We’ve gained a new appreciation for the office environment in the past months. The team moved into our own office, and are loving our new space. We’re also on a workation at the moment, and have decided our Ibiza villa is now our 2nd favourite office in the world.
Our Ibiza office still fits the definition of an office: ‘a room, set of rooms, or building used as a place for professional work’. We also sleep here at the moment, which is not something we’d recommend doing in most normal offices 😇.
It’s been 3 years since we all of a sudden had to start working from home. Most of us quickly set up our home offices. Then the focus (dare we say hype) shifted to remote working. Not only was it possible, it became widely accepted. There are a lot of very strong advocates for home/ remote work, but the reality is that it’s not an option for everyone.
Most people will continue to spend 50% of their time in an office (the average is 2-3 days per week), so it remains really important to get it right. Productivity and engagement are highly influenced by your work environment.
However, most offices still look exactly the same as they did pre-covid. This makes no sense because the world of work and the office needs of our people have changed. Now that people have more options where they work, they come into the office for new reasons. We also know that a lot of employers want people to come to the office more often, but they’ve not made that place more attractive.
We meet with many companies and are regularly amazed by how boring offices still look (sorry). All these companies have fancy websites, build cool innovative products and often have sexy values. Then you enter their office, and what you see are dropped ceilings and grey coffee-stained carpets 😱. When you care about your Employee Experience, you should definitely care about your Office Experience.
We see an opportunity here 😁.
It’s time to redesign the Office Experience.
We luckily also see a lot of companies who totally got the memo. Who created spaces where people absolutely love working from, and which inspire people to do their best work. Offices where people want to be vs have to be. A place where you go when you want to create, focus, interact, brainstorm, socialize and work together.
What makes stand-out offices so amazing? They cater to the needs of employees and have a deliberately designed Office Experience. All of them have in common that they offer at least 2 zones:
😊😊 Collaboration zone: an area where you can work, talk, laugh, brainstorm. Not a white meeting room with a big table in the middle, where you sit behind your laptop staring at a TV screen. Instead think couches, white-board walls and beanbags. Companies still book offsites for teamwork, which is crazy when people nowadays actually come into the office to do teamwork. Onsite can be seen as the new offsite and should facilitate the collaboration.
🤓 Quiet zone: a place where you can really focus. It’s quiet and you can do deep work. Not everyone wants to work from home or can work from home efficiently. For those the office is simply still the place where they can focus and get shit done. They might not seek social interaction continuously but seek that space to focus. When you create silent areas in your office, where people aren’t disturbed, you’ll see productivity go up! We do this ourselves as well. We’ve agreed that when you are behind your desk and have your headphones on, it means ‘do not disturb’. This helps with leaving people in their flow, and only starting a conversation when they are open to it.
The magic is, as always, in the details. The green plants 🪴, the art on your walls, the colours and materials you use, and maybe even the props you bring in. And it really doesn’t have to be expensive. Use Peel & Stick wallpaper (omg we love this invention) to quickly create colourful spaces. Colours can have a profound impact and positive effect on people’s moods.
The office environment, like your home, should be a place where you want to spend time. Ugly environments don’t bring out the best in us, beautiful environments do. You don’t have to go to Ibiza to find an inspirational office space 😇.
Here are a few of our favourite (co-working) places we used for office inspiration:
Stories | Inspiring, flexible co-working facilities for therapists and coaches.
Zoku | The home/office hybrid in Amsterdam where people and ideas connect.
The Social Hub | Learn, stay, work and play.
Let’s create irresistible organizations… and irresistible offices 💖.
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