Many of us are currently wondering what the autumn 2021 looks like for office life. Once the pandemic situation allows returning to the office, will we be totally tired of working from home? Will some of our colleagues remain forever behind the video call screen? What does the hybrid model of some people working from home and others from the office look like?

After over a year of working from home, most of us would have formed small wellbeing supporting habits: a little siesta or a short walk between meetings, maybe a 5-minute dance craze in the afternoon…Not to even mention the luxury of being able to control the temperature and sounds ourselves at home. 

As designers of work environments, we have a pretty good idea of ​​how much some companies already invest in the wellbeing of their employees; acoustics, light, air quality and comfort are typical criteria in our projects. In the future, these elements will play an even more crucial role, if organizations want to attract their employees back to the office. A lot of us might be excited to go back to the office at first, but once the days get colder again, working from home might start to feel tempting again. Here are our top tips for rethinking your post-pandemic office space and ways of working:

1. Homes have become offices – now offices need to think more like homes.
New ways of working require new types of spaces and ways of working. Bringing coziness into the office is something that every organization must now seriously consider.

2. Think adaptable and adjustable.
While working from home, people have become used to being able to control their work environment themselves. Spend some time on thinking how you might be able to offer at least a degree of this at the office.

3. Idle use is on the rise.
Once it’s allowed to go back to the office, many will want to continue doing focused, individual work from the home, and come to the office for ideation and teamwork. Sharing desks allows to reduce the office size and avoid waste of space.

4. Inspire your employees by involving them in the planning.
Make use of online surveys, interviews, and co-design sessions. With the help of these service design tools, you can lay the best possible ground for managing change and planning solutions that have an impact.

5. Employees will come to the office for encounters and ideation.
It’s really difficult to have an exciting brainstorm in a video call. Future offices will need to cater for groups that come to the office specifically to work together – while still providing others a quiet environment where they can focus. This means more meeting rooms and better sound proofing.

6. Organise first meetings face to face:
It is amazing to think how the pandemic has forced us to learn to do almost anything virtually. However, something essential is missing when the team has never met face to face. To make the routine video meetings run smoothly, we recommend teams to always meet face to face, when possible, as this is crucial in building trust and forming a team spirit.

7. Spontaneous encounters can be encouraged through spatial planning.
Something we can probably all agree in this time of super-efficient video calls, is missing spontaneous chats in the office kitchen. When we only talk about what’s on the agenda, silent information doesn’t get passed on either and this can have a direct impact on the organization´s ability to innovate.

8. Call booths, hybrid meetings and excellent soundproofing are post-pandemic key words.
Online meetings are surely here to stay in one way or another. As some of the team remains remote, and others come to the office, office spaces are facing new challenges. We believe these can be solved through good design.

9. Video call backgrounds are becoming a crucial part of brand building.
Remote working has enabled large international groups of people to meet in a way that is convenient. As interior designers, we’ll be thinking through a new perspective; what is seen on the background through a video call.

10. The pandemic has forced us to become digital and this means less need for storage.
Returning to the office will be the perfect opportunity to get rid of all the old papers and folders, and free up space for more useful things!

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Working environment refereces:

WPP Group´s industrial charm in Ruoholahti
Epicenter encourages for innovative encounters 
SLS office in Kruunuhaka – liked by workers and visitors
Aalto University School of Business Campus in Otaniemi