Swati Salgaocar explains on how companies should plan their workplaces in the aftermath of the pandemic
Since the onset of the pandemic, as most of the world went in and out of lockdowns, businesses in every country had no choice but to mandate that most of their workforce work from home. As weeks turned into months with no visibility on the re-opening of workplaces, there was much debate about the relevance of a physical office in several sectors. While it is unlikely that COVID-19 will lead to the demise of the office, it will certainly expedite its evolution. At various points over the past year, due to lockdowns and COVID surges, we were forced to abruptly vacate our workplaces and as a result, we lost the experiences that formed an integral part of our daily lives. While we were initially enamoured by new technologies that helped us stay connected, it was not long before virtual meeting fatigue set in. The absence of being able to work and interact in person highlighted the significance of face-to-face experiences and the role they play in our mental wellbeing and productivity.
COVID forced us to work from home with constraints of technology, connectivity and space, making us long for a return to a physical workplace to resume our professional lives with human interaction and collaboration. However,
we all valued certain parts of our work from-home experience – the ability to do focussed work without the interruption of meetings or a daily commute, improved work-life balance, and the flexibility to manage our schedules to avoid the monotony of a 9 to 5 work week.
As we return to our offices, work and the workplace as we know it, will need to be redefined and redesigned such that
measures to ensure the health and wellbeing of employees do not compromise productivity, functionality and creativity.
It is unlikely that the office will continue to be a space for administration, processing or individual tasks, which can all be successfully carried out remotely. Instead, the office will become a hub for collaboration, innovation, social
interaction, promotion of corporate culture as well as employee training and development – experiences that cannot
be replicated at home or in remote locations. The office will continue to be the key location to drive sustained team
performance, inter-personal experiences and well-being. As we return to the office, a few key themes will influence how we plan offices for the future:
De-centralisation of workspaces:
Distributing employees in smaller clusters throughout a city or region into smaller workspaces increases the resilience of an organisation. It reduces the risk from having a single concentrated workplace especially in the event of any interruption as we recently saw in containment zones, but also previously caused by power outages, natural disasters, compromised infrastructure or traffic disruptions. The additional benefit is that it saves employees commute time and allows them to have a better work-life balance. There are also advantages from a business
development perspective – it can bring organizations closer to their clients or customers and it opens up a much larger talent pool that was previously limited by location.
Hybridisation of work: One of the most significant phenomena of the last year has been the de-coupling of ‘work’ and ‘place’. The realisation that there are distinct advantages to working from home and working at an office will require businesses to explore flexible working arrangements to arrive at a blend that best helps them achieve their goals. Ideally, companies would afford their employees the best of both worlds – structure and sociability in the office, combined with autonomy and
flexibility to work from home. This is also a more inclusive future for work where individuals do not have to compromise on a career due to caregiving obligations. The added environmental benefit is that the reduced days one needs to commute also lead to a reduction in our carbon footprint. All of this however will only be feasible with augmented technology to ensure that team members can stay connected whenever they need to.
People-centric design: Organisations will need to put the health, wellness and productivity of their employees first. Cramped cubicles designed to maximise every last square inch of FSI will have to become a thing of the past, given the new norms of physical distancing. It is unlikely that screening and monitoring protocols, as well as improved standards of cleanliness and hygiene that were put in place during the early days of the pandemic will be discontinued in the near
future, so the sooner they are integrated into workplace design, the more seamless the functionality of the space will be. Businesses will need to redesign their workspaces to have better ventilation, outdoor breakout spaces and safe places to gather. However, rather than just view this as an additional cost; businesses should look at these design changes as an investment in their employee wellbeing and performance, which will ultimately lead to a positive impact on the bottom line.
What does all this mean for Goa?
With its inherent advantages of a cosmopolitan culture, liberal population, good air quality and abundance of green
open spaces, Goa is poised to be an attractive location for businesses all over the country exploring the three concepts outlined above. Goa is an attractive destination for decentralised clusters for that part of the workforce who craves a better quality of life without compromising on output. The cost of living is lower here as is the relative cost of real estate. Technology will keep employees connected to teams at other locations while air/road/ rail connectivity allows for physical interactions when necessary. Design professionals have long been allured by Goa’s culture that is conducive to creative ideation and but one could argue that companies in sectors like consulting, media and research could benefit from some of their teams moving to Goa as well. As ‘work-from-home’ became ‘work-from-anywhere’, startups and entrepreneurs have been looking at Goa as a viable option for relocation. The increasing population of ‘digital nomads’– independent workers who embrace a location-agnostic, technology-enabled lifestyle that allows them to travel around the world and work remotely – could be another demographic that would find Goa attractive. Major travel industry players including Airbnb are already shifting their focus to ‘workations’.
Designing and building offices of the future will be much easier in Goa where the relatively low cost of real estate allows adaptive reuse and fresh construction of people-centric workplaces. As organisations look towards creating
offices of the future to attract and retain millennials, Goa provides a blank canvas to start experimenting with these iterations, which will no doubt take some time to perfect. Covid has ensured that work and the workplace will never be the same.
While working remotely posed its challenges, we are not going to be satisfied returning to our pre-pandemic offices. The question is, how soon can businesses adapt to a trifecta of goals – ensure a work environment that is conducive to productivity without compromising on employee wellbeing while continuing to grow?
The writer is a third generation entrepreneur and director of Vimson Group. She is the Vice Chairperson of CII, Goa Council
