February 06. 2023 - 4 min. reading time

The office after the pandemic

Klaus Berberich in an interview on the new normal of work: How smart workplace experiences through digitalization contribute to the success of companies.

by Ivan Escamilla

Portrait of a man with glasses and shirt, in an office, in the background friendly people greeting each other, a bicycle, modern workplace.

Motivated employees are an important pillar for the economic success of companies. However, the pandemic has fundamentally changed the everyday working life of office workers. Hybrid working is now firmly established in the world of work - and in the minds of employees. What does the modern office or the "new normal" of work look like after the pandemic? In an interview, Klaus Berberich, CRO and founder of Thing Technologies, looks at the increasing importance of attractive, modern workplace concepts to attract and retain committed employees. He also looks at the role that Smart Workplace Experience technologies play in this context.

Working in large office buildings has changed as a result of the pandemic. What will remain after the pandemic and why?

The pandemic has opened up new opportunities for many office workers. It has given them more flexibility and autonomy in the spatial, temporal and local organization of their work and a better work-life integration. This has even opened up new perspectives with regard to the choice of future place of residence, e.g. beyond the conurbations. For a variety of reasons, the majority of employees will continue to rely on home office and office days in the future, and thus on flexible workplaces. The expectations of the "new normality" of working are correspondingly high and require innovative concepts in order to successfully implement the office of the future and the associated far-reaching transformation of the world of work.

What opportunities does this present for companies? The keyword Environmental Social Governance (ESG), i.e. environment, social affairs, corporate governance, really comes to mind, doesn't it?

Companies that allow hybrid working can save up to 50% of the space required for workstations if they focus on flex desking, i.e. making workstations more flexible. According to the M.O.O.CON study1 , this is actually the biggest single measure for ESG improvements. Even a 30 percent reduction in rental space offers companies enormous potential to cut costs and significantly reduce their CO2 emissions at the same time.

Does this mean that there are no challenges or even risks associated with hybrid working models for companies, only advantages?

Unfortunately not! If too many people remain in home office too often or completely after the pandemic, I believe this can have a negative impact over time on corporate culture, the churn rate, certain aspects of productivity, innovative capacity and, consequently, competitiveness. For example, it is more difficult to exploit the creative potential of a team when everyone is working remotely. When people come together in person, team communication is easier and therefore more effective and efficient.

Can you explain this using a few specific examples?

We are all familiar with video conferencing workshops in which there is simply no momentum. In face-to-face workshops, on the other hand, we still experience much more interactivity and participation. In addition, integrating new colleagues into a remote team can be much more difficult. After all, team and corporate culture thrive on colleagues spending a significant amount of time together in the same room. They also meet in the corridor, in the coffee kitchen or arrange to meet for lunch. If this is not sufficiently ensured, even the loyalty of long-standing employees can wane. In other words, maintaining and developing the corporate culture becomes much more difficult.

Pure online collaboration is no long-term substitute for face-to-face conversation and direct interaction. Reading or writing "LOL" is not the same as laughing together. In order to retain and attract employees in the future, companies must now "more than ever redefine their attraction and retention strategies and build a value proposition that takes into account the entire life of employees", according to a McKinsey recommendation2 from March 2022.

So should the goal be to simply call all employees back into the office a few days a week?

It doesn't work quite like that. Anyone who believes they can take away the flexibility their employees have learned and rely on mandatory days in the office is taking a big risk, which I would strongly advise against. We currently have an employee market here in Germany too, and there is a clear risk that good employees in particular will look for a new direction. They are looking for employers who continue to offer them autonomy, work-life integration and thus their trust.

In the US, for example, more than 4.3 million people voluntarily quit their jobs last December, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is just below the record figure from November 2021 and there are significantly more current job vacancies (10.9 million) than new hires (6.3 million). According to a survey by McKinsey, the main reason for accepting a new position was "workplace flexibility".

So how do companies successfully master the challenge so that office space is used much more and employees do not move away?

In my view, they need to strengthen employees' intrinsic motivation to want to work in the office again. In other words, there has to be added value for them that makes it worthwhile for employees to invest the time and money to come to the office. The office must support me in my work and my presence there must be a positive experience for me. There are few things worse than having to travel to the office just to work with others via video conference. We therefore need more density, less space, but it needs to be much better designed. Employees need to experience their workplace in a new way.

Keyword workplace experience - how can this be achieved in concrete terms?

Above all, there is a holistic approach. The aim is to make adjustments in various areas. Many disciplines play a role here: Leadership teams, HR, IT, real estate management. It's about social experiences through incentives and events for employees as well as providing different spaces adapted to my work, stylish furniture and great tools for collaboration and facilitating daily work organization. Digitalization can provide very effective support in such an overall concept that meets these changing requirements. In the end, everything revolves around two axes: you need to ensure that the office does not become dysfunctional and, secondly, that there are plenty of positive incentives. It is important to understand that positive incentives only help if the office is functional - if the office is dysfunctional, fancy furniture won't help.

To what extent can an office be dysfunctional? Where do you see sticking points?

The change from fixed workstations to flexible workstations, which is necessary to implement the densification of space, poses major challenges for employees. Familiar office mechanisms are being undermined. How do I know that I have a workplace? How long will it take me to find it? Who else will be in the office and where? Where do I put my things? Where is the nearest printer? What collaboration spaces are currently available? Where is the help desk in the building I'm in today? Even the coffee machine, which I rarely use or have never used before, can become a frustrating experience, just like unfamiliar conference technology. These frictions and small obstacles can quickly have such a negative impact on the office experience that employees no longer want to come. The larger the office space, the higher the risk.

How can technology help to successfully implement appropriate concepts?

Employees who use the office space are helped to find their way around by digital office assistants, e.g. an app that they always have with them. They can use it to find their workstation for the morning, the right meeting room for brainstorming in the afternoon and then the individual office for the most important customer calls. The laptop can also be stowed away in the locker quickly booked via the app if you want to meet colleagues for a quick after-work drink - everything is adapted to changing needs throughout the day.

The app also helps me find colleagues and make appointments with them, search for the help desk, printer or booked meeting room for the next appointment. Without having to walk long distances, I can see which rooms, desks, phone booths etc. are now available for me and my team members and I get quick help with orientation thanks to the indoor navigation function. I can also find my way around buildings that I rarely visit. This becomes all the more relevant the larger the office space or campus I move around. Basically, an app like this helps me in office spaces in a similar way to how maps applications support me in everyday urban environments. Navigating is learned, saves time and can perhaps also reduce the number of notorious latecomers at meetings. Interactive displays on the floor and in meeting rooms allow orientation even without an app.

Supported by these smart assistants, stumbling blocks and frustration factors are avoided right from the start. This allows employees to focus on the benefits of the new workplace concept and significantly increases the overall attractiveness of the space. The new working environment loses its fright and becomes a place of encounter. And the more people come into the office for these encounters, the livelier it becomes and the more likely it is that intrinsic motivation to work in the office will increase. A self-reinforcing effect sets in.

If an app solution offers so many advantages for employees - what is important to bear in mind?

Every newly introduced technology initially encounters an adoption barrier. Not all employees are happy about having to learn it. If companies give their employees a different app for every support function - workplace booking, catering, locker, menu, etc. - many of them will never generate enough value and the apps will simply remain unused. - If companies give their employees a different app for every support function - workplace booking, catering, locker, menu, etc. - many of them will never generate sufficient value and the apps will simply remain unused. Instead of controlling many individual functions via different apps, we at Thing-it provide companies with an all-in-one solution. Employees only have to learn one new technology and can thus be supported in a wide range of ways in their day-to-day work.

Most of our customers want to implement desk sharing and therefore start with the workstation booking function. Over time, they provide their employees with more and more modular support functions without increasing the complexity for employees. Access and usability are consistent - and always in the company's corporate design. This is the only way for the technology to have a lasting impact on employer branding.

Surely this new, dynamic world of work poses major challenges for corporate real estate managers and companies alike. How do you deal with the constantly changing requirements?

At the moment, nobody knows how office use will develop over the next few months. There are hypotheses, but in many places no relevant empirical values. This means we can't simply plan perfectly today, but have to keep making optimizations and adjustments. This is why a feedback loop is so important for CREM: what is well received, what is not? How many employees are working from home, how will demand change after the pandemic, for example? Which departments need which workplace key? Which workplace situations are in greater demand than others? How does this differ between locations? The digitalization of spaces and buildings, if possible with appropriate sensor technology, helps corporate real estate managers to precisely measure the use of space and workplaces in order to be able to manage them intelligently.

A meaningful database allows permanent adaptation to constantly changing requirements. Space and buildings are then used more efficiently and vacant space - with all the negative consequences described above - is avoided. Data shows, for example, how much office space is currently in demand, which types of desks are more popular, which meeting room sizes are most frequented or whether group areas such as huddle corners etc. are accepted at all. However, user preferences can also change quickly. And this is where flexibility comes into play: in addition to the fast and reliable feedback mechanism, a space concept that allows the space management strategy to be adapted without great effort is also crucial. Here, too, technology can provide strong support by centrally managing rules, e.g. via home zones, activity areas, etc., and automatically transferring changes to the employees' self-service systems - i.e. the app. The bottom line is to recognize how the space was actually used, as opposed to how it was intended to be used - and to regularly adapt concepts. This also makes it clear that the role of CREM has changed, which is why new tools are needed.

People in a modern office, sitting in meetings and working on laptops and tablets.

What challenges are corporate real estate managers facing after the pandemic?

Corporate real estate managers and the workplace team used to determine space requirements mainly on the basis of forecasts of employee growth and relatively stable ratios. Shifts in these ratios were slow and it took several months to adapt to the changes. This was the situation before the pandemic. During the pandemic, maximum occupancy often changed within a few days. This may still be necessary from time to time, as we cannot rule out waves and associated restrictions in the future.

However, even in an endemic situation, workplace managers have to deal with the planning uncertainties described above. With so many unknowns, they need to find a software and hardware solution that helps them gather accurate, reliable and detailed data on office usage to optimize workplace strategy on the go. This means they need to be able to quickly adapt the workplace model if office users behave differently than expected. If, for example, there is significantly more presence in sales than expected, but hardly any demand for workstations in IT, then a good space concept with good tooling allows workstations to be reclassified centrally once and nothing changes for the individual employees. They can still find their workstations via the app or screens, even if the pool has now become smaller or larger. Good tooling makes it easier for CREM to manage centrally and still gives employees a high degree of autonomy in terms of self-service.

How easy is it to obtain the required data?

It is crucial to understand what data you need and in what quality. There is a wide range of sensors on the market and you could come to the conclusion that data collection is easy. However, which sensors are suitable for providing good raw data can vary from country to country and from office to office. From wireless standards to power supply and maintenance issues, global companies in particular have a lot to solve. That's why we have designed Thing-it to be hardware-independent, so that the professionals at our integration partners can select and implement the best technologies for our customers. Flexibility and the ability to adapt to the many requirements of large companies is essential at the level of the evaluating platform.

As soon as good sensor data is available, we are faced with the problem that sensor data in its raw form is hardly suitable for analyzing office occupancy, for example. To do this, the raw data must be processed in a meaningful way. Flexibility and adaptability are also crucial here. In recent years, we have invested in this flexibility and in robust algorithms in order to obtain decision-supporting information from raw data - because that is what matters. Unfortunately, there are currently still too many supposedly simple solutions on the market that do not allow us to make reliable decisions based on their data.

The goal of companies, facility managers, HR, IT, senior management is to make informed decisions that subsequently help employees perform their jobs in the most efficient way. At the end of the day, what is important is a positive employee experience in order to be successful as a company, retain talent or high performers and attract new ones. Choosing the wrong tools and making decisions based on bad data can cause a lot of damage. But if you invest in the right information, you can optimize in a targeted manner.

What would you recommend as a good start for hybrid workplace and space management strategies after the pandemic?

In my opinion, companies and real estate managers should consider five important aspects. First, don't be too sure about which workplace model is best after the pandemic. Plan for the possibility of being wrong and the need to constantly make changes. Secondly, use mandatory guidelines as little as possible. Let office users decide where and when they work. Focus on strengthening the intrinsic motivation that makes people come to the office. Thirdly, if the goal is to bring team members back together and into the office, I recommend selecting and applying concepts and techniques that help to keep office utilization high and, when in doubt, not to provide too much office space. After all, high office utilization has many positive effects. Fourthly, you should give preference to employees' self-organization over centralized guidelines by placing the relevant technologies in the hands of the employees. Fifthly, use detailed data as a basis that provides you with versatile platforms for building digitization. This allows you to constantly assess and analyze actual requirements and subsequently optimize them.

In summary, what advice would you give companies?

I strongly advocate recognizing the current situation as a great opportunity and devoting a corresponding amount of attention to it. If we make the effort to grasp and address the problem in its entirety, we can give our employees more flexibility, which will noticeably enrich their lives. In addition, we can manage with much less space, which we can organize much better. This has a positive impact on employees, CO2 emissions and our wallets. It should be clear that this is not simply about introducing a workplace booking app. Only a holistic approach, which must of course be based on comprehensive and flexible technology, will allow companies to turn the opportunity into a real competitive advantage.

https://www.moo-con.com/unser-wissen/blog/mein-unternehmen-das-klima-und-ich-wer-wandelt-sich-schneller/

Aaron De Smet, Bonnie Dowling, Marino Mugayar-Baldocchi, and Bill Schaninger "Gone for now, or gone for good? How to play the new talent game and win back workers", McKinsey Quarterly March 2022).

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