Office workspaces are undergoing a transformation, but they will not disappear.
Guillermo Sepúlveda, president of the Latin American Wellness Knowledge Center (CCLatamwell) assures that it will not happen because “the socialization of employees, the transmission and procurement of business culture, training and talent coaching, are irreplaceable elements that only exist in offices ”.
What in the recent past were ad hoc spaces for the new generations, today are the axis of rules that will seek in the medium term the well-being of employees in organizations and immediately seek health without contagion.
Therefore, offices are not in extinction, even with flexible schemes such as (Work From Home or WFH) collaborators prefer to work in an office, according to a survey by the architecture firm Gensler, a member of CCLatamwell.
In it, 70% of those interviewed said they prefer to work in an office for most of the week, while only 30% want a flexible arrangement.
Therefore, Sepúlveda says, “in the medium and long term, offices should become a different space: socialization, team building and reinforcing the culture of the organization, allowing innovation”.
While there is a marked preference for returning to workspaces, employees are waiting for substantial changes to their workspaces before they are comfortable with returning. It is one thing that they can, and quite another that they want to return to the same thing that they already had before COVID-19.
Therefore, the most important challenges in office life, as long as there is no vaccination of at least 80% of the population, are the use of elevators, air quality and constant cleaning of surfaces.
Source: El Financiero