to the Future
The role workplaces play is changing. No longer are they where you need to go “to do work”.
When we were all sent home in a mass exodus in March 2020, we received a very quick reality check on the fact that workplaces are no longer where we need to go to work and that working from home can actually work!
So, this poses the question for many organisations; what is the true purpose of our work environment, and how do we ensure it meets the needs of our people?
To begin to answer this, I think we first need to look at a few of the reasons why our workplaces were (and are) no longer working.
1. Outdated technology
Technology is impacting the way we do business; we can work from anywhere. In this digital age, organisations require to position themselves as an employer of choice and look at their business operations far more holistically, to create work environments which cater to developing technologies and increased levels of empowerment, flexibility, engagement and mobility. If technology fails to provide a frictionless experience for employees operating in a hybrid model, collaboration, connection and mobility is compromised.
2. Accommodating for one generation
Research tells us that by the year 2025, Millennials will make up 75% of the Australian workforce. This is significant because Millennials seek a fundamentally different work experience; they are looking for increasing levels of work life balance, hyper connectivity, mobility and social purpose; something many traditional organisations simply haven’t considered. The ability for organisations to cater to the full spectrum of generations in the workplace ensures they are a strong contender in an ever-fiercer war for top talent.
3. Words on a Wall
Designing an organisation for the number of bodies on seats and failing to consider the true purpose of the organisation, what it stands for and why it exists is perhaps the biggest fundamental mistake we see. Considering top talent are seeking a career that provides purpose in an organisation with heart, simply workshopping some core values and putting a few posters on the wall won’t inspire the behaviours you hope to achieve from your people.
Defining and diagnosing the future of work
Reimagining the future of work looks different for every organisation. The good news is, the data and insights exist within your very walls; all you need to do is unlock it using the five pillars of the Workplace Dynamics Blueprint COMUNiTI have developed over years of working with organisations, creating spaces that inspire human potential.
1. Reimagine the future of work – Have you considered the opportunities and impact technology, external influences, industry disruptions and workplace trends will have on your organisation in the near future?
2. Brand + Culture – Every business has a unique brand personality and when this is infused into the very fabric of the environment, it elicits emotion, a feeling of connection. It’s the experience that you want internal & external people to feel when they work with you and leads to the creation of culture. It’s how you want people to feel.
3. Values + Behaviours – Our purpose is inextricably linked right through to the behaviours that we expect to see in our organisations. It’s through the behaviours of our people that we can see the values that exist in our organisation. It is through our environment that we can influence these behaviours.
4. Wellbeing – Fostering a wellness culture is the cornerstone to not only employees adopting and maintaining healthy behaviours, but in a changing world of work, creating an environment in which both your employees and organisation will flourish.
5. Employee Experience – We are all individuals. We each have differing personalities, preferred work styles, varying roles and task descriptions. Understanding your people is critical to help you design a workplace to best support them with the right environment for optimal productivity.
The common threads in diagnosing dynamics
We’ve worked with companies of all size, scale and nature, from FTSE100 companies to small tech start-ups, but the fundamentals for creating a future-ready workplace remain the same. The conversations we are having with our clients now cover the following: 1. Work at home, connect at work As humans, we are hardwired for social connection. We discovered when we went into lockdown that the thing we missed (and hated the most about constant Zoom meetings) was the inability to physically connect and socialise with our team. In some cases, businesses saw an increase in productivity during mandatory work from home periods further proving that remote working is a feasible concept. What we can take from this is that our home or remote environments provide an opportunity to complete our deep, focus work, and our workplaces provide an opportunity to socialise, collaborate and share knowledge. 2. Range and ratio of spaces So, now we know we come to work to be with people, we need to ensure we provide the appropriate spaces and locations for this collaboration to happen. Incorporating bump spaces, breakout spaces, collaboration and shared kitchen social areas balanced with quiet areas and individual workspaces accommodates for a range of workstyles; something most traditional offices simply don’t do. 3. Work rhythms We know there is no going back to the traditional 9-5, 5 days a week. In fact, a survey of Australia’s top 50 companies, not a single company expected their people to return to the office full time and all committed to embrace a style of hybrid working. This has follow-on effects to the physical office in terms of accommodation ratios and preferences. With teams working remotely, there are ways to ensure you can reduce your footprint by agreeing work rhythms between teams to share spaces on different days, reducing your need for space. 4. Meeting Routines and Rituals Perhaps the biggest shortcoming of adopting remote work is the potential for digital burnout and the inability to disconnect from technology. Ensuring your team has clearly defined, articulated and enforced meeting rituals and rules like time limits, meeting-free days and digital ground rules ensures your team maintain their digital wellbeing whilst out of office.
Ready to unlock your future of work?
Join Mel and the COMUNiTI team at The Thriving Workplace 2022 for our Pre-Event Workshop on Redesigning The Future of Work.
We’ll be drawing on data and insights, exploring the 5 pillars of the Workplaces Dynamics Blueprint, and unlocking the intelligence already within your business to create high performing workplaces tailored to your brand story and team’s needs.
You can register for the Full Event + Workshop or Workshop Only HERE
If you’re already registered for the event and would like to join this hands-on workshop experience, please contact claire@theserenitycollective.com for special pricing.