We Still Need The Office, But It Must Become A Hub For Company Culture And Human Connection
By Simon Dudley, Head of Analyst Relations and Sales Enablement at Logitech Video Collaboration and Mike Gedye, Head of Technology Sector Vertical at CBRE
Discussions around what the future of the office looks like, and the experience it will offer, has been a topic of conversation across every industry. Some have suggested that the office may not even have a place in years to come, and that we will all work remotely. Others are looking to put a hybrid model in place, but no matter your opinion, the vaccination programme’s success and easing of lockdown means that we will likely get an answer to the question of ‘what will happen to the office and will I ever go back to work’ in the coming months.
Companies are already announcing their intentions, with Nokia adopting a hybrid working model with three days remote in June, for example. CBRE’s recent Workforce Sentiment Survey indicated that 67% of employees would favour a balance of in-office and remote work.
Mike and I met each other on a Zoom call recently to talk about our perspectives on how the office will be re-invented. I (Simon), got into the video collaboration industry after finding video conferencing as a way of keeping in touch when away from home, and became passionate about making the technology more ubiquitous. Mike has experienced 15 years in real estate, and is driving strategy with some of the biggest enterprises out there as to what their premises could become post-Covid.
I’m an introvert and will remain mostly home-based as I have done for years, while Mike is more extroverted, and will follow a hybrid balance. That being said, we’re aligned in believing that the office won’t become a relic of the past, but it will evolve into a destination, not just a place to work.
The Office Is A Hub For Company Culture And Values
Mike: The biggest companies in the world manifest their brand in their physical environments. Their culture is defined by more than just a strap line on their website – things like a team’s willingness to help others collaborate on projects or have a spontaneous drink at the pub both drive the culture of the organisation. And these activities are more physical than virtual.
Yes, some of this can be done with a virtual beer, but a corporate purpose and sense of community organisation must come from physical interaction. There will be hybrid working in most companies, but it must become more of a balance than the model we’re working in now, where many work mostly or entirely at home.
When the pandemic hit us, we tried to move office life as we knew it online. We lost the serendipity of creativity, the energy from real-life meets, and we still haven’t quite pinpointed how we can bring some of this back effectively. This will be key to hybrid work life, as the home and office will involve different ways of working and communicating.
Simon: Logitech is a video-first organisation and so our CEO gives regular video updates to employees which helps to set the tone of our company culture. It’s an example that helps make virtual communication an everyday experience for all employees, and it helps to make our CEO accessible.
However, we also know the value of places for colleagues to meet, and have 80 offices around the world. These spaces were transforming even pre-pandemic, as a video-first mindset ensured 20, 30, even 50% of the people joining meetings didn’t have to be in the same building. It’s important for distributed teams – whether across the country, the world or different job functions – to have this capability.
Logitech builds products that are useful to people’s everyday lives, so our teams need to meet both in digital and physical environments to innovate as our customers occupy both worlds. Other companies will need to keep office space so that sales teams can build relationships, while financial groups will want the excitement and experience brought back to the trading floor.
Prioritise How People Want To Use Office Space
Mike: The office used to be built prioritising the Physical space first, followed by the Humans inside it and the installation of Digital technologies last. Design is now shifting to think about a HDP model – which means understanding and considering the people in the office, and how they will be using it. This includes having a better awareness of employees’ personas, functions and the preferences.
A good example is juniors and new starters, who are trying to find their feet in the world of work while their employers attempt to create an engaging digital workplace that nurtures loyalty. My son has just spent the first year as a graduate and it’s all been on Zoom. He felt this has been good for short, focused meetings, but not for ad-hoc on-the-fly chats with peers or seniors, or for socialising with colleagues.
For many at this career stage, work lunches, gym membership benefits and workplace friendships are very valuable – and can’t be replicated online. Therefore, I believe working from home has more benefits for senior members of the team. People like Simon and I are established in our roles, can draw on global networks with ease and make connections day-to-day.
Simon: Working from home has shown me how fortunate I am too with my network. But then I wonder - what is to stop me from deleting people on my personal and professional networks who share different politics and business ideas that I disagree with? Unless we meet in person and catch up, how long can these vast networks stay connected?
Networking has its benefits offline and online, and many of us will need to go back into the office at some point to freshen relationships that could be better grown in person. When this isn’t possible, we need to think about the digital technologies that can equip us to do business remotely.
The Office Space Will Be Different Than We Knew It
Simon introduced this piece so allow me (Mike) to make some conclusions. Prior to the pandemic, people often regarded those in the office as the most important members of the team. And in the worst case, remote workers would join a call but participants in the meeting room would forget their attendance.
We will not be going back to this, and not just because we’ve been equipped with video and personal workplace technologies that mean remote workers have quality tools the same as in-office workers. It’s also because no matter an employee’s job role, function or age, most people will choose to work from home for at least part of the week. So, while there’ll be a change of physical office design so meeting rooms can manage half of participants joining virtually, there will be a bigger focus on company culture and how it can be nourished going forwards.
This will require an industrial transformation of the real estate industry. This time last year, most of the corporate world got up at 6am, and commuted to an office to access the internet at their desks by 8.30am. But now people have a home office, the city version has to offer something better – far more than just a fast broadband connection. I think it’ll be the human physical interaction that gets us there – a cultural injection that cannot be experienced from home.
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