The last few years have seen a major change in the way people like to work, after what was meant to be the temporary measure of working from home en masse during the pandemic lockdowns turned out to be wildly popular. Now, great swathes of the workforce either prefer to work from home or wish to do so at least some of the time.
Whether it is the flexibility and work-life balance advantages this brings, or simply not always having to get up early and make long commutes to and from the office, remote working – or at least the compromise version of hybrid working – is increasingly favoured.
How Can You Get Staff Back To The Office?
That means while some employers, such as tech giants Google and Meta, have tried to wield the big stick of insisting staff come into the office at least on a set number of days per week, the rise in job vacancies offering more remote working could cause this to backfire. Firms may be wise to find some carrots to lure people back to the office instead.
Some might think this should be about pay or promotion, but a simple and more direct approach is to consider the office environment itself. You can’t change things like the standard of public transport or the fact that few people enjoy stepping outside their front door on a cold, dark winter morning. But you can certainly improve the office itself.
This is where using items like office glass partitions, balustrades and other glass can play a significant role.
Many an office can be a grim environment, with a lack of natural light permeating through except for those sitting by windows, or pose practical difficulties in finding people you might want to get hold of because they may be hidden behind any one of a myriad of walls or closed doors.
Indeed, for some, being shut away in a side room can feel somewhat isolating, which may seem paradoxical in an age when so many work remotely, but the difference between a workstation in a broom cupboard and a room full of home comforts is obvious.
Why Glass Enhances The Open Plan Office
These issues underpin the rationale behind the idea of open plan offices, with a range of extra benefits such as an increased potential for flexible layouts to be created, as well as the possibility of creating attractive rest areas or even spaces for gaming (though these should, ideally, not be too distracting – nobody wants ping-pong balls flying past their desks).
Using glass partitions can go a long way toward making this approach a success. An open plan usually means fewer doors and walls, but there may be instances where there is a need for some privacy, such as important team meetings, talks with visiting clients, or one-to-one meetings between managers and staff, sometimes on sensitive or confidential matters.
By having flexible glass barriers, it is still possible to see where everyone is and essentially know what they are doing without people on one side of the glass being unnecessarily disturbed and also without the words of confidential conversations being heard by those who should not be in earshot.
In addition, if you have something like a games area, the sound insulation provided by the glass can ensure anything going on in there is not too disturbing, as well as providing a barrier to avoid any projectiles landing where they shouldn’t.
The Unspoken Message Glass Communicates
By using glass this way, you may also send out a positive signal about your workplace. It can convey the reassuring message that this is not a place of closed-off little corners and teams (to use that awful bit of management-speak, ‘silos’). It also provides a modern and more comfortable look.
The idea of creature comforts akin to those at home might seem slightly alien to old-school bosses who are used to austere working environments, where the priority is to have places without distractions or over-stimulation in which staff can focus all their attention on the job from Nine to Five.
However, in a world of hybrid working, that is no longer tenable. If staff members spend some of the week working from home, even if it is in a spare room tailored to become an office with suitable furnishings, it is still likely to be a place that looks and feels far more comfortable, welcoming and attractive than an old-fashioned office.
That may mean you should consider a lot of other things in your office décor too, such as pleasant carpets, artwork on the walls and lots of plants.
The last of these steps can be good for the environment by cleaning the air, as well as adding aesthetic aspects, but as they need sunlight to photosynthesise, more glass to let the light through will enable you to place them in parts of the office where they might otherwise be in too much shadow to thrive.
How Glass Can Contribute To Positive First Impressions
Apart from all these elements, an attractive, modern office with lots of glass can provide an impressive and stylish look that will impress office visitors. That may be useful when they are a potential client.
That is the same impact you will want the office environment to have on any potential new recruits. The last thing you would want in the current environment of fashionable remote working is to interview a candidate in a dingy, dark and intimidating office with the prospect that this could be their work environment for at least part of the week.
In such circumstances, you may find they are unwilling to pursue the application further, especially if they are in the situation of choosing between two job offers and the other has an attractive, modern office.
Look Forward, Not Back
New legislation is shortly to come into effect allowing staff to request flexible working once they have been in a job for six months. That flexibility may be as much about hours as location, but it is a further signal that the clock will not be turned back to the old routine of the office-based nine-to-five.
That means making your office an attractive place to work for the times when staff are in it will be more important than ever.
