TALKING POINT
WHAT DOES THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC SECTOR OFFICES LOOK LIKE? Tim Shirt from office power and connectivity specialist, CMD, discusses emerging trends and altered working practices, reflecting on how they will change the look and layout of public sector office environments in the post-pandemic era.
T
he COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we live and work for good. Even as we begin tentative steps towards rebooting office routines and shared workspaces, there is a widespread acknowledgement that what we’ve learned from the pandemic experience will shape the way we behave and perceive our work environment for years to come.
A time of change Over the past year, we have discovered the pivotal role of technology in contemporary working practices. From schools to local authority services, public sector environments have adapted to new tools and platforms and gained an insight into how much technology allows us to do. Collaboration across departments and sites has become easier, paperless office practices have fallen into place out of necessity and agile working has become routine.
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The importance of a comfortable and welcoming work environment has also been firmly established over the past year. Many of those able to work at home have benefitted from softer surroundings and biophilia, and the experience will influence workplace trends moving forward. Already, there was an evolution towards more agile, welcoming and tech-enabled offices, and the pandemic has escalated those trends. As a consequence, we can expect to see more use of natural materials and biophilia in public sector office environments, creating a resimercial look and feel, with layouts that enable both social distancing and collaboration. Let’s not forget that employees have coped with a lot of disruption and anxiety over the past 18 months. Bringing a softer look and
feel into the office is not just about aesthetics, therefore, it’s also about providing reassurance by articulating a caring, nurturing workplace.
The office environment The biggest short-term challenges for public sector workplaces centre around the need to implement new working practices to enable social distancing. Potentially, depending on the size and layout of existing office accommodation, this may involve reconfiguration and equipping the office for hot desking or agile working. In the public sector, like the private sector, there is a widely-held assumption that a degree of homeworking will continue to be part of workplace culture indefinitely. To aid ease of reconfiguration, we are likely to see an increased focus on busbar powertrack systems, such
Tim Shirt is Key Furniture Accounts Manager at CMD. His vast experience has won him national awards as one of the leading consultants in his field.
as CMD’s Betatrak, or hub distribution systems, which allow electrical installations to be modified easily and occupancy to be scaled up or down. The ability to locate a tap off anywhere on the network at 30cm intervals allows versatile layouts, with redundancy and resilience built-in where required, so that layouts can remain flexible as needs change. In the short term at least, offices will need to implement cleaning and booking regimes to enable social distancing and infection control. And if hot desking remains a feature of public sector work patterns, booking systems for hot desking are likely to remain. This has implications for workstation connectivity, smart technology and on-desk equipment, including the use of Bluetooth and RFID technologies to allow automated registration of personnel at the workstation.
