In recent years, companies implementing “return to office” mandates have discovered that simply “forcing” employees back into the office doesn’t work. Employees in all industries have experienced the benefits of flexible work, and they’re keen to retain those advantages.
This means business leaders need to build office experiences that entice employees back into the workplace, delivering environments that foster collaboration, and productivity. A successful strategy requires a comprehensive approach to building collaborative spaces with the right AV technology, software, and integrations that empower every type of employee.
Here’s how business leaders can ensure their office spaces not only empower and engage staff members, but encourage them to spend more time within the workplace.
Eric Bixler, National Director of AV Solutions, Global Video Collaboration Division, New Era Technology says “’Earn the Commute’ continues to be an underlying goal of Business leaders as they reimagine their office spaces. It is crucial that organizations take a moment of self-reflection on how their team members meet and collaborate today. How big are their teams and work groups? What information are they sharing, and how is it accessed? And does how they do it today represent how they want to do it tomorrow?”
Step 1: Assess Your Current Environment
The first step in designing effective collaboration spaces for the modern workplace, is analysis. You’ll need to conduct a detailed assessment of your workplace, and the spaces and technologies you already have, to determine what you need to retain, and what you need to upgrade and optimize.
Look at how team members currently use collaborative spaces. Are your teams regularly reliant on focus spaces and smaller huddle rooms where they can interact with remote colleagues? Do you host a lot of larger meetings, and group training sessions in meeting rooms?
What technologies do your staff members regularly use during collaborative sessions, such as microphones, touchscreen displays, webcams for video conferencing, and similar tools? Will the existing resources you have be suitable as the number of people in your workforce grows, or do you need to invest in new systems?
Assessing your current resources will help you to set goals for your design process, and determine which challenges your employees currently have, that need to be addressed.
Step 2: Assess Essential Requirements
Once you have a clear view of the resources you already have, the size of your collaboration spaces, and the types of employees you’re going to be supporting, it’s time to identify what you need to invest in. During this process, it’s helpful to gather insights from members of your team, asking them about the resources that would improve their office experience. Consider:
- Hardware requirements: Do you need to invest in new devices to empower your teams, such as digital whiteboards and displays? How can you improve the meeting room experience by managing acoustics, lighting, and other factors with technology?
- Software and integrations: Which software solutions should employees be able to instantly access in meeting rooms? Should they be able to switch seamlessly between Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex or Zoom? Do they need these tools to integrate with other resources?
- Access management and security: How will you manage and secure your meeting rooms, with identity and access management solutions, room booking software, and tools that allow you to remotely update and optimize technologies?
Step 3: Prioritize Equity of Experience
Ensuring you provide users with an excellent experience in collaboration spaces is crucial for a few reasons. The better the experience you give to your employees, the more satisfied they’ll feel in the office, making your “return to office” strategy more likely to be a success.
Additionally, excellent user experience helps to improve adoption rates, ensuring your team members actually use the solutions you invest in. With this in mind, consider how you can improve experiences for your team members. Can you allow employees to choose which meeting room software and devices they use, giving them the flexibility to jump between resources without losing functionality?
How will you ensure remote employees and office workers feel truly engaged and immersed during meetings? Can you leverage high-quality video conferencing and whiteboarding solutions, to help improve meeting equity for remote and in-office participants? Think about how you’ll monitor the experience of your employees, by tracking usage rates and requesting regular feedback.
Step 4: Design Multipurpose Collaboration Spaces
As companies and employees continue to embrace the future of hybrid work, flexibility is becoming an essential part of building the right office environment. Designing more flexible spaces, which can adapt to suit any kind of meeting, and a range of participants, can be extremely beneficial.
Multipurpose rooms save you money on designing a range of different environments for various use cases. They also improve the user experience, by ensuring employees can configure their collaborative spaces to suit their specific needs in any situation.
Based on your evaluation of the different types of employees and teams in your workforce, and their approach to collaboration, ensure your spaces are adaptable. Make sure teams can easily customize their meeting environment, and access a range of tools and integrations.
Step 5: Choose a Service Partner for Support
Finally, once you’re ready to start building your collaboration spaces, ensure you’re working with the right partner. A vendor neutral service provider can help you not only design the perfect spaces for your workplace, but also ensure you’re getting the most out of every investment.
They can help you identify potential challenges with network connections and integrations in advance, streamlining the deployment of your new collaboration spaces. Some companies, like New Era, can even provide assistance with everything from employee training and onboarding, to device monitoring. They can help you keep track of adoption and usage rates, potential quality of service issues, and metrics that will help boost your return on investment.
What’s more, they can provide consistent managed support, tracking and repairing faults on your behalf, addressing user experience problems, and improving your security and compliance strategy.
Designing Modern Collaborative Spaces
Engaging, immersive, and empowering collaboration spaces are crucial to the future of work. Teams need to be able to collaborate effectively to power business growth. However, as hybrid and remote work strategies grow more common, companies need to rethink their approach to space design, to ensure every employee benefits from an excellent experience.
If you’re ready to transform your office environment, and build spaces that facilitate strong communication and collaboration, start by choosing the right partner for your design project. A leading vendor will give you the support and guidance you need to create an office space that attracts employees back into the workplace.
“A successful collaboration space should offer a variety of work settings to support different types of activities, from brainstorming sessions to focused individual work. The ability to reconfigure the space quickly to accommodate different team sizes and activities is essential in today’s fast-paced work environment. By providing choice and variety, we empower teams to work in ways that best suit their needs. Seamless integration of audiovisual equipment, video conferencing tools, and interactive displays is essential to ensure smooth communication and collaboration among team members, whether they’re in the same room or halfway around the world!” says Rob Westwood, Director, Product & Solution Design, Global Video Collaboration Division, New Era Technology.
