Stretching resources – The elastic workplace

Whereas before, the office was seen simply as somewhere to spend a significant proportion of one’s time, it has now become a bargaining chip for retaining the best talent, and attracting more. Organisations are now recognising the importance of the elastic workplace – flexible offices that stretch and reconfigure to best meet the working habits of employees.

The elastic workplace covers the complete spectrum of worker needs, not just limited to workplace design and the commercial furniture within. To effectively create a space capable of constantly flexing with evolving employee requirements, everything must be considered, with technology a huge factor in facilitating this elasticity. The rise of hybrid working has also seen a spike in usage of cloud, networking, and collaboration tools, allowing workers to position themselves wherever they please, whilst remaining tethered to the central hub.

When analysing the physical elements within the office, however, the importance of the correct workplace furniture is impossible to overlook, kind both to employee wellbeing, and the bottom line. The definition of flexible and adaptable workplace furniture can be split into two: products that are able to reconfigure and adapt to the demands of an updated space, and those that boast multiple purposes and thus, flexibility in usage. A prominent example of the latter recently has been the work café, providing areas to relax, meet, eat or work.

One of the realities of hybrid working is that not all employees will be in the office at once, meaning that workplaces with excess unused space are hugely inefficient. This has caused many to opt for offices with a reduced square footage, but with greater scope for flex. The sacrifice of floor space has not been at the detriment of employee happiness and productivity, thanks to the counterbalance provided by the integration of technology, alongside flexible furniture, and overall workplace design.

In many of our recent case studies, we can see a clear alignment of objectives from those designing the project. Irrespective of the size of the space, and the specific requirements of the end user, all our latest projects have embraced the need for elasticity in the workplace. The implementation of flexible and adaptable solutions across the board enable evolution not revolution in the future, softening financial impact and the time spent revamping the workplace.