What role will the office play in 2023?

The answer is equalizer, incubator, cultural center, and exhibition hall.

In 2023, as the company and employees negotiate on the best way to work, the role of the office will continue to change. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, for some people in the past few years, the office is more like an occasional destination. Currently, some companies are requiring employees to return to the office, believing that this helps protect social capital, maintain interpersonal connections and trust, and help employees carry out their work more efficiently.

The company's policies, technology, and building environment are changing with the new office methods, and individuals are no exception. Based on the experience accumulated in remote work in recent years, people can now achieve an ideal balance between family and work through various combinations and methods. Residential real estate is also keeping up with the pace of the times, providing owners with more powerful office space based on the technology and social space that traditional offices possess. As an office space, the office should not stand on the opposite side of the family, but should consider how to become a "partner" for working from home. Through the experience accumulated in the past few years, the office is being reshaped into a key component of the human social structure.

Due to the availability of working conditions from home and the cost of commuting time, employees need a reason to return to the office. Firstly, shape the office into an equalizer. For those who are not forced to work on-site, the attractiveness of the office can be maintained by providing them with tools or services that are not available from home. Employees can work in independent offices or reading rooms, which can provide them with the necessary privacy protection and focused space. At the same time, many employees still have to work in single room apartments or work with their children from home. Some inconvenient phenomena in the home office space, such as the lack of fast network connection, the lack of ergonomic workstations, and the inability to establish contact with personnel from other departments of the company, can be solved through a democratic office space.

Similarly, the office helps to enhance employees' contact with important internal departments. One of the main problems with working from home is the inability to communicate easily with leaders and other team members. Through careful design, the office can provide spaces for employees to facilitate such interactions and encourage them to return to the office and use these spaces, such as private, comfortable, and secure spaces for important conversations, or attractive open spaces for company-wide collaborations.

Almost 62% of employees stated that they are more efficient when working in remote office mode. Instead of making the office a place where employees can focus on their work for hours, it's better to turn it into an incubator that provides people with space to connect, collaborate, and imagine. This approach will help people stay away from the long hours of desk work in the office, creating a space for discussion, creation, testing, and optimization. In this way, onboarding, training, and IT support meetings will become high-level practices carried out in a pleasant atmosphere in a space equipped with various high-tech equipment.

Although the benefits of remote work have been tested in practice, on-site training, coaching, feedback, and skill enhancement are still preferred. In the above situation, the office is a cultural center shaped by brand experience for employees and customers. The company's purpose, vision, and values can be explained through design and technology, and realized through the work and collaboration of employees. The office will become a gathering place for teams and colleagues, not only for work, but also for sharing food, listening to reports, and growing together.

The office will also serve as an experience center or exhibition hall. In other words, the office will become a tool for recruiting talent and attracting customers, allowing people to fully interact with the company culture, and providing employees with various opportunities for social and business connections. These interactions are not limited to attracting talents and customers, but also include attracting residents of surrounding communities through spaces open to the public or innovation centers created in collaboration with universities.

In the process of promoting the implementation of high-quality office space, many companies often face the problem of insufficient supply. The company has high expectations for the newly built office space and hopes that it can create a sense of being at home. Employees hope that the new office space can provide concierge services, dining facilities, as well as convenient supporting facilities such as a gym and rooftop terrace. However, these welfare facilities require supporting funding. We can use some fast and cost-effective methods to renovate existing buildings and make them meet the expected standards. Future office design will focus on flexibility and how to creatively provide people with a diverse office environment.

The office can create a popular office environment through some practical methods. In the process of office design, designers should explore how to create an open collaborative space while minimizing interference. To some extent, space can help solve the physical and mental health problems that people face in the workplace. These issues include headaches, eye discomfort, irritability, lack of privacy, etc. These issues can be alleviated through bright lighting spaces, indoor greenery and other biological elements, and beautiful external landscapes. Many of these measures are in line with sustainable development strategies such as carbon neutrality, which is also a trait that employees are increasingly valuing.