Construction & Contractors Blog
Is your company planning to bring many of its office staff back to one location? While remote working took off in 2020, many office owners are recognizing the value of returning things to a new normal in 2021. But you may need to remodel your office in order to make this work. What design trends could help you and your staff make this adjustment? Here are a few of the most important.
1. Video Conferencing Setups
Video conferencing made it possible to let your employees work safely from home during the pandemic. But now that video conferencing has become a part of the business mainstream, your office should design spaces specifically with this in mind.
Depending on your video conferencing needs, this may call for soundproofing in conference areas, improved technology, and adaptive conference rooms that work both for in-person events and online ones. You might also spread video conferencing locations throughout the office to encourage both online and offline interaction or craft some areas for specific types of video calls (such as training sessions).
2. Comforts of Home
Many people enjoyed working from the comfort and familiarity of their homes. How can you lure them back to the office? Bring some of what makes home a more comfortable environment and use it in your office design.
How might you do this? Turn your standard break room into a lounge that facilitates both eating and conversing — bringing people together in organic ways to share ideas. You might reduce the number of traditional cubicles or closed office doors and open up some areas for communal work. Create a work cafe with a more dynamic work environment. Or add comforts like a fireplace, aquarium, or charging stations.
3. Zones and Neighborhoods
Rather than the traditional office layout of a maze of clustered cubicles, why not try a new work environment? Neighborhoods or zones are shared-use spaces placed throughout your larger office, which people may use in different ways.
This flex-use space might be used by a team to come together to work on a project or for individuals to work on something constricted by their office size. They could be relatively sparse to maintain social distancing, or they could include a variety of shared tools and equipment. They might be the spot you have the morning meeting or an informal and nonintimidating environment to meet with visitors.
Where to Start
Ready to begin taking your office into 2021 and beyond? Start by meeting with a commercial general contractor in your area today. With their expertise and your ideas, you can make a space that employees want to work in and that will boost your office's productivity.
Share18 May 2021
There's a common misconception that all construction workers and contractors do the same job. On one hand, this is kind of true. Construction workers and contractors all built things. However, most people in this field have a specialty. Some hang drywall. Others paint. Still others know how to pour foundations or install roofs. While some construction workers and contractors move from field to field throughout their careers, others spend their career honing one particular skill. Either approach is fine, from our perspective. What we really care about is the excellent work that these workers do, and that's what we plan to feature on this website.