6 California Buildings News • Q4 2021
Managing in the Age of Hybrid Work The Role Offices Can Play in Facilitating Workers People. In one word, that is the most important factor in how workplaces can function best in the Age of Pandemics, which we are in for the foreseeable future. Employers need to make sure that places where their employees work are not just safe and healthy but appealing places for people. We have seen that the pandemic has somewhat empowered people. They know they have choices in a highly diversified world, choices about not only how they work but where they work. So, workplace designers and organizational planners must adjust to this new reality. They need to get to the point where people say: This is a great place to work. Fifty-five percent of workers feel returning to the workplace is unsafe, according to a comprehensive report by Jones Lang LaSalle called “Regenerative Workforce.” JLL details a full prescription for how to make workplaces safer and more productive. Among its observations is that the three pillars of regenerative workplaces are physical health, social health and mental health. “The post-pandemic workplace will be people-centric. It will make work easier through facilitating employees’ rhythms of energy. It will have to be designed with empathy and will be co-created with employees through under-
standing their perspectives, how they work and what they need to thrive,” says Chris Diming, an applied anthropologist who contributed to the JLL report. The report stated, “The offer of health and wellbeing services has become essential to maintain a workforce at its best within a world in constant flux. Critically, these offers need to be reinforced and progressed by a commitment to sustained employee wellbeing. They need to be engrained in a company’s management and culture and involve people at every level. Leaders, naturally, have a key role to play — they must show the way ahead and embrace this new responsibility of bringing to life the Regenerative Workplace. “It is about shaping a workplace that is ‘as comfortable as home’ and makes the most of the shared office space — where the workplace community can interact, share and head toward a common purpose. The Regenerative Workplace means bringing to an end the perceived opposites of work and wellbeing, the home and office environment, and individual needs and collective aspirations. For employers, onboarding on this journey is an incredible opportunity to create a truly reparative place for employees
Photos: Above: Adobe Stock. Opposite page: Scott Romick photo credit: Lee and Associates - LA North/Ventura.
