The World Has Changed, So Should Our Approach To Work

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Chair of the Month

Mark Adams
Mark Adamshttps://www.smithgroup.com/people/mark-adams
Mark Adams RID, IIDA SmithGroup | Vice President | Workplace Studio Leader – Phoenix Office Mark Adams describes his work style as "a leader, collaborator, psychologist and motivator, all within the context of a strong work ethic." He’s joking about the psychologist part, but it speaks to his broad role as Principal and Workplace Studio Leader for Interior Architecture in the Phoenix office. With more than 30 years of experience, Mark applies his award-winning design skills as director and principal designer, and project manager as well as his leadership skills as mentor to the Phoenix staff. He also has contributed his expertise as a presenter at Tradeline, NeoCon, International Facility Management Association (IFMA) and other national conferences, and as an editor to the American Institute of Architects Handbook of Professional Practice. In his free time, Mark likes to work on his golf game—come to think of it, another pursuit that combines skills and psychology.

SmithGroup’s Mark Adams and Jenn Lauring share how policies and practices centered on flexibility and empowerment will shape our return to the office and the future of work. Read part two of this series here

Almost immediately after remote operations were initiated a year ago, SmithGroup’s firm leaders formed a Reintegration Task Force to prepare a comprehensive framework plan for safely returning employees to physical offices at a yet-to-be-determined date. The group, led by Workplace Practice Director, Lise Newman, included representatives from Human Resources, IT and teammates from across the company’s varied disciplines and geographic locations. A primary task was to research all facets of operations within SmithGroup’s physical offices.

Equally important, leaders wanted to understand what support employees needed to remain successful while working from home. A comprehensive firmwide survey, which received an impressive 92 percent response rate within 36 hours, revealed that large segments of staff were struggling to contend with issues related to widespread closure of schools, day care centers and public transit. Health, wellbeing, increased stress, concerns of isolation and a desire for more face-to-face interaction and collaboration were also issues which challenged employees. To help employees navigate these challenges, a flexible work policy was rolled out in May of 2020.

While it is not yet known to what degree COVID policies will remain in place once the pandemic subsides, we do know that flexibility and holistic workplace design centered on promoting health and wellbeing will play large roles in recruiting, retaining and operating businesses of all types in the future.

Returning to the Office: Where to Begin

As society prepares to enter this new era of work, companies must assess a range of space- and policy-related adjustments and determine what changes will or will not align with their firm’s unique mission, vision, brand, culture and values.

 

Shifting Paradigms & Impact on Real Estate

Certainly, there is much to consider within this new world of work. For many organizations, understanding how physical offices and post-pandemic space needs fit into the picture are becoming mounting priorities. Remote work has ignited an honest and in-depth exploration into the role of physical office spaces, the level of flexibility that employees expect from their employers, and what companies are willing to embrace moving forward. And this is just the beginning of a widespread paradigm shift in work styles and modalities across industries, including architecture and design.

We are trying to discern how this new era of work will impact performance, profitability, operations, real estate and future space requirements for its enterprise as well as clients’.

While a large portion of businesses would love to take a “wait and see” approach, lease terminations and the inefficiencies of underutilized real estate are forcing the issue for some, including two of SmithGroup’s domestic offices.

Case Study 1: SmithGroup – Boston Office

With its lease coming to an end in the middle of 2021, leadership within SmithGroup’s Boston office did not have the luxury of standing by. Prior to the pandemic, the plan was to find a new space equivalent in size to the existing 15,600 sf office, with the majority of employees retaining assigned workstations. However, leadership could not ignore how effective teams had been while working remotely and could not overlook staff’s expressed desires to retain some level of flexibility post-pandemic.

Supporting these observations, a staff survey revealed that 89 percent of employees were satisfied working remotely but missed the social interaction and collaboration afforded by the office. Also notable pre-pandemic, over 70 percent of staff reported one-way commute times lasting 40 minutes or longer. Staff shared that going back to 80+ minutes of commute time per day, five days a week was not ideal. One employee explained it simply:

I hope to find a balance between the challenges of my commute and the benefits of being in the office to be able to see, communicate and collaborate with team members and other employees.

Guided by survey results and the staff’s desire to continue to work remotely to some degree, leadership pivoted and leased a smaller floorplate in Boston’s Seaport District. The new office will focus on a range of social, interactive and collaborative activities that employees missed, balanced by areas for quiet and focused work—giving staff flexibility and choice to select the right setting for each task. Employees in Boston are looking forward to moving into this new space in July of 2021.

Case Study 2: SmithGroup – Phoenix Office

Without a full renovation in nearly 20 years, SmithGroup’s Phoenix office was overdue for a transformation to improve the employee experience and better facilitate workflow and processes. Similar to feedback shared by staff in Boston, Phoenix employees reported that they were satisfied with remote work overall but were struggling to cultivate relationships with colleagues, engage in meaningful collaborative activities, and found it challenging to connect with office managers and leaders. Unlike Boston, commute time was less of a constraint (less than 30 percent of staff reported one-way commute times longer than 40 minutes), but the benefit of “no commute” was still the highest ranked reason people enjoyed working from home. When asked “What has increased productivity working from home and what would you incorporate into the new office?” the number one answer was “focused work with fewer distractions.” In addition to the need for quiet zones for focused work, employee workshops revealed a desire for more natural daylight, increased amenity spaces and various types of collaboration spaces.

The pandemic reinforced programmatic and design considerations and moved the flexibility needle further. SmithGroup’s new office will transition Phoenix from 100 percent assigned seating to 90 percent unassigned seating. To promote team-based collaboration and facilitate seamless flow of activities, teams will be able to reserve select areas throughout the office for extended periods of time. This new level of agility and flexibility will further support our goals of greater collaboration and breaking down studio silos that have existed since the inception of the space.

Overall Results

While the Boston and Phoenix offices move ahead with their plans, SmithGroup’s Leadership Council is using this time to assess who we are as an organization and how we work. A firmwide survey was deployed that addressed inclusion, engagement and the employee experience asking staff to reflect on their time before COVID-19 and how it compares with their experience working remotely. Staff was asked to imagine a future when the pandemic is behind us and consider the workstyle that would best suit their personal needs and how that may impact the overall culture of the firm.

The results were impactful and eye-opening. The ribbon diagram above highlights the major shift in how/where staff worked prior to COVID and how/where they want to work moving forward. The biggest change comes from the “working in the office full-time” profile. Seventy-seven percent of staff respondents worked that way prior to COVID-19, but only two percent want to work that way moving forward. The second largest shift was in the “working from home three to four days a week consistently” profile, only one percent of staff respondents worked that way prior to COVID-19, and 38 percent want to work that way moving forward.

There is still much to unpack regarding how “temporary” workstyles, methodologies, policies and technologies put in place to navigate COVID-19 could evolve into more permanent solutions. Organizations are still continuing to discern how major shifts in employee desires will impact business operations, real estate strategies and future office design. Continued research and partnership with clients across markets will help fuel further exploration of these topics related to long-term implications of COVID-19—particularly regarding built environments and the people they serve.

Read part two of this series here

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