As organizations talk about the pivot to hybrid work and what it means for workplaces themselves, let’s look back at where our modern-day concept of 9-5 work even came from.
In 1908, according to this Atlantic piece, a New England factory started to give its Jewish workers two days off around Saturday sabbath. That is believed to be the start of our “weekend” concept. A few decades and a Great Depression later, the trend of working five days a week took hold across the U.S.
Even has office work started to evolve, and technology started to accelerate decade by decade, that old notion of when we work continued strong. This century it seemed like we might be edging toward possible acceptance of a four-day week as even big companies sparked conversation. Google’s Larry Page wondered aloud if by dropping one day from the workweek, would it be better for employees and businesses. Entire countries have trialled the concept.
Today all that seems forever ago. Because a pandemic has compelled corporate chance as it lays bare the foundations of how and when we work. Companies now have to see how they can navigate change and make hybrid workstyles work for them.
The office must serve a purpose
Employees now seek the flexibility to commute to offices on specific days for specific purposes. The office is no longer a place to simply perform work. Instead, it is the destination to serve a wide range of specific needs for each employee, and each department.
It naturally follows then that an office space designed to serve the “office as a factory” mindset can’t adequately serve the “space as a service” mindset that’s now front and center in a hybrid work model.
Hybrid employees require spaces that drive efficiency, promote collaboration, and enhance comfort – necessarily elements your typical office was necessarily designed to do. Some might think it’s time to slash real estate portfolios. Yet the better move is using them in new and better ways, being flexible and thinking holistically about what a business and its many different teams need from that real estate – now and into the future.
To that end, it’s important to know:
- What actual options are on the table to address your real estate needs?
- How can you grow within your existing portfolio?
- How could your existing office space in fact serve more people?
- How can you plan for the next five years? Ten?
- How can you make the greatest, and most cost effective impact to your workplaces?
- How can your real estate best serve employee experience, helping the team be productive and working together?
Your blueprint for a functional, strategic space
Understanding how people use a space is essential. This is where data is invaluable. Insights such as visit frequency, new and returning visitors, and the levels of interactivity between employees provide a rich tapestry to design the office, assign resources, inform policies, and, if needed, rationalize the overall portfolio.
The good news is the infrastructure to strategize efficiency and empower growth is already available using always-on WiFi-powered indoor location technology. That is the key focus of our brand new guide, which offers practical steps on how to get what you really need from your real estate.
Download it now to learn how indoor location data can empower you to make better decisions about your workspace.
