Archive for 2022

The office life is being reorganized – since the global pandemic – and is impacted by remote working. In an uncertain context, flexibile workspace remain the best method to maintain productivity, well-being, profitability, and environmental objectives.

In our new article, learn more about office flexibility and, who knows, you might just take the plunge after reading it… Let us convince you (if you are not already)! 😉

• A new way of organizing your work environment

More and more companies are looking for the best way to organize their office space.

You have several options: such as partitioning – which was trending in the 80s – or open space – popularized in the 90s. Flexibility is the new trend, the today’s trend.

The aim of flexibility is to increase office spaces and attract new talents – thanks to this evolving work environment – at the same time.

You have plenty of different possibilities with a flexible organization: fixed offices, mobile offices, remote working, working in a third place – namely a coworking space – etc. Your organization choices are not frozen, and you may as well combine different options: it will offer the employee freedom and a real sense of responsibility.

Even for a “traditional office”, flexibility is just around the corner. The space can be quickly and efficiently modulated by moving a few elements. The number of desks can change to suit your company’s needs or growth through the time. Everything related to the work environment should be flexible nowadays.

• Main advantages of using flexibility in your workspace

Flexible offices are a revolution in the world of office real estate. This new way of thinking your work environment fit everyone’s needs and can be adapted to each person.

If you chose this work organization, you will:

• Optimize your real estate costs: instead of renting vacant offices, you can adapt to your current needs – taking into account remote working, business trips, leaves and other employee’s absences.
• Increase your employees’ mobility, productivity, and well-being: they can work everywhere and at every moment, even when they are on a business trip – by using a coworking space when they are out of town, for instance. Adapting the spaces according to their needs will lead to better results and considerable time savings. Flexible office spaces offer qualitative and pleasant atmosphere.
• Embrace remote working – which is an integral part of the flexibility organization – as working from home allows freeing up some space. It also improves your employees’ living standards – for those who want to work remotely.
• Ease your recruitment campaigns: the new generation of workers are challenging and place their living standards as one of their priorities: offering flexibility in the work organization will appeal to them.

• Flexibility rhymes with sustainability

There was a before and an after global pandemic in our minds, way of thinking, and habits. Well-being and ecology are really ones of our priorities nowadays.

There has been a huge awareness which lead to a new prioritization of our daily life’s elements. Well-being and ecology have become extremely important for most people – which was not necessarily the case in the past.

Since we spend most of our time working, reducing the environmental impact of buildings is crucial. With flexible office spaces, it is possible and important.

Less space also means less energy for heating or air conditioning and fewer resources to equip the offices. Moreover, daily commuting is limited by remote working. All these factors help to reduce the company’s carbon footprint.

We can go further with simple change in our habits:

• Remote working 2 or 3 times a week.
• Opt for car sharing or public transports when possible.
• Reduce paper wastage: duplex printers, be “all digital”, etc.
• Turn your devices off every day.
• Adapt your lighting, heating, and conditioning systems.

Flexibility in your workspace is not only a good idea, it also becomes necessary today. To reduce structural costs – by limiting the amount of m² required – and your company’s environmental footprint – by applying the tips we gave you in this article, among others.

Several studies support the fact that it is time to stop buying or renting space without thinking about its optimization. On average, 30% of offices are vacant worldwide, and meeting rooms are only used 44% of the time. This space can and need to be optimized.

Inclusive workplaces are based on a simple idea: being able of integrating many varied profiles among your company while insuring a great team cohesion and an optimal performance.

Unfortunately, some managers express their difficulty in facing diversity today. It can be regarding disabled people, older people, young people, women, migrants, and so many other criteria.

Work is where we spend most of our time – physically and now remotely. It is crucial to create workplaces accessible, adapted, and welcoming for everyone, no matter how different we are. The company also wins in terms of performance and attractiveness.

Inclusive workplaces are obviously evident and the right pattern to follow – though it is not always easy to implement. Our new article aims to help you create inclusive workplaces. And, to kill two birds with one stone, your company will also benefit from many advantages thanks to an inclusive organization 🤝

👉 What is in reality an inclusive workplace?

It is a workplace thought and conceived taking in consideration people as a whole – their well-being, their needs, their moods, their way of working, their experience, their personality, and their expectations. Inclusive workplaces are an organization which aims to ensure that everyone at the office finds his/her place in the company and the society.

Companies had first chosen the path of diversity. The problem with this approach is that it keeps stigmatizing people as it operates by type of population – women, young people, seniors, LGBTQ, people with disabilities, etc.

Some managers think that some topics should not be discussed at work. Be careful, they can be problematic exactly because nobody discusses them…

One of the most important goals for a company is to create cohesion and team spirit. You should never neglect uniting all the people working there together. This is inclusion. Inclusion means accepting people with their differences – whatever they are – and making sure they work well together, as a strong team.

👉 Why are inclusive workplaces so important?

• Ethical aspect: Offering a place in the society to everyone should be natural. Remember, when you allow someone with a disability to work at your company, you are not doing them a favour, this should be just normal.
• Creativity and innovation: If you do not allow people in your team to express their differences, you would not be able to generate new ideas and create the innovation necessary for your company’s longevity.
• Well-being and commitment: Inclusion has a key role in the employees’ well-being and commitment, because it affects everyone.
• Team spirit: When you are 100% yourself at work – without fear or shame and in full awareness of your vulnerabilities and your strengths – it helps you to strengthen the bonds between colleagues and enhances the differences of each one.

👉 Best practices to adopt:

If you want to create an inclusive workplace, we will give you several tips right below:

• Identify the obstacles: In order to find suited solutions and make a sort of “self-diagnosis”.
• Highlight “uncommon” skills: Bet on your employees skills. The differences are a source of wealth and a real asset for your company.
• Adapt the work environment: Think of specific needs such as access ramps, soundproofed offices to allow concentration time, adapted toilets or chats for deaf/hard of hearing people, for instance.
• Train managers: Be a good listener is a major element to make everyone feel at ease at the office. Create support groups can also be a great idea to enhance exchanges between employees.
• Use an IWMS System: These software programs will help your company to manage spaces, people, and assets – among many other elements – through tailored solutions. Adapting the solutions to your needs and not the other way around will make the difference.
• Diversify the profiles you hire: Set aside any bias you may have about the perfect candidate profile. Choose different hiring managers to help avoid unconscious bias.
• Practice inclusive management: The management itself must become inclusive. You should adapt your company’s functioning to your employees, and not the opposite.
• Seek an outside look: This can help to objectively estimate the impact of the different measures implemented. You can also work hand in glove with structures specialized in the recruitment of all types of profiles.

Inclusion has a major role to play in the workplace. When you integrate multiple profiles and enhance the differences into the workplace, you create an extremely rich corporate culture. Inclusion implies for managers to organize reflection time on living together or to create a moral charter between employees to encourage respect and diversity.

When we feel included – I am not just talking about being invited to the table – but feeling truly listened and considered, we are motivated to take part in the company’s life in a deeper way. We then strive for excellence and the company will benefit so much more on so many different levels.

Companies have progressed regarding inclusion over the last ten years. But, there is still a long way to go.

According to the International Labour Organization, companies have a 60% greater chance of increasing their profits and productivity, improving their reputation, generating more creativity, and attracting new talents who lead to great innovations 🤩

Last week, we launched a survey on our LinkedIn page to know which element you consider as (the most!) essential in your workplace ⌨️

As we are limited in the number of available options, we had determined the following four elements:
🏡 Close to your home,
🚌 Transport accessibility,
🖥️ Flexibility and remote working,
🏢 Well-designed and optimized office spaces.

We gathered the results to this survey into a graph:

Are you surprised by this order? Feel free to give us your opinion in the comments 😉