Do you think attaching bonuses to time in the office is the way to go to get people to return to the office? 

If so, would it get you to work from the office more frequently?

Recent media articles reveal that employees at Origin Energy and Suncorp Group risk having their bonuses cut if they do not comply with office attendance rules.

The policies were introduced this year to set clearer expectations for staff and come as organisations try to strike a balance with workers who became used to working more flexibly during the pandemic. 

For example, the Commonwealth Bank has struggled to get a couple of hundred workers to comply with its requirement to come into the office at least 50 per cent of their time each month.

So I think we would all refer to this as the big stick approach….the top down approach…management by stealth…. it cetainly does not help workplace culture.

People all need guard rails to protect themselves form making stupid short term decisions.

I want to float a few ideas - we often discuss how the office is one of the key tools in the kit of parts of getting people to return to work, to become more social, more creative, more productive - knowledge is essential from how to use tools in the workplace but  this should also include an organisations  workplace standards, protocols and policies to assist employees to get the most out of not just the physical office but also now  the organisations flexible working policy.

The workplace standards for many organisations have had to be reviewed for a post pandemic workplace, the years of the rack and stack with little or no consideration to the personal physical space for individuals is now long gone. 

Many progressive clients have looked at their Workplace Standards documents as an education tool to help employees understand the best way to preserve physical distancing and also what the best settings are best used for what activities a person or team may be doing in that part of the office.

Many of these documents were a  standard that was applied globally for multi-national organisations but your local team must be able to relate to the rationale behind the standards. 

So it is even more important now to develop a local or regional version of the workplace standards more so the an over arching global version. The office design and functionality are impacted by local cultural factors and their geographical location.

In Australia, this is even a challenge for national organisations that may have employees working in the capital cities verses regional and country locations.

These standards now also need to take into account the expectations of people working from home or other locations other than the office. It sets out the expectation of how the workplace outside the office needs to be set up or configured to understand the basic requirements to minimise risk to the employee. Remember people need guidance to protect themselves from making stupid decisions.

Once an organisation has bought their standards, protocols and policies document up to date, then it will need a periodic review to see how progress in technology, tools and new furniture options can contribute to changes to the standards.

When you add significant changes that are health driven not economically driven, due to events like the recent pandemic these see a requirement for changes in the protocols and policies part of the workplace guidelines. Look at the COVID numbers in recent weeks in Singapore, lets not assume we are out of the woods on this one.

Now lets have a chat about the protocols. Remember these are the rules or guidelines that explain the best conduct or procedure for a particular situation. They are different to a policy. 

They consider how to deliver best practice using a rationale process. These often have to be changed or modif

The pandemic has certainly changed the way organisations are looking at there office accommodation fitouts. The office now needs to compete with other places to work.

The days of not being spatially aware are over.  The importance on space being functional for quiet work, considered working, project work, meeting spaces for leader meetings or collaborative meetings are all as important as each other depending on the team and its functions.

Just being focused on having collaboration space is not the answer. 

It might at a high level be the solution for today by ill informed leaders believe that is all they need, but they are and will be sadly mistaken.

The mix of the work settings in the office location is key to allow easy sharing of thoughts, knowledge and information by the use of technology no matter if your working independently, in a small group or in a blended project environment where people are attend in person and virtually.

Fitouts need to consider the easy of cleaning, surfaces that prevent to spread of viral infection or "bugs" or other types of infestation. 

The days of finance finding cost savings by cutting the cleaning scope and subsequent costs are also over. If anything this spend will only increase as peoples expectations are now higher and they will not tolerate these reduction in services for health reasons, many people take this position not just to protect themselves but also others around them.

The fitouts are now more spatially aware-1800 long workstations, to comply with tried and tested physical distancing requirements  1 persons per 4 square metres during period of high viral transmission . new fitots are using more physical space -  larger meeting rooms so that if physical distancing restrictions have to be reintroduced at anytime the change is not significant and things basically go alone like usual.

If things go along - same old same old during periods of high viral infection then the change impact on the employees is minimised.

The scoping of the requirements of the business groups using the discovery findings from workplace strategy is still essential to provide the basis of the design brief and what people need from the workplace. 

Many people predicated that post the pandemic the days of desk sharing were over. This certainly has not been the case across the majority of enterprises.

Many organisations are providing community facilities zones for cleaning and antiseptic consumables to allow employees to self clean desks and shared spaces should they wish.  These facilities best work when the coupled of support day cleaning regimes.

One of the reasons why desk sharing remains acceptable is because of the theory of the team "neighbourhood" which became embedded in the way agile working best worked prior to the pandemic.

The neighbourhood is a place of  belonging, the place were people know they can gravitate to, where there will be a familiar face or the people that someone needs to meet with in their team or project.

Don't under-estimate the power of the neighbourhood or the home zone. This also drives the need for workplace
design to be like a lego block" design. 

This allows furniture choices to be swapped out as different business units that have different needs of their space. For example some business groups well require more casual collaboration space, while others will have a higher requirement of project spaces. This modular  design principle provides great flexibility for the workplace to change as the business requirements morph.

Lets not forget the design will morph, the days of set and forget are over. The changes on workplace design and office functionality is now almost continually ongoing as technology solutions are moving so fast and often drives the associated change. 

The new post pandemic office fit

This week lets talk about one of the biggest issues organisations are struggling with, Workplace Culture.

There is a shopping list of things that can easily, that is right easily tip a workplace culture that is operating in equilibrium or powering ahead 

The first two, Workplace Environment and Flexible Working have an impact on the third, Workplace Culture. Post the pandemic many organisations of various sizes are struggling with maintaining or at worst even reinstating either workplace culture.

During and after the pandemic the traditional role or people and the work place was generally handed over to HR. But was it really the right decision. Workplace experience is a large part of the employee experience, which was the traditional HR remit. Our HR partners have a could have a great assets in their "kit of parts" being the office, but without their facilities bed fellows or knowing how to lead the change management in this space, it will be like hammering a nail in with a $3 hammer.

Our HR Partners have been tasked to lead return to the office, or organisational hybrid working or return to the office practices and protocols, even the oversight on what should happen if there was another pandemic wave, that the population was not vaccinated against.

This is often driven by Senior Leadership, as it looks to fit. But the expertise on the building access, its facilities, the commercial relationships with building owners, vendors and suppliers sit with the FM or Corporate Real Estate Team. These experts drive the success of the such directives.

What makes the workplace environment be the winner over working from home, the pub (don’t laugh, you might feel envious, I was envious watching a lady between zoom calls eat a dozen oysters, washed down with a glass of sparkling wine  at 2pm on a Thursday afternoon. (ok so I'm hearing everyone say HR policy, blah blah blah, better than a clients employee I had to pick up some workplace survey data from which was handed to me off the home office desk next to the bong - now I am hearing the ahhs 

There needs to be visible change in the workplace environment. Many workplaces were spatially bastariszed prior to COVID to ensure there was a desk for new starters. The post pandemic workplace needs to resolve these issues. Employees still consider the health considerations and social distancing as more important than prior to the pandemic. It needs to remain front of mind to ensure your people consider the workplace as one of the safest places they can be.

People must be able to see change. They must be able to  understand and appreciate changes that they can't see. The things that are important like increased cleaning commitment, day cleaning, access to the building, end of trip and building facilities such as lobby cafes, communal meeting spaces just to name a few. 

It is also important for management is continue to remind occupiers of the importance of physical distancing, remember physical distancing not social distancing. We need al people to be less distant socially, we need higher level of engagement to assist in maintaining and improving the workplace culture. 

Senior leadership should not under estimate their people, you cant put lipstick on a pig - you can but you may as well save your 10 bucks. The physical workplace environment is one of the most powerful tools in the kit of parts that can keep your workplace culture on track or contribute to the successful power house of an organisation. Any shortcuts will be discovered if you like it or not, there is only room for genuine effort. Often HR also does not understand the true value of a functional, effective and easy to use workplace.

The workplace truly does contribute to workplace culture. Don’t underestimate it , but let’s face it, it’s&