Ready for the return to the office? Start preparing!

Back to the office. We all are looking forward to that. Once the vaccinations are done and over with, we can start preparing for this in earnest. And we have to start with that promptly. However until the moment comes and we are all vaccinated, we are bound by the 1.5-meter rule. Yet even after that, working life will never be quite the same again. Flexibility and safety are fundamental in the new way of working, which means that the role of the office needs to be put into perspective. What exactly will this look like?

There is a lot of speculation about this. What do we know? That this transition requires organizational choices and actions, which must be started immediately. We will tell you why!

Let's avoid having to close the office doors again

Maybe not the most important reason, but probably a good motivation to get started:

Prevent office doors from having to be closed again, regardless of the reason.

We've already set foot in the new normal, and we want to move forward instead of backward. At the same time, we see those disruptive circumstances can lead to rapidly changing measures, and thus changing laws and regulations. It is therefore important to be watchful about this so that no rules are broken and unnecessary risks are avoided. How do you ensure that you, but also the rest of your organization, are always up to date?

Being able to guarantee safety, in the office and at home

Even more important is the ability to guarantee safety. For yourself, colleagues and customers. At the office, but also whilst working from home; be able to keep sufficient distance, but also not get separated from each other. And that requires several things, such as:

• Making it manageable who can go to the office;

• Be able to start in stages: should this be done based on planning, reserving workplaces, or does that responsibility lie entirely with the employees?

• Always have insight into who is working and where.

The future has already begun; time for a new way of working

In a short time, we suddenly succeeded in working remotely. As a result, the focus shifted completely to the virtual workforce. Project management, document management, virtual meetings; everything remotely. But given this, what will the function of an office be? Does the office still have the same central role within the organization?

Although many people would like to stop working from home full-time in their rearview mirror, it has also yielded insights. For example, the value and necessity to be able to work without (work)distractions, to get work done. But they also miss the chat at the coffee machine; let off steam, or ideas that arise just before or just after the meeting. In other words, what's the ideal dividing line? What is the golden balance between working at home and the office within the organization? And to what extent does the current layout - ahem office garden - contribute to this? Something to think about.