Business
Traditionally, a business’s corporate culture served as a strategic business tool, a recruitment tool, and overall, as an identity for one's organization. If you were like many others, your employees were happy and engagement was high. And then came Covid-19. Your workplace will be changed due to the pandemic, and, after months of remote work and sheltering in place, your people will have changed also. Here at Future Offices we’re hearing from workplace executives from all company sectors talk about how their teams and employees are preparing for this next phase of re-entry. A lot of changes will need to be made to space, design, space occupancy, even the data behind that, and of course the number of people who can return full time. But does that mean you must forfeit your corporate culture by installing your workforce in “sterile, hospital like” (as we’ve heard one high profile executive call it) office spaces? Can you still have the same work culture post pandemic? How important is it for team morale to maintain a sense of normalcy at the office? And where should your focus lie as you plan for your workforce to renter places where many will feel decidedly uncomfortable? How do you make changes to how your teams occupy your space, for health and safety reasons – without killing the innovation and creativity that occurs when people collaborate or meet around the watercooler? We spoke to Larry Charlip, the Vice President of Facilities Management and Corporate Real Estate at Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc, one of the top voices in this field, for his thoughts on reopening workspaces while ensuring corporate culture doesn’t get killed in the process.