There’s no doubt that the pandemic has had a big impact on everybody’s workplace. For key workers in customer-facing roles, for instance, face masks and plexiglass became an indispensable part of their new workplace reality.
For knowledge workers, their kitchen table or children’s bedroom morphed into a makeshift office. Sooner or later though, most office workers will return to their former workplace even if it’s only for a few days a week.
It’s thus no surprise that ‘adapted workplace design’ is one of the top workplace wellness trends to watch out for this year. Organizations are rethinking their workplace design to ensure the safety of their employees.
And, according to a recent study, rightly so. 68% of employees globally do not feel completely safe working in their employer’s buildings. This number is even higher for those working remotely, namely 75%.
What’s more, nearly one in four of those remote workers (23%) said they would rather start looking for a new job than return to a workplace that didn’t implement the necessary safety measures.
Since for many people, their homes have indeed become a part of the workplace, it’s important for organizations to look at how to better – and safely – facilitate their employees’ remote workplace.
What does adaptive workplace design look like?
Examples include:
- Workplace design that helps ensure social distancing
- Ensuring physical comfort and safety at the workplace
- Shifting to an activity based working (ABW) environment
- Allocated budget for people to fit out a home office
- In customer-facing industries, the workplace will welcome devices such as the Aura Aware to ensure a safe distance between employees and customers.