Is your Office Designed for Hybrid Working?
As you begin your planning process for 2025, you’re probably reconsidering your remote/hybrid/office working policy – especially in the wake of updates from Amazon, Santander, and others. It’s a thorny and complex issue that has never really gone away for 5 years.
One thing you may not have considered is the design of your office – is it suitable for the working model you’re planning on? Each different working model has major implications on how your staff work if/when in the office. As a result, it has an equally large impact on what your office needs to look like.
Research shows while 75% of companies offer hybrid working, only 37% of businesses have adapted their office spaces to meet the needs of this model. Hybrid work offers employees the freedom to work both from home and in the office. However, if your office isn't up to the task, you could be creating obstacles that hurt productivity, collaboration, and even employee well-being.
But before you rush into changing your office, you need to identify the most common problems that come with hybrid workspaces—and how to solve them effectively. It’s crucial to keep focussed on what is best for your company and people, rather than getting sidetracked by best practices or wider opinions.
At Zentura, we’ve helped companies across industries transform their offices to suit hybrid work, allowing them to unlock the full potential of their people. Today, we’ll go through the 5 most common office design problems companies have when implementing hybrid work. We’ll help you understand how they impact they have on your people, and how you can solve them at your company. By the end, you’ll know how to optimise your office for hybrid work.
Lack of Flexible Workspaces
If your office has not been refurbished for over 10 years or you work in a traditional industry, then there’s a high chance you have a very inflexible office design. These spaces are characterised by many desks, with some meeting rooms (and little else).
However, such layouts do not suit hybrid work, where most in-office time is spent collaborating and socialising with colleagues. This means that your people cannot communicate and work together in teams effectively. Furthermore, the space you do have will rarely be used, and people will avoid coming into the office.
To make hybrid working a success at your company, you should create a workspace that matches the way your people work. A key part of this is flexible spaces. 40% of UK workers say they need flexible workspace options to perform at their best.
Exactly what this looks like will depend on the tasks, culture, and structure of the teams using the space. However, common examples include hot desking, collaborative zones, and breakout areas. Focussed working zones are also necessary for when people need space for deep work. Designing your space to be customisable will make it even more flexible. By creating a space that suits the way your staff work, you are setting them (and you) up for success.
Poor Meeting Room Availability
Meetings are often the pantomime villain of the working day. 55% of staff complain that they spend too much time in meetings. They can often feel long, boring, and ineffective. However, it’s not the meeting itself solely to blame – the room in which it is held may be playing a part. If your meeting spaces are large and/or too formal, they won’t always suit the requirements of your staff.
Having people work remotely (even some of the time) does increase the need for meetings – both virtual and in-person. On the days when your people are in the office, they will probably spend a lot of time in meetings. As a result, your meeting rooms are probably overbooked or insufficient. 67% of UK employees report frustration due to inadequate meeting room availability.
To resolve this situation in your office, your meeting rooms need to match the way your people meet. Again, you will need to analyse how your staff meet and collaborate to be certain. A workspace consultant may be helpful for this. However, smaller, more informal spaces are often much more suited to staff needs. It’s also important that they are equipped with hybrid technology to allow for distributed meetings.
Inadequate Technology Infrastructure
Has your office been refurbished in the last 5 years? If not, then it’s very likely that your technology package is outdated, if not obsolete. Now, more than ever, employees are beholden to their technology. If you have a below-par technology package, then your people will produce below-par performance. Poor internet connection, outdated collaboration tools, or a lack of portable technology can make it hard for hybrid teams to stay connected.
This problem is more common than you may think: 56% of UK employees have experienced tech-related disruptions when working remotely or in a hybrid setup. As a result, their communication decreases, leading to slower decisions, lower morale, and reduced performance. Over time, this will be very damaging for your company as a whole.
To resolve this situation, it’s crucial that you have the technology to support an agile and distributed workforce. Within the office, it means laptops for staff, and fast, secure wifi – at a minimum. Hybrid meeting suites and collaboration technologies are also beneficial. This also extends to software – ensuring your people have the platforms to communicate quickly and securely. By ensuring that your technology package is adequate, you are removing a key performance blocker for your people.
Insufficient Collaboration Zones
Hybrid work has fundamentally changed the purpose of the office. No longer is work a place we go – it’s a thing we do. As a result, the office no longer needs to be a one-stop-shop for working. The role of the office has shifted to that of a collaboration hub – creating a shared environment for your people to work together when they are in the office.
However, many offices are ill-equipped for this shift. Hybrid work demands spaces where employees can collaborate easily when they’re in the office, but many offices lack informal collaboration zones. This limits the spontaneous idea-sharing and problem-solving that happens in physical workplaces, leading to missed opportunities for innovation.
The good news is that the reverse is also true – a space with optimal collaboration zones can deliver serious benefits for your company. Companies with well-designed collaboration spaces report a 20% increase in innovation. As always, it’s important that these spaces are designed around the specific needs of your people and culture, rather than merely being based on best practices. Commonly speaking, however, they will be small and informal, to reflect and enhance the work that happens within them. Learn more by reading 5 Ways to Improve Collaboration with Office Design.
Lack of Quiet Spaces
Hybrid working may have transformed the office into a collaboration hub, but individual work is still a crucial part of every employee’s day. Even when they are in the office, they need somewhere to do deep work without any distractions.
Unfortunately, many offices do not provide this. The nearest they get are open desking areas, which tend to be cramped, noisy and very distracting. Noise and interruptions can lead to lower productivity and higher stress levels. Studies show that 70% of employees believe noise negatively impacts their productivity at work.
To create quiet spaces in your office, look to provide a place where staff can work without any distractions – auditory, visual, or spatial. This could include bookable individual offices, soundproof work booths, or quiet work lounges. By creating a dedicated environment for individual work, you are closing the loop on staff performance, helping to create a high-performance workspace.
Getting Your Office Ready for Hybrid Work
Hybrid working is here to stay: less than 30% of firms expect their workforce to be fully in person over the next 4 years. This means that your office must evolve to meet the new demands that hybrid brings. By addressing these common problems you can create a workspace that not only supports hybrid work but also enhances it. As a result, you’ll be setting your company up for success in the years ahead.
If you’re unsure which working model is best for you, get your own copy of Office v Remote v Hybrid Working - Which is Best? There, you’ll get each option rated by 7 criteria, common situations for each working model, and how to choose the best wooking model for your business. To keep learning about hybrid working and office design, read 5 Key Tips for Preparing for a Hybrid Workplace.
