More than a year after the pandemic began, we are much more experienced than we were at the beginning. Skanska has outlined how to transform the work environment for employees returning to the office.
“We sought to define how to create a safe workspace that encourages office work while preserving the corporate culture. Together with our partners, we have tried to redefine the future of jobs and shape the concept to meet the needs of people. The office of the future will not only be a place for employees to walk every day, but a place they want Being in it, as it helps them stay connected, share experiences, and find work-life balance.” – Tell Adam Targoski, Environmental Director, Commercial Development Business Unit for Central and Eastern Europe in Skanska.
In order to adapt to the current situation, Skanska has developed the “Care for Life Office Concept” offering. The purpose of its creation was to make employees feel safe when they return to the offices. How do you set up an office where people can work even during the pandemic? There are recommended solutions for this, thanks to which the process can be ensured according to epidemiological guidelines:
- Increasing the number of rooms suitable for focused work
Office work is an important motivator if you have a quiet place where you can focus more easily. Working in an enclosed and comfortable place increases productivity. Therefore it is advantageous to transform an open space into several separate rooms with different functions: workers should have the opportunity to work or relax in these areas.
- Collaborative spaces and facilities
According to a previous Skanska study, people still prefer working in the office to working from home. However, in the post-pandemic era, offices need more savings than before – they need to be better, more comfortable and more exciting than what their homes can provide. Different types of spaces, such as creative workspaces or solutions that support remote work and collaboration, increase security and give you the freedom to choose how you work. For effective recreation, it is advisable to provide spaces for team meetings and other services within the building, such as a café, games room or even Pilates lessons.
- Use of meeting rooms during the epidemic
Negotiator capacity should be reduced during a pandemic. Sensors that collect usage data allow you to control the number of participants. More flexibility is needed in office space. For example, if it is not possible to hold a meeting with a large number of participants in a room, then it is worth rearranging the open common space.
- Proptech solutions help optimize space usage
Computer simulations are increasingly encouraging tenants to optimize the use of space based on statistical probabilities. Sensors, heat maps and traffic monitoring are areas of proptech that really support tenants in making management decisions. It is recommended to monitor, analyze and schedule office movement.
- Tables over 1.6m wide
The need for social distance has changed office furniture as well. The new system has been dubbed the “Six Feet Desk” in English because its essence is that it is built on a six-foot pedestal. (6 feet = 1.83 meters). It is recommended to provide tables with a width of at least 1.6 m in the office. This ensures comfort and at the same time makes it easy to maintain social distance. It is recommended that rows of tables be separated from each other by a distance of two meters to maintain the safety of traffic roads.
- Post office comment
Office sharing is a popular solution in flexi offices. However, this matter should be carefully reviewed, since it would be better to optimally allocate a certain work area to only one employee during the day. Thorough disinfection of the work area is very important and must be done every day.
1087 Budapest, Hungária körút 30.
Creating user-centric functionality is a challenge for any company. Skanska shares best practices by providing professional advice to tenants on office security. Accordingly, the developer actively responds to the current needs of the client or even helps to adapt the current and future developments of office rental to the new security requirements.
What does Skanska’s “Care for Life Office Concept” offer?
The “Care for Life Office Concept” for Skanska buildings in Central and Eastern Europe was developed with the participation of external experts – designers, epidemiologist and architectural studio, ARUP, to provide clients with the most appropriate workplace solutions. This includes providing advisory services to tenants and implementing safety standards and solutions to limit the future spread of COVID-19 and any other potentially contagious disease. The “Care for Life office concept” consists of 4 areas: air quality management, contactless solutions, remote control procedures, and building operation.
“The global ‘testing of remote work’ is now turning into a ‘back-to-office’ practice, and we need to master the mixed form of working in the office as well as at home. All this requires setting new office rules, but also the individual redesign of workplaces, where ensuring The smooth running of operations The safety and well-being of our employees, customers, partners and communities is Skanska’s top priority, and this is in line with one of our core values, Protecting Life The office has three important roles: Integration, creating culture, and supporting team building We have created a new offering called the Care for Life office concept So that offices can continue to do their job as new normality arrives.” – Tell Catarzina provided us with Bigosh, President and CEO of Skanska’s Central and Eastern European Trade Development business.
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