Designing work spaces around human behavior post pandemic

As it currently stands we are not sure when things will turn to normal in the workplace, or even if it ever will. Most companies are starting to slowly adopt a hybrid model for working conditions - meaning working from home, and some time in the office. Others are slowly getting back to the office. Others simply have moved everything virtually.

This is a great time for us to rethink and redesign our work spaces to continuously look for ways how we can make work life worth it.

Here are a few tips you might want to investigate to ensure a people centric, human behavior focus for your workplace: 

1. Awesome workplaces have always supported more than just work when it comes to health benefits. Now, however, people expect that health and wellness are built into everything. 

2. A company needs a crisp, inspiring and well articulated North Star - the WHY of the company, that is clearly understood by all employees, and then linking each person’s personal north star to the company so that each employee understands how they fit into the company’s WHY. 

3. Transforming work streams and HOW work is done that will suit the company - flat, adaptable, cross-functional. 

4. Build enough time for everybody to work in the business and on the business -  a lot of companies are “stuck” in the performance of daily tasks, and do not have build in time to step into deliberate learning and sharing of best practices, that in turn creates disconnected teams, lack of clear communication and understanding and lost time within the production / performance of tasks. 

5. Sharing customer insight and megatrends frequently with everybody in all departments - embed a deep understanding of WHO the customer is, and link it back to the WHY of the company. This includes potential customers of the future and WHY decisions are being made to adapt to the new customer. 

6.  Inside-Out Effect: use a tool such as the SEE (Social, Emotional and Ethical) framework to create strong personal vision statements that helps to identify each person’s strengths, creates meaning, and see what makes people happy in the company. The ultimate goal is to connect employee hopes and dreams to that of the company’s north star and to your customers.