The End of Open Plan?

What will the world of work look like post-COVID? We've spent 20 years moving from offices to cubicles to open plan, where to now?

What's Wrong with Open-Plan?

Well a little old thing called COVID-19 has spoiled the recently realised dreams of many companies who have converted their offices and workshops to enjoy an open plan layout. 

Open-plan has been slowly creeping into more and more workspaces, opening up communication between departments and different levels of seniority. It's responsible for a more collaborative team in many companies and fits more with the working practices of the younger generations. 

However, open-plan has its issues. Employees were concerned about having to listen in on their colleague's calls and employers about increased chatter and less productivity. These issues seem trivial these days as the inherent health risks to an open-plan office are glaringly obvious now we have been living through a pandemic. 

We've all seen offices with desks hardly a meter apart and only a short partition shielding the person opposite. That sort of environment will be breeding ground for a virus like COVID. But will we see a resurgence of the walls of yesteryear? Or perhaps huge walls of glass?

Personal Space is Back In Style

We don't think the world is ready to surrender to the walled offices and siloed workforces - but changes will have to be made. It's important to keep staff socially distant, disinfect everything as often as you can and for goodness sake cover your face when you sneeze Karen! Here are some suggestions on how to make your layout even safer without any construction work:

 Partitions

Probably the most obvious option, you don't have to build a wall, you can just buy a partition and keep germs away but still allow colleagues to see each other, converse and maintain the open working relationship we've all learnt to love (or tolerate, depending on the colleague!)

Avoid Hot Desking

This is the idea that staff don't have their own desk, so as there's usually a few people absent at any time you need fewer desks and thus less space. It was once hailed as the way forward, a cost-saving bit of ingenuity, but as Business First reports, research shows that hot-desking damages both morale and productivity in your workforce. The health implications of sharing desk space with another human should be the final nail in the coffin of this practice, give your staff their own space. 

 Remote Working

So many people have experienced remote working (WFH) through the pandemic and seen the benefits to their work/life balance, their petrol costs and the environment that, if they are willing and you are able, letting some staff work from home when possible would reduce human contact. 

 Grouping

Keeping teams isolated from other teams will not only prevent someone from spreading COVID through your whole company but might encourage staff to take the right precautions outside of work, as they will be better friends with their team and unconsciously more concerned for their health. 

That's just a few ideas to get you going - if you can minimise the people on-site, separate the ones who have to be there into small groups they collaborate with, avoid practices like hot-desking which shares touched surfaces with others and add clear partitions where you can't keep enough social distance then you should be on your way to a COVID safe workspace - without getting the builders in. 

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