Property
PROPERTY Hybrid work, the office of the future and the office as a meeting place are topics we have been hearing a great deal about lately. In Zuidas, the storm of Covid has mostly dissipated and everything appears to be back to normal. From the outside, at least, there are few real signs of the shift going on behind office walls. Nonetheless, it seems companies are vigorously rolling out new workplace plans. We sat down to talk about this with Harry Vlaardingerbroek, chief workplace officer at Deloitte, and Wouter Oosting, executive director of workplace strategy & innovation at CBRE.
HARRY VLAARDINGERBROEK Chief Workplace Officer at Deloitte You are the chief workplace
You firm is based in The Edge. A piece
out of the crisis. For example, it proved
officer at Deloitte. What
recently published in the Volkskrant
that employees can very well work
exactly does this job entail?
noted that you are working hard to
independently from home with a high
In my job, I am responsible for three prongs
create an ‘office of the future’. Could you
degree of commitment and responsibility.
of our support division; namely, Corporate
briefly describe what that office is like?
Productivity shot up. Of course, this
Real Estate, Facility Management, and
We expect office use to be different
doesn’t apply to everyone, so we have to
Services and Mobility. All three have
relative to the pre-Covid period. Without
account for that. Our prognosis came out of
undergone major changes in a very
discounting all the restrictions and
conversations with our own business units
exceptional period brought about by the
pain Covid has caused, there have also
and a staff survey. More than ever, offices
coronavirus over the past year and half.
been some positive things to come
will have to function as meeting, teaming, coaching and project spaces. We are already redesigning our office layouts to be better adapted to the new situation. Virtual meetings also require adaptations, both in terms of facilitation and to give participants a fuller sense of involvement. In future, independent work can continue to be carried out more from home – provided the home-working situation allows, of course. People will commute less, which in turn is good for the environment helps to solve traffic congestion. Is there any one element out of all the adaptations Deloitte has done internally that would lend itself to offices in Zuidas generally? Technological adaptations to better support virtual meeting and digital presentations and the design adaptations linked to that. Also more team zones, so that teams that are in the office just one day a week can actually sit together on that day.
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