Workplace design experts ThirdWay have launched ‘Hybrid Working’: a new programme to help businesses navigate their return to the workplace in three distinct phases: from an immediate response to get businesses’ workplace ready, through to a stable workplace solution for the future.
The 360-degree programme takes a unique, outcome-driven approach, enabling businesses to discover their ideal home-to-work balance and make life work for both companies and employees. It is a new approach to working life that balances the office and remote settings, to support individuals to work safely and productively from the office, home, or other remote locations, in a way that maximises life satisfaction.
The first, ‘Fit For Now’ phase, involves a raft of practical measures including social distancing marking, technology assessments, on-site adaptations, furniture removal, temporary signage for one-way systems and lift protocols, spatial evaluations and plans, worked up over an intensive two-week period, to deliver the fast-track modification of existing spaces, policies and procedures.
The second, ‘Fit For Tomorrow’ phase, over six months, addresses more permanent adjustments and on-site refurbishments, including new furniture, technology, AV and telecommunications upgrades, the instalment of touchless technology for contactless entry, and working from home assessments and solutions, to increase numbers within the workplace, and support and align remote and office-based working.
The third, ‘Fit For Future’ phase of the journey, over the course of 12 to 36 months, involves a full building and cost evaluation based on an evaluation of the first two phases of ‘Hybrid Working’, with the potential for wholesale refurbishments, relocations, and the introduction of satellite workspaces, helping businesses to reduce property costs and increase productivity for the long-term.
The ‘Hybrid Working’ programme reviews and recreates space with people and businesses at the centre of the design. It begins with introductory, one-to-one analyses, to ensure time and cost-efficient solutions are delivered to businesses’ individual priorities and needs. It is designed to flex with government alert systems and the levels of ambiguity we will face.
Ben Gillam, Founder and CEO of ThirdWay, says: “We are about to ease back into the office, but things will never be the same. We will always need to be prepared to work from the office, from home or from anywhere else – based on environmental, company and employee needs.
“The emerging trust between employer and employee has shifted the balance of power which will see individuals requesting, if not demanding, a different working environment to what they have been used to.”
‘Hybrid Working’ draws on ThirdWay’s decade of design and consulting experience, and is also informed by primary research collected from over 1,500 responses to a survey conducted during lockdown to understand individual responses to home working. The three phases of the programme are modelled on the remaining three stages of standard pandemic response: adjustment, re-evaluation, and establishment of a new normal.
