Ask yourselves.
Because the building isn’t flexible, we must be. And to give an obvious solution right away: ask your colleagues to come to the office on Wednesday or Friday. You might be surprised at how flexible they are. We asked the same question to nearly 9,000 office workers, and almost a quarter (24%) said they would like to switch their work-from-home day. This alone makes the office more efficient.
Are we looking for a workspace or a colleague?
That’s exactly the question. People don’t go to the office for the square feet; but for their colleagues. The most important reason to go to the office is for the coziness. Reserving a workspace is secondary and should be converted to reserving colleagues. If you don’t know who’s coming in on which day, it’s best to go to the office on Tuesday or Thursday. The likelihood of catching someone is then the highest. But if there is visibility on when your colleague is coming in, it’s possible to choose a different day.
This can be done the old-school and effective way, by giving each team a different team day. Something more advanced is to move this team day forward by a day each week, so week 1 on Monday, week 2 on Tuesday, and so on. Or even fancier are the apps that allow you to see in advance or in real-time who you can run into at the office.
Make Friday smaller.
A peak exists by virtue of a valley. If you come to the office on Friday and find nobody there, most people are disappointed. “I’ll stay home next Friday…” is the thought that makes the valley even deeper.
With our high percentage of part-time work in the Netherlands, Friday will remain a day off for many people for a long time. Therefore, aiming for equal occupancy throughout the workweek is not realistic.
To ensure that the office is livelier on Friday, it should adapt to the “Friday format.” A smaller workspace for a smaller group. This can be achieved simply by, for example, closing off a floor section with a door, planter, or branding. Larger organizations can even go as far as closing one or more floors. This immediately saves on maintenance and energy costs. But the real gain is in running into each other again.
Make Tuesday bigger.
To complete the story, the office needs to enlarged on Tuesday. Sounds impossible, but it’s not. This can be done by offering more than just workstations and meeting rooms when setting up a floor. Think of seating areas where you can work for a bit but also hold a Bila, a bar where you can open your laptop and later have coffee, or a reading table where you can collaborate and later have a meeting. Multifunctional spaces that aren’t full-fledged ergonomic workspaces but that relieve peak moments without putting up a sea of desks that are hardly used.
We hope we’ve given your peak or valley a nudge in the right direction. We’d be happy to drop in for a coffee on a Friday to talk further 😉.