Rapal Blog

"How do we get started with hybrid working?" and "When can we go back to work, back to the office, back to business as usual?" These questions are on the lips of many. While many are (and have been) eager to see restrictions lifted, we must remain patient, and this time around – think and plan ahead. One step and stage at a time - the social, physical and digital workplace need to realign with a new way of working.

We are now over a year into a pandemic-induced workplace (r)evolution. To no one’s surprise, views on the role of the office are still polarized. Within commercial real estate, many corporate leaders are hoping for a return to old ways of working. However, inflection points are simply part of life. Covid-19 is a huge inflection point for the office world. Now it’s the customer, both tenant companies and end-users who are in the spotlight, who will have their turn to write the next chapter of what it means to “go” to work. For those whose income and business model is tied to supplying or servicing the world of offices, a beginner’s mindset has become necessary, to survive.

The only thing certain is an uncertain future – especially in today’s marketplace and digitized, global business world. Not only technological disruption can take you by surprise, but increasingly so changes in national and global politics, legislation, economy and effects from climate change. And as we have recently witnessed, the effects from public health hazards. In a world like that, we need a higher degree of adaptability and resilience for sustainable success.

This is the third part in a series of blogs called “Mobilize!” In the first installment, I discussed the concept of flexible work in general, and in the second, I got started on the topic of making a case for flexible working. In this post, I continue on the subject of making a business case, setting up KPI’s, measuring impact for improving the working environment.

Spaces can be designed to encourage certain types of behavior, such as individual work or collaboration.

Choice architecture is used to help nudge us to behave in certain ways – in the workplace, too, where the aim usually is to optimize organizational effectiveness and well-being. 

Before we make a workplace change, whether it is moving to a new office or transforming the existing office, or some other workplace change, we tend to conduct a utilization analysis. We want to know how we are using the workspace, so that we can have a better idea of what we might need in the new workspace. How are we working? Where are we working? How much space do we need? What kind of space and workstations/collaboration areas do we need, and in what extent?