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As many of us gradually return to the office with guidelines in place, we hope this information serves as a look toward the future. Our team at HON is here to support you through the transitions and help you look forward to productive collaboration in all forms.
Raise your hand if you’ve spent time at a less-than-ideal desk or workstation.
We see you.
In the months since our lives were changed by the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve seen numerous trends emerge around work. And whether it has to do with design, furniture or location, many people are working in spaces that don’t promote comfort or productivity.
While businesses are learning the benefits of remote work, they’re also finding that regardless of where their employees are, they need to be set up for success.
The HON Company has focused on supporting our customers and partners during this time, working side by side with them to help business continue as (relatively) normal. No matter the type of office you have or which one your team is working from—open office, home office or a reimagined/redesigned office—we can help.
We spoke with one of our product marketing experts at HON, Erin Rada, to dig into what makes any kind of workstation productive and supportive.
Understanding who your employees are and how they like to work is important.
Everyone has a preferred work style, and at HON, we’ve worked to integrate those unique traits into our products. In an open office, we think of things like productivity, space division and storage.
“It’s all about functional accessories in an open office floor plan,” said Rada. “From a productivity standpoint, we offer functional tools such as white boards on multiple surfaces, tool rails, ergonomic tools, paper management and personal lighting. Adding color within the station also makes it more inviting. All of this speaks to that uniqueness of working the way you want to work and making yourself the most efficient you can be.”
Being able to signal for “heads-down” work time is key, as well. If you have employees who at times prefer to be left alone to get things done, offering movable screens, panels or something else that promotes privacy is a good idea.
“These space-division products signal when the user is busy, but they also create a bit of separation between workstations for added privacy,” Rada said. “It allows the user to do the work they need to do by giving them the ability to change their space to work effectively.”
Storage is another big item on the list. If you have employees from different generations in the same office space, some workers may not want paper on their desks, and they may have no need for archival storage. Instead, they just need to house gym shoes, a lunch bag or snacks.
“It’s the right kind of storage for each person and their unique working style,” Rada said. “This may change if the user prefers to ‘pile or file’ items, work with digital or paper copies, or tend to store personal items in their workstation. We have many different storage options available for individual people and methodologies.”
Someone who’s been there longer might be used to hard copy files and they need a space to store those...it makes flexible storage worth thinking about.”
While an open office should position workstations to make employees feel most comfortable and productive, the home office is a slightly different story.
Think about where you’ve posted up to do work at home over the last few months: on the couch, at the kitchen counter, maybe on the back porch.
In each case, the furniture probably isn’t conducive to comfort or ergonomic support.
From the height of your laptop (eye level is recommended, so you aren’t hunched over all day) to having monitor arms that clamp to work surfaces, ergonomic details can easily be overlooked because we’re at home and we’re assumed to be more comfortable there. While that may be true, our furniture isn’t giving us the best support to actually work.
“You have to be comfortable working from home, especially if you’re doing this day in and day out,” Rada said. “Your seating should be ergonomic, with a supportive back and adjustments to adapt the chair to your specific body. Your workstation could be in the corner of your living room, and you may not want or need a big, executive task chair in your home. We like to look at things that are softer, more residential and more inviting to have in your home aesthetic. We want products to deliver on both fronts.”
Plus, “the simpler the installation, the better. You should be able to receive these products and furniture in the mail or through a delivery service, along with the needed tools and parts for quick and easy assembly.”
And as companies begin to return to work, many are reconfiguring their office spaces altogether. By now, you’ve probably seen grocery aisles indicating distinct traffic flow, and this practice has made its way into workspaces around the country. Social distancing guidelines and other sanitization protocols must be followed, meaning some elements of the “traditional office” may be on borrowed time.
Don’t worry. We’re ready for it.
The most important thing for businesses is that their employees feel safe in their workspaces.
Having proper spacing for people at desks, in aisles and in other areas of the office is a great start. From there, you should be thinking about high-panel screens and space division, because people will want to be able to work in their own area or “safe zone.”
“Proper signage and protocols are key—what’s expected of people?” Rada said. “There’s so much uncertainty that people shouldn’t have to guess what they should be doing. Incorporating rules and communicating them to the office is important.”
The reimagined office will, in all likelihood, feature fewer large gatherings and in-person meetings. Setting up conference rooms with maximum capacities and removing chairs to limit the number of people in each room are steps to take that make people feel safe no matter where they are in the office.
“There’s definitely a psychological element to this,” Rada said. “We’re in a time when we need calm, serenity and for people to feel comfortable. We should be spending more time thinking about that as people return to the office and we want them to feel welcome.”
Do you now feel better prepared to support your employees and their varying styles of work? Whether that space is in an open office, at home or in a reimagined COVID-era space, HON has the breadth of product and an experienced team to guide you through the process of finding the right furniture. To learn more, please visit hon.com.
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